by Mike Gill Long before Red Berenson became noted as the greatest Michigan hockey player ever, long before he scored six goals in one game for the St. Louis Blues, long before he stood behind the Wolverine bench as coach, one could figure what Red Berenson was all about. Hockey. With a stress on academics. With intensity in everything he did. In between trips to the rink, young Red struggled to learn math, especially multiplication. Why did his teacher in Regina, Saskatchewan, say "five multiplied by five" while his mother, Marge, said "five times five" when she tried to make him understand his current lesson? He couldn't comprehend. "No, you don't know how to do it," he yelled at his mother. "You just don't know. That's not the way it's done." Finally, Gordon "Red" Berenson understood mathematics. A teacher helped him make sense of the entire process. And soon Red Berenson was teaching other students how to calculate five times five. Which is exactly what he is doing now. Teaching others. Teaching skills he learned. Teaching winning. And maybe, if all goes right after the NCAA hockey tournament opens tonight, he might teach his pupils how to win a NCAA championship. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Much happened before Red Berenson stepped behind the bench to lead Michigan to a high seed entering the tournament tonight against Cornell. First, he had to learn how to skate. Then play hockey. Then coach. According to his mother, whom he liked to call "Merge," she didn't want the son of a fire fighter and homemaker to be embarrassed. After all, she didn't learn how to skate until she was twelve. So she bought skates for her three-year-old son, even though they didn't make skates in his size. Instead, Marge stuck six pairs of socks in a size too big, and put her son on skates. They mounted a box on the back of a sleigh and as Red held on for dear life, he quickly learned to skate. Quite well, in fact. felttarre'a'ra 6 a oereg terfa r'ooe/reca'f.J aeraat. And without her knowing, he was climbing into the ice rink in his western Canadian town, practicing and broadcasting moves that could make him a star. Berenson takes the puck, moves left, skates around the defender, and he SCORES!!!! Berenson grabs the puck at the blue line, dekes the man on, and he's going in all alone. He SCORES!!! Red Berenson with a beautiful move in front of the goal! Berson with a shot from the blue4 line. He SCORES!!! "I didn't even know he was climbing through windows before the rink opened until I read it in the paper," Marge Berenson recalls. "But he was so full of energy, you always had to keep him busy." His hockey coach at Michigan, Al Renfrew, can tell you how full of energy his top player was. It was 1961 and Michigan had just dropped the first game of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association playoffs to Minnesota, 3-1. The second game ended in regulation at 3-3. The series was decided on total goals. When Red found out there would be no overtime and that Michigan had just lost the series, he headed to the lockerroom. The door was still locked. "It didn't matter to Red," Renfrew says. "When he found out that we couldn't win the series, he was so mad, he went down and walked right through the door. Talk about a guy upset with a decision. By the time the rest of the team got down there, the door was open, but not the way it was supposed to be open. It was off the hinges." By most standards, that is called upset. "I put a lot of pressure on myself to do well," Red admits. His wife, Joy Berenson, wouldn't argue. She has been married to the current Michigan hockey coach for 31 years, ever since he began his sophomore year at Michigan.'She has gone out with him since they were 14. "You learn that life evolves around hockey," she said. "Hockey is all-encompassing. Hockey has to be first and foremost. You don't bring up a problem on game day. Sometimes you don't bring up problems at all." But let us not paint the wrong picture. Red is intense. He is hot. And he expects the best from his family, from his players, from himself. Yet Joy will say, "I could never picture myself married to anyone else." And he also has a sense of humor. In his days in the NHL, Red taught rookies the joys of snipe hunting. The captain of the Blues usually instigated this prank. A group of teammates would go to a small suburban town in Missouri to hunt snipe, a type of bird. After a while, real police officers would catch the rookies for hunting "snipe," claiming the pigeon-sized bird was out of season. They would be arrested, thrown in jail, and brought to trial in front of a real judge. They were found guilty and again thrown in jail. Then the