All World Hockey by T. Michael Travers

We all know what goes on in a funeral parlour. People talk in hushed tones. It's quiet. Sometimes you hear a person yell out. You can only imagine that the pain of their loss is intolerable. This type of noise seems out of place and disrespectful at first, but then you remember where you are. Friends see a notice in their newspaper or get a call from a friend. They arrive but aren't really invited. Everyone is polite, even courteous to each other. They take direction and line up to pay their respects without complaint. They wait their turn to talk to and share a moment with the key person. The key person is the person who's closest to the deceased - sometimes it's not the person who you'd expect it to be. Sometimes guests say the wrong thing to the key person. Their intentions are sincere. People often feel compelled to say something, but they frequently blurt out the wrong thing. I think it's where the term "foot-in-mouth" came from. G...

If you were a fan of the 1960s Original Six NHL, Robert Marvin Hull would have been one of your favourite players, even if you didn't like the Chicago Black Hawks hockey club. He was featured in LIFE magazine. They claimed his shot was 118mph (with a wooden stick) and he skated at 29.7mph. He was on the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine four times. His cover in a 1968 edition of TIME Magazine was designed by American superstar artist Leroy Neiman.  Even Hollywood's biggest 1960s movie star, Kim Novak, claimed he was her favourite athlete. His look. His 1,000-watt smile. He was big. He knew how to get every fan in every NHL rink out of their seats -- not to boo him but to be amazed by his skills. He spent 23 years playing in the NHL/WHL. He earned the Hart Trophy twice, the Art Ross Trophy three times, and the Stanley Cup in 1961. Hull instantly became the WHA's greatest star, winning the Gordie Howe Trophy as league MVP in 1972–73 and 1974–75. There are too many ...

de.cath.lon (definition): an athletic event taking place over two days in which each competitor takes part in the same prescribed 10 events. Before the Trials for the 1952 Helsinki Olympic Games, Milt Campbell, of Plainfield New Jersey, had never competed in a decathlon. He'd never pole vaulted, never thrown a discus, never thrown a javelin and had never run a 1500 m race. How could he win the Olympic gold medal four years later in the decathlon at the Summer Games in Melbourne, Australia at just 22 years of age? Several American athletes have earned the gold for the same 10-event Olympic contest, including Jim Thorpe (who was the very first), Bob Mathias (twice), Rafer Johnson, Bill Tomey and Bruce Jenner among others, all claiming the mantel as the World's Best Athlete.  Each of them became famous following their athletic careers. Their names are familiar to many of us who follow sport. Milt Campbell was the first black decathlon winner. He was one of them, but no...

It started with Danny Gallivan ... He was the TV hockey caller  for the Montreal Canadiens  for 32 years.   I hated him because he was so Montreal and I was so Toronto Maple Leaf.   I hated the sound of his voice.  There was something strange about it - something foreign.  To me, it seemed to say ...  "we are the Habs and it doesn't  matter  what the score is, we are going to win".  We have "little Charlie Hodge"  and "big Robinson" and   "the speedy Cournoyer".  He was such a Hab, he even had his own  Montreal Canadien hockey card.     He enunciated with an unusual flare.   He seemed to create new words while describing the game.  It was distracting.  He wasn't like Foster or Bill Hewitt.   He said stuff that didn't sit well with me and my Leaf buddies. You know,  the "Savardian Spinerama",  "the dearth of whistles" ... "6 and a half ounces of vul...

FUN FACT ... We might never have heard of Frank Sinatra if it hadn't been for Louise Tobin. Who? Louise was a 1930s big band singer who urged her husband, Harry James to audition a singer she'd heard at a New Jersey Roadhouse bar, Rustic Cabin. Louise had also performed with Benny Goodman, Will Bradley and Bobby Hackett -- she had a few hits with Goodman.  Her husband hired the singing waiter on a year-long contract for $75. a week. Louise Tobin died at her Texas home in November 2022 -- she was 104 years old. Francis Albert Sinatra was born in Hoboken, New Jersey on Dec. 12.  If he were alive in 2022, he'd be 112 years old. He started as a singer with the Harry James and Tommy Dorsey big bands and always referred to himself as a "saloon singer". Perhaps because of his apprenticeship in the roadhouses and bars of New Jersey, like the Rustic Cabin, where he was a singing waiter accompanied by a piano player, Bill Miller -- 60 years later, they'd still be toge...