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Zamboni Rodeo: Chasing Hockey Dreams fromn Austin to Albuquerque
Hockey is booming in the minor pro leagues south of the Mason-Dixon line, with the epicenter being the Texas Sunbelt, home to more pro hockey teams than any other province or state including Ontario and Michigan. Zamboni Rodeo follows the fortunes of the Austin Ice Bats as they wander across Texas, living on junk food and beer, practicing in deserted malls, and navigating slushy ice in too-warm arenas. Writer Jason Cohen joined the team in the locker room between periods, suffered through every lurching bus ride and fog-delayed game, and even spent a night in the penalty box in his quest—hilariously documented here—to know heartland hockey in all its sorry glory. Photographs add to this lively, irreverent ride through the heady world of bush-league hockey.
- GenresHockeySportsNonfiction
Hardcover
First published October 1, 2001
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
February 4, 2023
I've read quite a few books about hockey, and this is certainly one of them. It follows the fortunes of the Austin (TX) Ice Bats, a team in the WPHL, the lowest rung of the minor leagues. I'm not knocking minor leagues; I will take minor league hockey and baseball over the majors any day of the week, and hockey over baseball any other day too.
What I am knocking is the author's ability to tell a coherent story where you can tell any of the characters apart. This tale should have had it all: adventures in Texas travel, team drama, owner drama, fan drama, more team drama, hockey drama. After all, as one of the goalies comments,
And the author writes about really neither of those, passing up the opportunity to write about the role of the goon on and off the ice, or the art of the deke, or the need for every tiny pretty forward to have a looming defenseman at their back for protection, in favor of what happens on a minor league hockey team bus. Spoiler: players watch movies and sleep.
We also get interviews with the coach and some -- to be fair -- decent analysis of on- and off-ice game-winning tactics.
But so much of hockey lies in the shenanigans. Leagues sprout up like mushrooms, explode, and shoot teams and players like spores all over North America. There are so many good stories!
Dear author, there goes your story. That guy. That dude clearly has some issues and some tales to tell. Letting him escape off your pages after this one mention indicates that we have some judgement issues afoot here, author.
By far the best part of the book is the roster of minor league team names. In addition to the Ice Bats, we have the:
Memphis River Kings
Louisiana Ice Gators (specfic authors, please write me this story)
Greenville Grrrowl
Shreveport Mudbugs
Arkansas Glacier Cats
Port Huron Border Cats
Tupelo T-Rex
Cape Fear Fire Antz (the book was written in 1998, at the height of the Throw A Cool Z on That Life Insurance era of marketing)
and last but not least, the Macon Whoopee.
Plus we find out that Texas, like I think all of us, has a fascination with hockey-playing snakes, leading to the Monroe Moccasins, San Antonio Vipers, and Amarillo Rattlers. (How would that even work? Snakes don't like the cold; they hibernate. It would be a very slow-moving and ultimately sad game.)
But all these fun and interesting names (with presumably fun and interesting mascots, home rinks, and goal-celebration traditions) don't make it into this book. Instead, we get the riveting drama of how team owners don't understand the coaches or players.
COME ON.
Much as with their coaching and trade-cap travails, the 1998 Austin Ice Bats deserved much better.
What I am knocking is the author's ability to tell a coherent story where you can tell any of the characters apart. This tale should have had it all: adventures in Texas travel, team drama, owner drama, fan drama, more team drama, hockey drama. After all, as one of the goalies comments,
"Unless you get two of the best teams in the league, NHL hockey is pretty dull -- you get 15 shots on goal. That's embarrassing. Whereas down here, you get goals, you get fights."
And the author writes about really neither of those, passing up the opportunity to write about the role of the goon on and off the ice, or the art of the deke, or the need for every tiny pretty forward to have a looming defenseman at their back for protection, in favor of what happens on a minor league hockey team bus. Spoiler: players watch movies and sleep.
We also get interviews with the coach and some -- to be fair -- decent analysis of on- and off-ice game-winning tactics.
But so much of hockey lies in the shenanigans. Leagues sprout up like mushrooms, explode, and shoot teams and players like spores all over North America. There are so many good stories!
In his hockey career, Coupal has been suspended for life by the OHL, the ECHL, and the UHL (the former Colonial League) for various stick infractions, including tossing his lumber into the stands. But there is a place for him in Central Texas.
Dear author, there goes your story. That guy. That dude clearly has some issues and some tales to tell. Letting him escape off your pages after this one mention indicates that we have some judgement issues afoot here, author.
