When a young man uses a heavy steel puck to develop his hockey skills, you know he is destined for greatness.

Lemaire played all of his youth in Montreal.

In two seasons with the Montreal Junior Canadiens (then part of the Ontario Hockey League) from 1964-65 and 1965-66, Jacques Lemaire honed his craft and learned that it took more than skill to further a career.

Major junior hockey has been a main breeding ground for up and coming National Hockey League players. It’s where young men learn to excel through perseverance, discipline, work ethic, and sometimes pure adrenaline. There is a strong emphasis on education in today’s junior hockey ranks. But back in the early 1960s, that wasn’t always the case.

“It was different in our days,” admits Lemaire. “It was not as well organized as today, the school and hockey. It seemed kind of hard to do both because of traveling. We were a Canadian team from Quebec playing in Ontario so all the teams we played against were in Ontario. There was quite a bit of travel.”

At the time, players almost had to make a decision between playing hockey and going to school. Those that made the decision to play, if they wanted to go to school, they had to find time during the summer. For the rest, they took advantage of making a little bit of money and worked, like Lemaire.

“I played hockey in the winter, and I was working for Coca Cola on the delivery as soon as the season finished. At training camp, I stopped. I worked for Coca Cola, then after I worked for Labatt Brewery, then Molson a bit.

“Hockey-wise, I found it was a little hard at times. We had no money at home. I think in those days they were giving us $18 or $16 a week. I remember when Scotty Bowman was our coach; he made us work at times in the winter at the arena. We’d clean the old Forum. We used to sweep the stairs and wash the stairs. They were paying us 50 cents an hour for that. We had to work hard for what we got. A lot of guys appreciated it at the time when they got a good job.”

Lemaire admits there is a lot more teaching in today’s junior ranks than there was in his days. He says the coaches didn’t have the know-how that they do now.

“We went on the ice and did what we had to do. If you’re not good enough, you’re not playing. That’s it. You’ll learn from better players. You’ll learn from watching the NHL. You’ll learn from other guys that were good on the team.”

Lemaire played a total of 104 games for the Junior Canadiens, posting 66 goals, 99 assists, and 165 points. He only clocked in penalty minutes (69) in his second season.

There is one fact of hockey that transcends every generation of player, particularly in junior: the myriad of stories. Although, considering this is an age where young testosterone-filled adolescent males are establishing their manhood, sometimes one can pry a “printable” story.

“I remember when Scotty Bowman was our coach,” says Lemaire about a road trip, “he put our curfew at 10:30. He said, ‘I don’t want any TV on past 10:30.’ He went to get a key to get into all the rooms. So he would open the door quick and go over to touch the TV, because if you were watching TV, it would be warm. A guy put a cold towel on the TV so the TV stayed cold, and he put the chain on so Scotty couldn’t get in. When he tried to get in, he’d say, ‘Open the door quick!’ So he took the towel off before Scotty could check the TV, and it was okay.”

He tells another story about the team meal. “When we had our team dinner on the road, we had one dollar. We had to get lunch with that. If it cost $1.05, you had to bring the bill plus five cents and give it back to the manager.”

Lemaire played the game of hockey because it was fun. He thoroughly enjoyed the game. But he could never have predicted how much fun his NHL career would prove to be.

After 69 games during the 1966-67 season with the Houston Apollos (19 goals, 30 assists, 49 points, 19 penalty minutes and six playoff games: 0-1-1, 0 PIM), the NHL beckoned and he never looked back.

His rookie 1967-68 season culminated with his first Stanley Cup.

The Montreal Canadiens were rich in NHL history long before the young center suited up his number 25 jersey. Its first Stanley Cup win was March 30, 1916 following a 2-1 victory over the Portland Rosebuds in five games.

