Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Shoots and Scores (53 page)

THESE GUYS WORE THEIR HELMETS

It may surprise some, though, to learn that the bulk of Ecclestone's treasure-hunting involved hard research rather than going toe-totoe with smugglers and sharks. Hockey players, after all, are seldom known for their book-learning, though there are several other notable exceptions. Dave Shand (D, Atlanta/Toronto/Washington, 1976–1985) practices corporate law in Detroit, and while orchestrating
international bank deals often uses the fluent German he picked up while winding down his playing career in Austria. And Randy Gregg (D, Edmonton/Vancouver, 1981–1992) completed a residency in orthopedic surgery between winning the Stanley Cup in 1987 and competing for Canada in the 1988 Olympics, and after hanging up his skates for good established a successful practice in Edmonton.

THE POLITICAL GAME

But the best-known player-scholar must be Ken Dryden (G, Montreal, 1970–1979), who was known as an academic even in the midst of his NHL career—he sat out the 1973–74 season to practice law—and after retiring wrote the non-fiction bestsellers
The Game, Home Game, In School
and
The Moved and the Shaken
. In 2004, Dryden threw his face mask into the political ring and was elected Member of Parliament for York Center, at which time he was also named to the federal cabinet as Minister of Social Development. Along with his degrees in History from Cornell and Law from McGill, he's also been awarded honorary doctorates from the universities of Ottawa, Windsor, York, McMaster, St. Mary's, Niagara and UBC—enough post-NHL highlights for five or six guys!

MEEKER OF THE HOUSE

But we should not let Dryden overshadow the handful of other ex-players who have enjoyed political careers. Edgar Laprade (C, NY Rangers, 1945–1955) served 20 years as alderman in Thunder Bay, Ontario, and Fred Saskamoose (C, Chicago, 1953–54) was Band Chief of Saskatchewan's Sandy Lake Reserve from 1980 to 1987. Frank Mahovlich (LW, Toronto/Detroit/Montreal, 1956–1974) ran a Toronto travel agency before being named to the Canadian Senate by Prime Minister Jean Chrétien in 1998; at present Senator Mahovlich sits on the upper-house committee for Fisheries and Oceans as well as for Foreign Affairs. Mahovlich's former setup man and fellow Hall of Famer Red Kelly (D, Detroit/Toronto, 1947–1967) represented York South as a federal Liberal from 1962 to 1965, while performing double duty as one of the game's top defencemen. Well-known TV analyst Howie Meeker (RW, Toronto, 1946–54) also had a career in politics
while still playing professionally: He was a Member of Parliament for Waterloo South from 1951 to 1953—seasons in which he totalled only 31 points in 79 games for the Leafs.

DOUGHNUT ASK WHAT YOUR COUNTRY CAN DO FOR YOU

Perhaps the NHLer with the best-known off-ice career, Tim Horton (D, Toronto/NY Rangers/Pittsburgh/Buffalo, 1949–1974) was also exploring other arenas while still an active player—tragically, both careers ended simultaneously as he was killed driving home to Toronto after a game in Buffalo. In the early 1960s Horton had opened a string of hamburger restaurants in Ontario, but when these had proven unsuccessful he opened his first Tim Hortons store in Hamilton in 1964, simply serving coffee and doughnuts, including his own creations the dutchie and apple fritter. Initial success led him to open one store after another, and following Horton's death his business partner, retired policeman Ron Joyce, bought Horton's widow's share of the 40-outlet Tim Hortons chain for $1 million. Joyce has continued the expansion, and as of 2005 there are 260 outlets in the United States and 2,482 in Canada—1,364 in Ontario alone!

TRADING COLOMBIAN GOLD FOR JUST PLAIN GOLD

One last variation on the post-hockey career: Danièle Sauvageau, former coach of the Canadian women's national team, is now a motivational speaker and TV commentator. But
before
Sauvageau went to the 2002 Olympics she worked undercover in the narcotics division of the Montreal Urban Police, busting violent drug dealers and leading her squad to extricate from deep cover any officers whose lives she deemed were in jeopardy. The coach claimed to not be the least bit nervous prior to the much-hyped Salt Lake City tournament, and we can only speculate whether her team could have captured gold with such composure had Sauvageau managed a golf course in her other life.

A handful of NHL players who have opted for a good old-fashioned celebrity marriage.

