WHERE
ARE THEY NOW? other alumni of Southern California youth, aka 'minor
hockey, aka 'minor', GLAMHA and SCAHA.
Edition
of May 2008
SANTA MONICA
SANTA MONICA
Ex Santa Monican,Alan Abrams emailed me April 4, 2005: "I came across your website today and was instantly transported back to 1970 or so, when my father took me to Santa Monica Ice Capades Chalet one morning at 6 a.m. to "try out" for Russ Wyluda and the Gold and Green of the Santa Monica Bantam club... I believe that I first met Art that day at his store in Culver City. I was never much of a player back then, but became a goalie later in life and now skate with the Detroit Red Wings every year for Make a Wish Foundation in Michigan. Often I wonder what happened to folks like Walt Gale, Bill Lange and some of the others from Santa Monica and Culver. Thank you for your writings of that time. And for your essay and tribute to Art."
NORWALK,
SOUTHEASTERN MINOR HOCKEY ASSOC.
Wade Nelson '60's, reports is living and playing hockey in the Boise Idaho Adult Hockey League . He reported that many S. Calif. hockey players live and play in Boise, one being Brian McGrath
Glen Hunnel, #29 goaltender, emailed in January 2003, "I played on the 1972-3 Southeastern Blues. Do you have anything else on this team or know of anybody that does? (my answer is no, sorry).
Phil Van Valkenburg emailed in Feb 2003 from Washington when he was 35, "I played goaltender from age 6 to age 15-16 with the Polar Kings and the Norwalk Kings. Unfortunately I took a year off, during that time I broke my back and was unable to play again. I'm actually looking for a specific article about a tournament in Kamloops. I'm not sure that year if I was on the California Condors or the Kings. That year I played with, Bobby Robinson, Tom Hughes, and Scott Swaggart. I do remember my brother Charles playing with Todd Nelson. I started pollywogs in 1975 or 76 with Paul Lavio as my coach. The two coaches that year were Buddy McKinnon and he brought along with him a great goalie coach who made a great impact on me whose name may have been Stan Wawer. After playing under them I had all kinds of schools looking at me. I do remember Mike Costello. I may have played under him one year.Buddy McKinnon was the best coach I ever had I think the goalie coach may have been Stan Wawer?".
For Bryan and Bruce Hollweg see my pro and college listings.
Mike Zagarella emailed in August 2004; "You have taken me down memory lane with your web site on youth hockey, I am really enjoying it. As I was reading the story of your sons, I took out my old year book from 72' - 73' and recognized some of the names you mentioned: Woods, O' Rourke, and Costello. I began playing in the 72' - 73' season at Norwalk Ice Rink. I was younger than your sons as my two cousins and I were Mites in 72' - 73'. That year we won the league title (Mite blues couldn't advance any farther). The following year we played with Ralph Barahona, who later played for the Boston Bruins (mostly for
their minor team). The memorabilia on your site also brings back memories, especially the hat-trick patch which I still have. My brother is still involved with youth hockey as he coaches for Glacier
Gardens (Anaheim) Midget or Bantam Tier. "
 |
- | - | - |
I played in Costa Mesa's rinks and skated at the old outdoor rink at Blue Jay, Lake Arrowhead.
What memories! Thanks for the site. Patrick Murphy RD, #7, SoEastern Blues, "Most Penalty Minutes" 2 years running!"
ORANGE COUNTY
From Steve Baric on 2 October 2007I came across your website and it brought back alot of memories. I played minor hockey in southern
California between approx 1973 to 1980. I must have played in every single rink that you mentioned. Started in 1972 playing in Bay Harbor where my coach was Al Sieber. Then went and played one year in Culver City. Returned and played at Bay Harbor till about 1977 when I moved to Costa Mesa and played two years there. I think I went to a couple of skating schools with Rollo Miller. In 1979 I returned and played one year in Bay Harbor. In 1980 I moved and played in West Covina under Maurice Labbe. We put together a California Select team and went to the Quebec Pee Wee touney that year.
In 1981 my family moved to BC and it was a great experience. We moved back in 1986. I am now playing
adult hockey in Aliso Viejo.
