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Sporting legends pass on stories, advice

Three former sporting greats shared stories from their varied experiences in the world of professional sport, and passed on words of advice for the crowd, and for the players on the Weyburn Red Wings, at the Red Wings annual Sports Dinner.
Sports dinner

Three former sporting greats shared stories from their varied experiences in the world of professional sport, and passed on words of advice for the crowd, and for the players on the Weyburn Red Wings, at the Red Wings annual Sports Dinner.

Former Rider and TSN sports analyst Glen Suitor, former NHLer Jeff Odgers and former NHL referee Don Koharski shared the stage for the event, held on Saturday evening at the Cugnet Centre. The fundraiser also had a 50-50 that hit over $2,000, and a large variety of sports memorabilia for both live and silent auctions, all to raise funds for the Red Wings hockey club.

Koharski, or “Koho” as many called him, began in the WHA as a linesman, and after working for 163 games, “I got tired of chasing the puck for the referees, so I decided to give refereeing a try.”

He worked a total of 1,882 games, including 276 games in the playoffs, and 23 were deciding games, many of them seventh games of hard-fought playoff series, he told the large crowd. “I’m pretty proud of that. You have to work hard to do game 7s,” he added.

The feisty former ref talked some about the infamous “doughnut” controversy that embroiled him with Jim Schoenfeld, coach of the New Jersey Devils, where Schoenfeld allegedly told him to “have another doughnut” after the ref fell.

“People asked if I really got pushed or slipped, and I’ve said there’s only two people who know the whole truth, myself and my wife. I know when I hit the wall, I hurt my shoulder,” said Koharski, adding he’s over the incident, and considers Schoenfeld as a friend and a “great guy” today.

He related how soon afterward, when he reffed a game in the old Boston Garden, the ledge under the glass all the way around the rink was lined with Dunkin’ Donuts boxes.

Koharski passed on some words of advice, which he aimed at the Red Wings players sitting at their own table, by relating a story where his boss, Brian Lewis, asked to speak to him alone. Meeting outside of his house in Burlington, Ont., Lewis drew a beer bottle on a piece of paper, and holding it up he told Koharski, “You’re a good referee, but I’m concerned about your family and your career.”

“I took it to heart,” said the former referee, pointing he was what was then called a “happy drunk”. Taking his boss’s advice, he put away alcohol for 14 years, and admonished the Red Wings players to be responsible, not to feel they’re entitled, and to be good role models for the kids in the community.

Odgers played over 800 games in the NHL, including serving as the captain of the San Jose Sharks, before going on to be assistant captain in Boston, and playing for the Colorado Avalanche and the Atlanta Thrashers, compiling 2,364 penalty minutes in his career and scoring 75 goals with 70 assists.

He was passed over in the NHL draft, but attended a training camp for the Minnesota North Stars, and while not being chosen to play for that team, he was called by the San Jose Sharks a year before they entered the league as an expansion franchise.

Odgers noted that some guys would have bought a car with their signing money, but as a farm boy from Spy Hill, Sask., he went out and bought 43 Hereford heifers with his money.

He related some of his memorable moments as an enforcer, such as one fight with tough guy Marty McSorley that had the team doctor wondering if he needed to have surgery to straighten his nose out, and listed players like John Kordic and Doug Probert as some of the toughest fighters he faced.

“I played in the league at the best time there ever was, with guys like Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Brett Hull, Joe Sakic and Ray Bourque. We played in all the old buildings, like the Boston Gardens and the Montreal Forum. It was just a dream come true, and I appreciate it all the more now,” said Odgers, adding, “It’s impossible to work too hard, and it’s impossible to be too good of a team-mate.”

Suitor, who has been a broadcaster with TSN for 22 years now, shared a story about one of the most memorable moments in Riders history, the Dave Ridgway kick to win the 1989 Grey Cup.

“It was one the best games in CFL history. To this day, I have people telling me where they were when that ball went through the uprights with three seconds in the game,” said Suitor, who noted he was the ball holder for Ridgway.

As the ball holder, he had to prepare every game with him. “I was not only his holder but his psychologist,” he said, noting part of that preparation was to distract him with a story that had nothing to do with football.

For that game, a distraction was a “well-endowed” young lady sitting behind the Hamilton bench, and Suitor pointed her out during the last time-out of the game.

Ridgway laughed, and he went on to make the famous kick that gave the Riders a long-awaited Grey Cup championship.

After the game, one of the Hamilton players came to find him and Ridgway in their dressing room, and told them “that wasn’t cool” to be pointing at their bench and laughing. Suitor replied that they weren’t pointing at the Hamilton bench but a woman in the crowd behind them, and the player understood, joking that “I think that’s why we lost!”

Recalling Odgers’ feelings about playing in the NHL, Suitor said even though his was a different sport, the feelings about playing the game he loved were the same.

“I had the same feeling. When I saw Taylor Field, I said to myself, if I could play just one game on this field — that turned into 194 games and 11 years. Self-doubt is a part of everybody’s journey, where you think, I’m not sure if I’m good enough. Don’t cut yourself, move forward. It’s amazing to me how in different sports the feelings are so similar in how you approach it. There will be times when you’re not sure.”