JOE NIX's ICE HOCKEY TEAMS as a player

Edition as of June 23, 2005

1946-47 Belmont Junior High, Belmont, Massachusetts, Some informal hockey on outdoor ice.

1948-49 Belmont High, Belmont Massachusetts. Greater Boston Interscholastic Hockey League, i.e. 'GBI'. Skippy Vigliorolo was the Captain. Goalie was Paul Kelley younger brother of Jack Kelley of Colby, Boston University and New England Whalers.

I skipped my senior year in order to concentrate on being admitted to Harvard where I was the last guy 'cut' from the Freshman squad and asked to continue to practice with the thought a spot would be available after mid year exams due to grades ineligibility. I was very nearly ineligible myself by grades and considering my delivering mail that Christmas season, the practices being at Boston Garden, my being a commuting student, my transportation being my self maintained 1937 Chevrolet and the coaches admitted preference for boys who had played together at prep schools I opted to write up some games for the Harvard Crimson and help Bob Weiss, varsity manager, sort of as a 'stick boy'. Needless to say I grabbed 'informal' ice time with both the frosh and varsity and got into some intramural games. I quit Harvard due to the prevalance of a 'draft avoidance' mania while my close friends were coming home (if) from Korea, one of them a paraplegic, (James 'Doby' O'Connor, 4 star athlete including hockey at Brown and Nichols School, Cambridge) and enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1953 for 3 years all of which was spent in 'hot' climates, two years in East Africa. When I returned, Buddy Higginbotham, with whom I had grown up in Belmont playing hockey was captain and called to ask me to come out for the team. I declined and didn't play again until I was 35 years old.

POST 1967, after my 35th birthday,  ALL INDOOR IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

Playing in full checking leagues in S. California I had to concentrate heavily on developing a 'feel for the puck' so I could not only 'keep my head up' but take the puck out from behind my goal and set up a rush. I had such an ingrained habit of making a pass at or after mid ice that I had my team mates bellow at me to 'take it in' and I would. I had size and speed but an ingrained habit of 'looking to make a play'. After watching 1000's of hockey games I realize I was not 'alone' in this. In fact one line of 'oldtimers' I played with in S. California was more intent on 'making pretty plays' than scoring so I would hang back a bit until they coughed up a loose puck and shoot almost immediately when I got possession, something they would delay, go behind the net, come out to a corner, look for their buddy, hold the puck, pass to a defenseman, take a return pass and try once again for a 'picture book' play.

On the other hand, there were far more players who once in the attacking zone ALWAYS shot from a bit too far out and often 'off the angle'. They were very easy to defend against.

I observed over the years coaching kids that some felt the puck 'belonged on their stick' as long as possible. These 'puck hogs' are so prevalent in 'huff and puff' senior hockey that in order to get enough ice time carrying the puck I learned to carry a puck around during warmups, rather than stand by the blueline to 'take shots'. Likewise in some games I would deliberately forsake passing in order to carry the puck up the ice. Now transpose this situation to kids hockey where the ratio of practice to game time is at best one to one. Many kids would be able to count in seconds, less than one minute, how long they carried the puck in a week.

I was about 38 years old before I could effectively skate backwards in a game, backing up on defense and pivoting to force an attacking foward towards the boards, 'off his best shooting angle'. I can still recall the image of Red Kelly demonstrating this maneuver to the Kings. Some obviously had made the NHL without fully developing that pivot.

Because I had contributed heavily to minor hockey the guys who were playing semi-pro in the late '60's accepted me as a 'practice cow'. For $3 on Thursday evenings I was an 'extra' to fill the 'opposing team' for their very light checking scrimmages. I was also playing some other nights at a 'lower level' so with these guys I focused on learning things. A memorable incident was playing defense with Buddy McKinnon who had played in the Canadian Air Force and then the Belgian National Team. He shouted at me that I was not playing my zone. I can still recall his very Canadian accent. On the bench I flat out told him I did not know the shifting defense zone and he was free to bellow as loud as he wanted until I caught on. It was funny. It got to the point where he only needed to grunt and I took a position complementary to his. It was a small rink and one of the incoming forwards was Ken Watson, who had been Junior Player of the Year for Western Canada and played pro for the L.A. Monarchs. Kenny could stick handle 'through your feet' was the expression. He 'dribbled' the puck always protecting it with his stick from your defensive attempts. Never saw anything like it before or later until Ernie Rucks and I tried to hold Vic Venasky to three goals a shift. However Vic's moves were ultra fast whereas Kenny's outstanding feature was trickiness.

In California I had to learn tight cuts in the small rinks against very good players. Fred Hildebrand showed me his warmup routines for 'finding one's edges'. I had forechecked him deep in his zone and more than once he had twirled and ducked out while I was caught 'left footed'. He would do this twirl with the puck in his end, throwing off everyone coming in on him until he saw an opening and dash up the ice, setting up a good play. He showed me how I could circle with him and we practised it until I could get the puck. As he said he was teaching me to use my height and my reach (which Kenny Watson said should have been declared 'illegal'). Since I was on the ice a lot with small kids I had learned to take very sharp cut-turns, particularly along the boards. Our 'home rink' was one of the smallest in the league so laying over and changing directions, something I had been able to do as a kid became one of my skating features. I can recall showing fellow adult players how to do it. In a way I suppose it resembles 'laying into a turn' as in skiing. I know my son Ben would suddenly be going the opposite way and you had hardly noticed him turn.

Cutting tighter circles at speed in practices was the 'drill' for this maneuver.

GLACIER FALLS Anaheim with A FOAM RUBBER PUCK

A few years ago there was a 'knee bashing incident' prior to an Olympics. I paid no attention until I caught a bit of that Olympics or World something or other on TV at someone's house and blurted out, 'that's Evy Scotvold', the coach of the girl from Stoneham. He was teaching figures at a rink in Anaheim in the late '60's, early '70's, had been Men's Pacific Champion. He had full hockey gear and would scrimmage with us in our close to midnight no checking games. He was a good hockey player but did not get all 'hyped up over it' and provided us a lot of laughs. The rink was not equipped for 'regular hockey', not well lighted, weak dashers and exposed lights along the far wall. We played with a soft foam rubber puck made from the floor mats standard in most ice rinks. Willy Kall was the rink manager and he and his son Bill played with us. It was a private session, late on Sunday evening and once in awhile a 'stranger' joined us.

TEAMS for whom I PLAYED IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA, memory are sketchy on this.

Full checking except along the boards as I remember it.

First guess is this is Outlaws jersey, rink being Costa Mesa. Practice jersey at Costa Mesa, Alex in background, same era as the Outlaws pic, definitely prior to '83 when I got ex LA Kings gloves.

No check along boards, GAMES: 36 winter, 24 summer. I sometimes played in two leagues at the same time so there is overlap here. I also played 'pickup' all over L.A. in the '70's, primarily at Norwalk and in the '80's at the Costa Mesa Ice Capades Chalet and the old West Covina rink.

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