Haven't posted in a while. Am probably going to start to run out of jerseys to post unless I include some jerseys I don't have. If you don't already have your own blog, feel free to email me with some of your DIY or favourite personal hockey jersey and some info and I'll probably post it all here. Maybe I should start posting some of my wife's crafts or some other stuff.
Usually wear one of a pair of a set of green jerseys at hockey at whatever day is closest to St. Patrick's Day. The green one is a practice jersey. I found the logo online, like it, and decided to made it out of twill and sewed it onto a blank green jersey. The white one I later found on Ebay. Wore them both this past Thursday at hockey.
Also picked up this booklet off Ebay on the San Francisco Shamrocks of the PHL league of the 1970s.
When I am out and about on St. Patrick's Day usually wear my cable knit sweater along with my green Irish hat and if wearing a belt this belt buckle; the hat and sweater probably need a good cleaning. I have some Irish heritage on my mother's (Baxter is her maiden name) side. Apparently generations ago those ancestors lived around Cork in Ireland.
Yesterday was St. Urho's Day. http://www.sainturho.com/ . The Thunder Bay links are ones I sent to this website, and the button is one I found at a local thrift shop.
I guess that's all for today. Going to have supper soon and maybe do some work on a DIY white, maroon and gold squirrel hockey jersey. Will post some pics when further along with it.
After leaving the beer leagues, went back to playing 'scrub' aka 'pickup' hockey. My dad put together hockey that ended up being on Tuesday & Thursday afternoons at the Fort William First Nation Arena. We usual play at the larger Rink#1 but due to tournaments and other events sometime play on Rink#2. With him being away in Arizona almost half the year, I eventually ended up being the one running it most of the time. It's an older group consisting of players mainly in their 50s and 60s with some in their 40s and 70s and one player in his 80s with a varying degrees of speed, skill, and hockey sense.
The most recent pics I have at the moment are from 2012. Here's a team pic.
Here's a few "action" shots from around the same time.
Quite a while back I bought a number kit in the Tiffany font style for cheap. Decided to copy the numbers and stick them on one jersey of mine and put part of the bought kit on another jersey.
The first jersey was a purple and grey jersey. Sewed a Reading Royals of the ECHL crest on it. Photocopied my bought number kit and used it to make a template to make the numbers in silver and black.
Wanted a "matching" white jersey to wear on the ice. My Baltimore
Bandits replica fit the bill. The Bandits played in the AHL in the mid-nineties for 2 seasons. Used some of the font kit and made some
more numbers with the following results.
Not even close to the style of numbers Baltimore used in the AHL but in my opinion seems to work well
Not a very long post today so I'll add a couples quotes pulled from a book in the Guardians of the Flame series by Joel Rosenberg I just finished reading. Quotes from the character Walter Slovotsky; not part of "Slovotsky's Laws". Many of those can be found here: http://sneakysquirrelblog.blogspot.ca/2010/12/slovotskys-laws.html
"It's a sin to let good food go to waste, and I like to pick my sins carefully"
"The time before dawn is when I like to start staggering toward a bed to sleep in, not staggering out of it."
Planning to go off to the last Lakehead Thunderwolves home game of the regular season in a couple hours; after last night they are now tied for 3rd in their division with Guelph.
[* Edit - They won 9-3; they were up 8-0 after 2 periods. Had seats to the left of Lakehead's goalie. Frequently saw the mascot Wolfie nearby as there was a kid's birthday party a couple rows in front of me. Here's a pic of the Waterloo Warriors goalie that played tonight. Their jersey pattern is somewhat similar to your Ryan Connelly's original Invaders jersey (though not as nearly as nice - no real logo, black instead of brown, and oddly an added number on the top of the chest when there are already sleeve numbers). At the game noticed the Warrior's goalie has a Warrior brand stick; by coincidence or design stick almost the team's name]
Finally on this Groundhog day while walking back to the
car in the cold after the game was done, still suffering from my cold or
bad allergies or whatever I have, this quote from the movie Groundhog Day came to mind and seemed appropriate at the time: "I'll give you a winter prediction: It's gonna be cold, it's gonna be grey, and it's gonna last you for the rest of your life."
