deb
01-29-2004, 08:21 PM
The day the Wings went to prison
Fifty years ago pros played cons in Marquette
January 29, 2004
BY BILL DOW
FREE PRESS SPECIAL WRITER
Hollywood could easily transform this story into a made-for-TV movie.
Fifty years ago this week, the Red Wings, led by Gordie Howe, Ted Lindsay and Terry Sawchuk, played the worst team they would ever face -- a squad of convicted killers and armed robbers inside Marquette Prison.
The idea of a pros versus cons game originated the previous summer, when Wings general manager Jack Adams and Lindsay, the team captain, visited the prison yard during a Stroh Brewery sponsored trip to Marquette.
Former Purple Gang ringleaders (and Wing fans) Harry Keywell and Ray Bernstein, serving life sentences for murder in the "Collingwood Massacre," a triple homicide in 1931 inside a Detroit apartment building, approached Adams. They said to him: "Hey Jack, how about bringing the Red Wings up for a scrimmage?"
It was an offer he could have refused.
Knowing the prison didn't have a team or a rink, Adams offhandedly accepted the invitation. Prison warden Emery Jacques quickly added, "Any time at all, Jack." Jacques later privately admitted to committing the cardinal sin of "letting his mouth write a check that his ass couldn't check."
But within weeks, Jacques hired 27-year-old Leonard (Oakie) Brumm -- a member of the 1948 University of Michigan NCAA championship hockey team -- as the first athletic director for the "Alcatraz of the North."
In addition to establishing numerous recreational activities as an outlet to help quell prison disturbances, Brumm constructed a regulation-size rink with boards and trained selected inmates to play hockey with equipment donated by Adams that once belonged to the Omaha Knights, a defunct Wings farm team. The semi-pro Marquette Sentinels agreed to finance the Wings' trip to the prison in exchange for an exhibition against them after they played the inmates.
Adams kept his promise.
On Feb. 2, 1954, the crusty GM and coach Tommy Ivan led the Wings through a security check before heading out to the prison yard among the cheers of 600 inmates.
"It was 21 degrees, overcast, no wind, and perfect for outdoor hockey," recalls Brumm, 77, who now lives in Racine, Wis.
"I had 15 guys working on the ice all night with toothbrushes to make it perfect," says Brumm, a retired construction project manager who now publishes the Wisconsin Hockey News, and manages the Kenosha, Wis., ice rink.
The Wings poured it on, to the delight of the toughest crowd ever to watch a hockey game (the entire prison population attended, except for those in solitary).
Mr. Hockey remembers it well.
"I deked around their goaltender, put it in the far side and their defenseman was laughing," Gordie Howe says. "The goalie says to him, 'I'll kill you, you (expletive).' The other guy was so damn good-natured and I told him, 'It bothers me that you're in here.' He says, 'The worst thing I did was run. I was just cleaning my fingernails with my knife when this guy runs around the corner and ran into it five times.' "
Brumm played defense, and was immediately impressed by the Wings.
"They let us take the puck down the ice, spread us out, then they took it away, bing, bing, bing, three passes and a goal," Brumm says. "They were scoring a goal a minute and could have done it quicker if I had pulled the puck out of the net faster. When it was 18-0 Wings at the end of the first period, the scorekeeper quit keeping score."
By the second period, the teams split up and some Wings put on the prisoners' green jerseys. For the third period, the Wings played an intrasquad game, much to the delight of the howling inmates who regularly listened to Red Wings broadcasts.
Lindsay, a prison favorite because of his penalty minutes, recalls the game fondly.
"It was a wonderful experience for all of us on the team, and I know it was for them.
"But I didn't want to get any of those guys mad at me," Lindsay says, laughing. "It was great fun."
Just off the ski slopes near his Montana home, Marty Pavelich remembers a particularly awkward moment.
"I was skating down the ice and I hear this prisoner in the crowd calling my name. I thought to myself, 'Who would I know here?' It turned out it was my mailman from Sault Ste. Marie where I grew up! I guess he got into a little trouble back home.
"The inmates were just regular folks, cheering and hollering for all it was worth," Pavelich says.
Following the game, each Red Wing received a hand-tooled wallet with his name and team logo etched in leather, gifts made by the prisoners. That evening the Wings defeated the Marquette Sentinels in the city arena before returning to Detroit on a chartered flight.
Just 10 weeks later, the Red Wings were crowned Stanley Cup champions after defeating Montreal.
And nobody cheered louder than the inmates in Marquette.
Deb
***As an aside to this my hubby was drafted FIRST to the hockey team at Deerfield today. They had tryouts last night.... He has always played and I'm really glad he gets to continue something so positive that he loves while he's in there.... I'm also proud that he was drafted first... I wish more of the facilities realized how important stuff like this is to the guys...