T
HIS YEAR'S MODEL

New York Rangers all-star forward Ron Duguay met
Sports Illustrated
swimsuit model Kim Alexis at a photo shoot in New York City, and they married in 1992. They were
both
modeling on that first day, incidentally, which should come as no surprise to anyone who fondly remembers Duguay's magnificent head of hair and high-cheekboned good looks. In 2005, 16 years after his last NHL shift, Ron Duguay is firmly grounded in hockey, coaching the Jacksonville Barracudas to the championship of the Souther Professional Hockey League 2003–04. His wife has also distanced herself from her more superficial past, arguing against unrealistic diets, skimpy outfits and loose morals in her book
A Model for a Better Future
, as well as recording the exercise audio-tapes
Victory Chant, All Things Are Possible
, and
I Walk by Faith
.

THE PRIDE OF GOODSOIL

And in case you'd imagined that Alexis was unique in her role of model-turned-actress-turned-author-and-hockey wife, we turn our heads to look at Carol Alt. Appearing on the cover of the
Sports Illustrated
swimsuit issue in 1982, the next year she would—just like Kim Alexis would nine years later—marry a Rangers all-star who'd skated against the Canadiens in the 1979 finals. Ron Greschner, hailing from Goodsoil, Saskatchewan, and a down-to-earth guy if there ever was one, stands behind only Harry Howell, Rod Gilbert and Brian Leetch for most games played as a Ranger—982! The celebrity marriage proved too much for even his vaunted staying power, though, and in 1996 he and Alt parted ways; she was keen on furthering her acting career while he was ready to start a family. Greschner has since remarried, had “a few children,” and moved into the title insurance business in Florida.

RUSSIAN TO THE ALTAR

Alexei Yashin, then of the Ottawa Senators, was Carol Alt's second-round selection for marriage. They were introduced at the 1999 NHL Awards, where Alt was a presenter. He was 25 at the time, Alt 38. Alt said, “He's so sweet. He'll say, ‘Why do you wear your hair in your face like you're hiding?' He'll put it in a ponytail and say, ‘Good, now I can see your beautiful face.' When a guy says that to you, all of a sudden you don't feel 40 anymore.”

Similar gallantry, on or off the ice, might have kept Ottawa's front office equally enamoured with Yashin, but in 2001 he was traded to the New York Islanders. The couple married a year later, and in 2004 Alt published
Eating in the Raw: A Beginner's Guide to Getting Slimmer, Feeling Healthier, and Looking Younger the Raw-Food Way
. Despite her commitment to uncooked cuisine, Alt assured the Russian media that she would prepare pancakes and borscht for Yashin, while his mother defended her son and daughter-in-law's age difference by pointing out that, with 65 films and counting, Alt can thank hard work for everything she's gained in life.

HOCKEY WAS HIS FIRST LOVE—MR. HOCKEY

Rumors of runaway spending prior to the wedding of Wayne Gretzky and movie actress Janet Jones—predictions of a million-dollar ceremony were rampant—prompted Gretzky to retort to the media that Ms. Jones's dress did not cost $40,000, as they had reported, but merely had 40,000 sequins. Even so, the big day just oozed glitz. Millions of TV viewers watched as the Edmonton Symphony played the happy couple up the aisle, the pews of St. Joseph's Basilica filled with a who's-who of the NHL, and the reception that followed didn't lack for star power either. Those proceedings were overseen by Gretzky's best man, goaltender Eddie Mio, who asked all of the Great One's former girlfriends to please come forward and return their keys to his apartment. As the CBC reported, “People were laughing as Paul Coffey's mom and the very pregnant wife of one of Gretzky's teammates joined the procession.” When all but one of the keys had been returned, Mio pleaded for the last girlfriend to please make herself known, and at last Gordie Howe rose sheepishly to his feet.

CZECHMATES

In 2004, the same year that she graced the cover of the
Sports Illustrated
swimsuit issue, then-Oiler Petr Nedved married model Veronica Varekova in St. Vitus Cathedral, the centuries-old coronation site of Czech royalty. The couple then rode in a white Rolls-Royce to the Hergetova Cihelna restaurant, its floor strewn with rose petals, and after dinner strolled onto the balcony to watch a fireworks display, set off in their honor, burst over the river Vltava and the twelfth-century Charles Bridge. In fact, Nedved had gone down on one knee and proposed to Varekova on that same bridge one year before, when he'd still been playing for—which team? Yes, the New York Rangers.

