Red Wings Rock... Then & Now
By Mike McCarty
By the time you read this, the flawless Detroit Red Wings mostly likely are celebrating another Stanley Cup. Sidney Crosby and the rest of the Pittsburgh Penguins were thoroughly frustrated at the stifling defense and timely offense orchestrated by Hank, Pavel, Homer, Lidstrom, Mule, Kronwall and, of course, Ozzie. Early in the Cup finals, the NHL honored several stars of the Wings' awesome team of the early '50s ... the one that won four Stanley Cups. Gordie Howe, Ted Lindsay, Marty Pavelich, Marcel Pronovost and Alex Delvecchio -- who are now in their late 70s and early 80s -- were honored. | 
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Well, most of these greats went on to star in the 1960s, and I was fortunate to see them at the old Olympia Stadium. Hearing those names reminded of old time hockey, when I......
 Waited outside the Red Wings locker room to get autographs from the players when they emerged. Nobody charged a fee. And Gordie Howe would shake his arthritic wrist every so often and keep on signing. 
| Went to Red Wings practices. Sitting in front of some Chicago Black Hawks who were in street clothes, watching the Wings practice.
Went to a house on a sidestreet off Plymouth Road, near the Atlas Theater. I watched my friend Ken Chalk knock on the door and ask Doug Barkley if he wanted to buy a subscription to the Detroit News. He said "no" but invited us in, where we met Eddie Joyal and Irv Spencer. One of them was doing dinner dishes at the time. |
I can still see a Sunday Detroit newspaper magazine cover headlined "Terry and the Pirates" with a photo of Sawchuck flanked by his defensemen.
In the 1970s, I interviewed for a public relations job with the Red Wings. I went to the Olympia Stadium and talked with PR Director John Bell. Later, I got an interview with Alex Delvecchio, who was the general manager at the time. Things looked like they going well, and they seemed to like the mock press booklet I made. But I didn't hear back for a few weeks and then came the purge of executives. I didn't get the job but I did get a face-to-face with Delvecchio. Cool! The old Olympia was deafening when the crowd roared. From lower bowl to balcony, the seats rose nearly vertically instead of sloped back. When any Red Wings scores -- Norm Ullman, Gordie Howe, Parker MackDonald, Floyd Smith, you name it -- the place was electric. Same way with a fight.
This is a second-hand story. Bill Schmidt's friend, Tim Ringer, had a sister who baby sat for Mr. and Mrs. Gadsby's children. Turns out the Red Wings were playing the Rangers on the new station in town, Channel 50, and Mrs. Gadsby recruited Ringer's sister to watch the little ones. The Gadsbys didn't get Channel 50, so she went to somebody else's house to see her husband Bill play in Madison Square Garden. | 
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Listening to Bud Lynch and Bruce Martyn call Red Wings games on the radio. Watching Channel 50 and Channel 9 (Hockey Night in Canada). |
