Interview with pro wrestling legend Nick Bockwinkel

Marty O'Neill with Nick Bockwinkel
(photo: WrestlingClassics.com)

A sold out throng of fans packed Staples Center last night for the WWE's annual SummerSlam event. It was a glitzy affair, attended by many athletes and celebrities - including NHL defenseman Sheldon Souray sitting in the front row.

It wasn't that surprising really, as there's always been a loose link between hockey and wrestling - after all, they at the very least share the same arenas in most major markets.

One of the building's normal residents, the Los Angeles Kings, have their own ties to the squared circle as well. Ted Irvine, who helped set up the first goal in team history, is the father of former WWE champion Chris Jericho.

However, years before Jack Kent Cooke brought the NHL to Los Angeles - and a lifetime before AEG helped revitalize downtown - one of the hottest tickets in SoCal was for events held just a few blocks from the city's showpiece arena now located on Figueroa Street.

One man who helped make that much smaller venue an icon among sports buildings was Nick Bockwinkel. For those not familiar with the rich history of pro wrestling, he's a mulit-time world champion, Hall of Famer and had many classic matches with the fellow legends, such as Verne Gagne, Dick The Bruiser, Terry Funk, Larry Zbyszko, Andre The Giant and Hulk Hogan.

"Before I came back to the Midwest, Los Angeles was where I first started wrestling and that's where my father wrestled for a number of years," said Bockwinkel. "A lot of my early matches were at the old Olympic Auditorium, back in 1955. The dressing room there was like a dungeon."

Throwback Thursdays - Interview w/ Brian Kilrea

Ottawa is a long way from Los Angeles.

Yet, the older you get, the more you realize the world we live in is actually a rather small place. The hockey world is even smaller.

On October 14, 1967 Brian Kilrea was one of about two dozen players that made up the inaugural L.A. Kings roster. On that specific night, he was skating on a line with Ted Irvine and Lowell MacDonald at the Long Beach Arena. Their new home - The Forum in Inglewood - wouldn't be ready for a few more months.

About 2,400 miles away in Ottawa, a 17-year old Terry Murray was just beginning his junior hockey career as a defenseman for the Ottawa 67s - as luck would have it, also an expansion team.

Later that night, Kilrea would forever become linked with the Kings, scoring the first goal in franchise history.

Today, the two men have switched teams. Murray is now the coach in Los Angeles and Kilrea is the General Manager back in Ottawa.  However, the path that has taken 'Killer' (as he's affectionately known) from the Kings of '67 to the front office of the 67s, was a road filled with many twists and turns.

A few years after requesting a demotion to the minor leagues during his first season with the Kings, he eventually moved on to a successful coaching career in the OHL - a job that saw him tend herd over teams that once included Jim Fox...and more recently, featured one of the Kings draft picks earlier this summer, Tyler Toffoli.

Along the way he won over 1,100 games behind the bench, led two teams to the Memorial Cup (1984 and 1999), won the OHL title three times, was a five-time OHL Coach of the Year and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2003.

Not bad for a guy that only played 26 NHL games.

In the interview below we cover it all. From the first goal in Kings history to some of the players he's been associated with throughout his illustrious career.

MM: Take us back to October of '67.  The Kings are playing the Flyers and you score the first-ever goal for the team...

Teddy Irvine carried the puck down the left wing, they went into the corner - he and Lowell McDonald - and they were battling for the puck. They fed it to me in the slot and I got off a quick shot. I wouldn't say I picked my shot, but I one timed it and it found room to go in. That goal got us back in the game, after being down 2-0. We went on to win that game 4-2. I scored into the empty net with less than a minute to go also.

After the game, Jack Kent Cooke, our owner, came down to the locker room and was going around congratulating everybody for winning the first game. The trainer had already given me the puck from earlier. So, when he came to talk to me, I gave the puck to him. You would have thought I gave him a million dollars or a puck of gold. He was just delighted, smiling from ear to ear. He really treasured that memento, the first goal for the Los Angeles Kings.

Any off ice memories with your linemates or some of the other guys that first season in L.A.?