WEST COVINA
Selma Calnan, Secretary and Registrar, GLAMAH West Covina Youth Hockey Club
on Oct 17, 2005 emailed me the following essay she had submitted for a journal wiritng class
in Bishop, California
When Hockey was My Life
Girls growing up in Madison, Wisconsin in the 1930's welcomed winter for the ice-skating that brought everyone out to the frozen Monona and Mendota and the Yahara River that threaded through town. On campus two outdoor ice rinks stood side by side: one for ice hockey and one for public skating. We all yearned for figure skates at Christmas after seeing Sonja Henie, the Norwegian Figure Skating champion starring in American films. (As an aside, Mammoth Lakes California is home to another Olympic "phenom" of the 1960s, Andrea Meade Lawrence who won two gold medals for skiing.) Most of my friends came to
the public rink after Christmas with the dainty white figure skates. I, on the other hand, had to lace up black hockey skates. What I remember most, after my disappointment in my skates, were the excruciating pains as my frozen feet thawed in the warming huts kept stoked along the way.
The first enchantment of California came when I left Madison in January at -14 degrees and stepped off the train in Pasadena where temperature was in the 70s. Another charm was the sound of birds singing after the dead silence of a Wisconsin winter. In that euphoric state I met my husband the same day and we married the following November.
We moved to West Covina, the fastest growing suburb at that time and contributed five children to the baby boom. Our Ross Loos doctor recommended galvanic shock treatments and ice skating to strengthen our youngest son's left ankle, following a botched surgery that had severed a nerve. The West Covina Ice Arena became our haunt. The NHL was just taking root, probably based on the Census that showed there were more Canadians living in Southern California than in San Francisco 500 miles closer to the border.
Inevitably the youth hockey coach spotted my red head and recruited him for the new team of Bantams. Hockey soon became our life. My husband took care of outfitting John not before I learned that a hockey cup was not used for coffee!
Soccer Moms have it easy compared to Hockey Moms. We got up at 3 a.m. to rouse the household, prod the player to get suited up and arrive at the rink and darkened snack bar with the full club coffeepot, an act of mercy for the drowsy coaches. We made hot chocolate and supplied fresh doughnuts for teams at the end of there 4 a.m. practice. Daytime hours were reserved for the figure skaters and public sessions. We were the chauffeurs for the away games that took us to dark and chilly ice rinks throughout Southern California and to Stockton or San Diego for play-offs. Our nine-passenger Fury Station wagon often needed industrial strength air freshener after transporting damp hockey uniforms and skates that made their presence known from canvas equipment bags.
By this time I had become the club registrar, secretary and publicist. I soon learned how to write rousing sports stories from the score sheets of all the teams, typing into the wee hours. My husband then delivered the typed copies to the San Gabriel Tribune, the Covina Sentinel, the Hacienda Heights Highlander and the La Puente Journal while I got ready to face a room full of fourth graders. During Christmas holidays we were freezing again as volunteer petal crews for the Pasadena Rose Parade floats. Their naked skeletons were housed in a huge unheated building while the flowers and glues were located in a tent nearby. We were often called out to help keep it from sailing to Kansas! We earned $1200 for the club treasury and lost some of our enthusiasm for the parade on New Year's Day. Although Wisconsin's football team never showed up while we were active we did meet the hulks of Michigan as they toured the site for photo ops. Wisconsin did
make it to the Rose Bowl later, making their mark for saying "Thank You" to everybody.
One of the rival teams in GLAMHA (the Greater Los Angeles Minor Hockey Association) was Burbank, the home of the Burbank Studios. Our boys were playing against sons of several well-known movie stars; Jane Russell's spoiled son "Buckey" among them. At our first encounter we were all impressed by the grandeur of the Burbank rink compared to the West Covina Ice Arena, a converted Piggley Wiggley market. Huge posters of the stars in the neighborhood decorated its soaring walls. Can you imagine my surprise when I saw one whole wall devoted to Sonja Henie, as gorgeous in 1965 as she had in 1939! It was a magic moment.
By the time John became a junior, which in hockey means he was a senior in high school, his team had gone to the Nationals, held that year in Minnesota. Making it to fourth place he learned that the Minnesota players lift hay bales all summer!
Nearly all of history is written to please 'the powers that be' of the writer's historical era. That's never been my modus operandi.