Interviews/Steve Carlson

Steve Carlson. May 2003.

What do you remember about actually playing the games?

Mr. Carlson: Well, you have to remember that I was 18 years old when I played there. What I remember most about Marquette when I first got there is The Palestra…with no glass…you get hit, and you knock over someone’s drink that was sitting on the boards. But I also remember a lady getting hit with a slap shot right between the eyes. It looked like a bullet hole, and then blood started dripping down her face. I remember thinking, “Whoa…pretty scary.”

Wow.

Mr. Carlson: Yeah. And then we moved into the luxurious new building with a big furnace. It was quite an experience going from high school hockey to there.

Yeah, I think a lot of people around here forget that you were only 18 years old when you played here. I know I didn’t realize that. Next question: Is there any particular win or loss that you can remember?

Mr .Carlson: Holy smokes. That’s a long time ago. You’re looking at almost thirty years ago, so no there really isn’t…well actually there was a game where Oakie Brumm put a bounty on a player’s head. I think his name was…Ernie…

…Dupont?

Mr. Carlson: Yeah, Dupont. It was a fifty-dollar bounty on his head for whoever would knock him down in the first shift, and my brother Jack dropped him.

Interviewer: [Laughter}

Mr. Carlson: Yeah, that was pretty interesting. But fifty bucks back then wasn’t very good.

Are there any players that stand out in your mind? Including opponents?

Mr. Carlson: Brian Lunney. Brian Lunney stands out…but I don’t know…I won’t say why [Laughing]. But it was just the way he played. It was pretty interesting. You had Whitey, Oz O’Neil. Ronnie Johnson: He looked like he’d been through the wars a few times. Good player, though. Mike L’Huillier, he was a forward right?

Yeah.

He could fly. Barry Cook: Mr. In-Shape [Laughs].

Was he really?

He had a body like…you see I have the body of a Greek God. He had one like a g**d*** Greek! Actually Barry Cook was our captain.

Actually Whitey worked for an electronics store didn’t he?

Colorvision I think.

Yeah, that’s right. All right next question.

Ok. Can you say anything about the road trips to different cities?

Mr. Carlson: Well I remember flying in the Cessna airplanes where you had the pilot and three players in each plane, and you’re 100 or 200 feet above the ground flying to these different places…it’s pretty scary especially when you’ve never flown before.

I’ll bet.

Mr. Carlson: One time we were flying back into Marquette, and we were ready to land on the runway during a snowstorm. We almost hit the ground when the pilot pulled it back up…it was the highway instead of the runway! The lights he saw were from the highway instead of the airport.

Incredible.

Mr. Carlson: Once in a while you’d get a luxurious plane with two propellers. But you’d be going down the runway, and one of the engines would be on fire! …That would be a little scary also.

Yeah, many players have mentioned those flights. What is the story as to how you got on the team?

Mr. Carlson: Well the thing with that is that we tried out for Waterloo a couple weeks before that, and we played in a couple of inter-squad games and did quite well…probably made the team…and Jack Pardee, the player-coach, said that we weren’t good enough to play for him. So we didn’t have anywhere to play. Well, we heard that Marquette was looking for players, so we got in the car and drove to Marquette…and…we asked for a tryout.

Simple as that huh? Well, Marquette thanks Jack Pardee.

Can you say anything about the fans in the Palestra at that time? Any words that would describe the fans…good or bad?

Mr. Carlson: Well…you see…you can never downgrade the fans in your home arena. They treated us very well. They loved the way we played. Our philosophy back then was that, “If you have the puck you’re going to get hit.” And that’s the style, in the old Marquette Palestra, that’s how they liked watching hockey played. We fought when we had to, we played when we had to, and it’s a blue-collar ice arena where the fans just like good honest hockey players. If you gave it all you had they’d love you, and we gave it all we had.

I’ve got to ask you: Have you set foot back in Marquette since then?

Mr. Carlson: Yes. Actually about five years ago they had a reunion, and Jeff and I went back there. It’s amazing how people fly rumors all over the place; Jeff was killed. Jeff was dead. [Author’s note: Jeff is alive and well at the tme of this interview.] Jack wasn’t there. I’m not sure why. I think he was working. But it was quite a reunion, and it was good to see the old boys back. Actually I see Oakie Brumm around once in a while. He lives outside of Milwaukee.

You may or may not be aware of this, but you and your brothers were very popular during your time here…and even after you left. And that was before any movie deal that you made. I remember as a kid…

Mr. Carlson: [Laughs] I was a kid! It’s funny though. Our daily routine was getting up at noon everyday, going to this one bar in downtown Marquette and watching the Three Stooges because we didn’t have a TV in our apartment. We had a place near the lake. There were four of us who lived there, and I slept on the couch. So we’d go watch the Stooges, go to practice, and then we’d go to the bar and have a grand-old time until 12:00 or 1:00 in the morning…go home…and then start all over again. It was the same routine everyday…everyday…we had to watch the Three Stooges at this one local pub.

Do you have any thoughts on how hockey is different now as compared to back then?

