INDIANAPOLIS, Ind – A skinny young kid takes the ice in the late ‘70’s for the Indianapolis Racers. There is an aura around him and a hint of the polish that will come through in later years. He sees the ice like no one else had but the scoring touch is not quite there yet.
Sure, Wayne Gretzky played for the Indianapolis Racers of the old World Hockey Association but the latest effort by Tim Gassen is not to focus on Gretzky or Mark Messier who also started his career in Indy. Rather, Gassen is focused on the Racers themselves and the travails of a team at once destined for greatness but also as an also-ran organization in the dustbin of dead and suspended hockey clubs.
Gretzky, Indy & The WHA , the DVD, is about the heart and soul of the Racers, the players and fans. The release is a two-DVD set with a slickly produced profile of the Racers over their four and half year stint in the WHA.
The second DVD is the only purported (near) full length video of a Racers game. Ironically, it is a game between the Racers and the Edmonton Oilers in December 1978 and it is the final game of the Racers organization as the club went dark the following week.
Gassen is dedicated to preserving the memory of the Racers and the thrill of the fans for their beloved team. There is certainly the entertainment factor in this production for WHA fans and those who remember the heady days of competition between the WHA and the NHL.
But there is also an undercurrent of information that Gassen touches on but does not drill into deeper. After all, this film is not about the dirty underbelly of hockey.
Regardless of economic environments hockey seems to have been populated by owners who were charmed by the allure of owning a professional sports franchise but who were woefully under-funded. This scenario has been played all too often over the past two decades in minor league hockey and Gassen provides a glance into the WHA version of this issue and shows that the presence of less than ideal owners goes back to the ‘70’s and beyond for sure.
Absentee owners, owners losing interest in their investment, owners losing money they never had in the first place, and the devastation to the hockey landscape are all evident in this DVD. Racers fans were rabid for their team over the four plus years. But they were the ones left to wonder what happened and why. Players moved on and staff moved on to other opportunities but hockey fans were left behind waiting until the Ice showed up in the ‘90’s (and also promptly left for financial issues).
Gassen’s Racers DVD begs a question of the viewer and hockey fan. When will we stop falling for the latest line from the newest ownership group to step into a town where franchise after franchise has failed? When will fans demand commitment, local ownership, and stable financial status before dropping hard earned cash and scarce discretionary dollars on one more fly-by night owner?
This terrifically entertaining DVD by Gassen is about much more than a single hockey club, its players and loyal fans. It is a window on how the fans of the sport have been abused for years, nay decades, and yet continue to come back to the sport. It is a reflection of the current state of minor league hockey and the efforts of some owners to play on the loyalty of the fans and take advantage of their love for the game.
Owners lose money, declare a business loss and move on to some other city to repeat their mistakes. But the true loyal fans are left literally and figuratively in the cold. Look at New Mexico and Oklahoma City in the CHL, Fresno and Augusta in the ECHL, Iowa in the AHL, and countless clubs in other leagues.
Gassen provides some lessons for current and future fans to consider before laying down the cash for season tickets and jerseys and hot dogs and beer. Show us, the fans, your commitment; prove your financial stability and full investment in our club for three years; show your loyalty to the fans.
Owners expect and demand loyalty from the fans and it is time the fans demand the same in return.
Had the fans of the Racers had the same insight as Gassen provides in this DVD then maybe the club would have lasted longer or not played on the hunger for professional hockey in Indianapolis.
The film and DVD of the final Racers game are companion pieces to Gassen’s Red, White & Blues memoir of the Racers, published in 2007. Where the book was a fond trip down memory lane, the DVD is about the people who made the Racers a fixture in Indianapolis from 1974 through the first 25 games of the 1978-1979 WHA season. The film is about the gut wrenching impact of the folding of the team.
But more importantly, this film is about the happier times as fans packed the arena to cheer their Racers. It is about the reminiscences of players, coaches and staff and their impressions of the club and their love of the fans. Boil hockey down to its component parts and you are left with players, staff and fans feeding each other and benefiting from the other.
This DVD is a gem of a production. It is a great addition to the collection of any Racers fan library of titles about their team. It is a film that will bring back memories of some great people but will also rekindle the fierce rivalries with the Cincinnati Stingers. After all, that is what hockey is all about, rivalries as fierce as any and as long lasting as time itself.
The sit back and enjoy a perfectly good hockey telecast from Indianapolis as the Racers face off against the Edmonton Oilers. There is no spoiler alert. The score is etched in history. Just watch the telecast and believe that under better circumstances Indianapolis might have been there with Edmonton, Winnipeg and Quebec in the merger.
But see it for the lessons it offers and learn them well. For the sake of the sport we all love.
Featured in this film are Pat Stapleton, Jim Park, Ken Block, Reg Thomas Brian McDonald, Paul Hoganson, Hugh Harris and Peter Driscoll. An added treat are the comments of the “voice of the Racers” Hall-of-Famer and current NFL Indianapolis Colts play-by play announcer, Bob Lamey, who graciously honors the film with narration.
Contact lou.lafrado@prohockeynews.com
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