LAST POSTS

03/22/2019

Chapter XVII of A History of the Green Bay Bobcats The Green Bay Bobcats had four great goalies in their 23-year existence, and if I could place those faces on Mount Rushmore, we'd see Jim Mattson, Mike "Lefty" Curran, Ron Beck and Bob Mason. Mattson played in the early- to mid-1960s, Curran and Beck in the late 60’s to mid-1970s, and Mason in the late 1970s.  Beck, an International Falls Minnesota-native, came to the Bobcats during the 1971-72 season and played his last game for the Bobcats

01/10/2019

Fuzzy Chapter XVI of A History of the Green Bay Bobcats “Intense.” That’s how former Marquette Iron Ranger Ozzie O’Neill described the on-ice persona of Gerard “Fuzzy” Frenette. Ozzie’s older brother, Bucky, who was a member of the Marquette Sentinels and later the Iron Rangers, remembers Frenette as “a tough defensemen. He didn’t take no shit from anybody.” Former Green Bay Press-Gazette Bobcats beat writer Jim Zima recalls Frenette’s fine coupling of balance and power. “He was a phenomenal

12/21/2018

John Harpell’s Big Year  Chapter XV in A History of the Green Bay Bobcats The Green Bay Bobcats finished 11-17 in 1964-65, their first losing campaign in their seven-year history. The ‘64-65 team lacked a lot of things, but their most glaring need was speed.  Bobcats’ general manager John Mayasich did something about it. He reached out to John Harpell to gauge whether wanted to play for the Bobcats in 1965-66. Mayasich had played against Harpell in the 1964-65 season, and with him.  IN

11/29/2018

Three Stories of Brown County Veterans Memorial Arena  Chapter XIV in The History of the Green Bay Bobcats  Writer's Note: This story is a two cups of coffee read. WE parked our car in a parking lot east of Brown County Veteran’s Memorial Arena. The weather was unseasonably cold on Nov. 10, 2018—below freezing for sure—and as we headed toward the arena entrance to witness the last formal hockey game played in the 60-year-old building, to the west loomed a mass of shadowy, sharp-angled

11/13/2018

The Green Bay Bobcats' home ice was the Brown County Veterans Memorial Arena. Both came onto the Green Bay scene at the same time. Had there been no arena, the Bobcats would not have existed. Here’s a timeline of how the arena came to be in Green Bay. June 15, 1954: The Green Bay City Council approved further study of a proposed site of a new city stadium-arena complex located at what is now Perkins Park, which bumps up against Military Avenue to the West and Fort Howard Cemetery on the

02/11/2018

Bobby Hull's Blackhawks Jet Past the Bobcats  Chapter XII of A History of the Green Bay Bobcats  The Chicago Blackhawks had never played a game in Wisconsin until they met the Green Bay Bobcats in an exhibition game on Oct. 9, 1966. The Blackhawks, who were gearing up for their 41st season in the National Hockey League (NHL), were well into their exhibition season when they rolled into Green Bay for a match at Brown County Veterans Memorial Arena. The Blackhawks were loaded with players

02/04/2018

The Russian Invasion Chapter XI of A History of the Green Bay Bobcats On The Cover: Russian player Datila Kostov (13) loses the puck to sprawling John Mayasich in action behind the net of Bobcats goalie Jim Mattson. When the Russian National team  played the Bobcats in December, 1964, the Russians were in the early stages of global domination. Between 1963 and 1979, the Soviet Union won 13 World Hockey Championship titles and four Olympic gold medals. THE GREEN BAY Bobcats played five

02/03/2018

Sixteen-year-old Alexander Yakushev led the Soviet National team into Green Bay to face the Bobcats on Dec. 19, 19964.  Read about it Sunday on Dierstraits.com.

01/21/2018

Chapter X of A History of the Green Bay Bobcats MORE THAN ONE million words have been written about John Mayasich the hockey player, and happily, I’m adding to the pile.   Until we get to 27 or 28 years old, our bodies make more cells each day than it uses up. After that, the body begins to use more cells than are replenished and the slow cellular breakdown begins. Depending on controllable factors like early nutrition and uncontrollable influences like genetic makeup, our biological time