THE IDEA WAS HATCHED FOR THE LOVABLE LOSERS HOCKEY TOURNAMENT, INITIALLY, AS A WAY TO SATISFY TWO NEEDS FOR THE RINK RATS
WE THOUGHT, WITH GOOD INTENT, THAT PROMOTING A TOURNAMENT FOR "LOSERS" WOULD GET IMMEDIATE MEDIA ATTENTION, AND BOOST OUR FUNDRAISING CAPABILITIES
Rink Rats were solid team-mates on the ice, and good friends as civilians. We did quite a few things together, because we found a lot of common ground, let's just say, that we would never have guessed we had, when we first met in a crowded dressing room, judging the quality of each others skates, sticks and hockey pads. All recreational hockey players judge new members of the club, initially, by the skates they're wearing. It moves on and up from there. First off, it was obvious we were all of modest income, and not looking to commit to expensive gear in the early going, of a new relationship with a bunch of lads with undetermined qualifications, and commitment to show up each week to justify coming out in the first place. What happened over time, was that we found shared interests in business and hobbies, and social activities, which broadened the more we got to know each other. It's important to know this, because it was the mortar than bound us together as a club, and as a benevolent group serving the needs of the community. It was very much a democracy, although Brant Scott and I did much of the early organization work, such as arranging ice time at the Bracebridge arena, and getting enough players to cover the seasonal costs. We had a pretty agreeable bunch, which was nice, because we threw some early curves at them, when we mustered support for early fundraisers, to set the tempo we wanted for the future. Very early on, Brant developed some heart problems, that limited the amount of time he could play, in any one game, but he continued with his support in other ways. Ed Kowalsky stepped in early in the team's chronology to take-on some of the tasks facing us, when putting on exhibition hockey games, which necessitated considerable investment of time to make sure there were no problems on game night. In those years, because of our association with Muskoka Publications, and specifically The Herald-Gazette, we were reminded constantly about representing our business in the most positive light. We had to walk a tight-rope in this regard, and it meant attention to detail, and for Brant and I, we couldn't have pulled these events off without team effort, right down to co-ordinating ticket sales, and assisting arena staff with crowd control and clean-up when the game concluded. We came to expect an awful lot from the Rink Rat players, and they delivered. The creation of the Lovable Losers' Hockey Tournament, was a sort of dividend for the players, who wanted more action for their recreational investment. We had no problem selling our mates on the tournament idea, or volunteering to make it come to fruition. We could have used twice as many volunteers to handle all the jobs, but we got by each year, and truth be know, many players from other teams, chipped in to help us out. Now this was epic for us, and showed very clearly, how sportsmanship went well beyond the ice surface.
I really don't know how much money we raised for the Bracebridge Blades Precision Skating teams, in the early to mid 1980's, but I think it was quite substantial. I know we gave money to the Recreation Committee of the Town of Bracebridge, to help fund a new ice resurfacing machine, when the old tractor finally kicked the bucket. I'm pretty sure we began giving money to other groups in the last half of the 1980's, and early 90's, but I can't be sure due to the fog of near-senior age.
This five part series of retrospectives about the formation of the original Rink Rat hockey club, and the annual Lovable Losers Hockey Tournament, is dedicated to the fine work of the club and tournament organizers, now ready for the ceremonial face-off on Friday afternoon, at the Bracebridge arena. It will mark the 30th anniversary of the tournament, and pretty much the 35th anniversary of the team itself. I was in on both inaugurations, in 1980 and 1985 respectively. This is the occasion when the historian really feels part of the history he's writing about.
Just as The Herald-Gazette Rink Rats were media darlings from the 1980-81 winter season, because, of course, we were promoting our weekly newspaper, which belonged to the broader Muskoka Publications, the creation of the Lovable Losers Hockey Tournament came along in much the same fashion and zeal for headlines; a few lads sitting around dodging the work of the day, and thinking about recreational opportunities instead. We used to do that a lot in the newsroom, where we were supposed to be writing front page copy, to fill in the white spaces between the advertisements.
Heading to the mid 1980's, we had pretty much dropped association with The Herald-Gazette, in media references, which hinged on the fact our newspaper wasn't as big on offering us free advertising space any longer, or extending cash to offset event costs. I was still working at the newspaper, but Brant Scott had moved on to other writing gigs. Ed Kowalsky took his spot as a co-manager of the Rink Rats, which had recently merged with The Wombat hockey club, from the Tuesday, eleven to midnight ice slot. I honestly can't remember all the details about how we organized the first tournament, around the old coffee urn, with a very loose board of directors, other than what was provided by the general membership of the newly merged team.
