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grade visiting my uncle Frank Agnello for Thanksgiving. He took me to the traditional Detroit Lions game on Thanksgiving Day – always against the Packers in those days – and the Red Wings' game against Montreal that night. For years, all I remembered was that the game ended in a 2-2 tie and featured a great young goalie named Terry Sawchuk and a star player named Gordie Howe. Years later, I would interview both of them for my television station. What I didn't realize back then is that there were three other players on that team who would eventually join Sawchuk and Howe in the Hockey Hall of Fame: Ted Lindsay, Alex Delvecchio and Red Kelly. By the time of the expansion draft in Montreal, Sawchuk was playing for Toronto, which won the Stanley Cup that 1966-67 season, and he was the first of 120 players chosen – by the Los Angeles Kings. Red Kelly had just retired from the Maple Leafs, and he became the first coach of the Kings. When the Penguins were in their first preseason training camp in Brantford, Ontario, the owners again flew some Pittsburgh media there for the team's opening exhibition game against the powerful Chicago Blackhawks, featuring two future Hall of Famers: Bobby Hull Sr. and Stan Mikita. About 75 minutes or so before the game, something unusual occurred that gave me an insight into why hockey was such a part of the Canadian bloodline. As a few spectators began entering the arena, a large group of young kids started milling around the tunnel near the Blackhawks' locker room leading to the rink, when to my surprise Hull and Mikita came out in full uniform with their hockey sticks and seemed about to enter the ice for an early workout. Instead, the pair walked over to the pack of waiting youngsters and talked to them while signing autographs for 15 to 20 minutes. In my then-half-dozen years of dealing with professional football, baseball and basketball players, I had never encountered superstars of the Hull-Mikita caliber so eager to spend so much time befriending youths who idolized them. Far too many times, the pro athletes were downright rude to the kids. Years later, when Wayne Gretzky became a superstar, I learned he grew up in Brantford, and he would have been about 6 years old at the time of that incident. Gretzky might have been one of those impressionable youngsters, but if not, I would not be surprised if another kid or two in that crowd went on to play in the NHL. Shortly after I returned from Brantford, Ken McKenzie, the founder and editor of the weekly Hockey News, called me and asked me to be the newspaper's Penguins correspondent, strictly a freelance position. So, in addition to the TV interviews I did with the Penguin players, coaches and officials as well as opponents, my Hockey News work took me inside the team's locker room before and after games and at practices. Once again, I found the pro hockey players to be a different breed than the other pro athletes. They were cordial, friendly and willing to answer even the toughest or seemingly critical question I asked. Surprisingly, the Penguins had no problems with me bringing my then-5year-old son Scott into the locker room with me when I did those interviews. The players were playful with him and gave him broken sticks and pucks that he kept for years. Hockey became his favorite sport and still is. Unfortunately, like his father, Scott can't skate a lick, but over the years we have seen many NHL games together, and even a few minor league games. He has been living in Ohio for decades, primarily in the Cincinnati-Dayton area, and he loves Penn State football as much as he does hockey. So he is eager to join me and his mother for a couple of Penn State hockey games in the Pegula Ice Arena this winter. I also intend to introduce Scott to Joe Battista. Scott met Joe Paterno years ago, and it is about time he meets another fellow Italian who will be remembered for what he did to help Penn State athletics achieve another milestone in I its glorious history. The Remarkable Journey of the 2012 Nittany Lions A diary by Lou Prato, author of the Penn State Football Encyclopedia and four other Nittany Lion books Personalized autographed copy available soon through Lou Prato and Associates Call 814-692-7577 or email louprato@comcast.net Price: $19.95 plus tax and shipping

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