BETTER THE SECOND TIME AROUND
The first time I spoke with Scotty Bowman was a total disaster. It was 1992 and Bowman, who’d been inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame a year earlier, was the coach of the defending champion of the Pittsburgh Penguins. He was a living legend and I, still a wet-behind-the-ears reporter, chimed in with what I thought was a deep, insightful postgame question a er a loss by his team. He was not impressed. I kind of wish I could recall exactly what I asked, but it’s probably better that I’ve suppressed that part of the memory. Just the thought of Bowman’s icy stare, and his terse response, can make me slightly queasy to this day.
In hindsight, it probably wasn’t that big a deal. Reporters ask dumb questions all the time, especially of a losing coach. But I was trying to establish myself and I hated that I’d whiffed while talking to an all-time great.
I spent the whole night reliving my epic fail, and wondering how I could possibly recover.
e next day a er practice, I screwed up my courage, shook his hand and introduced myself as a writer from Beckett Hockey.
And Bowman couldn’t have been nicer.
I’d heard that he was a collector. What I didn’t realize was just how much he’d been into the hobby. He was positively thrilled to talk about it, equally as interested in hearing what I thought about different players and cards as I was in learning from him. We didn’t have much time, but when he had to cut it short, he was genuinely apologetic and asked to do it again some time.
We never got that chance, so I was a bit jealous when our Buffalo-based writer Bill Hoppe proposed talking to the coach for this issue. As expected, Bowman was warm and welcoming, and while he’s less interested in acquiring new items at age
85, he still has fond memories of the hobby and a massive stash of his Rookie Cards. Check out Hoppe’s story starting on pg. 12, and when you’re done, be sure to let us know if you’ve hoarded one particular card the way Scotty has.
Al Muir • amuir@beckett.com • @almuirsi on Twitter