In old SIJHL news the Duluth Clydesdales folded a couple weeks ago and the league is now down to five teams. They finished with a record slightly worse than my beer league Polar Mechanical Flyers did their last season (2-32-2 vs 2-26-2). http://tbnewswatch.com/sports/259992/SIJHL-revokes-Clydesdales-franchise
After the loss of a few regulars and no one else wanting to keep the team going the Bandits folded. For the next season, 2004/05, I played for Peter Plummer's B-division team: Buzzy's (after Buzzy's Jerzee City) Wild. We had jerseys in the Mighty Ducks style but with a screened crest, that was sewn on, of the Minnesota Wild's logo but in the Ducks colour scheme.
The team he was also running on the A-Side was the Wolves. They had acquired a team set that the Fort William Wolves had used when they were in the SIJHL (the team had changed names to the North Stars). The jerseys for that team were in the Islanders 'fish stick' style with the odd shaped numbers but with a front crest of a Wolf's head.
The following season, 2005/06, I spared for the 'Make Be Leafs'. I used a blue and a white Nordiques jersey when playing for that team. I later acquired a team jersey at a local thrift store.
After the Leafs, I ended up the next two seasons on the Polar Mechanical (previously Galaxy) Flyers. Many of the team had the Galaxy orange jerseys. Others had different orange jerseys. I made up a few jerseys for myself and sold a couple to some newer players. I am beside the goalie in the picture wearing a jersey with a yellow bi-plane in a circle with the Polar Mechanical logo beneath.
I sewed a Philadephia flyers crest on a jersey and made and sewed on #3's. Plus I made a Polar mechanical logo on one jersey similar to Philadephia's logo by turning the 'P' in Polar Mechanical's logo sideways and adding a 'M'.
My dad or wife recorded a few clips of a game. Maybe on his video camera; more likely on a digital camera they had at the time (considering how short the clips are).
After the 2007/08 season with the team ending with a 2-26-2 record and
0-4 in the playoffs the players decided to not play in the league past the end of that season. With
the team having the oldest average age of players, the loosening of
age restrictions in the league, and the league dropping from two division down to one,
it really wasn't as much fun for the team anymore. I looked into the team joining the 35+ age Centennial League but their 4 team league did not want to expand. I played with the Flyers
in 2008/09 on 'scrub' aka 'pickup' hockey where the Flyers team played
against a Hansford Insurance team Thursday nights. I think they still
are doing so.
After 2009 due to regularly working nights, I was unable to join a league team even if I had wanted to. Even though I was one of the younger guys on the Flyers, I was probably well above the average age in the league now and not exactly anywhere near in top shape anyway.
Was putting off posting 'Beer League - Part II' as I was looking through my old papers for information as accurate as I could get, plus I was going to dig through some photos. Today only posting my years on the Bandits team.
I think I started playing in the Thunder Bay NBC League in 2001/02 but it may have been 2002/03. In any case the first team I played for was the Bandits. When I started there was 2 divisions - A and B. I played in the B. The Bandits were originally the Superior Drilling & Blasting Bandits. When they were ordering jerseys I got the #1 - wanted one that was XXL since that would just fit over my goalie stuff at that time when they needed a last minute goalie but only got a XL and only wore it as a defenceman. For the 2003 playoffs they made 3 groups out of the two divisions (top of the A, bottom of the A with top of the B, bottom teams in the B) . We ended up 'winning' the C division title (bottom 4 teams of the B vision in playoffs).
Somewhere along the line, I got stuck running the team. Started off with me filling in for a league meeting. Ending up with me filling in for the team rep part of one season when he was away and then fully running the team for our final season in 2003/04. We had a partial sponsor that and the previous year; the Adanac hotel along with their larger bar has a smaller bar on the Simpson Street side called the Polynesian Room. Only I could get a handful of players usually to go there after a game. They usually gave us popcorn, hot dogs or some small snack.