RUSSIA: “A RIDDLE WRAPPED IN A MYSTERY INSIDE AN ENIGMA.”

Tennis sensation Anna Kournikova and Detroit Red Wings all-star forward Sergei Fedorov raised several million more eyebrows by beginning their relationship when she was 16 and he was 28, waving to the crowds together in the 1997 Stanley Cup parade. “People didn't realize we have parents,” Fedorov said recently. “She has parents, I have parents. Everything was normal as far as I'm concerned.” In 1999 Kournikova sported a diamond ring at Wimbledon, sparking rumors that she and Fedorov were engaged. By the next year, her tennis career had peaked with a number eight ranking—she never won a professional singles tournament—while her status as a sex symbol continued to ascend. She began to spend as much time at photo shoots as on the tennis court, and in 2002 was proclaimed “Sexiest Woman in the World” by
For Him
Magazine.

Fedorov's mother, meanwhile, claimed that her Sergei and the tennis star had been married in a Moscow registry office in 2001, while at the same time Kournikova appeared in a music video with Latin pop singer Enrique Iglesias and her publicist confirmed that she and the singer were dating. The
Hockey News
asked Fedorov to dispel the rumors. “We were married, albeit briefly,” he admitted, “and we are now divorced.” Kournikova has also been romantically linked to Fedorov's former Russian national-team linemate (and New York Ranger!) Pavel Bure, but we're not going to speculate when she would've had time for that relationship.

CHERCHEZ DES FEMMES AUX JEUX OLYMPIQUES

In the marriage of Bret Hedican and Kristi Yamaguchi we also achieve a two-athlete union, though this one is shrouded in no mystery whatsoever: They met at the 1992 Olympics in Albertville, France—where Hedican's Team USA finished without a medal and Yamaguchi took gold in women's figure skating—and were married on July 8, 2000. Hedican has played for St. Louis, Vancouver, Florida, and Carolina in his professional career, while Yamaguchi, who retired from competitive skating in 1997, now works full-time with the Always Dream Foundation, which she founded to benefit children in need. The couple's first child, Keara, was born in 2003, and their second daughter Emma, in 2005.

MODEL BEHAVIOR

Which makes this as good a time as any to wrap things up, though believe it or not we haven't covered all of the couples that we might have. Former Ottawa Senators' first-overall pick Alexandre Daigle has scored off the ice more than on it, dating rock stars Alanis Morisette and Sheryl Crow, and ex-
Baywatch
superstar Pamela Anderson. Edmonton Oilers star defenceman Sheldon Souray is married to another
Baywatch
alumnus, Angelica Bridges. Former Canucks winger Russ Courtnall is married to actress (and singer Sarah Vaughan's daughter) Paris Vaughan, Islanders winger Mariusz Czerkawski is divorced from
Goldeneye
actress and model Izabella Scorupco, and Mighty Ducks center Rob Niedermayer was long linked with
Sports Illustrated
swimsuit model Niki Taylor. Los Angeles Kings pest Sean Avery split up in the summer of 2005 from supermodel and Rod Stewart's ex-wife Rachel Hunter (who is 11 years Avery's senior). And the summer of 2010 brought us not one, but two celebrity hockey weddings of note: Nashville Predator Mike Fisher exchanged vows with
American Idol
and
Cosmo
Cover Girl Carrie Underwood, while NHL journeyman Mike Comrie tied the knot with actress and model Hillary Duff.

Can there be any explanation for the eternal attraction between hockey players (particularly, as we've noticed, New York Rangers) and models? “It's because they have the same type of life, on the road all the time, moving from place to place,” Carol Alt explains. “Also, it seems that they're the only people we meet.”

Les Costello abandoned an NHL career with the Maple Leafs to become a priest, but the “Flying Father” did not give up hockey.

P
ORCUPINE PRODIGY

Les Costello was a winner in hockey: twice with St. Michael's College in Toronto as Memorial Cup Canadian junior champions, and then with the 1948 Stanley Cup champions Toronto Maple Leafs. From the hockey-crazed mining area of South Porcupine, Ontario, Costello was a star with St. Michael's at only 16, producing 15 goals and 30 points in 23 playoff games as the team won the 1945 Memorial Cup, a feat they repeated two seasons later. Costello scored 32 American Hockey League goals in 1947–48, and then put up four points in five playoff games with the Cup-bound Leafs.