Keeping stats for a hockey team may not seem like much of a glamor job, but it has its perks. For instance, being in the Giant Center press box when Mr. Hockey, Gordie Howe, makes an unexpected visit. That’s precisely what happened for Hershey Bears’ stats helper Jess Mikula late last month, one Sunday evening before the Bears hosted the Norfolk Admirals. Her chronicle of the special moment, on John Walton Hockey, reveals Mikula to be well steeped in hockey history, and a deft interviewer of hockey royalty in most impulsive fashion.
The story goes like this: Gordie’s son Mark is a scout for the Detroit Red Wings, and resides in New Jersey, and so it’s not all that uncommon for the younger Howe to make upwards of a dozen appearances at Giant Center over the course of a season. On this particular Sunday, December 27, smack in the middle of the holidays, Howe had a scouting assignment, and with the Howe family gathered for the holiday season, the elder Howe thought, ‘Heck, why not take in a hockey game with my boy.’ Or something like that.
The Bears’ faceoff with the Admirals was set for 5:00, and the hosts didn’t learn of the royal visit until early that afternoon. Mikula was tipped off to it by Bears’ radio play-by-play voice John Walton.
“I made it my mission to be the first staffer upstairs to greet him,” she said, adding, “I escorted father and son to the television broadcast booth of the press box, which afforded them greater privacy. It also just so happens to be where I work. That gave me the first crack at interviewing Mr. Hockey, before other media.”
This is a hockey statistician with serious smarts!
Mikula got a full seven to eight minutes of one-on-one interview time with one of sports’ most famous performers of all time, she estimates. Eventually the Hershey hockey press got their turn with the legend, but Mikula, I think, made the most with the special visit.
“It was a very natural chat because he’s very engaging, warm and personable,” she recalled. “He responded to each and every question with what I thought was great thoughtfulness, and he treated me, it seemed, just like I was a member of the media.”
“His mind was sharp — all of his accounts were recalled, it seemed, like they took place just yesterday,” she said.
And indeed Mikula got some terrific quotes from no. 9.
“I’m a born disturber,” he told her at their introduction. Asked if this was his first visit to the relatively new Giant Center, Mr. Hockey was unsure, noting “I’ve been hit in the head a few times.” My favorite quote from this special encounter accompanied Mikula’s question about hockey’s meaning in Hall of Famer’s life.
“I was happy with every bit [of hockey] as long as I had that sweater on my back . . . I just wanted to play.”
While Mikula was impressed with Howe’s warmth and thoughtful replies she also was struck by his physical stature.
“He’s in awesome shape for being in his eighties,” she noted. “I still think he could put on a pair of skates and impress people.”
Some three weeks after this remarkably special visit Mikula would escort more hockey royalty to the Giant Center television booth before a Bears’ game. What was the bigger thrill, I asked Jess, meeting Mr. Hockey or Mr. Hockey Blogger? She gave me the answer I expected, but still I bought her a few post-game beers so I could vicariously experience her thrill of a hockey lifetime.
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