B2 ■ SPORTS THE BRANDON SUN ■ THURSDAY AUGUST 5 2021 TRY TO BEAT THAT!: THE 1978-79 Inventive Olson seen as typical quirky goalie BY PERRY BERGSON stood there and took it. He unless Rick got hurt. I think had a hockey helmet with the Scotty knew he had to be con- Scott Olson was the dream- cage on it and I’m sure they tent with his playing time, er in the Brandon Wheat Kings broke it but he was going out and was quite content. There net who proved to have an in- of his way to hit the pucks and might have even been a part of novative touch off the ice too. Propper and those guys were him that didn’t want the pres- The Minnesota product, just drilling it as hard as they sure of being the number one the lone American on a squad could, but that’s the type of guy with that team. The thing I of Canadian kids, shared the guy he was. He just didn’t care. remember about him is inline time in net with Rick Knickle He was another guy who was skates. He was the fi rst person during the regular season but a dreamer … He defi nitely I ever saw with rollerblades.” saw less action in the play- thought outside the box.” WES COULSON: “Scott offs. When Brandon picked up MIKE PEROVICH: “(Scott) came from the States. He was Portland goalie Bart Hunter was off the wall, that guy. He a typical . I think for the Memorial Cup, Olson was always going to make a they’re all the same, they’re didn’t play a minute. buck and be a millionaire. all nuts to play that. He was a He split the 1979-80 season He invented rollerblades so I Scott Olson good goaltender too. He kept between Brandon and the In- guess he got some money out to himself a fair bit, he wasn’t ternational Hockey League’s of it … He was funny. He was one at Scotty, so Scotty ran one to go out much with the Dayton Gems, but that’s the a Bruce Springsteen fan so we out of the crease and jumped guys. He was about 15 years last time he shows up in on- had something in common him. Donny couldn’t get up ahead of where training was hockey records. Scott Olson, a Minnesota product, was the only non-Canadian there.” because he kept slipping on headed. He was in top physi- Olson founded Rollerblade on Brandon’s roster. (Brandon Sun fi le photo) DAVE STEWART: “Scotty his stick. He stepped on his cal condition that guy. I can Inc. in 1983. He and his broth- was a little off the wall.” stick and then stepped on remember him running stairs er Brennan sold the company inventor of the rollerblade … noise “punka punka punka, DON GILLEN: “(Scott) was Olly’s stick. Olly was throwing after practice and putting the to Bob Naegele Jr., who is He went on to invent several punka” and you look around capable of playing very, very punches and wrestling him to rollerblades on and going widely credited with starting other things in the Twin Cities and here comes Scott Olson well, and he had some off the ground, and Donny was around the top of the Keystone the inline skating craze of the area but nothing had the suc- wearing rollerblades. He lent nights, like everybody else. going ‘I slipped on the stick’ . We were like ‘What the 1980s and 1990s and went on cess that the rollerblade did. me his car to go to Winnipeg He was a reader, a student, and Olly was going ‘Bulls—, hell is this guy doing?’ He was to own the . He was fi rst on the market.” to see my girlfriend one time was probably in some aspects I beat the crap out of you.’” big into eating properly, not Olson, who didn’t respond RICK KNICKLE: “I really and it had no back window. a lot more mature than some (laughs) like Freddy and Stewy and to repeated requests to be part liked Scotty Olson, my - It was just plastic wrap, and it of us, whether that was where DAVE CHARTIER: “(Scott) I going to DK’s Deep Fried of this series, lives in Minne- tending partner, but I never was three-on-the-tree (trans- he came from, I don’t know. I was a good guy. We talked Chicken House and having six sota, where he continues to really hung around with him mission) with the worst tires knew he would do well in life. quite a bit back in the day. He pieces of chicken (laughs). He invent new products. … Scotty was a really good ever but he was the only guy He was a thinker.” said ‘I’m going to invent roller- was ahead of the curve.” Laurie Boschman still owns partner to play with. It was I could borrow the car from. RICK KNICKLE: “We started blades. Do you want to get in?’ GREGG DRINNAN: “He took one of Olson’s rollerblade pro- my second year but we played I put it into a snowdrift in a the second year together and … Scott was a down-to-earth some goaltender skates, the totypes. He said Olson used together a little bit with the Winnipeg parking lot and it we almost split the games, goaltender, very personable, big old clunky ones they used to go to rinks and get young Travellers when he came late. took me a day to get it out. because he deserved it. He just happy.” to wear, and they had taken the hockey players to try them, Andy Murray knew him from Unique guy but a great guy. He played just as well as I did RAY ALLISON: “Scotty was blades off and put rollerblades and sold them that way. North Dakota and brought had a Walkman, the fi rst Walk- that year, but in the playoffs I part of that comic relief … He on. I can remember him on LAURIE BOSCHMAN: him up and he pushed me. I man anybody had ever seen, played seven or eight games was a great practice goalie. He the concourse at the Keystone “When he came up from Min- could see that right away. He on the bus one time.” more because in the playoffs would stay in the net forever Centre doing laps. There was nesota, I remember his accent. worked really hard off the ice TIM LOCKRIDGE: “He was you kind of run with a guy a and you could shoot on him nothing streamlined about His part-time gig was he did and worked at his craft.” the American who came in little bit. He was a quirky guy. I forever. He would take a thou- those goalie skates. They were taxidermy during the season. STEPHEN PATRICK: and he was just a different roomed with him, and he was sand shots.” big clunkers. I often wondered He was a real entrepreneur, a “Scotty Olson took me to the guy. I remember at the end of doing this pushups against GREGG DRINNAN (Bran- if whoever cleaned the fl oors real different kind of guy in the thrift shop in Brandon to buy practice one day he wanted to the wall and loved his skipping don Sun): “Scotty Olson was at the Keystone Centre won- sense that he was very eclectic clothes one time. When we defl ect shots with his mask. and invented the rollerblades. just a free-spirited American. dered where the rubber marks and certainly fi t the mould of were at Brad McCrimmon’s Brian Propp and Ray Allison He was a quirky American but He was a perfect backup. Yes, were coming from.” a goalie. I remember Scotty wedding, it was in this Ukrai- just kind of looked and smiled I liked Scotty a lot.” he wanted to be the number talking about this rollerblade, nian church with hardwood ‘Sure Scott, we’ll do that.’ And STEPHEN PATRICK: “Don- one guy but he understood » [email protected] because of course he was the fl oors, and you heard this they proceeded. The poor guy ny (Gillen) took a high hard that wasn’t going to happen » Twitter: @PerryBergson Rick Knickle-Scott Olson: The puck stops here BY GREGG DRINNAN the nervous type. “I’m not at all nervous,” Ol- This story originally ap- son says. “In fact, I sometimes peared in the Dec. 11, 1979 wish I could get a bit nervous edition of the Brandon Sun. before a game.” As the unbeaten Brandon Born in Grand Rapids, Wheat Kings continue to roll Minn., where he played a lot of relentlessly along much has his minor hockey, Olson now been said and written about calls Bloomington, Minn., the big guns — the Brian home. It was while he was liv- Propps, the Ray Allisons, the ing in Grand Rapids that he Laurie Boschmans, the Brad became a member of the goal- McCrimmons; even the Dave tender’s union. McDonalds and the Steve Pat- “I’ve always been a goal- ricks. tender,” Olson recalled. “I got Escaping the glare of the stuck there when I was young- spotlight, for the most part, er. I had a coach who had been has been the goaltending duo a goaltender and I guess he of Rick Knickle and Scott Ol- saw some potential.” son and this tandem is as re- Olson went from minor sponsible as anyone for the hockey in Grand Rapids to the Western Hockey League team’s high school ranks in Bloom- 1978-79 record 29-game regu- ington, where he suited up for lar-season unbeaten string. As Bloomington-Kennedy. After a matter of fact. Knickle and that it was off to the Univer sity Olson have played a huge role of North Dakota. in Wheat Kings’ overall regu- “I was doing well at UND,” lar-season undefeated streak Olson said. “ I had to beat of 49 games, which is also a out 16 other goalies for one WHL standard. spot and I did it. But, they In this era of offence-orient- discovered my high school ed junior hockey it’s uncom- marks weren’t high enough so mon — make that rare — for I would have had to sit out a a major junior team to allow year before I could play.” the opposition less than three Brandonite Paul Murray, goals per game. But, that’s ex- then a student at UND and a actly what the fi rm of Knickle member of the hockey team, and Olson is doing. suggested Olson try and catch Wheat Kings’ opposition a spot with the Wheat Kings. is scoring only an average of Olson, who says “I hadn’t 2.65 goals per game, and that’s really heard much about any simply incredible. Knickle Canadian teams,” took that as presently leads all WHL goal- sound advice and came north, tenders with a remarkable LEFT: Scott Olson was considered quirky by his teammates but invented rollerblades, a product he used to test on the con- where he ended up getting in goals-against average of 2.39, course at the Keystone Centre. (Brandon Sun fi le photo) six games with Wheat Kings, while Olson is second with a RIGHT: Rick Knickle followed his friend Tim Lockridge out to Brandon from Nova Scotia and spent three years with the club. while spending most of his highly-respectable mark of (Brandon Sun fi le photo) time with the Travellers. 