other players would break them out of ail, while the rookies shook their boots. After each joke, Red smiled at his engineering. Laughed. Maybe he stood there with a cigar, looking like George Peppard in the A-Team, and said, "I love it when a plan comes together." Of course, having a plan come together is nothing new for Red. Sure, it took seven years as coach to bring Michigan from disaster to the top of the national rankings. But Red and Michigan, now a marriage which seems so secure, wasn't a planned relationship. He didn't even know of Ann Arbor, or where it was located, when he began his college hunt. First, there was the dream of playing pro hockey. Playing in the Forum in Montreal is the ultimate dream for a Canadian. Scoring a goal, or a hat trick. Those dreams had never come true for a college player. And experts said they never would. But Berenson, who spent one day in both kindergarten and first grade and altogether skipped seventh grade, thought otherwise. He graduated from high school when he was 16, played junior 'A' hockey for two years, and wanted to continue his education. He began looking at American colleges. Being from western Canada, North Dakota, Denver, and Colorado became obvious choices. He went to the library and looked up all the accredited universities in the United States and matched them with top hockey programs. Harvard and Michigan passed his test. They were the best of both worlds: hockey and academics. Four other buddies from his junior hockey team felt the same way. Red wrote Michigan - he didn't think of calling long distance for financial reasons - and told the coach of their interest. He visited North Dakota and was impressed. He then heard from Renfrew, who asked him to visit Michigan. "Geez, I thought North Dakota was pretty impressive, and their coach almost convinced me to go there," Red says. He told Renfrew the same thing, but the Michigan coach persuaded him to visit the campus. Renfrew told him he used to coach the Fighting Sioux, and if Red would spent five minutes in Ann Arbor he would want Michigan. "He was right," Red now admits. The trip to Michigan marked the first time Berenson ever flew. "I couldn't believe it, sitting up there, looking down and eating that Air Canada steak." Thus a marriage was born. Then, there was the marriage and the honeymoon with his wife - but that's another story for later. First we have to finish his of recruitment. "I told the four other guys, 'This is where we're going, Red recalls. "They never saw Ann Arbor. They didn't even know where Ann Arbor was on the map. I had to show everybody where it was." That June, Red and teammate Jerry Kolb hitchhiked from Regina, Saskatchewan, to Chicago before bussing to Ann Arbor. "They announced over the radio that two young hockey players wanted to catch a ride to Ann Arbor," remembered Kolb, now a semi-retired real estate broker living in Florida. "A couple gave us a ride to Chicago. "We had never been to a city like that. God, those huge skyscrapers... We just looked up. We couldn't believe it. We weren't exposed to too much before that." While Renfrew landed a job at the University golf course for Kolb, the coach found Berenson a job in Morenci - on the border of Ohio. Berenson drove a truck delivering trailers to cities such as Chicago, New York and New Orleans. Quickly, the Canadian learned the American landscape. That was not all that Renfrew did for Berenson. After Berenson's first year at Michigan, he went home with plans of marrying his college sweetheart, Joy. He called Renfrew, asking him the date he needed to return for class, as well as asking the favor of finding housing and a part-time job for his new wife. Renfrew agreed. When Berenson and his new bride arrived in Ann Arbor, they found no such plans put in action. Instead, their honeymoon was spent... sleeping on the coach's front porch. "It was screened from top to bottom," remembers Joy. "The temperature dropped that night from probably 75 to 45," recalls Renfrew. "When they woke up, Al's kids were peeking through the bushes, watching," everyone seems to remember. "The funny thing was, it was our honeymoon," Joy adds. What a start to a marriage. Berenson completed his Michigan career by setting the school's career scoring record of 43 goals before becoming the first college player ever to enter the pro ranks. "I remember in the lockerroom after we beat St. Lawrence (in the NCAA consolation game of 1962)," says Doug Barnett, longtime Michigan timekeeper and current hockey booster, as well as owner of the Mail Shoppe. "Al Renfrew told us that Red would be playing for the Canadians the next night. I was so proud." After the victory, Berenson boarded a