Michigan Wolverines Hockey

[Rob F]

S W E E P !!! S W E E T !!!

Final score: M I C H I G A N 4 - ohio 1

[madootra]

YES!

[Rob F]

You rarely see kids just outside playing anymore......it is a shame. I'm glad I grew up when I did.

Me, too, Madman! Just wish my body could still hold up to the "pushing the limits" that I/we did as kids, but I know one thing----I wouldn't trade my childhood and all those "dangerous" outdoor things I did for anything!

[Paul L]

Go Blue!!

[Rob F]

Back to Michigan Hockey, though---we've now climbed back into the thick of the CCHA race, with the 6 points we gained in the standings as a result of the 2-game weekend sweep of ohio, we're now just 4 points behind ohio and 3 points behind 2nd-place WMU. Next weekend is in South Bend vs. the Irish at their new rink, I'm so excited about Michigan Hockey right now that I think I'll see what's out there on the secondary ticket market, I suppose stubhub would be a good starting point, with Craig's list another place to maybe find a ticket. ND is just a 40-minute drive from here, so I have no excuses not to be there!

[hodgkal]

"I grew up near Rouge Park in Detroit, and they had several outdoor rinks, and I spent countless hours skatingf there. I played in House Leagues, and t
hen some travel, but I always loved the outdoor ice best."

Interesting. I too grew up near Rouge Park and played a lot of sandlot hockey. This was in the 1940s!! When I was around 12 years old I started flooding our Detroit back yard and we had pickup hockey games throughout the winter. I brought this "talent" to Kalamazoo when we moved here in the 1960s and had many back yard rinks. BUT -- in those days you could count on 10 above zero by Dec. 10th, the date I started flooding, and we would be skating before Christmas.

Not any more. It hardly gets to 10 above all winter long here these days.

[Optimus Prime]

Every outdoor rink that I ever built in Michigan, failed for the reasons outlined above.

Conversely, every outdoor rink that I built in Canada thrived, you could begin flooding in early November and the ice would hold until early April. I was always fortunate while living in Canada to live a block or two away from the local community outdoor rink.

We used to play 10 hours per day EVERY weekend as children, in fact we would simply put skategaurds on, walk home to enjoy a bowl of hot soup and a sandwich then head back until nightfall. Eventually my mother allowed us to stay late when as older children as most rinks had outdoor lighting too. We played outdoor pickup (Shinny Hockey) as known in Canada, all the time.

As a teenager, I landed a job as a "RinkRat" while in high school at cleaning locker rooms and mechanically resurfacing the ice via Zamboni. Ultimately my friends and I would skate off hours 11:30 pm to 4 am weekends, 8-10 guys, 200 feet of indoor, free ice, AMAZING.

[madootra]

Yeah.....the ice in the UP is far superior to any we had as a kid in Detroit.

hodgkal.....where did you live in Detroit? My parents bought in the late 40's, just off of West Chicago, near Evergreen. Stout St. I grew up in the 60's.....

[hodgkal]

"hodgkal.....where did you live in Detroit?"

I grew up in NW Detroit near Grand River and Southfield. It was very common in those years for winter temperatures to linger for long periods below zero. In the early 1960s we lived in Cleveland and I remember a winter that hit minus 19.

When we moved to SW Michigan this trend continued well into the 1980s. Hence my success with more skating rinks. There was one winter in the early 1980s when 24 hour temperatures remained below freezing for 31 days. That year Lake Michigan froze over. In 1992 we hit minus 18 in Kalamazoo. That was the year Mt. Pinatubo erupted in the Phillippines and the ash lowered global temperatures for 18 months. But since then the warming trend has been unmistakable.

This last winter we had a single morning when the temp briefly hit minus 4. The year before that the low point for the winter was plus 1. So far half way through this winter the low has been plus 11.

Hockey has moved indoors so it doesn't matter. Having these outdoor games in big stadiums may be iffy if present trends continue.

[UMStan White]

Doc, my ex grew up on Woodmont,

[hodgkal]

Interesting. I bet I peddled papers to her house. I delivered the morning Free Press for almost 6 years through elementary and high school. Woodmont was on my route. I grew up on Rutland, 3 streets over.

[lineygoblue]

old farts ...

[Rob F]

old farts ...

takes one to know one...or in this case, several

:-)

[lineygoblue]

Watch it, bud. You're not a whole lot younger than me ...

[madootra]

Doc, did you attend Redford High?