The second Cup came in 1924. Howie Morenz scored at 4:55 in the first period to cement a 3-0 win over the Calgary Tigers. In 1930 (third Cup), Morenz scored the game winner at 15:43 in the second period to defeat the Boston Bruins 4-3. In the 1931 Cup final (fourth Cup), the Habs won 2-0 over Chicago; won (fifth) 5-4 against Chicago in 1944 (Lemaire’s future head coach Toe Blake scored the game winner at 9:12 in the first overtime); won (sixth) 6-3 versus the Bruins in 1946 (Blake scored the game winner at 11:06 of the third); won 1-0 (seventh) against Boston in 1953; (eighth) 3-1 against Detroit in 1956; (ninth) 5-1 versus Boston in 1957; (10^th) 5-3 against Boston in 1958; (11^th) 5-3 against Toronto in 1959; (12^th) 4-0 over Toronto in 1960; (13^th) 4-0 over Chicago in 1965; and won its 14th Cup with a 3-2 win over Detroit in 1966.

The home of the Habs, The Forum, was built in 1924 and accommodated 10,000 and opened its doors November 29, although an ice problem delayed it becoming the team’s permanent home until November 18, 1926. It was renovated up to 13,551 seats in 1949 and to 16,003 seats in 1968. It proudly and prominently displayed the team’s 14 Stanley Cup banners.

So for any player coming to Montreal, the weight of previous Stanley Cups permeated the room. Fans expected more, so did the organization, and the media. There was no place to hide if you didn’t perform.

Lemaire realized right away, from his first day in rookie camp, that Montreal did not approach hockey the same as other organizations. There was more scrutiny and more demands. Fortunately for Lemaire, his stick found the back of the net a respectable 22 times that season. In 69 games, he also recorded 20 assists for 42 points and 16 penalty minutes. His team had finished the season in first place in the East Division with 94 points.

But it was Lemaire’s playoff record that left a more lasting impression.

En route to the final, the Habs eliminated Chicago and Minnesota. It faced the St. Louis Blues in the Cup final (which finished third in the West Division with 70 points). The Blues were stacked with a roster of former and soon to be Habs, such as Red Berenson, Doug Harvey, Bill McCreary, Dickie Moore, Noel Picard, Barclay Plager, Jacques Plante, Jimmy Roberts, and Jean-Guy Talbot, plus coach Scotty Bowman and scout Cliff Fletcher.

Game one of the Stanley Cup final was played on May 5, 1968. The score was tied at 2-2 and the teams had just returned to the ice for the first overtime period. Lemaire felt his coach Toe Blake tap him on the shoulder. He was next on the ice.

Lemaire had been following the play from the bench, so he was able to jump into the flow of the game right away. He took a pass at the St. Louis blueline, let his shot go, and then saw the goal light go on behind Blues goalie Glenn Hall. The next thing he knew, his teammates were congratulating him. The goal was unassisted at 1:41. It was also his second overtime goal of the playoffs and a record for NHL rookies. The Habs went on to defeat the Blues in four games, with each of those games won by a goal, plus two were decided in overtime.

In 13 games, Lemaire’s playoff record stood at 7-6-13, and six penalty minutes.

One would think a rookie year like that would be hard to top. Fortunately for Lemaire, it was only the beginning.

Team Canada

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Victor Hugo said that each man should frame his life so that at some future hour, fact and his dreamings meet. Success is usually defined by financial reward. We put a lot of pressure on ourselves when we don’t meet this expectation. But real success comes as a result of living your dreams.

Think for a moment – not about how much money you want to make but what you’d consider your dream job. Is it the same dream you had as a kid? Are you doing it now? If your answer is no, why not? Sometimes we let others dictate what’s best for us.

Theoren Fleury is a perfect example of someone not letting others talk him out of his dream of making it to the National Hockey League. At 5’6” and 180 pounds, Fleury wasn’t drafted in his first year of eligibility. The next year, Calgary Flames’ scout Ian McKenzie had to almost beg the club to consider him. Fleury wasn’t picked until the eighth round and went 166^th overall in the 1987 NHL Entry Draft. Before he ended his career, he was listed as one of the top 50 players in the NHL by The Hockey News and had been paid with multi-million dollar contracts.

Sometimes you have to open your own doors. Even when you’re focused on the dream, the path may twist and turn or change complete direction. The key is not to give up.

A gifted young football player had the opportunity to play for a Canadian Football League team. Unfortunately, he came to training camp overweight and hadn’t worked out all winter. He put in very little effort and as a result, was cut from the team. He was never offered another opportunity. What would have happened if he really wanted to play?