2.94. Like Knickle, Olson says he But, while the two goalten- Annapolis Valley. When Lock- his life, showed up at Wheat pro hockey’s junior draft. Dunc. He has taught me quite has improved quite a bit under ders’ statistics may be a lot ridge headed west in hopes Kings’ rookie camp and found Despite the glorious sta- a bit, particularly about cover- McCallum’s tutelage. alike, that’s where the similari- of furthering his hockey ca- himself assigned to the Mani- tistics, Knickle’s feet still are ing angles. I think I know quite “Dunc’s all right,” says Ol- ties end. It’s ex tremely doubt- reer, the two kept in touch and toba Junior League Travellers. planted fi rm ly on the ground a bit about goaltending, but son. “For sure I enjoy playing ful if any hockey team, ever, when Wheat Kings lost goal- It wasn’t too much later and he knows there’s room for Dunc really seems to know for him. Just the other night he has employed two tender Glen Hanlon through that he got a call from Wheat improvement in his game. He what he’s talking about.” gave me a few comments that as different, both in back- graduation, Lockridge sug- Kings’ coach Dunc McCallum says his weakest areas are his While Knickle obviously is a will help me.” grounds and personalities, as gested to Knickle that per- and he found himself starting feet (they lack quickness) and goal tender, and a damn good McCallum and Olson agree the Brandon pair. haps he, too, should go west in a game in, of all places, New his stick checking. one, when he’s on the ice, that perhaps his largest short- Knickle, at 18 years of age, search of fame and fortune. Westminster. Incredible as it “Most goalies are weak in things are a bit different in the coming, if you want to call it came to Brandon from his “I’ve followed junior hockey may sound, he was superb — their feet,” Knickle explains, dressing room. that, is in the area of concen- native Nova Scotia, where closely for a long time,” said kicking out 44 shots and being “and I’m working on that. “Some people say I’m ev- tration. And, that’s something his father, a member of the Knickle, an avid sports fan named the game’s fi rst star — I also need to improve my erything a goaltender isn’t that is receiving a lot of atten- Air Force, is stationed. The who reads and Wheat Kings emerged 5-4 poke-checking. Scotty (Olson) supposed to be,” said Knick- tion. 19-year-old Olson, originally from cover to cover and is con- winners over the Bruins, who is a good poke-checker and le. “I hardly ever get nervous “Scott has to try and con- from Bloomington, Minn., sidered by his teammates to would go on to win the Me- I’m trying to learn from watch- before a game. I just sit there centrate more on angles than joined Wheat Kings out of be quite a hockey trivia expert. morial Cup. Before the season ing him.” before a game … that’s how I on moving,” McCallum says, University of North Dakota. “And I fi gured there were a lot had ended Knickle had ap- He’s also learning from Mc- psych myself up. When I get adding that there has been As quiet and unassuming as of guys getting drafted out of peared in 46 games, posting Callum, a former professional up against a team with a bit of considerable improvement Knickle is, Olson is just the op- this league so it must be some- a league-leading 34 wins and defenceman in both the Na- scoring power — like Saska- over the past year. posite‚ gregarious, outgoing thing. I defi nitely want to be a seven ties. His goals-against tional Hockey League and the toon at home, or maybe Port- At 19 years of age, Olson will and, perhaps, a bit hyper. pro, and I fi gured if I stayed average of 3.89 was second- World Association, and Han- land — I get a bit of a tingle in be eligible for the NHL and • • • home it would never happen.” best in the league, to Portland lon, who has spent time in my stomach.” WHA junior drafts next spring. Knickle and Brandon de- So, with one year of Tier Winter Hawks Bart Hunter, training camp working with • • • He admits he wouldn’t mind fenceman Tim Lockridge II junior behind him — he at 3.88. And after this season, the goaltenders. Nerves, not lack of same, turning pro and says “I think have been friends since their played goal for Scotia Colts Knickle will be back for one “With most coaches I’ve supposedly go hand-in-hand about turning pro once in a boyhood days in Greenwood, — Knickle worked hard to more go-round with Wheat had,” Knickle says, “the goal- with goal tenders. But, Olson while, but try not to. N.S., a quiet community in the get into the best condition of Kings before he’s eligible for ies are forgot ten. But, not with claims he, like Knickle, is not “If it happens, it happens.”