Tuesday's 10 Tidbits on the Hockey-n-Wrestling connection

In 1985, in what's billed as the World's Most Famous Arena, Vince McMahon launched his version of professional wrestling into super-stardom, live from Madison Square Garden. Largely on the back of a "Rock-n-Wrestling" connection - fueled in part by a partnership with MTV - his World Wrestling Federation staged the first WrestleMania.

Fast forward 25 years...just a few weeks ago McMahon and crew were at the sold out Staples Center for SummerSlam, their annual mid-year spectacular. While connections to Cindi Lauper and MTV have long been removed from the on camera presentation, strong ties to the world of hockey still exist behind the scenes.

It only makes sense too. Professional wrestling has deep roots in Canada. And certainly there is nothing more Canadian than hockey, right?

Here in the U.S., many of the greatest wrestlers in history come from Minnesota, a state that promotes itself as 'The State of Hockey'. Thus, the opportunities for overlap are similar to our friends north of the border.

Sure enough, in today's 10 Tidbits article we take a look at several such connections, including at least two linked to the Los Angeles Kings.

1 - The most obvious connection between wrestling and the Kings is tied to a man considered to be one of the best wrestlers of his generation, the first ever unified world heavyweight champion, Chris Jericho.  His father was Ted Irvine (pictured), a member of the inaugural L.A. team in '67-68.  Wearing jersey #15 that season, Irvine scored 18 goals and had 22 assists, including a helper on the first goal ever scored in Kings history (October 14, 1967).

July 4th - Celebrating A Hockey Birthday Too

America is a great country and we should all be proud to live here.  While many are quick to place celebrities and athletes upon a pedestal, the real heroes are the men and women around the world that so bravely fight for our freedom.  It is because of them that we can sit here today safely.  Seriously, we salute you and your families for all that you make possible.

Here's a little 4th of July story with a Kings twist...

Long before Teemu Selanne was The Finnish Flash, the Kings had a center known as The Flying Finn...Juha Markku, born July 4th, 1947.

His story is an interesting one and also has ties to a few other people you may know... 

He led the Kings in scoring three straight seasons in the early 70s...on teams that included bigger names, like Butch Goring...but, we'll get to that...let's start at the beginning...

Like Tomas Sandstrom, he was born in Finland but actually raised in Sweden.  He came to North America as a teenager to play for the Brandon Wheat Kings...the same junior hockey club where current Kings prospect Brayden Schenn has been honing his skills the last three seasons.

Furthering his parallel with Sandstrom, Markku started his pro career with the New York Rangers...only it was back in 1969, when Tomas was only 5 years old.

After just one season in the Big Apple, Markku was traded to Jack Kent Cooke's three-year old Los Angeles Kings franchise in February 1970.  Who went back the other way in the deal?  Ted Irvine...better known today as the father of Chris Jericho, a WWE superstar and host of NBC's Downfall.

The Flying Finn went on to play six full seasons with the Kings...leading the team in scoring from '70-71 to '72-73...he averaged 24 goals in his first five years in LA, yet he lost his scoring touch in the '75-76 season - netting just 7 goals in 67 games.  The following year he was traded to the Cleveland Barons.

On a side note, Markku often played on a line with Bob Berry during his time in LA. Berry is now a scout for the Kings.

Markku played one more year in Edmonton (a WHA club at the time) and then called it a career in the summer of '78.  The following season that same Edmonton team featured the debut of a 17 year old kid named Wayne Gretzky.  As is the custom in hockey, young Wayne was assigned a veteran player as his roommate on the road.  Who did Wayne get?  Garnet "Ace" Bailey.  Yes, the same Ace Bailey who would go on to be a scout for the LA Kings.  Along with Mark Bavis (a fellow scout), the two were among the nearly 3,000 lives that were taken from us on September 11, 2001.

Today would have been Markku's 63rd birthday.  Unfortunately, he passed away back in 1984...suffering a heat attack at the young age of 37.

Tonight across America friends and families will gather to enjoy each others' company and share in the tradition of fireworks, as we celebrate our freedom.  When you stare into the sky this evening if you see some purple and yellow among the bursts of light, it's probably just Markku and Bailey smiling down on you from up above.

The Mayor
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The Cleveland Barons (mentioned above) were originally the California Seals...who, like the Kings, were one of six teams added to the NHL in 1967...you can read more about the group known as the Second Six by clicking here.

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