The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Eventful first road trip was one for the ages
Some games are memorable — like the first time The News-Herald sent me on the road to Toronto.
My sports editor, Mark Podolski, suggested recalling the 10 most memorable games I’ve covered and writing columns about what made them noteworthy.
Some are memorable for the games themselves — Game 7 of the 2016 World Series between the Indians and Cubs, the three AFC championship games the Browns played in the 1986, ‘87 and 1989 seasons, and the Monsters winning the Calder Cup in 2016. I wasn’t in Oakland when the Cavaliers beat the Warriors to win the NBA title, so that game didn’t make the list.
Some games are memorable for other reasons — like the very first time The News-Herald sent me on the road. My assignment was to cover a hockey game at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto between Team Canada and Team Russia on Sept. 19, 1974.
I was covering the Cleveland Crusaders of the World Hockey Association in 1974. Team Canada was composed of WHA AllStars, including goalie Gerry Cheevers, forward Jim Harrison and defenseman Paul Shmyr from the Crusaders.
Laptops did not exist 46 years ago. Nor did digital recorders. I carried an extra typewriter ribbon, a couple extra notepads and extra pens in my equipment bag instead of batteries and a power cord.
I felt like Mr. Bigshot flying on The News-Herald’s dime. I checked my baggage — including my Underwood typewriter in its protective case.
The case turned out to be not so protective.
Somehow, the carriage of the typewriter got bent in transit, as I discovered when I opened the case after getting to my hotel room. It moved only enough for me to type three or four letters on a line.
This presented a unique situation never addressed in journalism classes.
I remember getting to the press box in one of the most storied arenas in the world, finding a seat on press row with my name on the table in front of it, and felt like Mr. Bigshot again, especially after discovering the food and Pepsi were free.
Just as I sat down, a sportswriter at the far end of the press box started shouting at another guy. He continued to shout and then picked up a folding chair and threw it in the face of his adversary. They started fighting — not just arguing, but fighting, and had to be separated.
I remember thinking: “This doesn’t happen in the press box at Kirtland or Lake Catholic.”
Team Canada won the game, 4-1, behind a fabulous effort by Cheevers. He stopped 29 of 30 shots. He was named “Canadian Player of the Game” by the media.
Cheevers did not get a shiny new car as his reward. He got a color television instead, but he could not celebrate. His father-in-law, John Sciamonte, had a heart attack while attending the game and had to be rushed to the hospital in an ambulance.
Ralph Backstrom, Andre’ Lacroix, Bobby Hull and J.C. Tremblay scored for Team Canada against the great Russian goalie, Vladislav Tretiak. The crowd of 16,485 in Maple Leaf Gardens loved it. The Canadians led the series, 1-0-1, after Canada and Russia played to a 3-3 tie two nights earlier in Quebec.
As it turned out, that
was the only game the Canadians won in 1974 despite a roster that included five players now in the Hockey Hall of Fame — Cheevers, Hull, Gordie Howe, Mark Howe and Frank Mahovlich. Russia won the series, four games to one, with three ties.
Two years earlier, Team Canada won the series, 4-3-1, by winning the last three games in Moscow, each by one goal, with Paul Henderson of the Toronto Maple Leafs scoring the winning goal in all three games.
The postgame interviews ended. The carriage of my typewriter was still hopelessly bent. But I still had to get a story to The News-Herald.
Fortunately, we were an afternoon paper in those days, so deadline, at least for the moment, was not an issue.
I left the arena, carrying my worthless typewriter and wearing my media credential.
I walked the streets of downtown Toronto, searching for an open office building and praying some merciful soul would hear my sad story, see on this 110-pound guy with thick glasses, consider me harmless, and let me write my story there.
I don’t remember the name of the building now, but someone did have pity on me (it might have been my good fortune that Team Canada won) and gave me a desk and typewriter.
I wrote my story and dictated it the next morning to someone on The News-Herald copy desk. The story was in the paper Sept. 20, 1974, as if nothing unusual happened.
I boarded a plane for the trip home that day and bought a new typewriter before driving home.
I think about that night from time to time. There is always a solution when something on an assignment does not go right.