Mick Kern appears courtesy of Live From Wayne Gretzky’s
Saturday afternoon. 3pm eastern standard time. Nap time for some of us. But not this afternoon.
On this particular dull, metal gray afternoon, naps would have to wait. Mommy was busy preparing some broccoli salad concoction for a gathering of the clan later that evening. Daddy and Son were busy, preparing to take the bus (and subway, and then another subway) to downtown Toronto. We had been to Cooperstown this past August, and I felt it would be appropriate to finish the year by visiting the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Growing up in Alberta, most of my hockey knowledge was gleaned from the back of O-Pee-Chee hockey cards, dusty old hockey biographies checked out from the school library, and the occasional chance to read a copy of The Hockey News. When Scholastic Books began offering selections such as Hockey Stars of 1974 by Stan Fischler, I felt like I had found the Rosetta Stone, and suddenly the once-murky world of NHL hockey exploded in glorious technicolour right in front of me.
Like most Canadian kids, I made my weekly pilgrimage to the front of the family television set in order to tune into Hockey Night in Canada every Saturday evening at 6 pm…mountain time, remember. Dinner was usually at 5 pm, which allowed plenty of time to prepare for the big game.
In those days way before Internet access, I would construct my own makeshift program, spread out in front of the TV, out of various bubblegum cards of whomever was facing Montreal or Toronto that night. Even in Alberta, it was rare we were offered a Vancouver Canucks game. There was no Saturday night doubleheader.
The point being, not very much was instantaneous thirty-five years ago. Even Minute Rice took longer back then. But you found ways to follow your sporting passions.
An early goal of mine was to visit the Golden Horseshoe region of Southern Ontario. One autumn, that was the subject of study in grade school. The home to apples, Niagara Falls…and the Hockey Hall of Fame.
The very idea that there existed a whole building dedicated to the sport of hockey sounded like Nirvana to me. I could only imagine what it looked like inside that hallowed Hall. I knew all about the men who had been honoured, but that information I got from books. What I wanted to see, with my very own eyes, was a place where hockey ruled supreme. To have been able to visit such a Puck Valhalla would be akin to peeking through the window of Santa’s workshop on December 23rd.
As time moved on, and so did my family, we ended up in Ontario. By then, while hockey was still on my radar, it shared space with baseball, football, music, films, politics, and girls. A trip to the Golden Horseshoe finally came about in the summer of 1981, when my father was to address a military conference at McMaster University in Hamilton.
After all those years of reading the multi-coloured tourist pamphlets, I finally laid my eyes on Niagara Falls. Being the jaded age of 17, this wonder of nature failed to resonate with me the way it would have had I experienced it through the wide-eyed gaze of a 10-year-old.
Passing through Hamilton on our way back to my father’s house in Picton, we ventured across the Canadian Football Hall of Fame, another place I had very much wanted to visit when I was a kid.
Alas, it was closed. To this day, a couple of friends still bug me that I probably was the only kid in the world crushed that the CFL Hall-of-Fame wasn’t open. As we drove through Toronto, it dawned on me that the Hockey Hall-of-Fame, which I once considered the Promised Land, had to be nearby. We entertained the notion of searching for it, but neither could recall where it was located. The HHOF remained elusive. It would have to wait for another day.
That day came the summer of 1992, during the Canadian National Exhibition, otherwise known as the CNE. The August fair was in the waning days of its glory, having been eclipsed by year-round amusement parks and the advent of home video games. Not having grown up in Toronto, I was curious to attend the granddaddy of Canadian exhibitions. Suffice to say, most of it was just a louder, smellier version of the Vancouver PNE, the Calgary Stampede, Edmonton’s Klondike Days, and the Central Canada Exhibition in Ottawa.
Wandering around, a little punch drunk on bad food and sensory overload, we came across a stout little building that was festooned with 12 stone logos of the franchises of the National Hockey League as it stood after the 1967 expansion. Come to think of it, the Sabres and Canucks logos could have been up there as well, but it didn’t matter. All I know is that, like a disoriented archaeologist in some George Lucas movie, I had somehow stumbled on to the entrance of the hidden temple I had been seeking all these years.
I had finally found The Hockey Hall of Fame.
Once inside, I experienced one of those rare moments in life, and I assure you I am not exaggerating. There was a sense of accomplishment, a feeling that a goal has finally been achieved. As I walked into this modest building, all awash in everything hockey, the wide-eyed 10-year-old emerged, not the jaded 17-year-old who dismissed Niagara Falls with a wave of the hand.
Despite the CNE raging just outside their doors, the Hall of Fame was not swarming with visitors that day. There were probably a half-dozen people milling about, taking in all the treasures contained within. Crammed within that small building was a king’s ransom in hockey goodies; trophies and uniforms and photos and pucks and sticks and pennants. I suddenly remembered that hockey mattered to me.
The crowning glory to me was something that looked like an ashtray, standing off in the corner. Closer inspection revealed it to be The Avco Cup, or more accurately, The Avco World Trophy, the symbol of supremacy in The World Hockey Association, and for a kid who attended Edmonton Oilers’ games in the mid-70’s, that was a big deal.
What struck me the most was the lack of glitz and flash that the Hall had. It was merely the facts, ma’am, which was fine with me, but the relative lack of visitors that day spoke volumes. This was a Hall badly in need of modernization.
Unbeknownest to me, that was exactly what was happening behind the scenes, even as I was poking around that day. A year later, the entire affair was shipped to a glorious old bank building in downtown Toronto, instantly becoming a must-see destination for tourists. As much as the old building held a special place in my heart, it was a move long overdue.
