History

The Son's of Duffers (SODs) soon started playing with the Duffers in the 1980s. Cammie Granato was the first DOD (Daughter of a Duffer) to play with us. We soon had GODs (Grandsons of Duffers) playing with us when the calendar hit Y2K. Wives of Duffers became known as WODs.
World History (In Red)
Mariner 9 orbits Mars! 3 Russian cosmonauts die when their space capsule develops an air leak while reentering the earth’s atmosphere. A cyclone and tidal wave kills 10,000 people in Bengal. An earthquake in Nicaragua kills 10,000.

The beginning of the 1970's was a time full of controversy. The Vietnam War still going on until 1973 and Nixon was caught in the Watergate scandal until 1974 when he resigned. Then it went on to new Presidents in Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter. So the main theme of this decade was the Watergate to Post Watergate periods. It affected American people then in that in different ways. At the beginning of the 70's the Vietnam was still going. This incited many protests and riots that were spurred from conflicting beliefs about the war, and other protests and riots in the 60's. This also effected Americans because the of the Watergate scandal. Some government officials were sent to jail and Nixon probably would have been impeached if he hadn't resigned. The country also faced a big change after Nixon's resignation with the unexpected new president Gerald Ford. The Watergate affair left the country struggling to recover. The economy also suffered from stagflation: when inflation and unemployment rise, but the economy remains stalled and stagnant. To make matters worse, a revolution in Iran also caused oil and gas shortages. This theme also effected the rebellious youths and adults of the decade. They found a new type a dance party music called disco. Unfortunately for many people and musicians though, along with this were illegal drugs and promiscuous sex. This was a large carrier of diseases like the AIDS virus that was later discovered in 1981.
*The above summary was taken from American History Timeline

The King decided the kids were having too much fun, so he rented ice on Sunday mornings for the “old Guys”. The birth of the Duffers took place in January of 1972, when a rag tag group of players started showing up with borrowed equipment and no skating ability. Beak bought a used pair of Nester-Johnson skates for $6.00. He used his son’s adjustable helmet and plastic street hockey stick for several years, until a referee in Naperville made him get a wooden stick. The Huffer used a Green Bay Packer Football helmet. Fred Bobka, Dan Mazenec, Bob "Screwlander" Friedlander and Tim Dubiel were some of the original Duffers that lasted more than a decade.

The following account came from Jim "the King Miceli: "Rich Schoenberger was playing with us on Sunday mornings. He is the one who brought out the Commander who brought out Timmy & Stump. When I was complaining about all the different color jerseys Rich mentioned he had some old cotton practice football jerseys at his shop. When he said they would cost us a couple of dollars apiece I immediately perked up. When I called him to get the jerseys Rich said he would put numbers on them and maybe a name like the Downers Grove Duffers, which sounded great to me. While on the phone I was looking at a Blackhawk schedule and asked Rich if he would be able to put the bear on the jersey. He said he knew exactly what I was looking at and said, "no problem". The jerseys showed up with Downers Grove on the top the bear in the center and Duffers on the bottom. I thought it was great. We got away from the traditional rat-hockey multicolored jerseys almost from the very beginning."

Years later, we looked up the definition in the Funk and Wagnalls and found
1.)A dull witted or clumsy person.
2.)A peddler or hawker of cheap flashy articles.
The jerseys sold for $2.00 each, and if a guy couldn’t afford to buy the set, the the King reluctantly broke up the set. Beak got the Blue #9, Someone else got the Red #9. That cotton football jersey has been washed a 100 times and still looks great.

After hooking up with the moon-circling command module, Schmitt and Cernan transferred their samples and data. Their work completed, the crew of Apollo 17 left the moon with a blast from their service propulsion engine at 8:42 p.m. EST on December 16. A routine transearth coast brought them back to a landing about 300 kilometers (200 miles) east of Pago Pago at 2:25 p.m. EST on December 19, 1972. Apollo's exploration of the moon, "one of the most ambitious and successful endeavors of man," was over.

December 18, 1972-The full-scale bombing of North Vietnam after Paris peace negotiations failed.

Summer of 1973 The Duffers complete first full season. Mary Miceli organizes a Picnic on the Fox River at Potowadami Park in June. Wally Kraft was awarded the Most Improved Player trophy.

October 12, 1973-On Gerald Ford becomes the first Vice President appointed under the 25th Amendment.

