I heard this on ESPN on the way into the office so I'm stealing it.
Why do you love hockey?
Tell me why, maybe how you got started, whatever it is about the sport. As my brother used to say about me, what is your major malfunction about this? And is it hockey or is it just the Komets?
Comments
I don't love hockey, I love Komet Hockey, there's a big difference.
went to my first game that i remember back around 1958. took an autograph book and got some guy named bob chases autograph!! just loved to action and the fighting and hitting!! plus it was something to do after baseball. soon after i was out skating on any patch of ice and sometimes able to go to franke park and play with the big boys! played hockey in college and hurt my back and didnt skate for around 15 years then got talked in to a sat morning scrimmage and did it for a couple years till the old back started to bark again!! been a season ticket holder for about 34 years used to love the nhl and rangers until it all went sissy and euro.. now i just love komet hockey.
Went to my first game in '76-'77 season of Komet hockey. We were playing Toledo and all h--- broke out! What a rush that was!! I was hooked and we bought season tickets the very next year and every year since.
The action, intensity, and skill of the players is what I love. The community of fans and players has been an unexpected bonus!
OK, I'll throw mine in. When I first got out of college, I worked in Sturgis, Michigan for 18 months. Didn't know a soul and my first winter there I pretty much worked 80 hours a week. The one thing I allowed myself was I got hooked on Red Wings games. That was the worst to first season with Yzerman, Gallant and Probert basically carrying them through the season with Greg Stefan and Glen Hanlon in goal. Then the next year Yzerman tore up his knee but came all the way back on one leg to play in the playoffs against Gretzky and Edmonton.
So soon after that I came home and went to work at The News-Sentinel in the spring of 88, now a full-fledged Red Wings fan, especially an Yzerman fan. I never realized how involved I was until the spring of 97 when Yzerman lifted the cup and I had tears running down my cheeks. He was such an inspirational player. I don't get tongue-tied around athletes any more, but I'm sure I would with him.
Well, I went to my first hockey game in 1991, it was game 6 of the turner cup finals. I enjoyed it, but didn't really get into it until the 1992-93 season. I went alot, and went to every playoff game that season. I have been hooked since. Right now I work at Komet Kuarters, so I'm around hockey all the time, I'm trying to get my degree in Criminal Justice and Business Mgmt. So I don't go to every game like I used to be able to do.
Growing up on the Jersey shore we were fans of NY sports. My family was into the Mets, but hockey was there too. I used to love watching Eddie Giacomin roam around the rink. My Dad even took me to the Garden a couple times to catch the Rangers. I remember too visiting my Grandparents who lived about 3-hours north of Toronto. The hardware store had sticks for sale in bins like you might see mops around here, and watching hockey on TV during a Christmas visit when it was 10 below outside was kinda cool too.
In grad school I was friends with someone who played and reffed youth hockey so my interest in the game got a boost. My apartment was walking distance from the arena where the Broome County Dusters (who changed their name to the Binghamton Whalers and are now the Senators) played and we went to most of the home games, getting a big dose of AHL hockey in the process.
When I moved to Fort Wayne in 1985 I lost touch with professional sports, until about 6 or 7 years ago when my son discovered baseball and hockey. That helped rekindle my interests. Since then we live, sleep and eat sports: Cubs in the summer, Komets (and NHL on DISH) in the winter all wrapped around my son's soccer, baseball and hockey teams which just go and go and go.
We love our hockey. We get to Komets games an hour early just to sit in the rink. We love the smell of the ice, the speed of the game and the skill of the players. We love the intensity of the fans and the modesty of the players. We love an excuse to get outside on a winter's day whether it's shoveling the snow off the lake or playing a game. And we absolutely love singing the The Hockey Song before the puck drops to start a game, in fact I just love Stompin' Tom and play his cds all the time.
Sorry this went on so long, it's just such a tough question to answer in a few words.
My brother John is responsible for turning me on to hockey, specifically Komet Hockey back in the late 60's. He would take me to many a game. It got into my blood and over the years I played junior hockey and continued to play organized hockey until this past year.
I am 51 now. Thanks to my brother taking time for me when I was a kid, my love of the game and the Komets has never left me. I have played hockey with and become friends with many Komet players that were favorites of my brother before his passing away. There are not to many game nights or times with Komets of the past that I don't think of my brother and how he would be smiling at what he had created.
Thanks John.
My Dad dragged me to my first Komets game back in 1972. He couldn't get anyone else in the family to go so I reluctantly agreed to accompany him. That was his biggest mistake! I was totally hooked from second the puck was dropped. I absolutely loved everything about it - the speed, the hitting, Jack Loos on the organ, the crowd and especially the cute players like Jimmy Hrychuik and Bob Fitchner! Also, don't let me forget to mention that my Dad had to reach out to keep a puck from hitting me square in the face! My hero! Even that didn't scare me away. I've loved hockey ever since. I followed the K's until I moved to Atlanta in 1986 and then eventually to Fort Lauderdale in 1988. There was no hockey in Atlanta when I moved there and there was certainly no hockey in sunny south Florida until the Panthers came to town in 1993. I followed them for their first 10 years and ended up back in Fort Wayne in time to see them win the cup in 2003. I've been a STH ever since. I'm glad to be back and enjoy the team that first got me hooked on hockey. Go K's!!!
Remax91 is my uncle...he is speaking of my father...
I wish he was around still
I love you dad...