If someone tries to talk you out of your dream, don’t let them. Be disciplined. When you see the results of someone else’s success, know that the end result didn’t come without sacrifice. Thus no truer words were ever spoken than by broadcaster and former National Football League coach John Madden. “Easy Street goes through the dump.”

Theoren Fleury nearly didn't get drafted into the NHL

It’s a world nobody ever sees, not the coaches, not even the players.

The clubhouse attendant is perhaps the hardest working job in baseball. He’s at the ballpark from at least 7:00 AM until 3:00 AM. The visiting clubbie’s job is particularly unique.

After receiving the team’s itinerary, the clubbie goes to the airport to pick them up. Upon arrival, he assigns each player a locker, unpacks their bags, goes shopping to prepare for their meals. That’s only the beginning. He cleans their shoes, straightens their locker, does and hangs their laundry, cleans the sinks, shower stalls, and urinals. He’s on call if the parent club calls a player up or sends them down, then packs the player’s personals and takes it to the hotel.

Greg Grimaldo is the Visitors’ Clubhouse Attendant for the Colorado Springs Sky Sox. “You feed them, give them sandwiches, chips, juice, fruit, vegetables, whatever they want before batting practice.” When the players come in from batting practice, Grimaldo starts washing clothes, cleans up the clubhouse, and prepares for the post-game meal. A typical day includes 100 pounds of laundry. Grimaldo always carries a spare. “I have two washers plus a third I keep hidden in case one breaks down.”

For a couple hours throughout the game, he cooks for 30 players and four umpires on a barbecued grill. “When they come in, you get out of their way and let them eat and hope you have enough food. The worst thing in the world is to hear a player say, ‘I didn’t get anything to eat.’

Grimaldo will have shopped for the four game series prior to the team’s arrival. He might serve tacos or burritos the first day, chicken breasts and thighs with mashed potatoes, gravy, and biscuits the next. If it’s a double-header, he’ll fix a morning meal, which may include French toast, pancakes, scrambled eggs, and sausage; in between games: hamburgers or hot dogs; then spaghetti for the post-game meal.

Each player pays the clubbie individually on the last day of the series. At the start of the season, teams will ask around to see what they plan to collect. Grimaldo says it’s $14 a day. “That buys your pop, shaving cream, soap, shampoo, and food. The clubs don’t give you anything for the visiting teams. Not a thing. If you cut it right, you can minimize the expenses down to $120 a day. You have to use everything – owe people favors – whatever you can do to save money is what you have to do.”

Some teams do pay better. The clubbie may charge $55 for four days. The player pays either $60/$65 or $55.

“I can remember years ago, putting out some baseballs for players to autograph. Everybody autographed them but one. I walked up to the player and said, ‘How come you don’t sign the baseballs?’ He said, ‘You no pay, I no sign.’ I say, ‘You no sign, you no eat.’ He signed. There are more good guys in the clubhouse than bad, but it only takes one rotten apple to ruin the whole four-day sequence.”

Being a clubhouse attendant is one of those jobs you learn from experience. Grimaldo’s best advice is to let the new guys learn on their own. “The hardest thing about this job is learning what not to do and do. You can’t take care of every individual player. One will say they want chewing tobacco, go get it for me. Another wants hamburger. As soon as you make a trip for one person, somebody else wants something else. I just tell them we make one trip only. Otherwise, they’ll have to wait for the next day. The new guy will have to learn on his own. You can tell him, but he won’t believe you. When he makes a mistake, it will cost him. When you spend money and the player don’t pay you back, that’s the hard way.”

USA Hockey and Hockey Canada have a lot in common as the quintessential overseers of all things hockey in North America, but they also have very different roles.

USA Hockey president Ron DeGregorio sees his organization focused on four sectors: high performance, recreational, developmental, and competitive activities.

“The high performance is the one that’s most visible. The competitive is probably our core unit where you have the recreation hockey programs traveling around playing their games. Our highest growing segment is adult hockey.”

USA Hockey’s biggest job is getting more people involved in the sport. The OneGoal Program provides equipment lend-lease options to get people to try hockey without having to invest a lot of up-front dollars on equipment.

Bottom line, DeGregorio admits USA Hockey is not just about player development; it’s involved in participation development.

“We see USA Hockey as a membership services organization that helps those who have an interest or stake in the game be able to get the most out of the game and grow as much as they can.”

Getting media interested certainly helps USA Hockey create growth, but so far, the interest is mainly regional, such as in the strong hockey markets of Minnesota, Michigan, and Massachusetts.

DeGregorio thinks hockey has a very powerful niche. “In concentrated areas, we have many views. Now with the new media – the Internet and electronic publications – we can impact that group. That’s part of our business plan – to impact that group and give them the hockey fix that they want.”

In Canada, raising the profile of the game is not an issue. Hockey is entrenched in Canadian culture. Even so, Hockey Canada knows it can’t be complacent about its role.

“We’ve really grown,” says Johnny Misley, Hockey Canada’s Executive Vice President, Hockey Operations, “but we often think we’re a third of where we’d like to be as an organization.”

Hockey Canada’s staff has grown at least 300 percent since 1994-95.

Misley admits, “While that’s great in a sense that it shows a service to the game; it also creates some obstacles. The building we’re in right now is small. We need to upgrade the training facilities that we have.”

President Bob Nicholson adds, “We’d love to have a training facility for all Olympic athletes, national team athletes for all sports, and a place that all Canadians can come and say, wow, this is the way you should prepare athletes for world championships. I’d love to see hockey become the leader in that.”

Meanwhile, USA Hockey started the STAR program (Serving The American Rinks) to provide education and resources to rink professionals to ultimately improve the quality of the existing rinks.

Every year both organizations review its programs and services to make the game better, and when budgets allow, add to what they have.

Both look at what works and doesn’t work in other leagues, review their own governance, get current and former NHL players involved in their programs, and rely heavily on volunteers.

Both USA Hockey and Hockey Canada agree that it is a great game to grow. “We’ve got a lot of opportunities,” says DeGregorio. “As long as we stay true to the game, true to the core values of the game, then the distribution of that is so much easier because of the technology of today.”

What do teams look for in a scout?

To have a solid hockey background. In my case, I played at the NHL level. I coached in the NHL. I worked in the development end of things. It’s more of hiring a person that they know can assess talent: a player’s strength and weaknesses, how that particular player may fit into your team.

How much does coaching help you look at the game as a scout?

You recognize the system that a team is using. A player might look really bad on a play but he’s doing his job within the system and someone else maybe didn’t cover for him. As a coach, you realize the importance of good team chemistry and how important character is in a player rather than pure ability and pure skills, whether he’s a good team player.

How do you find out those little things? Do you get to know the players one-on-one a little bit?

You don’t really get to know the players one-on-one. You watch a player and part of your job is seeing those players enough. You have to get out and see each team you’re responsible for enough so you can have a pretty good idea what that person does or what type of person that guy is. But that’s also where you have to dig into a player’s background. If you are truly interested in a player, that’s when you start to do a little bit of research: contacting former coaches, contacting former teammates so they can confirm to you what you think you already know.

Does the team tell you who to look for or do you go about your business and spot someone who you think might fit in with the system?

A little bit of both. At the start of the year, you have meetings. You know your own team well enough that you know your strengths and your weaknesses. At the start of the year, you identify the type of player that you’re looking for, whether it’s a defenseman, a third-line winger, a good top line center man. You know your needs. Nowadays, you’re also concerned on how they fit into your payroll. That’s the real difficult part now. For instance, if you’re watching Los Angeles, you’d like to have a good read and a good book on Anze Kopitar, but chances of us ever getting Kopitar are very slim – or for me to go and watch Joe Sakic, even though he might be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the year. There are certain players that you’re looking for. You might file a report on ten guys on a particular team on a given night or you might try to file a report on everybody, but you’re really keying on particular players.

Do you file a report every night on them or do you just update weekly? How does that work?

There are so many teams to cover. Whenever, say Los Angeles comes into the area, up in Edmonton last night and Calgary tonight, then you try to file a report on the guys that you’re interested in every night. I’ll see them on TV but maybe I won’t see them live for a while now; it may be six weeks or something like that. You’re trying to file a report on them every time you see them. With Calgary or Edmonton, who I see a lot, I don’t worry so much about filing a report on a regular basis.