The Godfather with Marlon Brando becomes a box office smash and the King gets a new nickname. Bobby Fischer beats Boris Spassky to win the world chess title. The Cowboys win the Super Bowl by beating the Dolphins 24-3.
President Nixon visits China. George Wallace is shot. Apollo 16 astronauts spend 71 Hours on the Moon. Nixon, Agnew are reelected in a land slide.
An earthquake in Nicaragua kills 10,000.
Washington, Agnew resigns, pleads “nolo contendere” to Income tax evasion. Watergate starts talk of impeachment.
Pioneer 10 transmits pictures from Jupiter. Dolphins defeat Redskins 14-7 in Super Bowl.

Sometime in 1974 Not yet named "Papa", joined the Duffers in Westmont and was on the trip to Bird Island and received the first penalty on a road trip for hooking. Read more...

1975 The movie Jaws was the hit of the year. None of the Duffers picked up that nick name. Wheezer might have picked that up, but he wasn't a Duffer in 1975. Saturday Night Live debuted and changed TV viewing habits of many Americans.

2/28/76 First Duffer road trip. Duffers tie 7-7, win 6-4. The article referred to the Duffers as a fast skating team with a Czechoslovak refugee. Years later, neither Papa Joe or Frank could remember who the refugee was. Papa did remember the following: "Bobka and I were roommates. It was a long drive to the rink and we had to leave in the early morning. The rink was almost as cold inside as outside. The king was vocal about our inability to perform to expectations. Good time overall." Frank recalled taking the whole Family on that 400 mile trip. ( See Bird Island)

August 16, 1976, a tsunami kills more than 5,000 people in the Moro Gulf region of the Philippines.

Reneé Richards (neé Richard Raskin) had been an opthomologist and a moderately good tennis player before she transitioned in the mid ‘70s. In 1976 at age 52, she entered a women’s tennis tournament where she was both read and recognized. The ensuing battle between Ms. Richards and the sporting authorities made headline news for several weeks. Ms. Richards went to court to defend her right to be recognized as female. The locker room joke was Renee wrote a book titled "How to Play Tennis Without Balls".

1976 movie Rocky gives Wally a new nick name in 1982
1977 Voyager Space crafts Leave the planet. Star Wars is a big hit.

June 1977 Mike "The Painter" Macica was awarded the Most Improved Player trophy at the 1st Annual Duffer Picnic at Argonne Woods. Mike went on the paint 2 huge murals on the walls of Saint's Spectrum. The Duffer Bear never looked so good. Click here to see the picture.

Duffers get new logo: The backward Canadian Logo displayed on Ann Jillian's chest! The new logo was never approved by The King, because He took a little time off in the late 70s, when he had his wife and kids in Wisconsin and his trucking business here in Chicago. He lost some power when he stopped showing up for a while. One of the guys (I can't tell you his name or I would have to kill you) proposed the 1979 Florida trip. Actually, I can't remember who proposed that trip, anyway we had a guy, Bob "Geek" Friedlander, who fit the #2 definition of a Duffer, (Seller of cheap flashy wares) He talked us into buying new "Road Trip " Sweaters. We thought that was a good idea, so Beak started playing around with the Official Duffer Logo that was stolen from Hamms Beer commercials. This was before computers, so Beak took some paper and markers and started to doodle. He flipped over the Canadian C-H and made the C into a D. (Just the opposite of what He did with His report card grades when He was in grade school.) He inserted the Hamm's Bear in the "H" and we had a new Logo. His art work on the Bear was so bad that the Hamms' people never could make a claim and being a Polish, German, Bohemian - American, He had diplomatic immunity if the French Canadians ever protested. They never did, but the King was pissed when he came back and took control. (Beak never admitted to the Art work and blamed it all on Friedlander) You may notice The King never bought that unauthorized jersey. (See The 1979-80 Team Picture and Lake Placid Team Picture) There were a few other guys who would not wear that sweater, because they were afraid of the King, or they were too cheap.

The Great Blizzard of 1978, also known as the Cleveland Superbomb, was a historic winter storm that struck the Ohio Valley and Great Lakes from Wednesday, January 25 through Friday, January 27, 1978. The 28.28 inches (958 millibars) barometric pressure measurement recorded in Cleveland, Ohio was the lowest non-tropical atmospheric pressure ever recorded in the mainland United States until the Upper Midwest Storm of October 26, 2010 (28.20" measured at 5:13PM CDT at Bigfork Municipal Airport, Bigfork, MN). Chicago got hit with 13 inches of snow.