I made jerseys for the team that year; was going to sell them to each player but there was mixed interest in that so I ended up selling the whole lot of them as a team set after the team folded. The blank green jerseys were bought at a clearance sale at local sports memorabilia store with the added bonus of no one needing a 2nd jersey since none of the other teams in the league were green. Slightly modified a font called Maverick for the team name on front and the number on back. Black mesh material was used to enlarge a couple larger player's jerseys plus the goalie's; the mesh material was also used on the front name area. White tackle twill was used for the team name and the numbers on back. I had no clue how much work doing a team set in this style would be.
Here's the front of my jersey. Only time I'd have a 'C' in any league; probably the only 'bonus' of running the team. At first had put the 'C' closer to the arm than it should have been; moved it to the location it is in the photo. #8 is on the back.
Player's wanted their stats kept for the year I was running it. Compiled them through the copies of the game sheets I was given. If you are interested my stats for the regular season of 30 games they are 1G, 5A, 4PM. That season all the teams played each other until the Xmas break; the top 6 teams at that point became the A division and the bottom 7 the B division. The B division contained Galaxy (Flyers), (Sportop) Goats, Ducks, Bandits, Kings, Billies, Bees. Before the B side split we were 4-8; after the split 10-5-3. They must have divided it into 3 divisions for the playoffs that year since I have us getting pummeled two games in a best of 3 by an A division team called the Redmen.
Here is a Manitoba Moose jersey I once had. It was either sold, traded or given away. I remember having some item from the Moose back when they were in Minnesota (jersey or some other item?); like my much of my memory, it is also long gone. The Minnesota Moose and Manitoba Moose were located about the same distance from where I am. Never saw either of them play though the Manitoba Moose did play some pre-season games for a couple years locally at Fort William Gardens.
In the past couple years I have acquired a few Manitoba Moose items. With the NHL coming back to Winnipeg, the Moose ending up heading to St. John's Newfoundland and changing their name. They wanted to change the name due to the large number of vehicle accidents involving moose (not originally native - were imported) in the province. I won't comment on the new name other than say the team's name is the same as a large donut store's specialty beverage that is heavily advertised in the summer.
With the Moose moving and changing names some of the team's items showed up at my local 'Play it Again'. New hockey bags, pants, and new and used hockey gloves were for sale (some gloves and some pants are still left). My brother bought the bag for me for Christmas a little over a year ago; it is large enough to fit my goalie gear. The Manitoba Moose logo is embroidered on the side of the bag. There are two inner pockets for skates.
I very recently picked up a clear green moose mug at a thrift store, and got a pant shell off Ebay. Have worn the shell once and it fits pretty well over my hockey pants.
In the picture of the hockey bag, if you look closely at the top of the bag, you will see a clear envelope area with a tag inside. The tag there didn't come with the bag. With help from the fonts in the forum of the Chris Creamer Sportslogos site, and a Moose logo pulled off somewhere on the internet, plus the laminating services of a local office supply store, I created this:
Made two of the tags. Ended up cutting down the 2nd one a bit to fit into the window of one my other hockey bags.
Had some smaller self laminating sheets for business cards that either got at clearance at a office supply store or at a dollar store. Decided to make a few of the bag tags in favouite teams of some people I play hockey with. For privacy reasons I blacked out the phone numbers in the images of the cards.
[Edit - March 2013 - acquired a Manitoba Moose jersey at the local Value Village.]
Continuing on with the regional hockey jerseys (sort of), I picked up a Northern Ontario Hockey Association jersey at a thrift store. Had never heard of it the NOHA before so looked them up; apparently they operate in the Northeastern Ontario Region.
Everything is screened or heat pressed on. Can't really see the shoulder logos in the front & back pic, so here's a pic of the shoulders.
Kind of liked the NOHA logo when I saw it; it reminded me a bit of the Trail Smoke Eaters logo (they won the World Championship in 1961 for Canada among other things).
A week later saw a coffee mug with the NOHA logo at the same thrift store so I bought that too.