Fifty years ago pros played cons in Marquette
January 29, 2004
BY BILL DOW
FREE PRESS SPECIAL WRITER
Hollywood could easily transform this story into a made-for-TV movie.
Fifty years ago this week, the Red Wings, led by Gordie Howe, Ted Lindsay and Terry Sawchuk, played the worst team they would ever face -- a squad of convicted killers and armed robbers inside Marquette Prison.
The idea of a pros versus cons game originated the previous summer, when Wings general manager Jack Adams and Lindsay, the team captain, visited the prison yard during a Stroh Brewery sponsored trip to Marquette.
Former Purple Gang ringleaders (and Wing fans) Harry Keywell and Ray Bernstein, serving life sentences for murder in the "Collingwood Massacre," a triple homicide in 1931 inside a Detroit apartment building, approached Adams. They said to him: "Hey Jack, how about bringing the Red Wings up for a scrimmage?"
It was an offer he could have refused.
Knowing the prison didn't have a team or a rink, Adams offhandedly accepted the invitation. Prison warden Emery Jacques quickly added, "Any time at all, Jack." Jacques later privately admitted to committing the cardinal sin of "letting his mouth write a check that his ass couldn't check."
But within weeks, Jacques hired 27-year-old Leonard (Oakie) Brumm -- a member of the 1948 University of Michigan NCAA championship hockey team -- as the first athletic director for the "Alcatraz of the North."
In addition to establishing numerous recreational activities as an outlet to help quell prison disturbances, Brumm constructed a regulation-size rink with boards and trained selected inmates to play hockey with equipment donated by Adams that once belonged to the Omaha Knights, a defunct Wings farm team. The semi-pro Marquette Sentinels agreed to finance the Wings' trip to the prison in exchange for an exhibition against them after they played the inmates.
Adams kept his promise.
On Feb. 2, 1954, the crusty GM and coach Tommy Ivan led the Wings through a security check before heading out to the prison yard among the cheers of 600 inmates.
"It was 21 degrees, overcast, no wind, and perfect for outdoor hockey," recalls Brumm, 77, who now lives in Racine, Wis.
"I had 15 guys working on the ice all night with toothbrushes to make it perfect," says Brumm, a retired construction project manager who now publishes the Wisconsin Hockey News, and manages the Kenosha, Wis., ice rink.
The Wings poured it on, to the delight of the toughest crowd ever to watch a hockey game (the entire prison population attended, except for those in solitary).
Mr. Hockey remembers it well.
"I deked around their goaltender, put it in the far side and their defenseman was laughing," Gordie Howe says. "The goalie says to him, 'I'll kill you, you (expletive).' The other guy was so damn good-natured and I told him, 'It bothers me that you're in here.' He says, 'The worst thing I did was run. I was just cleaning my fingernails with my knife when this guy runs around the corner and ran into it five times.' "
Brumm played defense, and was immediately impressed by the Wings.
"They let us take the puck down the ice, spread us out, then they took it away, bing, bing, bing, three passes and a goal," Brumm says. "They were scoring a goal a minute and could have done it quicker if I had pulled the puck out of the net faster. When it was 18-0 Wings at the end of the first period, the scorekeeper quit keeping score."
By the second period, the teams split up and some Wings put on the prisoners' green jerseys. For the third period, the Wings played an intrasquad game, much to the delight of the howling inmates who regularly listened to Red Wings broadcasts.
Lindsay, a prison favorite because of his penalty minutes, recalls the game fondly.
"It was a wonderful experience for all of us on the team, and I know it was for them.
"But I didn't want to get any of those guys mad at me," Lindsay says, laughing. "It was great fun."
Just off the ski slopes near his Montana home, Marty Pavelich remembers a particularly awkward moment.
"I was skating down the ice and I hear this prisoner in the crowd calling my name. I thought to myself, 'Who would I know here?' It turned out it was my mailman from Sault Ste. Marie where I grew up! I guess he got into a little trouble back home.
"The inmates were just regular folks, cheering and hollering for all it was worth," Pavelich says.
Following the game, each Red Wing received a hand-tooled wallet with his name and team logo etched in leather, gifts made by the prisoners. That evening the Wings defeated the Marquette Sentinels in the city arena before returning to Detroit on a chartered flight.
Just 10 weeks later, the Red Wings were crowned Stanley Cup champions after defeating Montreal.
And nobody cheered louder than the inmates in Marquette.
Deb
***As an aside to this my hubby was drafted FIRST to the hockey team at Deerfield today. They had tryouts last night.... He has always played and I'm really glad he gets to continue something so positive that he loves while he's in there.... I'm also proud that he was drafted first... I wish more of the facilities realized how important stuff like this is to the guys...