January 26, 1978 Slime Dog, Beak, Magoo, The Geek and maybe the King and one or 2 others that I can't remember, helped the Blackhawks make history when they met at a pizza place on Roosevelt Road. We were half way through the Great Blizzard of 1978. We left our cars at the lot and got into Slime Dog's Blazer and headed down Roosevelt Road to the Stadium. I remember that there were so few fans that they let us go down where the rich people sit. We were right by the visitor's bench and we were there with a little over 500 other crazy fans. That was a low attendance record that still stands. I contacted some of the guys that went with me. Bob Friedlander always had a great memory about anything related to the Cubs or Hawks, so he replied quickly with the following:

June 1978 Paul "The Commander" Jankowski was awarded the Most Improved Player trophy at the 2nd Annual Duffer Picnic at Argonne Woods.

The Chicago Blizzard of 1979 was a major blizzard that affected northern Illinois and northwest Indiana, U.S. on January 13-January 14, 1979. 16.5 inches (41.9 cm) of snow fell on January 13 alone, setting a new record for snow in one calendar day. By the end of January 14, 18.8 inches (47.8 cm) of snow had fallen. Beak had a snow slide off of his garage.

4/6/79 The King issues Duffer management statement, naming 4 duffer trustees. Bobka, Kowalkowski, Kraft and Presecky. 2 pages of rules were issued on this Date. (see best of Duffer announcements)

May 1979 The King rented a room at the Plantation Restaurant in Downers Grove to host an end of season banquet where he gave out trophies for most improved and other honors. Every Duffer got a trophy. What made this event so memorable was the cruel prank that was played on Fred. Most of the Duffers were married back then, but we had a few bachelors that were looking to get married and have all of the fun that the rest of us were having. Beak fixed Bob Friedlander up with a nice looking teacher that came to watch us play. Read More....

June 1979 John "F. Lee" Landry was awarded the Most Improved Player trophy at the 3rd Annual Duffer Picnic at Argonne Woods.

7/4/79 Beak, Boris and Friedlander thumb their noses at gas shortage as they drive to Florida. The rest of the team flew down to play the Suncoast Suns. Highlights of the game and fight were featured on the Ten O’clock News.

July 12, 1979 Disco music is in. Disco demolition Disco Demolition causes Sox to forfeit second game of a double header to Baltimore. Beak and Tweedy were there! The movies “Grease” and “Animal House” top the box office hits.

I believe the main theme of the 80's was a kind of conservative revolution federally, but a time to have fun and try new things within the people. We saw evidence of this when the amazingly popular President Ronald Reagan took communism head on with military programs like the Star Wars Initiative. We saw the fall of communism in the USSR, the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, and the end of the Cold War altogether. We also saw a revival of moral values in the country, new kinds of flashy music, and wild hairstyles after the 70's. These new things greatly effected Americans other ways too. Like how President Reagan helped Americans find a lost sense of pride in their country, and a new hope for the presidential office after the embarrassing Watergate scandal in the 70's. It also affected them with tax cuts, a shrinking of the federal government, and an even greater increase in defense spending. There was the beginning of the huge market for home computers and the invention of the compact disc or CD. These inventions would have even more of an effect on us now than they did then.
*The above summary was taken from American History Timeline

3/80 Brinks coaches Huskie Squirts, with Dan Lopatka (Tweedy) and Robby (Piggy Bank), to a state championship.
Beak coaches Huskie Junior B team, with Ken Lopatka, to a state championship. The Huskies went on to finish 3rd in the nationals in New York.

July 1980 Gene "Thor" Miller was awarded the Most Improved Player trophy at the 4th Annual Duffer Picnic at Argonne Woods.

11/27/80 1st Turkey Skate was a 12-3 blow out, as Wally stacked his team with young guns

5/81 Tweety scores his first Duffer Goal on Mothers Day to become the youngest Duffer to score a goal. He was 10 years old

August 23, 1981 Tom "Slime Dog" Kowalkowski and Jim "Titz" Michalson were awarded Most Improved Player trophies at the 5th Annual Duffer Picnic at Argonne Woods. Sammy from Miami and Jim Huff* were elected into the Duffer Hall of Fame. The following "Gone but not Forgotten" members were considered but rejected: Dave the Hot Head, Murray the Lobster, Big Rick Duz, The Russians, Emmet Smith, Jimmy Hand, Jesus, Silver Tooth, Lee Bianchi, Jim Balloon, Bud "The Bomber" Green.

