The Rookies

In 1994, one of the greatest upsets in sporting history occurred on U.S. soil. It was then that a ragtag group of kids from the Minnesota suburbs joined up with a collection of “talent” from around the country to participate in the Junior Goodwill Games. There they somehow managed to defeat a loaded Iceland team that saw seven (!) players make it to the NHL.

That was fifteen years ago. Unbelievable.

The first installment catches up with Averman and Luis Mendoza. But first, it locates coach and mentor Gordon Bombay.

Gordon Bombay

"GOR-DON BOM-BAY!"

I stood in the humid summer day as other Minnesotans milled about Nicollet Mall waiting for Bombay to arrive. I immediately regretted dressing up in a collared shirt and pants. As a blogger it was hard enough getting an interview with the man and I refused to play into such stereotypes. Not that the sweat marks under my arms were going to lend me any credibility.

Finally, after waiting around for about an hour I started to hear shouts of “Hey Gordon” and “Coach, how’re ya doing?” Sure enough there was Coach Bombay cane in hand, hobbled by an old hockey injury, still as big a local celebrity as he ever was. His hair was a little grayer, but he looked the same as he did on the Wheaties box over fifteen years ago.

“I can’t believe they made a statue of her,” Bombay smiled as he gestured to the bronze replica of former lowly television producer Mary Richards.

Made it?

The man standing in front of me had pioneered the no defenseman “winger swarm” style of hockey that swept through the United States, in less than a year, as a result of his stellar leadership as Director of Player Personnel for the Junior Goodwill Games. He put Minnesota Peewee hockey on the map and the city had decided to glorify a working stiff in Miss Richards like this was Soviet Russia. I can’t say I disagreed with the sentiment.

Unlike many of the other members of the Ducks, Bombay seemed wary of a face-to-face at-home interview. The fact that he needed the use of a cane made his Aaron Sorkin-style repartee all the more strange, but once the conversation started his answers flowed more freely than I was expecting. He went into great detail discussing his work with the Junior Goodwill Games and the way youth hockey in the United States changed during his tenure there. It became apparent that, even years later, he was still battling with his decision to take that job, one that forced him to leave the Ducks.

The conversation naturally kept returning to the team for which Gordon is most well-known. He talked about how he still saw Charlie once a week and exchanged correspondence with Fulton as often as their schedules permitted, but that he only kept in sporadic touch with the rest of the group.

As I probed further into his early time with the team, he began to speak more rapidly and with an excited and tender tone, calling it “The greatest thing I ever did.” We both laughed as he regaled me with stories of the time he tried to get the Ducks to fake injuries in order to draw penalties or when he quacked at his boss, Gerald Ducksworth, partner in the prestigious law firm of Ducksworth, Saver and Gross, after he was fired. The only time the words stopped flowing was when I brought up his stint as a minor league hockey coach.

In 1997 the Baltimore Bandits, the American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate of the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, were in financial trouble. They needed to move and re-brand and they saw the perfect opportunity when Coach Bombay stepped down from his role with the Junior Goodwill Games. After setting up shop in Cincinnati and changing their name to the Mighty Ducks, they offered Gordon a lucrative contract, more than any AHL coach had ever made, and he was unable to say no.

There was much criticism amongst hockey insiders that he would not be able to handle older players and that the tactics he so deftly utilized in Peewee hockey would never work at such a high level. However, even those that condemned the move from a hockey standpoint could find no means to attack the decision on financial grounds. Cincinnati sold more season tickets in the first week of sales than they had in Baltimore the previous three seasons combined.

The first game went as well as anyone could have expected. The players seemed to warm to Gordon, even humored him with an enthusiastic quacking in the team huddle before the game, and the opposition was powerless to stop the swarming offensive and defensive attacks. The game was in-hand halfway through the third period when Coach Bombay pulled out one of his old tricks: The Flying V. Although it did not lead to a goal, the fans responded with uproarious applause, the visiting team with a five minute major for slashing. As some of you may remember, the victory provided the season’s only highlight.

The initial win became a distant memory as the team dove into last place winning only one of their next ten games. The players became restless with the ineffective style of play and began to complain that it was hindering their abilities to make the pro-team. At one point, in similar fashion to what the Ducks famously did, the entire Cincinnati team walked out on him, causing a forfeit. This time no amount of quacking could repair the growing rift. Bombay resigned as Head Coach before the season ended amid rumors that his drinking problem had returned.

A decade later he is unable to talk about this dark time in his life. He tries feebly to argue that the players didn’t buy into the system and management was riding him as ticket sales plummeted, but even he doesn’t believe that. Soon afterward he moved back to Minneapolis where he was still a local celebrity and where he feels most comfortable.

He finds his current work as an “overpaid advice-giver” rewarding and tries to take some time out to give motivational speeches at area schools. He never married and playfully brushed aside my repeated suggestions that he try to rekindle his one-time romance with Charlie’s mom.

Before I knew it we were back at the statue of Mary Richards; he had a meeting to get to. We shook hands and began to part ways when, cane and all, he spun on a dime and indulged me in one final bit of Mighty Ducks geekery.

“Who are you?”

“Chuck Knoblockhead.”

“From where?”

“Saint Paul, Minnesota.”

“And I’m Gordon Bombay. Minneapolis, Minnesota.”

He smiled, turned and walked off.

Lester Averman

"A-ver-MAN!"

As many of you know, and the rest of you can surely guess from his wicked sense of humor and otherworldly comedic timing, Lester Averman has become an enormous success as a writer for both television and film.

He began his professional writing career, as far as I can tell, when he wrote for ABC’s Dharma and Greg from 2001 to 2002 where he was universally praised for bringing his trademark cutting edge style of humor to the sitcom world. The uncertainty of when he exactly started working comes as a result of some of his earlier work possibly being attributed to a “Dave Averman.”

After Dharma and Greg ended its five-year run he moved on to co-write two seasons of Everybody Loves Raymond —in 2003, an episode he wrote, entitled “Baggage”, made him the youngest recipient of a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series—before co-creating Two and a Half Men with Lee Aronsohn in 2003. He has also dabbled in film although initially without success. His first two films, Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2 (2004) and Son of the Mask (2005) both paled in comparison to their predecessors and were financial flops.

Finally, in 2006 he broke through with his hit comedy, Night at the Museum. Not one to shy away from sequels, he also co-wrote the recently released Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian. Unfortunately due to his hectic work schedule he was unable to find time for an interview. No doubt he is working on Night at the Museum 3, rumored to be set at the Louvre. I am of the opinion that the third movie is usually by far the worst.

Luis Mendoza

Slow down, Luis.

Luis Mendoza was not only a star on the ice. He starred on the track as well. His junior and senior years at Eden Hall Academy he won the 100 meter dash at the Minnesota State High School League Track and Field Championships, shattering his own state record on each occasion.

After high school he was offered scholarships for both hockey and track but decided to eschew the University of Minnesota-Duluth in favor of the Florida State track team. There he would thrive, winning three NCAA titles in the 100 meter dash, and helping the Seminoles to their highest-ever finish at the national competition. Unfortunately a hamstring injury cost him the chance at the 2004 Olympic Games.

His running career over, he started a multi-sport speed training company, More Speed Than You Need, which has helped athletes as diverse as Frank Gore, Hanley Ramirez and Marian Gaborik. Sadly, last October he was killed in an automobile accident when an SUV sideswiped him after he failed to stop at a red light.