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Loading... Hockey Night in Dixie: Minor Pro Hockey in the American Southby Jon C. Stott
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. The book did an excellent job of explaining the 1990's-2000's phenomenon of minor league hockey in the Southern United States. However, the one thing missing was explaining why some markets had long been established as hubs for hockey in the South, and not just by-products of the rapid expansion that took place. Also goes into detail of one team in each of the four surviving leagues (ECHL, UHL, CHL, SPHL), describing the daily life of the players, coaches, management, owners, and fans of these teams. ( ) I did some cursory research about the author, and apparently he is a retired college professor from the University of Alberta who now lives in Edmonton. He has written a few books, mostly about literature, but one about independent baseball leagues. He opens the book telling how he was visiting his daughter in Albuquerque in 1994, and after telling her that he missed hockey, was surprised when his daughter told him there was a local team. He went to a Scorpions game and was intrigued enough to want to investigate hockey in the American South. The first major section of the book follows the author as he spends one week with four teams in four leagues: (1) Roanoke Valley Vipers - UHL (now masquerading as the IHL) – even though he was there in early November of the team's only season, it's obvious how the franchise was doomed to fail, and some comments made by interview subjects are incredibly ironic with the hindsight we now have (2) Odessa Jackalopes - CHL (3) South Carolina Stingrays – ECHL (4) Fayetteville FireAntz – SPHL He interviewed a number of people in each city, ranging from coaches, players, family members of both, fans, owners, arena personnel, front office employees, and media, among others. Some of his behind-the-scenes insights are fresh, but some are pretty standard for hockey, Southern or no. The second half of the book breaks down Southern minor league hockey by league and timeframe, in five chunks of time ranging from 1988-2005, going over league developments – expansions, contractions, mergers, etc. A glaring mistake (for me) was that he had the Renegades entering the ECHL a year later than they actually did, which had me wondering how many other factual errors there were. An appendix in the next section listed each minor-league pro franchise in the United States and Canada from 1998-2005, and the dates for the Renegades are correct there. The book is on the slim side – only 220 pages counting the appendix, bibliography, and index, plus a 20-page prefix and introduction. Unlike most books in this genre, which either have no photos or only a handful of photos printed on a few consecutive pages bound in or near the middle, the photos (taken by the author – good, but not great photos) are interspersed with the text, and most are really helpful in illustrating issues or giving us a photo of a major character. However, he also includes three photos of license plates (including one he saw in a parking lot at a game and assumed was a hockey reference), which I thought was overkill. A few criticisms I have of the book: (1) He never defines the cutoff line for being in the south, and his analysis of leagues with Northern teams (whatever that cutoff is) seemed pretty disjointed to me (and personally, I consider the U.S. Southwest to be a different region from the South, while he lumps them all together); (2) He uses a cutoff date of 1998 to begin his analysis, which may be because that's when the ECHL was formed, but he never says so which makes it seem arbitrary, and with the exception of a few cities, ignores those that had any prior history of ice hockey (3) He says (way too often for my taste, since I know better) that southern fans often come to the game only to watch the fights (or some variation of that theme), and only when discussing Florida teams does he allow that some Southern hockey fans may be transplants from the north who have seen games before (and never does he allow for fans having seen the game of TV or ::gasp:: coming from a Southern city with a NHL team). (4) One week with each of four teams wasn't enough time for a really in-depth analysis IMHO, but I assume he had a limited budget and have to give him credit for undertaking the project. (5) He bought and read "Zamboni Rodeo" as part of his research for this book and found it sad. Are you kidding me? Maybe if you are unaware of the occasionally harsh realities of minor-league hockey, you would find it sad, but everyone I know who read it (including me) found it hilarious. Overall, I found it worth reading, and I especially would recommend it for anyone who wants a behind-the-scenes view of minor-league hockey. I think it fills a niche not previously covered by other books about the minor leagues, even the fine "Zamboni Rodeo" (which followed one Southwest team over the course of a season), or Hockey Tonk and The Louisiana IceGators Phenomenon (both of which were written by the team or someone close to it, and while giving a good behind-the-scenes view, suffer greatly from sycophantic "we are so great at everything we do" syndrome), or "They Don't Play Hockey in Heaven," which follows one man's dream to play pro hockey as he toils in the minors after a near-death experience. However, unless you are not from the South, prepare to see yourself (and other Southern hockey fans) stereotyped as an ignorant redneck who likes to go to hockey games to see the fights when a tractor pull or rodeo isn't in town. I've been a hockey fan since the 2004-05 season. Someone had given my fiancee and I tickets to a minor league hockey game on the last day of the season the previous year. When I found out this book existed, and that my hometown team, the Fayetteville (NC) FireAntz had an entire chapter, I had to read it. The author paints a pretty clear picture of what minor league hockey in general, and particularly in the American Southeast can be like. A must read for hockey fans, especially if you follow any of the minor leagues. no reviews | add a review
References to this work on external resources. Wikipedia in English (49)During the 1980s, the geography of minor-league professional hockey changed radically, moving from its roots in the Canadian Maritime provinces, New England and the Midwestern states into the American south. In addition to cities like Dallas, Charlotte, Norfolk and Oklahoma City, which had long traditions of minor-league hockey, unlikely places such as Biloxi, Baton Rouge, Little Rock and Augusta hosted teams. Over an 18-year period, minor-league hockey was played in 72 different southern cities, and at one point there were more minor-league teams in Texas than in all of Canada, making Texas the place where many players learned their hockey skills. "Hockey Night in Dixie" examines this phenomenon with an historical overview of the period, including interviews with people involved in the founding and early years of each of the 13 leagues. There are also in-depth portraits of four teams, one from each of the four lower minor leagues that played during the 2005-06 season. These portraits feature interviews with owners, coaches, players, officials, fans and reporters. Amply illustrated with photographs, "Hockey Night in Dixie" paints a vivid picture of this extraordinary development in minor-league sports. No library descriptions found. |
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