I just wanted to add this little note, to the Rink Rat history, because it's deserving of mention. It was Brant Scott who first negotiated with the manager of the Bracebridge Parks and Recreation Committee, to get our ice slot; yes, that amazingly awful eleven to twelve slot every Wednesday night, or what we came to know as the "divorce" hour. The manager them, was Tom Robinson, and boy oh boy, did we have a tussle with him for quite few years, trying to weasel deals on rental costs, and also, securing a better ice time. Tom used to hate to see us coming through his office door, but over time, we actually looked forward to the for-fun locking of horns, but it always worked out for the best. When Tom took an upper level job with Parks and Recreation, we had to negotiate with an understudy - several who didn't last long in the job, until Jack Sinclair, who we had known from our own high school days, took over, and gave us a great break in price, but guaranteed us, in the same breath, that unless we suddenly became royalty, we'd have to stick with the last rental hour of the day. To arrange the tournaments, we always had great support from Parks and Recreation management, which made things a lot easier on organizers, stressed with hundreds of other details.
I can't remember all those who were sitting around the coffee urn, talking hockey, on that day, the name "Lovable Losers" came to mind, other than I put it up for consideration, and was probably the first to put it into print, via The Herald-Gazette; but most likely The Muskoka Advance, the Sunday "free" publication that I was editing at around this time. The original idea, was to create a tournament without any pretense that winning was the end-all. The concept was to reward the "best sports," of the losing squads. It was a provincial and possibly national first, that a hockey tournament wasn't going to make a big deal out of the club that took top honors in each category of play. It wasn't the case, that the best performing hockey teams wouldn't be recognized, but rather, it wouldn't be a tournament where excellence, on the score-sheet, was going to be the headline grabber at the end of play. It was, instead, going to be a celebration of recreational hockey, where sportsmanship ranked higher than the number of victories notched. Seemed like a good idea, to get our tournament some regional "ink" in the community press, and some air time on regional radio and television stations. Worked according to plan, that's for sure! Who the hell would think of starting a tournament that praises the losing clubs? The Rink Rats, that's who!
In those first few years, running the tournament, we had lots of problems with some of the teams we had selected to join with us. We had note done our own due diligence, to sit down with each of the teams entered, before the tournament got underway, to make sure, it was crystal clear, organizers had instructed the referees, to eject any player for fighting, or showing extreme unsportsmanlike conduct. Oh boy, it didn't take long, in that first tournament, to find out what can happen when the rules of the specific tournament are not clarified before teams hit the ice. Ed Kowalsky was in charge of officiating on these matters, and there were quite a few ejections as I recall, and most definitely a considerable amount of unsportsmanlike conduct. We took a lot of heat from pissed-off players, but not issuing any apologies, and even in the years following, we had to discipline entire teams for violating our code of conduct. And yes, some teams were, let's just say, "smoking-up," in the dressing rooms, which was really nuts, considering we had a team made up of Ontario Provincial Police officers, also entered in the tournament. Ed, a constable himself, had his hand full keeping all this all under control, while I co-ordinated the upstairs bar, and food services. On another occasion, a suspended player, made an ovation, at the food concession, that he might just make a complaint about the way we were keeping the side-of-beef hot, without a large oven at our disposal. He was a tad vengeful and this was how he was going to get back at organizers. Suzanne was way ahead on this one, and could prove the temperature under foil, was more than adequate to avoid any health issues. She was a teacher, who was, that term, also in charge of culinary arts and catering at Bracebridge and Muskoka Lakes Secondary School. The players lined-up for their hot beef sandwiches, that were selling fast by the way, pushed the unhappy camper away from the counter, while scolding him for, of all things, being a poor sport. It was a highlight for me, that's for sure, where the players themselves were policing the event for us.
Each year, when it came to selecting teams for the tournament, all the problems of the previous event(s), were analyzed and weighed-over, and of course, there were teams denied entry, because of actions and reactions witnessed during play, and in the auditorium where some bad actors found their performance stage. It wasn't a huge problem, in part, because there were often numerous players in the hall, from the OPP team, which did soften the situation down to a dull roar. In my years of association with the tournament, we had only a few serious disruptions of sportsmanlike play, which according to stats of other major tournaments in the region, was pretty mild, in respect to the number of players involved in the three day tournament, and the number of teams registered. We learned over time, to visit with each team prior to them going on the ice, just to act as goodwill ambassadors, more than anything else, and to make sure everyone understood the zero tolerance rule for unsportsmanlike conduct; which was more about fighting than cussing at the referees. We didn't like that either, but we let the refs decide what was in-bounds, and what was penalty material. They were great refs because they kept tight control right from the beginning of each game, and penalized all those who were showing early signs of unwanted aggression. For a media-friendly event, with a lot of coverage potential, each tournament, we didn't want to make headlines for hosting a "brawling" tournament, when we were advertising the virtues of being able to lose with dignity.