3/31-4/3/82 Duffers bring Silver medal home from Lake Placid Read all about it

June 1982 Frank Presecki was awarded the Most Improved Player trophy at the 6th Annual Duffer Picnic at Argonne Woods.

9/3/82 Duffers move to Saints Spectrum. Willie offers 8:30 start time and a bar upstairs. Bill Allen takes the Ice with his jersey on backwards.

9/9/82 Duffers enter Businessmen’s Bowling league, Muzzie shows up with hockey gear. The King sponsors us with spiffy white bowling shirts that we wore to Fred's wedding, where I got a little spaghetti stain on it. We started every game with a beer frame. A few years later, Mazurk sponsored our Duffer bowling team with Jimmy Buffett Bowling shirts that we could wear to Buffett Concerts. The King was famous for his attire, he wore the hottest looking long underwear and matching top until the Duffer Bears rubbed off.

9/19/82 Duffers pay Fast Eddie Milleville scalper prices for a Hawk game that has 6,000 empty seats.

10/5/82 Bobka Factor Developed. (see Duffer News Volume 2 Issue 1) Go to the Bobka Factor.

10/11/82 Wally acquires new nickname when he engages in fisticuffs on East-West Toll way. He only told one guy, but he was greeted by the theme from “Rocky” every Friday night as he entered the locker room

1983 Cabbage Patch dolls are in.
Chicago elects first black mayor.
Pope goes to Poland.
Hottest August in 100 years.
Michael Jackson wins a Grammy for “Beat It”

2/83 Titz destroys the Slime Dog Van. Miniaturization discovered in Detroit. A Spilled beer reduced the motel TV Picture

6/83 Stump Shut out the Rangers in a men's league to give the Duffers a 5-0 win and a 9-1-1 record. He also had an assist in that game, when he set up Ken Lopatka with the game winner in the first period. Read more...

June 1983 The King is presented with the “King’s Meaningless Trophy” and Bill "Klinger" Giffune was awarded the Most Improved Player trophy at the 7th Annual Duffer Picnic at Argonne Woods.

More than 36,000 people were killed by tsunamis following the explosion of the volcano Krakatau in the Sunda Strait near Java on August 27, 1883.

SEPTEMBER 19, 1983 WHITE SOX CLINCH THE PENNANT. LYNN PRESECKY MARRIES MARK FETTING. THE THREE AMIGOS (THE KING, WAJU AND BEAK) TAKE A NAP ON THE PRESECKY'S FRONT PORCH SWING. See picture

1984 AT&T is broken into 8 companies
14 Communist nations boycott summer Olympics in Los Angeles
Cubs win National League East title.
Ronald Reagan at age 73 became the oldest president ever elected.

Whenever the Money for Nothing video came on at the bar at Saint's Spectrum, all eyes were glued to the little TV.

3/30/84 Duffers invade Detroit. Klinger scores and a Buckshot "Hat Trick", with assists going to Beak, Hacksaw and Gomez.

7/84 Monday night hockey introduced and Stump Barczynski is the first commoner to
receive the “King’s Meaningless Trophy” and John "Gomez" Santoro was awarded the Most Improved Player trophy at the 8th Annual Duffer Picnic at Argonne Woods.

1985 Halley’s Comet returns. Beak and his Planetarium class are featured on a National PBS TV documentary.

Reprint of a 1985 Newsleter; Tells why the King became the Bhagwan?
Bears win Super Bowl XX
Halley’s Comet heads back to the frozen reaches of the solar system. It will return in 76 years. Maybe the Bears will be in another Super Bowl.
Comet Levey Shoemaker follows Giffune’s lead and crashes into Jupiter with similar results.
8/94 Major League Baseball players go on strike. World Series is canceled, Nobody cares.

