Blasts from the Past - Memories and Musings
Brushes with Stardom
By Norm Jewison
One of the perks that go with working for an NHL team is that you can sometimes sneak into a rock concert that happens to be playing in your club’s home arena. This is especially gratifying for someone (me) who played in a garage band way back in the day.
One day in October 1977, I was in my office at Pacific Coliseum when I heard loud music coming from inside the building. I went inside and sat down to watch and listen. One of my all-time favourite bands, the Doobie Brothers, was practicing for their concert that night. During a break, I brazenly introduced myself to the floor manager. I asked him if he thought the Doobies front man would wear a Canucks jersey on stage that night. The manager said he thought he could make it happen. I then went and retrieved one from the team’s souvenir store and gave it to him. I then managed to scrounge a couple of tickets for the show.
As my wife and I watched the lights go down for the start of the show, there appeared lead singer Tom Johnston, front and centre, sporting a brand-new “original” Canuck sweater to the appreciative roar of over 15,000 in attendance.
******
During the PNE the following summer, Canucks GM Jake Milford and I were working late, the rest of the staff having gone for the day. He popped his head in my office and said, “Come on with me. There’s someone I want you to meet.”
We went downstairs to the Canucks dressing room where two men were standing outside smoking cigarettes. As we approached them, I did the proverbial “double take”, for they were none other than country music legends (and idols of mine) Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings. They were performing the next night at the Coliseum.
Milford once ran the junior hockey franchise and the arena in Brandon, Manitoba and had booked Cash for concerts there in the 1960’s. As they reminisced about Cash singing a song called “Sweetheart of Saskatoon”, everyone chuckled except me. I was speechless.
******
One day in the early 90’s, I was returning to my office from the Canucks dressing room during a practice session of the famous Stars on Ice tour. As I passed the visitors’ dressing room, a young female skater emerged wearing an Anaheim Ducks jersey. I jokingly said to her, “you’re pretty brave to be wearing that in this arena.”
“Oh, I’m from the L.A. area,” she smiled. Turns out she was Olympic Gold Medalist Kristi Yamaguchi.
Ironically, she had met the U.S. men’s hockey team player and future Canuck defenceman Bret Hedican at the 1992 Olympics in France. Hedican, from Minnesota, was traded from St. Louis to Vancouver in the spring of 1994 and remained a Canuck until 1999. One of the finest skaters in the NHL, Hedican married Yamaguchi in 2000, and they had two daughters, Keara and Emma. Hedican wound up his NHL career in 2009 with - you guessed it - the Anaheim Mighty Ducks!