During the last tournament I was involved in, with the Rink Rat hockey club, as an assistant coach, I had two memorable situations occur. First of all, I nearly had my toes severed, when Wayne Klager, a mountain of a man, lost his balance coming up the several stairs to the player's bench, fresh off the ice, and came down with his full weight, and skate blade, onto my soft shoe, on my left foot. I have never suffered such incredible pain first of all, and it was my first serious hockey injury, since I first began playing at seven years of age. And I was a goalie for most of this time. Although my toes weren't severed, they were cut-up and blackened. The pain lasted for months after, and even though no bones were broken, there were many disruptions with blood flow, tendons and affected nerves. To this day, by golly, I can tell when bad weather is coming two days away. I think about Wayne every time they start acting up. It wasn't his fault. It was mine, for not having steel toe boots on, much better for mingling with big lads with sharp skates.
The second situation that developed, unfortunately, involved the host club getting in a small but significant on-ice fight. One of our smaller, less proficient players, had been knocked to the ice by an opposition defenceman, and a Rink Rat forward, sensing it was necessary to avenge the body check, which was fair according to the refs, dropped his gloves and grabbed the sweater of the offending player. From behind the bench I tried to call the forward back to the bench, the moment the gloves hit the ice. It marked the first time in Rink Rat tournament play, that a full fight had broken out, and there was nothing we could do, in order to stop it from escalating to involve other players. It was the first time I became the only dissenting voice, and it was admittedly a little weird, to be chastised by others on the team, who for some reason, thought I was betraying the Rink Rat code, by yelling at the perpetrator wearing the emblem of "the Rat". The fight that got most attention, for the spectators, was between myself and another assistant Rink Rat coach, who took great exception to my reaction. He felt that our player had done the right thing under the circumstances, based on the check to his under-sized team-mate. While it didn't come to blows, it was obvious to me, that the entire team on the bench sided with my new adversary, and I must admit, it was the moment, when I realized my time with the club was pretty much over. I couldn't agree with this point of view, even if it was one of those all-for-one, one-for-all moments, in the heat of battle. We were the hosts of a tournament that was devoted to sportsmanlike play, and seeing as I was intimately involved in establishing this as the rules for the event, in the first place, I did feel it was time to back away quietly, and allow the futurists of the club, to deal with the event constitution in their own way. I would be remiss to avoid mentioning this small, brief downside to a great club, and tournament history. History is influenced by all kinds of occurrences, positive and negative, so for this historian, it was just another chapter of many, and I found my contribution wasn't particularly desired any longer. It's not like it was the beginning of a trend, or anything like that, because the club and tournament have operated well, and fairly, for all these many years. And it's all that really counts, in the final tally of what makes something successful, or on the other side, a failure. You don't hit a thirty year anniversary without dealing with obstacles, and overcoming them. Now, for the record, I was in a hockey fight myself, but I was playing that day for The Wombats, not the Rink Rats, and it was in a pick-up game, not the Lovable Losers Tournament. Even then, the only reason I put my hands up in defence, was to block the blows from my opponent, who had ripped off my helmet, and was beating me over the head with it. Still felt bad about being in a dust-up regardless.
The most serious injury that occurred, was on one of the final hockey nights of the season, during our eleven to midnight time slot, on the particular Wednesday night, when Ed Kowalsky, our netminder, and Phil Langois, an opposition forward during our scrimmage, raced at each other, in order to get to the puck first. It was right up the centre, and Phil was flying down the ice. Ed thought he could skate out, and dive on the puck before Phil could get to it; and the collision was horrific. Phil was literally catapulted by momentum, and obstruction, into the air, coming down awkwardly on his leg. If memory serves, Phil wound up behind the net, against the boards, sprawled on the ice with obvious breaks to his leg. Ed was unscathed. It was one of those hockey plays that occur over and over again, without so much as a scratch to opposing players. This one ended badly, and Phil had to contend with months of being in a cast.
The only other time I can remember a serious injury, in a Rink Rat scrimmage, was when I took a hard wrist shot on net, and the opposing defenceman, Peter Renick, put his stick in front, and the angle of the blade deflected the puck sharply upwards, smashing him on the tip of his nose. It was a slider because I didn't want to hurt anyone standing in front of the net at that moment. The ramp that was created by the stick blade, gave the puck the sudden, sharp lift, and I felt horrible when I saw it hit him. At first I thought it had hit him in the eye. It was his nose, and I believe it had been broken. I was pretty sure this was the doctor's opinion at the hospital. It's quite true, that I was known as having a hefty wrist shot, and frequently passed the puck at waist level, simply because I had poor skills in this regard. I remember the night Gil Scott, brother of Brant, took me aside, after one particularly wicked pass, to the throat, and demonstrated the proper way to pass a puck to a team-mate. Not at mouth or waist level. I had been a career goaltender, shooting pucks with a heavy, fat stick, until we commenced the Rink Rats, and I found my opportunity to become a late-in-life right winger. I did eventually learn how to keep a pass on the ice, but it took a couple of seasons of being reprimanded.
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