Quebec Ace From Fredericton

I first ran into Willie at a sporting goods store in La Mesa, a town just east of San Diego, in about 1982. I was playing amateur hockey at a rink in El Cajon, another town just to the north. I'd heard that this store actually had hockey equipment. No more need to pay the inflated prices at the rink store!

I can't remember whether I met the store's owner (a pleasant old fellow who really liked hockey) first, or Willie. I remember being very surprised to learn that Willie, a black man, not only liked hockey, but knew a lot about it--more than your average sporting goods store clerk.

Aside: How many people miss store clerks who actually know something about what they're selling?

So, I began buying my sticks and replacing my old, worn out gear with new stuff from this store. I eventually learned that Willie played amateur hockey at another rink, at a level well above my own. Then, I learned that he had played minor league pro hockey--right there in San Diego for the San Diego Gulls!

Well, to make a long story even longer, I finally learned that Willie O'Ree, a Canadian black man, had played in the Canadian minors beginning in the mid-1950's, had been called up to play several games for the Boston Bruins in the National Hockey League, in 1960 and again in 1961. Further, he was the first black man to ever play in the NHL.

Soon, Willie found his way into an office job with the San Diego Hawks, then later with the reformed San Diego Gulls. There's a bust of him in the San Diego Sports Arena, and for a number of years, his live self could be found there, too.

Since I moved back to LA, I hadn't heard much about Willie, until today. The sports page of the Orange County Register, which I happened to pick up at a local newsstand, has a story in which NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman is going to honor Willie at a dinner tonight in his home town, Fredericton, New Brunswick, commemorating the 50th anniversary of his breaking the NHL color barrier.

Fredericton's sports complex will be renamed "Willie O'Ree Place. Saturday, Willie is going to be honored in Boston at a Bruins game.

Willie doesn't blow his own horn much, hence the reason why, even though we used to chat a lot at the sporting goods store, it took a long while for me to get to know who he is and what his accomplishments are. I learned a lot of it from others, in later years.

Today, Willie still lives in San Diego, is retired from hockey except for being employed as a director of the league's youth development and as an ambassador for diversity.


72 and still going strong.

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Lord Stanley's Cup Finally Finds Stalag California

I discovered ice hockey only after I moved from the Great White North to the Stalag. Sure, others were swinging hockey sticks all around me as I grew up in frigid North Dakota, but I was way too interested in cars and driving to pay much attention.

I was in my late twenties, bringing up a strapping young son by myself, when I began casting about for something that would interest us both, that we could do together. In the "winter" of 1969, I took him to a Los Angeles Kings hockey game and we were both hooked.

There was a public ice rink, Klondike, not far from our apartment in Santa Ana, and I decided that we should learn to skate. I had skated a little as a kid, but not much. Still, it didn't take either of us very long, and we were scooting around the ice like the best of the rinkrats. We went skating two or three times a week for several years, as he grew up. We also attended the occasional LA Kings game, when time and money permitted.

When I relocated us to San Diego, after the couple of years it took me to rebuild my career there, Jim drifted more into friends and his own interests, and I had time on my hands. Hanging around an ice rink in El Cajon, I fell in with a group of guys in their thirties and forties, some of whom were very good hockey players. I bought a set of hockey gear and flopped about on the ice while learning to play the game. I played with that same group of guys for about fifteen years. I was able, during this time, to begin to learn the game as a player.

During this time, I followed professional hockey as best I could. I met and made friends with Willie O'Ree, the first black player to play in the NHL. One day, Goldie Goldthorpe, a minor league player who was the inspiration for Ogie Oglethorpe, an outrageous hockey goon in the movie Slap Shot, guested with our team. Also, on several occasions, brothers Chris and Steve Chelios guested with us.

Since I've moved back up to Orange County, and now, El Pueblo de Los Angeles, I haven't returned to playing. Not only am I a mite old, but I have become horribly out of shape. I still skate occasionally at a rink in Van Nuys, but I'd have to work a lot harder than I do to be able to play again--even with guys my own age......

Meanwhile, I had season tix for the Kings during three seasons while Wayne Gretzky played here, and Anaheim Ducks tix for one season (their second). I've followed these teams records for all these many years, in the hopes one of them would win the Stanley Cup. Of course, I've been a Kings fan a lot longer that the Ducks have been in existence, so I had hoped it'd be the Kings who won the Cup first. They, unfortunately, failed to cooperate.

So, the Stanley Cup resides in the Honda Ponda in Anaheim.

Go! Ducks! Go!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

Ice is Nice

When I lived in San Diego, roughly from 1974 to 1992, one of the things I did for fun was learning how to play hockey and working at it in an attempt to become the best hockey player I could be. I played at least once, and usually twice a week for fifteen years. I've never, to this day, found a more enjoyable way to keep in shape.

I had a little experience from my childhood, but it was precious little. I wasn't interested in sports then, except for baseball. Our gang played baseball in the summer, and went to see our local minor league team, the Grand Forks Chiefs, as often as we could afford the fifty cents for a knothole gang admission. I even signed up to sell ice cream sandwiches in the stands, just to get to see more games. Selling ice cream sandwiches is a pretty good trick during night games when the temperature was in the forties and fifties.

There was an empty lot between our house and the Kranzlers'. Each winter, we banked up some snow around the edges of the lot and filled it with water from our garden hoses. Presto! an instant ice rink. We didn't have skates, but we'd get sticks and a puck and try to play in our street shoes. I always hoped I'd get some skates, but not enough, I guess, to actually save up some money for them.

My only skating experience as a kid was to occasionally go to the University fieldhouse, where the Sioux played, during public sessions and rent skates. The skates were so broken down that I had no idea what good skates would be like.

After I moved to Orange County (the first time) I took my son to a couple of LA Kings games. Somehow, we converted that into going skating ourselves.

After moving to San Diego, and getting financially stable, I started playing the game with a group of guys around my age. Since I was pretty new at the game, I was in constant learning mode for the first two or three years. Learning mode usually meant hearing "Gawdammit, get back onside!" and stuff like that many times during each game.

In time, I learned the game and actually started becoming a decent defenseman. Being a good defenseman means being good at getting in the other team's way. My dad used to say I was really good at getting in the way.

After I lost a job and subsequently moved back to LA, then Orange County, I got away from playing hockey. I kept ice skating, though not regularly.

Well, now that I have arguably the best job I've ever had, and it happens to be located not far from a very decent ice rink. I'm on skates again. Now, let's see if a way overweight old fott can get back into some kind of shape.....

They've killed Freedom! Those bastards!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California