Eklund: Paul Stewart: A Slap Shot Story - My Day as a Duck

Good Blog Paul

Goldthorpe sounds like a first class psychopath.

I loved that movie and still think it is the second funniest movie ever made (Holy Grail).

I love that it was based on so many real people and events.

Eklund: Paul Stewart: A Slap Shot Story - My Day as a Duck
- Eklund

Good blog!

BTW, where is EK?

Good blog!

BTW, where is EK?
- LCDavid4

On vacation with his family this week.

Eklund: Paul Stewart: A Slap Shot Story - My Day as a Duck
- Eklund

Very interesting! I quite enjoyed that and being 23 and someone who loved the movie it was great to learn something about it that I had never knew ! I know a lot of people ask questions on the topic of records and if they think whichever record can ever be broke but I wonder if anyone thinks we will ever see a player/coach ever again or are their rules now preventing this from happening ? Would be interesting.

Great story Paul! Thanks for sharing that with us. I'm always enamored with Slap Shot lore - it always amazes me that that a lot of those stories are true.
Best sports movie - hands down.

At the time SLAP SHOT was released in February, 1977 I was the PR man for the NAHL Philadelphia Firebirds and remember Billy Goldthorpe well when he played in that league for both Syracuse and Binghamton. His biting incident with Stewie was not his only such event as he was tossed from the SHL in 1977 while playing for the Richmond Wildcats when he bit a referee during a game. The last time I saw him play was in December, 1978, with the PHL San Diego Hawks (where he was a teammate of a then 43-year old Willie O'Ree who had broken the NHL's color barrier with the Boston Bruins in 1958) in a game in Los Angeles against the LA Blades. (Also playing in that game for the Blades was 41-year old former Detroit Red Wing and Chicago Blackhawk defenseman Howie Young, another one of the most colorful characters in the history of our game.)

The last time I saw Billy in person was in March, 2004, when he and a number of the actors and players who appeared in SLAP SHOT visited the AHL Philadelphia Phantoms at the Spectrum. Then retired for twenty years, he was on his best behavior then and was very gracious and enjoyable to visit with. Below is a picture of myself, Goldthorpe, and five members of the SLAP SHOT cast taken in the Spectrum pressroom that night.


Billy Goldthorpe, Guido Tenesi ("Billy Charlebois"), Yvon Barrette ("Denis Lemieux"), Scoop Cooper (me), Paul D'Amato ("Tim 'Dr. Hook' McCracken"), Christopher Murney ("Tommy Hanrahan"), Jean "Roadrunner" Tetreault ("Andre Bergeron")

(To see more images from Goldthorpe's and the SLAP SHOT cast's 2004 visit to Philadelphia go to http://hockeyscoop.net/slapshot/index.html.)

Awesome story. Would love to hear more. And ironically we just happened to be scrolling through our On Demand movies two nights ago and came across Slapshot. It was the first time I'd watched it in a few years. Still love it.

Goldthorpe sounds like a first class psychopath.

I loved that movie and still think it is the second funniest movie ever made (Holy Grail).

I love that it was based on so many real people and events.
- MBFlyerfan

You have great taste ... in movies!

Many of the 1970's Johnstown EHL/NAHL players still live in that area. The 50+ years of pro hockey dating to the WWII era AHL Johnstown Bluebirds was honored in a book called Snapshots and Slapshots ( or vice versa). Had the privilege of meeting some of them during a get together in summer 2005 or 2006 while the book was being planned. The stories that were told, are legend.

I first saw Slap Shot as a HS sophomore, attending with a hockey/baseball teammate, and his ex-Marine father. The father coached our baseball team, as was know to frequently use colorful language, no matter the time or place.

After we left the theater, the ex-Marine's only comment was, "They sure swore a lot in that movie". My friend and I doubled over in laughter.

Great blog, thanks for sharing.

What a great blog Paul! I was a kid in the late 60's/early 70's and grew up about 10 minutes from the Cherry Hill Arena/Centrum where the EHL Jersey Devils played. No glass along the side boards, chain link fence behind the nets. One of my best memories was John Brophy when he played for the Devils, actually picking up the entire player bench and throwing it onto the ice!

Goldthorpe sounds like a first class psychopath.
- MBFlyerfan

If only he and Link Gaetz had crossed paths...

What a great blog Paul! I was a kid in the late 60's/early 70's and grew up about 10 minutes from the Cherry Hill Arena/Centrum where the EHL Jersey Devils played. No glass along the side boards, chain link fence behind the nets. One of my best memories was John Brophy when he played for the Devils, actually picking up the entire player bench and throwing it onto the ice!
- tfsnj42

Seems to be a rare yet not uncommon practice for Devils teams.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmw2kROYvV8

Eklund: Paul Stewart: A Slap Shot Story - My Day as a Duck
- Eklund

great stuff. happy thanksgiving!

Seems to be a rare yet not uncommon practice for Devils teams.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmw2kROYvV8
- jmatchett383

I forgot about that. Awesome!

The "real-life" Ogie Ogilthorpe, Bill "Goldie" Goldthorpe




Ned Dowd as "Ogie Oglethorpe" (with hair styled accordingly)

Great stuff Stewie, Scoop, and Bill!!!

Great blog. Any fan of Slap Shot should read Jonathon Jackson's The Making of Slap Shot. Great book with many interesting stories. Including the fact that the first choice to play Reggie Dunlop was not Paul Newman but rather…Al Pacino. I'm a big fan of Pacino's work overall, but there is NO way he could have pulled that off as effectively as Newman.

Goldthorpe sounds like a first class psychopath.

I loved that movie and still think it is the second funniest movie ever made (Holy Grail).

I love that it was based on so many real people and events.
- MBFlyerfan

THIS!

That's a great story

Costas re: Oglethorpe...starts around 2:30

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBzHCvYKRjE

Great story. Really appreciate you sharing it with us. On a side note, I played in a tournament about two months ago in Johnstown. One of the teams were the "Chiefs Alumni." Made up of guys that played for the Johnstown Chiefs in the late 80s. With about 5 seconds left, and my team down by a couple goals, one of their guys chased down one of ours and launched him about 8 feet into the boards. The puck was 100 feet away. Our player got knocked out and was literally shaking on the ice. Pretty rare to see something like that from a 50 year old guy playing in a "friendly" tournament. I guess they just felt the need to try to live up to the Chiefs name....

Have a read of Ed Willes book "The Rebel League", which is a history of the WHA.

The Carlson brothers, their role in Slap Shot and the appearance of Mr. Stewart into the league are all there, plus the story of Bill Goldthorpe. Great read.