Hockey History Buffs aged 24-30: How Did You Get Into Hockey History?

[BigDucky]

As a child, I was always interested in history. So around age 10, when I started to pay attention to sports, I became interested in sports history. The only Detroit sports team worth paying attention to in 1995 was the Detroit Red Wings, so hockey became my favorite sport, and I wanted to learn everything I could about it.

 

[NOTENOUGHJTCGOALS]

Used to be a real stats follower. Then I joined the working world (accounting) and learned the numbers never show the truth, they only show what the client wants them to show.

Since then I've learned lots.

 

[WarriorOfGandhi]

Chalk me up as yet another history major interested in sports history. Honestly most of my knowledge of hockey's legends and lions has been gleaned from jumping from one Wikipedia article to another. I can spend hours on that site

 

[Habsfan18]

I think it was a mixture of my hardcore love for hockey and collecting. I grew up collecting hockey cards and it eventually turned into me collecting back issues of The Hockey News. I also used to enjoy listening to my grandfather talk about all of the old greats.

 

[Scott1980]

Fellow history buffs close to my age, I was curious of something - how did you get interested in the history of hockey and what was your introduction to greats of the game's past?

For myself, the answer is easy: It was the 1988 Esso card set that came out. You have to all know the set I'm talking about. It came in a grey book to paste them in, and each card had an envlope-style sticky back and a checklist on the back. This set had three sections: the 60's, the 70's, and the 80's. It featured the best players of each decade and it was by collecting these cards, studying the career stats on them, and memorizing the award winners in the back page, that I set myself on the path that I'm now on.

Just a few years after that, I discovered my dad's old hockey cards from the 1970-1974 period and learned even more about players' nicknames, lesser stars, the summit series, and what other teams guys like Jacques Plante played for besides the Habs. It was around then, that I began buying up hockey books like The Great Book Of Hockey and The 20th Century Hockey Chronicle and demanding the NHL guide and record book for Christmas every year.

But without that Esso card set and the book the cards were pasted in, I doubt I'd have ever become as obsessed with hockey as I am, and I have no idea what my life would look like now.

That 1988 set was my first ever set. Too bad I lost it! Started collecting cards around the time I was 11.

Now the reason I got interested? My father told me stories of baseball (Mantle), Golf (Palmer), Basketball (Jabbar). He could tell me all I needed to know. But I never ran out of questions. Hockeywise, it was low on his rung of sports interest, comming from the US.

But I slowly started memorizing the stats of baseball, basketball, and then came to hockey!

 

[Peter9]

Heh, I just turned 67 a couple of weeks ago, but I'll answer anyway. I think it was the 1955-56 season that Parkhurst brought out a set of hockey cards that featured only Canadiens and Leafs players with the Topps set of that year only including players for the four U.S.A. teams. To make it a decent size since it featured only two teams, the Parkhurst set featured cards on many old-time Leafs and Canadiens players, like, to mention only one, Battleship Leduc of the Canadiens.

I came to Canada from England as an almost 10-year-old in 1953 and knew nothing about the NHL until then. But by 1955 I knew a great deal about the current NHL players--I know their faces to this day as well as I know the faces of my family members--and was ready to learn about players from earlier times. (This recognition factor is much more difficult since the advent of helmets and goaltender masks.) The older men in my neighborhood were always willing to talk about the old days in hockey, and I learned a lot from them. Most young people didn't have the patience or the interest to listen to older folks talk about the old days, which was regrettable, since those old folks died off and the opportunity was lost forever. Now, of course, there are many more books available on hockey history and listening to old folks isn't as valuable.

By the way, I always wondered what kind of collusion there was between the two hockey card companies that resulted in one set featuring only players from the Canadian teams and the other only players from the U.S.A. teams so that fans had to buy both sets.

 

[Sadekuuro]

I'm a scientist, not a history major, but still a field of study that readily lends itself to thorough understanding of background and theory. Combine a mind that is accustomed to thinking empirically with a rabid interest in the game of hockey and it comes naturally.

Much of what I know about pre-80s hockey is actually from this very sub-forum, so cheers to you guys. I don't post much but very much enjoy this section.

 

[kmad]

26 here.

It started when I was a kid. I was a huge nut for collecting hockey cards, and I loved reading the information on the back - previous season goal totals, career totals, and little anecdotes about the players. I guess it just blossomed from there.

 

[begbeee]

I am only 23, but I will answer anyways. I got into hockey history because I am a natural history buff. My major in school is history and my favourite sport, baseball, has the richest history of any sport in the world imo. When I get involved with something I like to learn as much as I can about it.

