1998 San Jose Road Trip

San Jose Road Trip

What a beautiful city. Palm trees, flowers blooming and it's January! We took 35 Duffers to skate in the Shark tank in January 1998.

Our first look at the Shark Tank. We played our game just a few hours before the Sharks played the Hawks.

Stump stacks the pads! I still don't know how he talked his wife into new pads and a trip to San Jose with the baby comming in a few months.

Mazurk and Draino help Doc across the ice. Doc broke his leg at his kid's practice a week before the San Jose trip. (The black dots across the top of the photo is my TV remote control. I used it to prop up this photo when I digitized it.)

The BBT line. Boris, Beak and Thor. About 170 years of experience on this line.

Great Trip

The San Jose Shark Tank

We played a fast paced game here just a few hours earlier. Now we just finished a great meal at Henrys and we are ready to watch the Chicago Black Hawks play the San Jose Sharks. We were suffering from jet lag and we had a hard time staying awake during the third period.

Thor gets a breath of fresh air and blocks a shot of Tommy Z's mug. We paid a professional photographer to take action shots of our game. He must have had a thing for Tom. Tommy is in most of the shots.

Stump kicks out another shot!

Former Duffer, Veto, flew up from Southern California where he fills teeth on the USS Constitution. Hacksaw is the first to greet him.

Beak and his sons, Ken and Tweedy (Chewing on a Stick) Tweedy got his nick name when he started to referee Duffer hockey games when he was 10 years old.

Sea Side

The non-golfers woke up naturally and enjoyed a leisurely breakfast. Brinks calls his Gold Medal winning daughter while the King holds court.

The non-golfers had to stop and see Pebble Beech from accross the Bay.

Klinger tells his boss that he is working hard on the Pensky File, then he says, 'You're breaking up, I can't hear you.'

Our first view of the Pacific Ocean. What a View!

We made a profound discovery on this trip. We found that Global warming may not be the reason for rising oceans. The Duffer hypothesis is too much beer is at fault!

My Hockey Family
By Mike Lopatka (Beak's Grandson)

I was born into a real hockey family. My Grandpa started playing hockey at Augusta Playground on the west side of Chicago. He was working there on weekends while he was a college student. Kenny Wharram, who was a star for the Chicago Black Hawks, rented a Bungalow across the street from the playground. My Grandpa learned to play hockey from a group of 10 year olds. Hall of famers, Glen Hall and Piere Pilot sent their kids there to skate with Ken Wharram Junior. My Gramps was so impressed with the ten year old Wharram, that he named his first born, my Dad, Kenny. My Grandpa started teaching my Dad to skate when he was 3. In the picture on the right, you see my Grandpa Greg Lopatka on the left, next to him is my Dad Ken, who Played for the College of DuPage, next to my Dad is San Jose Shark star Tony Granato and my Uncle Dan, who played College Hockey at The University of Wisconsin in River Falls.

On January 29, my Dad, Uncle and Grandpa played hockey in the San Jose Shark Tank with 33 other Duffers. On the Left, you see my Dad with Kelly Hrudey, Star Goal tender for the San Jose Sharks.

This is my Dad and Tony Granato of the San Jose Sharks. Tony and my dad played hockey for the Huskies.

The Picture on the left shows the rest of the Duffers celebrating their win in the Shark Tank. Henrys' restaurant is a favorite meeting place for NHL players. The Guy in the middle pointing at the camera is the Idol of all of the Duffers. Papa Joe Mazzarella was born in 1930. As long as Joe keeps on playing my grandpa figures he has 10 more years to play. He was born in 1940. Papa has his 2 sons, Joe Jr. and Steve, skating with the Duffers.

In the picture on the right, you can see depression setting in on the Duffers, as they get ready to head for the air port. I think they are making sure that the barrels are empty before they leave. I am now big enough to skate with the Duffers. I just have to behave myself. No speeding or showing off! If I do, Grandpa will drop me.

Duffer Sons

There were 5 father and son combinations that made the trip to San Jose. Brinks (7) shoots and scores one of his 2 goals. His Son Tony scored a goal for the Sharks and won his dad $50. His youngest son, 'Piggy Bank' had to stay home to keep the Strohs flowing. Don Jr. had to coach the Columbus Chill, while Daughter Cammi was busy getting ready to win a Gold medal for the USA.

Papa Joe shown here putting a hook on one of the youngsters. Duffer rules allow you to hook, hold or trip any one that is younger than you. Since Papa was born in 1930, he can legally slow down anybody that he wants to.

This is The King and founder of the Duffers. He brought both of his princes, Rick and Jerry.

Papa Joe and his sons Steve and Joe.

This is our Augastana football star Mike Presecky and his Dad Frank,who is one of the original Duffer Founding Fathers. The fifth father and son combo is Beak and his sons. They are pictured on San Jose 2.

Fun, Fun, Fun

Henrys became the favorite place for the Duffers when they wern't playing hockey. This watering hole had great food, and it was conviently located between the Shark Tank and the Hilton. We got a good rate at the hotel, but it was estimated that Thor paid $40.00 per hour for his sleep time.

Koss is about to be toasted.

Here's proof that Frank is camera shy. He is the one in the sun glasses. Klinger is taking a nap in the back.

This is the golfer's table. They lie better than fishermen.

The King is checking IDs at the door of Henrys. Women under 30 were sent home to get their mothers.

The Duffer team picture was so wide, that there were not enough pixels to complete the image. You can see the center portion here.

Here are the right wingers. The complete picture, merged from these three images, can be see in the Duffer 8 page Cartoon book. See Beak for a copy. You can get one for an HP Ink jet cartridge.

This is the Left section.

These beautiful shirts were donated by Uncle Bob and Clubhouse Designs. 630-616-9357 Thank You Bob

Wheezer, Mike and Jerry talk about the weather.

These are Nice Sharks

Tony Granato signs a tee shirt for my grandson in the Shark locker room.

Ken Lopatka gets an unidentified Shark to sign his son's Shirt.

Bernie Nichols signs a shirt for Tommy Z. (Tom is the guy on the right with wood)

Mike Ricci signs a jersey for Tweedy.

Drano (Left) bumps into Doug Wilson, who is recovering from Shoulder surgery. He played all of those years in the NHL and never hurts his shoulder, then he jumps a fence with his kid and separates his shoulder. What a bummer!

Some Duffers Golfed

Skeeter lines up a putt.

Papa Joe tries to miss the Ocean.

These are our NYPDs. (New Young Polite Duffers)
Shemp,Johnny Z, Marsha (Front) Tweedy and Tommy Z.
This is how they dressed for the Golf outing.

If you thought that last goup dressed funny, look at this foursome! (Left to Right) Drano, Wheezer, Beevis and Butt head.

We would have had a DOD (Daughter Of a Duffer) Cammi Granato on this trip, but she chose to go to Nagano, Japan with her Gold Medal winning hockey team.

US Robotics used to give free pages when you bought a modem from them, then they ended the program and all of my pages were lost. I started using Geocities in the late 1990s, but they are closing that program, so I have rescued my pages to lopatka.net. This page goes up to March 1999. Geocities2 goes to August 1999 and Geocities 3 goes to January 2000. Geocities4 has the recovered the early 2000 pages.

Picture day, 1998

Other Rebuilt Geocities Pages

Newsletter #99 First Duffer Newsletter in Cyber Space 1997

Newsletter #100

June 20, 1998

San Jose 1998

San Jose 2001

Links to Duffer Hockey Newsletters

2008-2009 Stats page

Tweedy's Wags Game

Links to 2009

Links to 2008