You have to watch more than one game, too, because a player can have an off night. That’s why it’s important to see the players on the road, see them at home, see them in back to back games.

It depends on who you’re scouting for, who you’re looking for?

That’s right. Different organizations vary on the types of players they’re looking for, the type of team system that they play. Every organization is different. In general, I think scouts are basically looking for the same thing. Obviously, you want to develop your young drafts, bring them up through the system, and then you’re looking for the guys that kind of complement those players, whether it’s a gritty competitive type guy like Stephane Yelle or whether it’s a little bit more skill involved. Everybody’s kind of looking for the same. I think a lot of teams realize the way the game has evolved, skill, ability to move the puck, pass the puck, good hockey sense, ability to skate — those are all really important now.

Are you looking for a diamond in the rough like a J.S. Giguere a few years ago?

That’s all part of scouting and that’s kind of the difficult thing. Budget is so much of a concern these days, you really have to cover the American League and look for those diamonds in the rough. It may not be a real diamond in the rough, but it might be a guy that will fit into your third or fourth line in a couple of years or even next year, who’s a younger, cheaper player but can do the job.

Depending on whether scouting amateurs or professionals, do you look at it differently?

I think a little bit differently but then the organization has a philosophy. I know for a fact, in Calgary, they really look for players with good character. That philosophy carries through the whole organization. Amateurs, scouts are really seeing these kids at a young age and really trying to project what the player will eventually become. And in pro scouting, you’re looking for specific needs.

What’s a day in the life of a pro scout like? Is there such a thing as a typical day?

There’s such a thing. You spend so much time on the road. Generally, in pro scouting, you’re always traveling from city to city. Unless you’re in a rare situation, like going out to Los Angeles and see four or five games between L.A. and Anaheim and stay in one hotel. Most of the time you’re bouncing from city to city, game to game. You’re generally catching the early flight. It’s really early because you’re trying to get to the airport two hours prior. You fly to the city, you try to get your reports from the night before sometime, whether it’s on the plane and in the air or in your hotel room, and then you go to the game that night, evaluate the players you want to evaluate, spend the night in the hotel and the next day move on. It’s kind of the same routine every day.

Do you have to email a picture to your wife and kids so they know what you look like?

It’s bad that way. It’s a lot of travel. The good thing is in scouting is you do have the time off in the summer. It’s almost like a teacher. You work hard during the ten months so that you get a couple of months off in the summer.

Do you have to put a piece of paper by your phone to remind yourself what city you’re in?

Not so much the city. Always when you’re switching hotel rooms, I have a little cheat sheet for what my room number is. You might be in 310 one night and 715 the next night. I always have to rip off a little piece of paper, put on the hotel room number, put it in my pocket with my key or I would have no idea what room I’m coming to.

Tell me a good story

I was working in development with Calgary and went up to Red Deer. I shouldn’t have. I was raking the lawn that afternoon and they were predicting a big storm. This was in October. It was just raining in Calgary. I was raking the leaves. I went up, watched the game, and we had heard in the building, it was really snowing outside. I left the game about five or six minutes early to see if I could get out of the parking lot before everybody else. I get onto the highway coming back and was doing just fine for a while. And then I just ran into the back end of all these taillights – cars all the way to Calgary. I sat on the road, inching along from about 9:30 at night until we finally got waved off at Carstairs at 4:30 in the morning. We spent the night in a community center gym. It was full of scouts and other people. It was kind of neat the way the community all embraced us. They gave us breakfast in the morning. The roads were still closed in the morning. We spent some time there and then we all tried to brave the roads.

Are the jobs readily available in scouting? Is there a quota?

It’s up to the organization. Gary Bettman is pushing hard to almost get rid of scouting and go to a central scouting system. Buffalo has actually gone that way. I think they may have one full-time guy but they have a whole bunch of interns watching tapes. They do it all by video and tapes. I think you’d miss a lot. We’re not going to find out the results of what Buffalo is doing for the next few years. You can pick off certain things off tape if you know a player already. But for me to go in and watch a tape and scout ten guys I don’t know, I don’t think you’d do a very good job. You’ve got to be at the game to see what the player does away from the puck. TV cameras just don’t show you enough.

It sent a deafening silence throughout the hockey world and beyond.

On December 30, 1986 at 3:45 PM, the unthinkable happened. Two days after the Christmas break, the Western Hockey League Swift Current Broncos embarked on a two and a half-hour drive to Regina, Saskatchewan, when its team-owned bus, a 1968 Western Flyer, skidded off the highway overpass, hit a sign then slid down an embankment nose first. It flew approximately 50 feet in the air, landing on its side when it skidded to a halt.

Four players were dead: Scott Kruger, Trent Kresse, Brent Ruff (Lindy Ruff’s brother), and Chris Mantyka.

The scene was chaotic. The ditch was strewn with sleeping bags, blankets, pillows, and personal items. Two ambulances drove back and forth to the Swift Current Union Hospital, and passing motorists were flagged down by police to help transport the less seriously injured for medical attention.

The day before, temperatures were unseasonably warm – almost t-shirt weather, but there was a weather advisory in effect at the time of the crash – cold and blizzard conditions.

The plan was to have the bus loaded and ready to go by 3:00 PM in order to arrive at the rink in Regina by 6:45. However, Scotty Kruger forgot his dress clothes and was ordered to go home and get them. (The players often traveled in comfortable clothes then changed on the bus when they reached their destination.)

The bus still had the old green and blue from when it served the Lethbridge, Alberta team. There was no bathroom on board, some of the windows were taped together, and the seats had tears and many stains. It hit a patch of black ice, and in the aftermath, inside the bus was a scene out of a horror movie.

One of the players, wearing shorts, a t-shirt, and no shoes, was knocked out and woke up on top of another. The bus was on its side. In searching for his shoes, he went back to where he was sitting, lifted up a seat that had been torn off, and saw the legs of a teammate, whose torso had been buried underneath the bus. He then discovered another player, whose upper body was pinned inside with his legs under the bus – his arms reaching out for help as he died in front of him.

Kruger and Kresse played on the same line, had adjacent lockers, were friends and always together. They were found two feet apart from each other. At the time, the two were both were tied for second in team scoring, behind Joe Sakic.

Sakic got out of the bus by climbing through the shattered windshield.

“I was sitting at the front of the bus. Sheldon Kennedy and I were probably talking about the Christmas holidays we just had.”

The four players were playing a card game at the back of the bus. The coroner said they died of trauma to the spinal cord.

“It was halfway through the year, so it was tough getting back into the season,” adds Sakic. “That was difficult – the first game back. The season after, we did real well. I think we finished second or third and got knocked out in the second round.

“It pulled the whole city even closer. Everybody, right from day one, was so good to all the players. It was our first year there. They tried to make us feel at home. Even after that, they pulled together even more.”

Close to 4,000 attended the memorial service held at the Swift Current Centennial Civic Centre. Sadly, the Krugers’ uncle, Herman Kruger (67), suffered a fatal heart attack on the way to it.

Joe Sakic kept it to himself. He will rarely talk about it. ”The best thing was during practices and games – that was the best time to get away. You just focused on hockey.

“It was the first time a tragedy happened in my life. Kind of reality checks in. You’re a little more careful about the things you decide to do. You weigh the options, I guess.”

This incident was the first fatal crash in WHL history.

Face it. If the organizations want to survive as a going concern, they have to get with the times.

Take the NHL as an example. Yes, it has revamped its Website to include interesting blogs, live video and audio feed, and numerous other features. The updates on the media site score sheets are still two to three minutes behind the actual game clock, but it has improved. (See the National Lacrosse League site at www.nll.com for actual real time updates.) However, its media credential policy still lives in the Dark Ages.

There is an old saying — maybe it’s this writer’s old saying: if you want to find your target audience — go where they go.

We are in the middle of a media revolution: out with traditional and in with new technology. It’s ever changing but those that learn and move with the ebb and flow of the Internet will likely find more success than those stuck in the old traditional formats that are drying up.

For example, many have stopped buying newspapers because a) they pile up faster than you have time to read them and b) it is a pain in the backside to take the bulky weight of them to the recycling bin. But more so, people are getting their news and sports online and through cable television because it’s instantaneous; it’s easy; and you get a broader viewpoint.