Mr. Carlson: Oh, you want to talk about nowadays? Well when we played hockey we wore garter belts. Now when they play hockey they wear money belts. If you watch the NHL now…the playoffs…it’s a glorified senior men’s no-hit-league. Tuesday night No-Hit League. You know, you’ve got the commissioner who’s trying to get the fighting out of the game. You can’t touch anyone anymore or else you’ll get an interference or obstruction penalty, and the game is getting boring. How many times do you see a good solid hit any more? No one wants to get hit anymore. They dump it in. No one fore checks.

Many players have mentioned that…that you would play your own game, and the refs wouldn’t play a very big part in the game when…

Mr. Carlson: Well the refs are told what to do. Andy Van Helman, who I know very well, and the other referees that I know around the league cannot referee a game because they get instructions from the league on how to referee it. They keep changing these rules. You can’t do this, and you can’t do that…you can’t hit’em any more! You can’t go in the crease. You can’t touch the goaltender any more. I mean, ‘Come on.’ If he leaves the crease he should be hit. It’s just not as exciting any more, and I don’t believe the players back each other up like they used to. When a player gets crunched they don’t…well let me put it this way; What happens when Scott Stevens hits someone when they’re playing Ottawa, and 95% of Ottawa’s team is European. I believe that there should be a new rule like the Europeans have a rule: You’re only allowed 2 or 3 Europeans on your club, and that’s it. That’s like when the Americans or Canadians go over there you’re only allowed 2 or 3 foreigners on your team. I think we should have the same thing here.

Any memories of Oakie Brumm?

At the time I played Oakie never when on the road trips. He had his construction company, and we played on our own. Every once in a while he went, but he stayed home a lot and ran his construction company. Oakie…[Laughing] Oakie always claims that he made us hockey players. I always like to yell at him, ‘Oakie. You didn’t make me nothin’.’ But he did give us a chance to play.

And the reason you left the Iron Rangers was what?

Well, I signed a contract with the Minnesota Fighting Saints…moved up to another league in the North American Hockey League. We were under contract to the Minnesota Fighting Saints, and they shipped us to Johnstown, Pennsylvania in the North American Hockey League after the year in Marquette.11

Oh…interesting. I really appreciate you taking the time to answer these questions, so I’ll hurry up here: What memories do you have of the City of Marquette and The Palestra?

Mr. Carlson: When we played there there was no other hockey there. They only had the big football team, and now they’ve got Northern University there. But we were the only hockey there at that time besides youth hockey. But…Marquette…I love the city. It’s got a lot of snow. We did a lot of tobogganing and outdoor stuff. It’s a beautiful city, and I really enjoyed myself there. We had a ball.

You know we didn’t make any money. We made no money at all, and we just had fun. You know we had a great bunch of guys on our hockey club who loved being together, and we played good hockey. Unfortunately we ran into Thunder Bay in the playoffs, and we got beat out.

I suppose you’ve been asked this a million times, but do you have any comments on the movies you’ve done?

Slapshot I is a cult classic. You know everyone said, “Don’t do Slapshot II. Don’t do sequels. You’ll just ruin the first one.” Well I disagree with that. We did Slapshot II, and I’ll agree that it wasn’t as good as the first one. But we had a couple of messages in there such as don’t change the rules of the game. The game is great as it is. Don’t change the rules. Message number two is…when the Hanson brothers got cut, and we left the team. Baldwin goes into Busey and says that the Hanson Brothers are the heart and soul of the hockey club. You look at the NHL playoffs. It’s not the superstars that are winning games. It’s the third and fourth liners. Those are the heart and soul of the hockey club, and they don’t get the recognition that they should. But it’s always the superstars, and they’re great hockey players, but they don’t win the championships. It’s the third and fourth liners. Look at Detroit. It’s the Maltby’s, the Draper’s, the McCarty’s. These guys are winning the championships. Granted Steve Yzerman, Shanahan, Brett Hull…these guys are great, it’s these third and fourth liners…that’s another message. That’s why I said that Slapshot II had more effect on people the way the game is played now. Just quit screwing around with the rules.

Is the first movie that you did reminiscent of the Iron Rangers at all?

Mr. Carlson: No. It was more reminiscent of our year in Johnstown when we signed with the Minnesota Fighting Saints. The girl who wrote the film traveled with us and watched how we played. We got arrested in Utica, New York for going into the stands after the fans. We did jump a team in warm-ups against the Minnesota Norsemen in the playoffs in the first round. They forfeited the game and wouldn’t come back out on the ice. Ah, you know, that’s the way we played. Our mentality was that if you have the puck, then you get hit. If a fight breaks out, then so be it. You know that’s the way the game should be played. And we won the championship that year. So that movie, number one, was based on our life with the Johnstown Jets.

Can I ask a final question?

Mr. Carlson: Sure.

The difference between the Rangers and the Johnstown Jets: Were they radically different then?

Mr. Carlson: Ah…yes…yes they were actually. We had 7 or 8…really…tough…guys in Johnstown. We had Paul Holmgren. We had Pat Weststrom. We had Jack…my brother Jack…my brother Jeff…Dave Hanson…Dave Birch…Vern Campagado. We had a very tough team, whereas in Marquette we had some tough players but not as many. We had more of a skilled team in Marquette.