train for Boston and JENNIFER DUNETZ/Weekend Qed 1erenson used to sneak played for the Montreal Canadians the next night. His mission to play in the NHL had been accomplished. Berenson won a Stanley Cup in 1965 and played 17 seasons with Montreal, the New York Rangers, St. Louis, and Detroit. In seven different seasons he scored at least 20 goals, and while with the Blues, he set an NHL record on November 7, 1%8, when in Philadelphia he scored six goals. "It was just one of those nights," he says. "I thought I could have scored seven or eight." Songs were made about Red. He appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated the next year. Yet life in the NHL had its price. "We've had the phone ring at 4:00 in the morning to tell us that I've been traded," Berenson says. "That's it. There is no discussion. You're going there. Now, for me it's easy because I get on a plane and join that team. My family has to arrange for selling the house, moving, and new doctors and new music teachers and do this and do that. It's not easy." Through it all, the family persisted despite hardships. In addition to constant moving, a member was constantly out of town with his NHL team. But there were summers. Summers to spend together. And summers that kept the family together - summers that kept the family of two parents and four children from becoming six separate parts. The family owned a trailer, and sometimes they would even rent out their home. They would travel together, tightening the bond. "For those months, we were a family," says his wife, Joy, who notes this year is the first year since Red's senior year at Michigan that the house is without children. "It was a bond for those two months and it solidified us. Once fall rolled around, we were a family and ready to deal with what the months ahead brought us again. I feel that was an advantage we had over other families." Getting to the outdoors has always been something Red has cherished. Each year, Berenson, despite the time limitations now placed on him due to recruiting and summer camps, takes his sons and friends into Northern Canada. They enjoy the outdoors. Fish. Canoe. Eat off rocks. Enjoy the outback. "These are not general trips down the Huron River. No, no, they're serious trips," Red laughs. Often, the drive may encompass 1500 miles to James Bay or Hudson Bay. "They're good for me because they're so remote that when you get back, you really appreciate everything you have - you appreciate just the fact that you have a toilet, a shower, a refrigerator and hot water - just simple things. It's a basic value experience," Red says. Cooking becomes a part of these trips. The coach sayshe enjoys barbecuing back home and that pancakes are his specialty. His current players cite his hamburgers, known as Berry Burgers. Current seniors recall being invited to his house for a "party" when they were rookies. Never being ones to turn down a good time, they showed up only to discover that itwas a work party at his house. After a hard day's labor of outdoor maintenance, they were treated to Berenson's hamburgers, of which he brags, "one is all you can eat." Berenson stomached three seasons as coach of the St. Louis Blues. In his only full season as coach, he was named NHL Coach of the Year, while guiding the Blues to the second highest point total in the league. Yet after only 68 games the next season, Berenson was sacked. Emile Francis, the Blues president and general manager, was quoted as saying, "I have waited and I have waited and I have waited." And Don Canham, Michigan's athletic director, could wait no longer. Berenson worked two years as Scottie Bowman's assistant in Buffalo after leaving the Blues. Michigan's hockey program finished in ninth place those years. A player revolt took 9e-ewsoK owce taatktotk .-,f a-idwatic, {le continues teacki o edaA witk de 8a RED, BY THE NUMBERS PLAYING AT MICHIGAN Year Team League GP G A Pts. 59-60 Michigan WCHA 12 11 7 18 60-61 Michigan WCHA 28 24 25 49 61-62 Michigan WCHA 28 43 27 70 College Totals 68 78 59 137 COACHING Year Team League W L T Pct. 79-80 St. Louis NHL 27 20 9 .563 80-81 St. Louis NHL 45 18 17 .669 81-82 St. Louis NHL 28 34 6 .456 NHL Totals 100 72 32 .559 84-85 Michigan CCHA 13 26 1 .338 85-86 Michigan CCHA 12 26 0 .316 86-87 Michigan CCHA 14 25 1 .363 87-88 Michigan CCHA 22 19 0 .537 88-89 Michigan CCHA 22 15 4 .595 89-90 Michigan CCHA 24 12 6 .643 90-91 Michigan CCHA 32 7 3 .798 Michigan Totals 139 130 1 5 .605 through windows of the town ice rink. Now, no one is 6neakin8 past h i6 Qstr e a k in 8 M ic h i8 a n t e e u.If e~ sap to l - t - %' a~~te assaeri t(c fam, d. ". .. -- ... . arch 15, 1991- WEEKEND Page 6 Page 7 WEEKEND lV|