Here are the facts:

• The high fixed costs of printing and distribution are not going down any time soon.
• The Rocky Mountain News, which closed its doors in February, was said to be failing in 2001 when it joined forces with the Denver Post; owner E.W. Scripps Co. says it lost $15 million in Denver in 2008
• The Philadelphia Inquirer, Baltimore Sun, and Boston Globe shut down their foreign bureaus; Time and Newsweek downsized their foreign correspondents (LJWorld.com)
• The Tribune Co., owners of Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times, is in bankruptcy proceedings and outsourcing its foreign news coverage; the New York Times is in financial trouble
• (Pew Internet and American Life Project November 19 to December 20, 2008): 70 percent Internet users get their news online; 45 percent get sports scores online; 29 percent listen to live or recorded radio broadcasts; 36 percent get their news online daily; 29 percent look for their hobby or interests online daily; 15 percent look for sports scores online daily
• (Statistics Canada, June 2008): 73 percent of the population 16 and older go online for personal reasons; 68 percent are online every day; men stay online longer than women; most online users earn over $95,000; 84 percent of online users have some post-secondary education
• (The Conference Board and TNS): close to 16 percent of Internet-using U.S. households watch television broadcasts online; 3/5 of those that watch online broadcasts say it’s more convenient
• Television networks have lost 17 percent of its 18- to 49-year-old demographic to Internet TV (comScore)
• (Awareness Inc.) 93 percent of organizations surveyed use some form of unpaid social media in an era of declining marketing budgets

Howard Kurtz adds insight to this issue on his CNN show Reliable Sources and with this column: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2009/02/28/ST2009022802422.html.

The NHL and other like organizations cannot ignore what is happening. The desired demographic is online, not on the networks or reading newspapers. Pew reported in December 2008 that 74 percent of adults use the Internet and if you look at the demographic breakdown – it’s exactly who the NHL is trying to reach to keep its business afloat.

18-29: 87 percent use the Internet

30-49: 82 percent

50-64: 72 percent

65+: 41 percent

And the higher the income, the more Internet use.

One of the jobs of PR departments is to control the company message; whereas the media’s job is to relay the message to the general public that doesn’t have the upfront access. For the organization, the media actually provides free advertising. If the media organizations all dried up overnight, the NHL would not have a venue to market its business.

Because the mainstream media industry is changing, NHL PR departments have to rethink their priority heirarchy when it comes to media importance. They can no longer afford to “diss” the electronic media, as they may be the last ones standing in the new era that is taking place at this very moment. That doesn’t mean accrediting every Tom, Dick, and Jane that has a sports blog or Website. But if the NHL brass actually took a moment to click on the most frequented sites and blogs that are continually updated and those with writers that are serious about writing, the NHL might consider adding those outlets to the list.

Look no further than the presidential campaign of Barak Obama to see where the future is going in media. He brilliantly incorporated social networking (Facebook and Twitter, etc.) as part of his marketing campaign. As of this writing, there are 5,842,010 supporters that have joined his Facebook page and 393,269 Twitter followers.

Rick Sanchez of CNN, who calls his show “Your” newscast” has basically changed the way his fellow anchors deliver the news overnight. He skillfully incorporates viewer feedback through Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace, reads and shows some of the comments live. He has 63,383 followers on Twitter.

The time is now for the rest of the word to get with the times.

]]> http://delicksen58.wordpress.com/2009/03/25/face-the-media/feed/ 0 Gridironchick http://delicksen58.wordpress.com/2008/12/31/the-legendary-eddie-robinson/ http://delicksen58.wordpress.com/2008/12/31/the-legendary-eddie-robinson/#comments Wed, 31 Dec 2008 03:52:05 +0000 Debbie Elicksen http://delicksen58.wordpress.com/?p=22 ]]>

More than a legendary college football coach, Eddie Robinson reflected the progress of a nation.

His tenure stretched from the 1941 Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, to the Korean War, Jim Crow and the Civil Rights Movement, to the Vietnam War and the Kent State shootings, women’s liberation, moon landing, the Cold War and the fall of the Soviet Union, to the age of the Internet.

