— A
"A gripping case study
of inhumanity" — Variety
OUT OF
me Box
A
REAL
LIFE
DRAMA
Jewish hockey fans abound,
and more and more, Jewish players
are taking to the ice.
here aren't a lot of Na-
tional Hockey League
jerseys with Jewish
names. For that matter,
t e teams of the premier minor
leagues — the American Hock-
ey League and International
Hockey League — boast few
Jewish players. But when it
comes to Wings freaks, look out.
Jim Sklar and his brother, Dr.
Larry Sklar, have purchased
Red Wings season tickets for the
last eight years. The Birming-
ham-based 31-year-old attorney
says he loves to watch hockey.
"I appreciate the diffi-
culty of the sport,"
he explains.
Hockey players
don't make as
much as other
professional ath-
letes, and there's
something ad-
mirable about
that, he says.
"They're the
most genuine,
and there's a
sense of integri-
ty. ,
Sklar and his
brother are just
two of hundreds
of Jewish hockey
fans who fill the
Joe (Joe Louis
Arena) on game
nights. With that
kind of enthusiasm, one might
conclude there are several Jew-
ish hockey heroes in profession-
al hockey leagues -Alas, there
don't seem to be enough to even
play a game.
"I can guess why," says Sklar,
who never gave hockey demo-
graphics much thought. "Most
players are Canadian. They're
like tennis players here. As soon
as they can walk, they're in
skates. Jewish parents don't
push skating ... they push ten-
nis."
David Knoll's not so sure
about that. The 32-year-old grew
up playing and watching hock-
ey with many of his friends and
family members at Oak Park
and Royal Oak arenas. His fam-
ily was into hockey in a big way.
But Knoll, an attorney for
Levine-Benjamin in Southfield
who's had Red Wings season
tickets for 15 years, says he not-
ed the lack of Jewish profes-
The Toronto Maple Leafs'
sionals as he got older. "Oh yeah,
I noticed. [As far as I know], Mathieu Schneider, also Jewish,
there are only Mike Hartman [of was born in New York, N. Y. In
the Hershey Bears in Pennsyl- 1996, the Leafs acquired Schnei-
vania] and Mathieu Schneider der from the New York Is-
of the Toronto Maple Leafs," the landers. The 28-year-old
Berkley resident says. (See sto- defenseman was third on the Is-
ry on Todd Simon of the Detroit landers in assists, points and
Vipers: "Wearing His Identity shots at the time of the trade.
And while professional Jew-
On His Hockey Stick.")
Thirty-year-old Mike Hart- ish hockey players may be few
man grew up in Oak Park and and far between, that's a sce-
is under contract to the Colorado nario that's likely to change.
Although Jim Sklar never se-
Avalanche. He currently plays
left wing for its minor-league riously played hockey as a child,
team, the American Hockey he couldn't wait to buy his 2-
League's Pennsylvania-based year-old son his first set of
Hershey skates. He plans to get his son
involved in what he says is an
Bears.
With extremely "graceful sport."
Pam. Stoler introduced her
sons to hockey when they were
toddlers. While the baby boys
were crawling around the
/ family room on Saturday
nights, their mom was glued
to television's Hockey Night in
Canada.
Stoler, a real estate agent for
Max Broock in Birmingham, put
her sons, now aged 18 and 19,
in skates at ages 2 and 3, and
they've been tearing up the
ice ever since.
The Stoler
•
'/boys
started in
1
Southfield's
open skating
programs and
then entered
116 minutes spent in the penal- leagues. "I was a hockey mom,"
ty box this season, the feisty recalls Stoler, who understands
Hartman has served a longer the commitment required to
sentence than most. The winger play. "Sometimes we wouldn't
has tallied up five goals and get home 'til midnight after late-
eight assists in 42 games this night games," she recalls.
One son, Randy, was a goalie
year. He also played in the Na-
tional Hockey League for Buf- for a Birmingham unified team
falo, Winnipeg, Tampa Bay and Seaholm and Groves high
schools. Bradley, who now at-
the New York Rangers.
"My NHL days are over," says tends college in Arizona, played
Hartman. But he's really enjoy- right wing.
The hockey mom says she
ing some of the coaching oppor-
tunities he's had, and thanks wouldn't change a thing about
head Bears coach Bob Hartley her sons' hockey upbringing. "It
for allowing him to act as assis- was great for the kids. They
tant coach. "Coaching is great; learned what it meant to be part
of a team," she says.
maybe it's my future," he says.
Meanwhile, Jim Sklar's tod-
Hartman, who played in the
International Hockey League for dler slides and stumbles around
Detroit in 1995, coaches the on the ice in his brand-new
United States Maccabiah hock- skates. Maybe in two decades
ey team, which will compete his name will be on the back of
against teams from Canada, a Red Wing jersey. ❑
Russia and Israel in the July
1997 Maccabiah Games in Is-
— Megan Swoyer
rael.
February 12 — March 9
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