Exactly this minus baseb...what?
I have an university degree in history and history of my sport interested me.
I start watching hockey around 1994 and also I collect the cards. Some of the cards I had were from 1990 and that interested me so much...
Then I read 2 books about history of NHL, Stastny´s autobiography and book about CSSR hockey emigrants and I was in it

 

[revolverjgw]

27 here. It started with Don Cherry's Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Hockey in 1989 and all his anecdotes between clips of brutal old school hockey and funny old stories, a few Orr highlights, etc. I watched that video until the cassette wore out and of course got all the other ones too. Cherry's enthusiasm made me enthusiastic and I needed to know about the guys and events he was talking about. Hell, Cherry should be in the HOF just for those videos.

Also started buying hockey cards around that time, read through some coffee table books my uncle had, got my first Official NHL Record Book which I treated like a bible, read Lions in Winter, things like that. I've just always had an interest in the past in general, be it movies or music or whatever, so when I became a hockey fan it was just natural I was going to study its past. When I take an interest in something, I get pretty OCD about it and always need to know exactly how things evolved.

For myself, the answer is easy: It was the 1988 Esso card set that came out. You have to all know the set I'm talking about. It came in a grey book to paste them in, and each card had an envlope-style sticky back and a checklist on the back. This set had three sections: the 60's, the 70's, and the 80's. It featured the best players of each decade and it was by collecting these cards, studying the career stats on them, and memorizing the award winners in the back page, that I set myself on the path that I'm now on.

And this! I think I still have it somewhere, and it's where I learned all about the trophies.

 

[VanIslander]

(I'm a decade older than those you are interested in, but what the heck.)

I studied photography when I was younger and always found B&W pictures intriguing and the more historical they were the more I wondered about the past. And there are some real stellar photos from hockey's past. Add to that my interest in the 1972 Summit Series and a few visits to the Hockey Hall of Fame and that did it.

But mostly, the lockout. While people were searching for hockey fixes, I turned to the past, and now I am hooked.

Indeed. That's when both the History board here at Hockey's Future and the All-Time Drafts began. They rekindled my fascination.

 

[therealkoho]

Better question: how does anyone aged 26 know anything about GummoMarx?! (Good stuff.)

True story: my wife and I were looking to buy a vacation home earlier this decade and came thisclose to buying his old home in Palm Springs, before purchasing another.

Of course, it had been through several owners since he last lived in it, many decades ago.

(Groucho remains my hero.)

......and one of mine as well, but there is another guy who is sadly forgotten by todays generation. Not only a fine physical comedian and who, like Groucho was also a master of the acerbically sarcastic rejoinder is the great WC Fields.

 

[tarheelhockey]

This book had a lot to do with it:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sporting-News-Complete-Hockey-1994-95/dp/0892044985

 

[markrander87]

23 here. I was always a huge hockey fan growing up, but after viewing the ATD and deciding to join I've gained a ton of knowledge by reading posts from some of the hockey history greats around here and by doing a ton of researching myself.

 

[jkrx]

Grew up in Detroit (and Winnipeg) during the 50s when Howe, Lindsay, Delvecchio etc ruled the NHL.

 

[jcbio11]

Exactly this minus baseb...what?
I have an university degree in history and history of my sport interested me.
I start watching hockey around 1994 and also I collect the cards. Some of the cards I had were from 1990 and that interested me so much...
Then I read 2 books about history of NHL, Stastny´s autobiography and book about CSSR hockey emigrants and I was in it

Hey that's cool I also read that book! Did that come out in English as well?

 

[seventieslord]

23 here. I was always a huge hockey fan growing up, but after viewing the ATD and deciding to join I've gained a ton of knowledge by reading posts from some of the hockey history greats around here and by doing a ton of researching myself.

....no you haven't.



hehe, just kidding, bud.

 

[begbeee]

I heard Stastny saying it will be in English aswell, but I have no news about this fact.

Maybe it is question for our canadians friends if they ever heard about Stastny´s autobiography book?

 

[MetropolisPt31]

I'm 29 and I got into hockey history through my love of goaltending. I got into hockey in the mid 1990s and immediately became a goaltender. Then, I started learning about NHL goalies and it just spread from there.

 

[Buck Aki Berg]

29 years old...

I have to admit, I don't care much for the history of hockey that predates my following of the sport (I started watching in 1987). I think a big part of it is that nobody in my family older than me was big on hockey, so I never got to hear the stories from my parents and uncles and grandparents about the eras of hockey that predate me.

The only thing that perks my interest in the history of hockey is the Legends of Hockey: A Personal Journey series (is that even still on?!) ... seeing former players, now in their 70s and 80s, recounting their stories from backyard rinks, riding the buses in the minors, and finally making it to the big leagues, with a spark in their eyes that melts fifty years off them - you can't help but feel like you missed out on something truly amazing