By far the best part of the book is the roster of minor league team names. In addition to the Ice Bats, we have the:
Memphis River Kings
Louisiana Ice Gators (specfic authors, please write me this story)
Greenville Grrrowl
Shreveport Mudbugs
Arkansas Glacier Cats
Port Huron Border Cats
Tupelo T-Rex
Cape Fear Fire Antz (the book was written in 1998, at the height of the Throw A Cool Z on That Life Insurance era of marketing)
and last but not least, the Macon Whoopee.
Plus we find out that Texas, like I think all of us, has a fascination with hockey-playing snakes, leading to the Monroe Moccasins, San Antonio Vipers, and Amarillo Rattlers. (How would that even work? Snakes don't like the cold; they hibernate. It would be a very slow-moving and ultimately sad game.)
But all these fun and interesting names (with presumably fun and interesting mascots, home rinks, and goal-celebration traditions) don't make it into this book. Instead, we get the riveting drama of how team owners don't understand the coaches or players.
COME ON.
Much as with their coaching and trade-cap travails, the 1998 Austin Ice Bats deserved much better.
February 25, 2010
A season with the Austin Ice Bats (named in honor of the Mexican free-tailed bats that roost under the bridge), of the Western Professional Hockey League (WPHL). This is the low minors, not even really a development league. These guys aren't going to the Show and most of them know it, but they love the game and what the heck, they're getting paid $300 a week to play it. The 10 hour bus rides and back to back games and injuries are part of it, but so is the camaraderie, the bantering and running jokes, and cheers of the Bats fans. They manage to keep their biggest rivals, the Shreveport Mudbugs, out of the finals, but end up in last place. Ice hockey in Texas and the South is as crazy as it sounds, but has a following.
I really enjoyed this. In an epilogue he tells what happened to the players - all of them are out of hockey now. After the book was written the league was bought by the Central Hockey League. The Ice Bats folded in 2008 because of competition from the AHL Texas Stars. Only the crusty equipment manager, "Gunner" Garrett, is still in the game, with the Amarillo Gorillas.
I really enjoyed this. In an epilogue he tells what happened to the players - all of them are out of hockey now. After the book was written the league was bought by the Central Hockey League. The Ice Bats folded in 2008 because of competition from the AHL Texas Stars. Only the crusty equipment manager, "Gunner" Garrett, is still in the game, with the Amarillo Gorillas.
September 15, 2017
An interesting look at a hockey team in the state of Texas! You may not always equate 'Texas' with 'hockey,' but this is honestly an interesting story and will give you a different perspective on things.
June 10, 2019
Fantastic
May 3, 2020
A book about the team the Ice Bats. Ride along with them during their season.
July 20, 2012
In a strange, surreal alternate reality, Texas had more professional hockey teams than any other state in the U.S. or province in Canada. The teams played in such far-flung locales as Waco and Amarillo and El Paso, usually in converted rodeo arenas. Throngs of fans watched them play every night, erupting with glee every time a fight broke out, and local celebrities like Lance Armstrong often showed up to drop the ceremonial first puck.
Oh, wait a minute. That wasn’t some random Bizarro World--it was our reality. Jason Cohen’s Zamboni Rodeo: Chasing Hockey Dreams from Austin to Albuquerque is an engrossing attempt by one writer to capture the essence of the Texas hockey explosion of the late 1990s. Cohen became a virtual member of the Austin Ice Bats for the duration of the league’s second season, riding along in the team’s smelly bus on hellishly long road trips to places like Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Monroe, Louisiana. He shadowed the team during workouts, became a fly on the wall during the coaches’ strategy sessions. In short, he made the most of almost unlimited access to a fledgling team playing a fledgling sport in a fledgling league.
The stories Cohen chronicles are priceless. During the early days of play, it was not uncommon for fans to leave early after the second period of a three-period game, assuming the first break to be “halftime.” Opposing fans were merciless to opposing teams, and often backed up by local law enforcement. The El Paso Buzzards managed to grab headlines with the league’s first drug scandal after two players were arrested after crossing the border from Mexico with a car loaded with steroids.
Cohen’s prose is lively and engaging, but most importantly, it is authentic. All too often, management and personnel decisions were made with ego and personal grudges in mind rather than the best interests of the team. To see the same mistakes play out over and over is maddening. To see the players suit up night after night, over-matched and injury-riddled, is inspiring.
The story of hockey in Texas is as hilarious as it is improbable, simultaneously inspiring and heart-breaking. The teams he wrote about may be gone, but Zamboni Rodeo is a fitting memorial to them.