6/10/85 Beak has his name added to the “King’s Meaningless Trophy” at the annual picnic

11/21/85 The Duffers Dazzle in the Reno Gamblers Cup. (See Picture) The trip got off to a rough start, when the team arrived for the Friday flight, we found out our plane left 24 hours ago. The King had to do some masterful negotiating to trade our worthless Thursday tickets for valid Friday tickets. Slime Dog and Thor were at the far end of concourse A when they should have been in the far end of concourse B! They got a page and did an OJ Simpson run through the airport and just beat the closing door at take off. Beak quieted a berserk preschooler on the plane by taking the screaming kid to the back of the plane to party with Trixy and the Duffers. The mother of the child was so thankful, she gave Beak her address and phone number so that he could send her a picture of her son in a Duffer Jersey. Skip was very impressed. Beak and his wife got the Royal treatment in Las Vegas at the Desert Inn from the lady's husband a few years later. The Commander got hot when he is accused of gassing the plane on the ride home. Beak just smiled innocently. The Duffers were awarded the Fair Play Award and Stump won the Silver Medal. Can you name the 2 names that were too long to fit on the trophy? Fair Play Award Click Here to see how we spent over $11,000.00

1985 Dubuque Trips begin, Wheezer gets nick name after his first shift. Tom Morgan gives his account of the Alien and the 3 legged dog. Read scan of type written account.

Voyager flies past Uranus in the year 1986 and heads for Neptune. (It left Earth when the Duffers started play)

3/86 Beak coaches Huskie Bantams, with Cammie Granato and Tweedy, to a state championship.

6/86 “Gomez” Santoro is the 4th recipient of the “King’s Meaningless Trophy”

After I read about Kris Bryant's first T-Ball hit where he ran to 3rd base instead of first. That triggered a Duffer Picnic memory back in the 1980s when we always had a softball game. We had a new guy with a slight Eastern European accent that wanted to be a Duffer. He told us that his name was Joe and we told him that we have too many Duffers named Joe, so we will call you Floyd. He was also told that the King would have to sleep with his wife if he wants to be a Duffer. He was OK with being called Floyd, but the next time he came to hockey, he told us he was getting divorced. We told him the King would be OK with that, just give him her number. He wasn't sure that he wanted to be a Duffer, but he did show up at the picnic without his wife and took his turn at the plate. He surprised everybody when he hit a line drive that found a gap in right center that would have been an easy stand up double or a sliding triple if only he ran toward first base instead of third. I stopped him before he got to third and shoved him toward first base. By the time he avoided a collision with the pitcher and arrived at first base, the ball was retrieved and tossed to second base. I followed that hit with a single that sent Floyd to 2nd where he stopped. The next hitter, Brinks, hit line drive bases clearing drive to left center where Klinger chased it down while running with a cup of beer in his left hand. He made a great throw with out spilling a drop of his beer. I was running full speed (I could do that in the 1980s) right behind Floyd who tried to stop at third Wally Kraft the 3rd base coach, pushed him toward home where he stopped and stood on home plate. Klinger's throw and I arrived at home at the same time so I had to shove Floyd off of the plate so that I could score. Vidas Formica told me that Floyd's wife was at the picnic and she was upset that everybody was laughing at him and Wally Kraft told him the Floyd said, "You are pissing me on!"

Stump was recording that game with his new 20 pound video camera. I don't know if he recorded that memorable moment, but I do know that he did record Klinger drifting under a deep fly ball that Thor hit, Klinger had a beer in his left hand as he caught that 16 inch Clincher Softball with his right hand and made a throw to 3rd to hold the runner at 2nd. Catching a 16 inch softball with one hand is quite an achievement and doing that without spilling his beer put him in the Duffer History page. Stump showed us the video of that catch and throw on the bus on our next road trip. Stump used to travel with his goalie bag and pads plus another hockey bag filled with video equipment.

7/87 “Slime Dog” Kowalkowski is the 5th recipient of the “King’s Meaningless Trophy”

6/88 “Dill” Deau is the 6th recipient of the “King’s Meaningless Trophy”

An earthquake of magnitude 6.8 near Spitak, Armenia, killed 25,000 on December 7, 1988.

6/89 Nick “The Hammer” is the 7th recipient of the “King’s Meaningless Trophy”

Voyager flies past Neptune in the year 1989 (It left Earth when the Duffers started play)

The Early 1990s The 1990-91 Team Picture
The 1990's began with the Gulf War. It has affected the country in many ways with the Gulf War souring our relations with Iraq and its leader Sadam Husan. Plus the investigation of Iraq's chemical weapons and Sadam's stalling has led to the U.S. imposing bomb threats. The fall of the Soviet Union and communism in Russia has made our relations with them better, but their economy worse. The media has really jogged our opinions on things like Waco, the Simpson trial, and now the presidential trials.
*The above summary was taken from American History Timeline

6/90 Frank ( ) Presecky became the first Duffer without a nickname to get his name on the “King’s Meaningless Trophy” Digital Dan Mazanec released his team Statistics for 1990

June 20, 1990, a magnitude 7.7 earthquake near Rasht, Iran, caused landslides that killed 40,000 to 50,000 people.

August 1990-The country of Iraq invades Kuwait causing the U.N. to impose sanctions. This also lead to the Gulf War to protect the oil interests in Kuwait.
1990-A severe economic depression in the U.S. deepens.

January 1991-President Bush sends troops to the Persian Gulf in operation Desert Storm to free Kuwait. The war lasted only 42 days

May 3rd 1991 The Whites and Blues played to a 2-2 tie. Stump was in nets for the Blues and the goalie for the White team was black! His name was FAMOUS! He came up to the bar with his Mom after the game. The King bought her a drink for letting her son play.

6/91 “Waju” Kraft became the 9th recipient of the “King’s Meaningless Trophy”

July 1991 Tweedy tried his hand at goalie during the July Summer Skate and turned in a Shut Out! That was the first shut out since Stump blanked a team in the summer men's league game in 1983.

1/92 3 Duffer SODs captain their College Teams. Brian Kraft (Anchorage Alaska) Don Granato, (University of Wisconsin) and Dan Lopatka. (University of Wisconsin. River Falls) All 3 players were from Downers Grove.
A dozen Duffers travel to Madison to watch Brian and Don lock horns. The van runs out of gas on the way home.

March 1992 Wheezer and Beak journeyed to Hayward Wisconsin to watch Tweedy play in a tournament with his college team mates. The Duffer-Hayward history begins.

6/92 John “Wheezer” Clementson was added to the “King’s Meaningless Trophy” at the Picnic.

3/24/93 Wheezer Koss and Beak Journey to Hayward Wisconsin to watch Tweedy play in a tournament. Beak spins Wheezer’s car out into a ditch in Spooner. Father Paul saves the day. He calls a tow truck driver who wants $20 for a 7:00AM call. Wheezer gives him a $50 and tells him, "We're from Chicago, no one gets out of bed for $20."

6/93 Bill “Klinger” Giffune gets the “King’s Meaningless Trophy”at the picnic and keeps it for 3 years. The trophy is so meaningless that no one could remember who had it.

3/25/94 3rd annual road trip to Hayward. Stump shines in nets. Duffers win hockey game, then lose beer drinking contest. Eleven Duffers use 2 vans to travel. Chris "Berserk" Mazurk scored his first Duffer Hat Trick in Hayward Wisconsin.

4/94 The first issue of the modern Duffer News hit the locker rooms in April 1994. (There was a pre-computer Duffer News in the early 80s.) The 4 page issue was dedicated to the adventures of our first team trip to Hayward. Duffer News was written in Greek letters.
There was a one page missal called the Hayward Gazette that came out that week.
The Duffer News started out as a multi page monthly journal. Click here to read the first Duffer News Extra.

4/94 One of the many high lights of the trip was a penalty shot that was awarded to Chris "Berserk" Masurk. Chris was just learning the game of hockey at the time and he had few if any goals in his young Duffer career, so he was asking his Duffer elders for advice. After gathering all of the available advice, he slapped the puck at center ice and started it rolling and bouncing toward the goal. The Hayward goalie (who was one of the best in the area) watched Chris dribble the puck toward him. He had never seen any thing like it so he froze in his tracks as Berserk slapped the bouncing puck past him for a "Hat Trick".
The Newsletter was such a hit, that a Duffer News Extra came out the following week.

June 17, 1994-O.J. Simpson is chased down by the police in his white Bronco. This was the most watched thing on the air and wiped out the audience for the David Hasslehoff singing special. The trial was extensively publicized and the verdict sent waves of controversy throughout the U.S.

On 1994 July 16-22, over twenty fragments of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 collided with the planet Jupiter. The comet, discovered the previous year by astronomers Carolyn and Eugene Shoemaker and David Levy, was observed by astronomers at hundreds of observatories around the world as it crashed into Jupiter's southern hemisphere.

9/9/94 Duffers add record number of Young Bloods. The Average age drops to 40. As 5 NYPDs (New Young Polite Duffers) under age 25 Join up.

