Wednesday, Jun. 18, 2008

A fitting tribute to the late Ed Chynoweth

I was remiss in not sharing some thoughts about Ed Chynoweth when he passed away April 22 at the age of 66.

Thanks to the insightful selection committee for the Hockey Hall of Fame, I received another chance for some timely commentary.

On Tuesday, it was announced that the former President of Western Hockey League will be inducted posthumously into the Hockey Hall of Fame. He goes in under the builder category. Rob Vanstone localized a story about Chynoweth's pending induction for Regina Leader-Post.

I served as the Herald’s WHL beat writer for the first 10 seasons of the Tri-City Americans, so I had the pleasure of establishing a working relationship with Ed during the final seven seasons of his reign as the league’s commissioner.

The fact that his career as the WHL president spanned from 1972 to 1995 spoke highly of him. And he also presided over the entire Canadian Hockey League from 1975 to 1995. Gregg Drinnan, sports editor of the Kamloops Daily News and the dean of WHL writers, gave an outstanding overview of Ed’s life with this blog posting. There also are two major awards named in his honor. The Memorial Cup tournament’s top scorer wins the Ed Chynoweth Trophy. And the WHL championship trophy is called the Ed Chynoweth Cup.

Most of my dealings with Ed came during the Ron Dixon era for the Americans — the club's first three seasons in Kennewick. Ed always returned my calls. Most of the time, he had a good idea why I was calling because of the constant controversy swirling around Dixon and his notorious Continental Sports Corp.

“What did Ron do now?” Chynoweth would ask with a smirk.

Occasionally, I would surprise him with news of some shenanigan or dubious deal pulled off by Dixon, nicknamed “The Rattler” by his ever-changing array employees.

My most memorable call to Chynoweth’s home came around 10 p.m. CDT on Dec. 30, 1989. That’s when all but two Tri-City players refused to play for their new “co-coach” Bill LaForge.

It forced the postponement of a home game vs. Portland, and Dixon “made no effort to contact me about it,” Chynoweth told me.

By that time, though, the story was all the buzz in Canada. Sports Illustrated ultimately sent Jay Greenberg to Kennewick for a recap of the saga.

The list of the striking players who signed the letter stating their utter disregard for the controversial LaForge included Olaf Kolzig, who now co-owns the Americans. Stu Barnes — current Ams co-owner and then-teammate of Kolzig — was in Finland playing at the World Junior Championships.

Chynoweth made it clear that the Americans must play the next day in Portland. And they did.

“The players were going to leave me with no choice but to consider suspensions and revoking their scholarships,” he told me.

The game in Portland started 33 minutes late. It would have been later if the Americans bus driver had observed the speed limit. Dan Ruff said he didn’t know how fast he was driving because the speedometer on Dixon’s decrepit team bus didn’t work.

When I called Dixon for comment after that New Year's Eve game in Portland, he told me before hanging up, “Don’t you guys ever take a day off? Go out and have some fun.”

Three days later, Chynoweth flew into Pasco to mediate the strife among the players, Dixon, LaForge and head coach Rick Kozuback.

“These aren’t normal things for me to do,” Chynoweth told me. “However, I owe the players the courtesy of the commitment I made to going down there.”

Chynoweth was taken aback by LaForge’s brutal instructions to the players. Other teams in the WHL voiced concern about LaForge’s pending return to the league. Blood was common during his early years as a coach in the WHL, and executives feared this throwback coach would bring back an element of “old-time hockey.”

Fortunately, Chynoweth brokered LaForge’s rather rapid departure from the Americans organization.

The only time Chynoweth ever got upset with me came a couple days after that historic visit to the Tri-Cities. He called to voice is disappointment at the Herald’s choice for the A1 photo of his arrival at the Tri-Cities Airport on Jan. 3, 1990.

It showed Chynoweth, customarily dressed in a suit and tie, smiling for the camera.

Dixon, wearing a ski jacket, was throwing a mock punch at Chynoweth’s chest.

I couldn’t disagree with Ed. He was a classy guy, and Dixon’s gesture was display of disrespect.

That said, I believe Ed is in a much better place than “The Rattler” these days. Dixon reportedly died in 2000 as a result of a single-car accident in Mexico.