Some of the elements that draw in fans of college football are tradition, innocence, purity, and big name coaches. The likes of Joe Paterno, Bobbie Bowden, Bo Schembechler, and a handful of others are in a league of their own.

Eddie Robinson is also a member of this exclusive club. However, he didn’t coach a Big 10, SEC, Pac 10, Big 12, or even a WAC team. He coached the Grambling State University Tigers. Chances are the only time you might have seen them on TV would have been during the traditional annual Bayou Classic when Grambling faced Southern University.

But even if you never saw Robinson coach one of his 588 games, you can learn much from this man. At the very least, you will be inspired. The biggest lesson he bestowed was being able to face your fears with courage.

Considering the cultural climate during his upbringing in Jackson, Louisiana, as the son of a sharecropper and domestic worker, Eddie Robinson could never have dreamt there would eventually be a stadium or a prestigious Football Writers of America award named after him.

Fresh out of Leland College, Robinson wasn’t able to find a job in coaching, so he went to work in a Baton Rouge feed mill. A relative helped him find a position with the Louisiana Negro Normal and Industrial Institute, where after an interview with Dr. Ralph Waldo Emerson Jones, the 22 year old took the reins as the team’s sixth head coach. That team eventually became the Grambling State University Tigers.

Most coaches do more than just coach, but for Robinson at the beginning, he also had to mow and line the football field, direct the girls’ drill team at halftime, and write a recap of the game for reporters. These duties earned him $63.75 a month.

His first season was unimpressive – a 3-5 record. In his second year, the Tigers were undefeated. An interesting fact is that among the university’s male student population, 33 of 57 played football for Robinson.

Coach Robinson became more than just a coach to his players. He was a father figure, a mentor, a friend, and cheerleader. He understood that football was more than just a game. It shaped lives. It gave individuals the discipline they needed to create their own success down the road. Robinson was personally involved with his players and taught them more than just x’s and o’s on the chalkboard.

Some of his players didn’t know how to eat properly with a knife and fork before they met Coach Rob. He taught them that hard work, dedication, and determination pays off and to never give up.

He said, “You have to coach ‘em as though he were the boy who was going to marry your daughter.”

In 1949, he saw one of his players, Paul “Tank” Younger, become the first player from a historically black college sign with an NFL team with the Los Angeles Rams. By the early 1970s, there were 43 former Grambling players attending NFL camps.

Robinson was named the Coach Who Made the Biggest Contribution to College Football in the Past 25 Years in 1966. But one of his biggest highlights was in 1974 at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans. This was a place where blacks were not only unable to play, they couldn’t even watch a game. In a game between Grambling and Southern University, 76,000 came to see them play.

The school had to hire a public relations person to handle the national publicity campaign when Grambling scheduled games against other historically black schools in Yankee Stadium, Rose Bowl, and Los Angeles Coliseum.

Then in Tokyo in 1976 against Morgan State, Grambling played in the first regular season game on foreign soil.

Another proud moment for Coach Rob was January 31, 1988. He was in stands at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego and watched former Grambling quarterback Doug Williams lead the Washington Redskins to a Super Bowl win over the Denver Broncos. It was the first time a black quarterback played in a Super Bowl. Williams was also given the game’s Most Valuable Player award.

Robinson’s accolades are too numerous to mention, but during his overall record of 408-165-15, he became the winningest coach in college football history until 2003, when John Gagliardi recorded 409 wins for St. John’s, a Division III school in Minnesota. He was the first coach to chalk up 400 wins and guided over 200 players into the NFL.

Because of coach Rob, Grambling State became a nationally recognized power and had only eight losing seasons during his tenure. He won nine National Black College championships, 17 Southwestern Athletic Conference titles, and coached over 4,000 players during his 57 seasons.

Robinson shares his overview of his career, “I guess you could say I’m proud of the fact that I can summarize my life by saying I had one wife and one job.”

Sadly, Robinson reluctantly resigned in 1997. He suffered from Alzheimer’s disease. When he died in April 2007, nearly 6,000 attended his funeral.

Debbie Elicksen is the author of Self-Publishing 101 (Self-Counsel Press) and offers publishing support to both royalty and self-publishers. You can reach her through her Website: http://www.freelancepublishing.net/.