10/14/94 New scoring system is developed. Each game has three outcomes. 1.) Raw Score, (All goals) 2.) Meaningful goals, (goals scored by Guys over 40). 3.) Handicap score. (1 goal is awarded for each year of team average). (See Duffer News, Volume I Issue 5)

1/6/95 Titz is coaxed out of retirement. His participation in a very successful weight program made it possible to fill out the new XXX large jersey. Dill Deau returns to Ref., then starts to play. He scored several meaningful goals in his first month back.

NHL players get locked out. Chicago fans cheer as Wirtz has to open his wallet to make payments on the new United Center.

1/15/95 NHL settles lockout Tony Granato has to cancel his participation in the Duffer Green Bay Trip.

1/20/95 Road trip to Green Bay! Duffers play with themselves, then watch the Gamblers. 4 thousand fans watch the Prince miss an open net. Commander Paul Jankowski meets us in Green Bay. Paul predicts O.J. Will walk. We all laugh.

3/28/95 17 Duffers rent a huge limo for the 4th annual Hayward road trip. Giffune gets Diarrhea and jumps off the bus in Elmhurst. Duffers lose 2 games then use Dubuque cheers and Strohs to boost Tweedy's team on to the Championship. Read More...

* TIME Magazine 6/12/95Gay fruit flies are developed when a single gene is transplanted. The gay flies ignored females to link up end to end in big circles so they could rub genitals with gay males. They were found to have low levels of a vital brain chemical.

8/12/95 Duffers help Chris Mazurk raise several thousand dollars for the Theresa Hansen Cancer fund. Several Duffers even gave blood. Why wouldn't they, they are hockey players.

8/15/95 Young Duffers win summer league with the help of Muzzy, Harvey, Beak and Dill Deau. We swept the play-offs to finish with a 13-3-2 record. Tweedy scored a goal to win the playoffs in overtime.

9/8/95 The Duffers started their 25th season under a full moon. Average age moves to 41.1 years. Veto Cermanka gets Married.

In September of 1995 The Duffer News became a weekly newsletter. That first Issue featured the following headlines: “Duffers Near Silver Anniversary Season”,

9/14/95 Hurricane Ismael kills 91 fishermen along the cost of California.
9/16/95 Hurricane Marilyn kills 8 and destroys 80% of the homes in St. Thomas

9/22/95 Don Granato finally gets a nick name. His son Rob told Beak that his kids call him BRINKS every time they need money.

9/29/95 Beak (Now age 55)sets Duffer record when he hit the open net from his own zone with 3 seconds to play. for the second straight week. Beak ended the 9/22/95 contest with an open net goal from the neutral zone.
Ed Bangs returns to Referee.

10/3/95 O.J. walks! Paul was right.
10/4/95 Opal takes out 3000 homes as it kills 20

10/6/95 Duffers enter Cyberspace. Boris opens a page on the Internet. The URL is http://HOME.AOL.COM/DUFFERSH The Duffer home page will link you to Honeywell and the Intellicast Chicago weather maps and forecasts. Duffer photographs are being added. (Page closed a year later for lack of funds)
Beak Jr. sparkles in the nets as he wins 5-1 in his first time playing goalie.

11/95 Boris disappears. Existing only on the Internet. Rumor has it that he is working on a peace settlement in Bosnia.
Nonessential government services are shut down. Nobody noticed. Now we know why they are called nonessential.

11/23/95 The 16th Duffer Turkey Skate. A request for help appears in the Duffer News. Beak's former student had a 5 year old son with cancer. He wrote, "Do you feel like playing Santa? I have just the kid for you. 5 year old Taraun Cullie is fighting cancer. He has lost all of his hair but he still has a great smile. His Mom, is a former student of mine, Please send a gift to April Cullie " That newsletter was faxed to 15 Duffers who had fax machines and hard copies were passes out in the locker room. When Beak wrote that paragraph, he was just hoping a few Duffers would send 5 or 10 Bucks to help out. Little did he know that that newsletter would find it's way into Tony G's locker in San Jose. (Thanks to Bob Friedlander.) Tony sent a check that was big enough to cover all of the Duffers. It didn't end there, Disco Bruce answered the call for help in a different way. He not only went to Taraun's "Hood", but he actually reported to the kid's "Crib" Dressed as Santa and showered him with gifts and Candy. A year later, Make a Wish foundation treated him to a trip to Disney World. 20 years later, Taraun's Mom fond Beak on Facebook and told him that her son is now 25 and Cancer free. She remembered all of the help that she got from the Duffers. Read More in Duffer News #50

