@realjohnboy,
ok, so my hometown was/is the base for an OHA Major Junior A hockey team. That's the level that NHL players get drafted from. Where Gretzky came from.
We had Kenny "the Rat" Linseman. He was the pre-Gretzky Gretzky. He played for the Kingston Canadians back in the mid-1970's. The coach (was it Scotty Bowman?) they had then had a protocol that when the players weren't playing, they had to be properly dressed. No sweats, ripped jeans etc. When they went to church they had to wear suits. Young men went to church in those days. Kenny sure did. He was a good catolic boy. His locker was one over from mine in the high school for a couple of years.
Saturday afternoons, Kenny and the other catolic players went to mass. We went to mass too. Hockey players in suits. <sigh> I told the hamburgers I was going to the mall.
Who else told their parents they were going to the mall when they were really going to mass? Weird.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Linseman
Quote:Kenny picked up the nickname "The Rat" both by his appearance and the way he played. Kenny had a great talent for aggitating the opposing team to a high level of fustration.
Kenny had fabulous big curly hair. Sorta Carrot-Toppy but much darker red.
This was his pre-Gretzky Gretzky moment
Quote:Following a standout junior career with the Kingston Canadiens, Ken Linseman he attempted to sign as an under-aged player with the Birmingham Bulls of the WHA in 1977.
http://www.legendsofhockey.net:8080/LegendsOfHockey/jsp/SearchPlayer.jsp?player=10956
Certainly not because he was an elegant player. Kenny was scrappy. And mouthy. And looked cute in a suit.
~~~
Tony McKegney played for the Kingston Canadians during the same period. I used to get hoarse cheering for Tony and the Canadians. Another one of our high school's sports stars.
http://sabreslegends.blogspot.com/2007/02/tony-mckegney.html
Quote:In the summer of 1978, one of hockey's finest young prospects was Tony McKegney. Yet he was being overlooked at the NHL draft table that summer because it was assumed that he signed with the World Hockey Association's Birmingham Bulls.
At the last minute, the deal between Birmingham and McKegney fell through for political reasons. You see McKegney was black and that wouldn't go over very well in Alabama according to some. The Bull's hockey management team wanted McKegney's size and a laser-like shot, as did team owner John Bassett. However some of Bassett's supporters convinced the owner that having a black hockey player in Birmingham was a bad idea. A disappointed Bassett reluctantly agreed and shied away from McKegney
errr yeah so hockey players in suits are a bit of a weakness of mine