And through those doors, my 4 1/2 year-old son and I walked this past Saturday afternoon.
When he was told where we were going, he immediately informed me that the Rangers would be playing the “bad Maple Leafs” that day at the Hall. I explained to him that the “hockey guys” would not be there that day; they were busy elsewhere, but there would be games, I assured him.
My son’s love of playing sports was no doubt fostered by my own love of hockey and baseball, but I never pushed it on him. To live in our house, though, one cannot help but be immersed in sports (just ask the wife), but he took naturally to throwing a baseball, a basketball, and drop-kicking a football. Delightfully, he took a small plastic hockey stick in hand and began whacking everything in sight. Time-out for behavoural indiscretions at dinner time became time in the penalty box. If my son had been issued a hockey card, his PIM total would be, ahh, impressive.
This was to be my fifth visit to the Hall, but it never grows old. There’s always something new to savour, and I never tire of looking at their embarrassment of riches, particularly the hockey sweaters.
The first sight that greeted us as we approached the cashier was a simple, yet dazzling display of the finest goaltender masks assembled in one place on the planet Earth. My son is too young to know any of the goaltenders who donned these visages, yet he ran towards each one with glee, pointing out the ones he found to be scary, and asking which ones I liked. Of course, I liked them all.
Once admission had been paid, we entered the Hall, my kid jacked up about which type of hockey games we would play. He was delighted when we found the Xbox 360 display, and he picked the Rangers. I chose the 1981 Minnesota North Stars, and after a quick lesson on what button to push to shoot, father-and-son played their first ever video game together. For the record, before the little squirt gains the upper hand in the months and years to follow, the North Stars beat the Rangers 3-1. No quarters asked. Actually, my son had asked for some money for the table hockey game, but I was fresh out.
We stood in line for the chance to snap a plastic puck at a video image of Ed Belfour in his bad Maple Leafs’ uniform. My son topped 8 mph with his shot; in his opinion, he scored on every shot. Dad didn’t fare much better, hitting only 62 mph and finding the back-of-the-net only twice, and even then, I think Eddie was taking it easy on me.
None of this would have happened at the old place. That building was for the converted, this place is for the uninitiated, and the converted.
We toured the mockup of the Canadiens’ dressing room and, like most kids, my son gravitated towards the goalie equipment, and not fully comprehending why he couldn’t suit up, he moved on to the next shiny thing.
While the vast majority of displays were over my son’s little head, he perked up at any picture of one Robert Gordon Orr. “Bobby Orr…Numba Four”, he already knows. This is a good thing.
He tried his hand at the TSN mockup technical suite, but as this struck me as being too close to what I do at work, I suggested we move on. First, though, he handled the play-by-play of a couple of famous goals, including adding the sound of the goal horn when Lafleur beat Gilbert with the greatest goal of all-time.
We also stood and stared at the Avco World Trophy, always a must see for me everytime I visit here. I tried to explain that this forgotten trophy was like the Stanley Cup to me when I was a kid, but he wasn’t buying it. He wanted the real thing.
The visit to the Great Hall always has the feeling of entering one of the great cathedrals in Old Montreal, regardless of what faith one may adhere to. In this church, hockey is what is worshipped, and the Great Hall is the summit of that love.
As that 10-year-old collecting hockey cards, some of my favourite cards were Trophy cards. Here in the Great Hall, those cards come to life. I’ve seen the Stanley Cup up-close enough times that it’s almost second nature…ohhh, the Cup, nice…so to see the Vezina and the Hart and the Art Ross, to me, always inspires awe.
My kid, on the other hand, having no idea yet what that silverware represents, was estatic when he saw the Cup. So much so, that like a child in church on Christmas Eve, he let his joy ring out, much louder than any self-conscious adult would have. Which reminded me, this was hockey, not a church. You’re allowed to get loud.
He insisted we take a closer look. Once we got near, for some reason, it struck me that on this particular day, the backup Cup was the one on display. A quick question to the staff member nearby verified this.
This slightly lessened the effect, but my son and I had already had our photo taken with the “real” Cup when it was here at the NHL Home Ice studios almost two years ago. Looking over the doppelganger, he searched for his name.
Not yet, kid.
After that, it was back to the main level, where the souvenir shop beckoned. I resisted buying a gorgeous Glenn Hall St. Louis Blues’ jersey circa 1968; not a good time of the year to be buying yourself expensive presents. But I’ll be back.
Tried to get my son the very sharp looking powder blue Pittsburgh Penguins t-shirt, but he insisted on buying the throwback Montreal t-shirt that has the A in the C as the logo. I am not making this up. Apparently, my almost five years of brainwashing has worked. The trouble is, the Penguins’ t-shirt looks so much better.
Grabbed a few things to help Santa fill the stockings, and we headed off into the cold night, looking for supper.
For the 90 minutes we were there, the two of us probably saw 2% of the collection on display. My son didn’t learn any hockey history that day, still thinks the Rangers play there, and was rather concerned that they only had the “backup Cup” on display.
What did happen was a 90 minute break from the rest of the world. An hour-and-a-half where a father shared with his young son those things that were so very important to him when he was a boy. The Hall-of-Fame was the ideal setting for a shared experience in a place that has always held a special place in my heart, even when I lived thousands of miles from it.
We will return.
- Mick Kern
Mick Kern appears courtesy of Live From Wayne Gretzky’s