Oh, wait a minute. That wasn’t some random Bizarro World--it was our reality. Jason Cohen’s Zamboni Rodeo: Chasing Hockey Dreams from Austin to Albuquerque is an engrossing attempt by one writer to capture the essence of the Texas hockey explosion of the late 1990s. Cohen became a virtual member of the Austin Ice Bats for the duration of the league’s second season, riding along in the team’s smelly bus on hellishly long road trips to places like Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Monroe, Louisiana. He shadowed the team during workouts, became a fly on the wall during the coaches’ strategy sessions. In short, he made the most of almost unlimited access to a fledgling team playing a fledgling sport in a fledgling league.
The stories Cohen chronicles are priceless. During the early days of play, it was not uncommon for fans to leave early after the second period of a three-period game, assuming the first break to be “halftime.” Opposing fans were merciless to opposing teams, and often backed up by local law enforcement. The El Paso Buzzards managed to grab headlines with the league’s first drug scandal after two players were arrested after crossing the border from Mexico with a car loaded with steroids.
Cohen’s prose is lively and engaging, but most importantly, it is authentic. All too often, management and personnel decisions were made with ego and personal grudges in mind rather than the best interests of the team. To see the same mistakes play out over and over is maddening. To see the players suit up night after night, over-matched and injury-riddled, is inspiring.
The story of hockey in Texas is as hilarious as it is improbable, simultaneously inspiring and heart-breaking. The teams he wrote about may be gone, but Zamboni Rodeo is a fitting memorial to them.
December 2, 2023
You have to be a true hockey enthusiast to enjoy this book. If you are --- you will love it! If your hockey interests focus at the NHL level only dipping down in to the AHL momentarily, the exploits of a bunch of unknown (mostly Canadian) men dealing with the trials and tribulations of the Western Professional Hockey League ("WPHL") between various Texas, Louisiana and New Mexican cities, is not for you. The author takes a journalistic, season-long bus trip alongside the Austin, Texas Ice Bats and participates in all the 'ups and downs' facing the team including, but not limited to, broken-down buses, coache firings, players trades, bad food, bad hotels, bad bars, etc. If you are a hockey enthusiast, I highly recommend.
September 11, 2012
I may be biased, but this is one of the better hockey books I've ever read. I started playing hockey in 2004 or so, and the first team I played on in Austin one of my teammates was a part owner of the Bats; he's not mentioned in this book, but I have a definite emotional attachment to the team.
That said, this is great hockey writing, and if you've ever wondered what it's like to live with/like a very-minor-league hockey player, Cohen is an excellent choice of guides. If you love hockey, and minor league hockey in particular, buy this book however you can and read it, right now.
That said, this is great hockey writing, and if you've ever wondered what it's like to live with/like a very-minor-league hockey player, Cohen is an excellent choice of guides. If you love hockey, and minor league hockey in particular, buy this book however you can and read it, right now.
January 9, 2008
Funny as hell, very insightful. It helps that I lived this life myself (sort of) while covering hockey for the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. Cohen does a great job of capturing the dreams these guys carry and why they pursue them against all odds in places where there is no naturally occurring ice. It's an interesting phenomenon, hockey in the Sun Belt, and Cohen taps into it better than I could have.
November 24, 2012
In the wake of the arrival of the Minnesota Wild in Saint Paul, Annemarie developed a fondness for hockey and I was all too happy to have reasons to discuss sports in the house. That period of time included the discovery of this account of minor league hockey in the US, including my discovery of my favorite hockey team name, a team from Louisiana called the "Ice Gators," which is even more fun to say out loud than it is to read.
December 15, 2007
Great Book. Jason really tells you what life is like for our minor league hockey players. Guys who are playing for the love of the game not the money. He holds nothing back from the language to the long road trips to guys who are at the end of their careers to those just starting.
December 16, 2014
Live the life of a minor pro hockey player as you journey through a season with the Austin Ice Bats (WPHL). From week long road trips on the team bus to the Bat Cave locker room to the front office, join author Jason Cohen as he takes you for a rigorous ride at the... Zamboni Rodeo.
March 12, 2013
Fun, interesting account of a season spent with the Austin Ice Bats. The book moved quickly and kept my attention. Definitely worth reading if you're a sports fan, especially one interested in minor league players and what drives them.
November 14, 2008
By far the best book ever penned about minor league hockey.
August 6, 2011
Frontier Hockey at its most raucous. Young men and dreams: dashed or deferred. The WPHL and the Austin Icebats: R.I.P.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews