1968 – Tom Storrier

My father, Shell Storrier, was a time keeper for the Clinton Comet games at both the Clinton Arena and Utica Auditorium in the 1960s. In the Arena, the time keeper sat in the penalty box.

Sometimes he was not sitting alone in the penalty box; players would at times spend a couple of minutes with him. Some spent more time there than others.

One night he had two players join him in the box at the same time. One was Ian Anderson of the Comets, the other John Brophy of the LI Ducks.

For those of you who remember, Ian and John seemed to have an affinity for each other on the ice. It didn’t matter if there was a game going on, they had their own war to fight with each other.

So Ian and John were sent to the penalty box and sat down, still upset and arguing with each other, with Shell between them. Suddenly John and Ian stood up, yelling at each other, getting ready to have another go. Then Shell stood up. He turned to Ian and said “Ian, sit down,” while pointing a finger at him, then turned and pointed at John and said, “John, sit down”. To Shell’s surprise, both Ian and John sat down and continued to sit.

To hear Shell tell the story, he was glad they sat down, for he had no idea what he was going to do if they didn’t.

– Tom Storrier