I actually just got though reading it and it was great I love it I'm gonna forward it to my son, but it would be nice if you could let the team know how my son has beat cancer an is going strong an that smile that you remember Taraun having, he still has it. lol ,reading that Newsletter is very touching to me and it lets me remember the hard times an its let's me know how grateful we are an how god works. It's always a pleasure to be reminded of how things were an how god has pulled us threw so I appreciate the love an the kind hearts that you an the team had for us and how grateful I am to have had you as a teacher an a friend you again are the best teacher I have ever known !!!!

hey how's it going sir long time no hear my mom tells me you all are keeping in contact that's wonderful man it's so good to know that you are still around always thought about you in the back of my mind wondering where is the guy who used to put us in a big old tent (Star Lab) and it was outer space and taught me about stars and planets to this day it still amazes me thanks to you science is still my favorite subject.

12/8/95 Second annual road trip to Green Bay. Duffers play 2 games in less than 24 hours. The King falls asleep in the lobby before game 2. Tom Bluto Bryja misses a wide open net in front of 3,000 fans Papa Joe missed a chance to win a snowmobile when his shot missed the little hole. Muzzy got his leg shot off. A record number of meaningful goals were scored (18). Bluto injured goalie Rob Granato in warm-ups. Rob Injured his hand beating on Bluto hard head.

12/22/95 Harvey gets hurt in the locker room when a can of beer hits him in the head. His fluffy hair may have saved his life. Muzzy was identified as the Beer thrower.

12/31/95 Several hundred Duffers and friends returned to Downers Icearena to bring in the new year. The King’s Meaningless trophy was found. Bill Giffune had it in his trophy case since 1993. Nobody could find a least disimproved trophy. Dan Mazenec admitted being a recipient of the award one year, but his wife threw it out.

What is Thanksgiving and Mothers day* morning? Traditional hockey mornings. *We substituted New Year's Day for Mothers Day
What is the significance of Duffer Nicknames? So you can tell us apart. (except for Bobka who has a factor)
A true Duffer never complains about the assigned nickname lest he receive another. i.e.:John “Rico” Santoro AKA “Gomez”
What is voting? What we get to do after the King makes a decision.
Who is the King? Our leader AKA Bagwan during times of Comet visits.
What is hindering? What the young Duffers are not allowed to do to mature Duffers.
What are the 3 most devastating Duffer shots? The Flaccid wrist shot, The Flutter Blast and the Hypnotic Tip.
What is the Cardinal Rule of the Duffers? What happens in the locker room stays there.
What are the stages of Duffer development?

4-We know we are not going to get better. The best we can hope for is a momentary flash of brilliance.

3/24/96 Fifth Annual Hayward Trip. Duffers help Bombers win coveted beer trophy in Hayward Wisconsin. Comet Hyakutake lights up the Wisconsin sky. I saw a Duffer put his beer down so that he could view the comet through Beak’s binoculars. Read More....

6/29/96 Thor, Papa Joe and Harvey were given the meaningless trophy at the 1996 picnic to make up for the missing years. The King is missing, and Klinger misses his first Duffer Picnic. New dues structure includes $25.00 road trip incentive

6/30/96 Blue Moon is seen the day after the Duffer Picnic. The Blue Moon is the second full moon in a calendar month.

7/25/96 The NYPDs finished first in the Summer league then swept the playoffs to compile an impressive 15-2-1 record.

9/6/96 Cammi Granato is given a contract by Louisville to endorse their products. She is pictured in the 9/20/96 edition of The Hockey News with Messier and Thachuk. Tony Granato signs with the Sharks. The Average Duffer age is 42.5.as Doc Dubreuil, Rick Dzingle and Kelley Lauer join the club.

AOL bites off more than it can chew. Millions of new customers get busy signals.

10/11/96 Duffer Silver anniversary stuff hits the market. Bags are ordered. Uncle Bob's Nephew, Jerry, shows great promise as a Beak understudy. His Mac Newsletter hits the locker room. Jerry is taken from the Duffers a few years later by marriage. Since his Newsletter was a MAC product, I had to scan it as a jpg, so it will take a while to load.

1996-In the presidential election, Bill Clinton defeats Bob Dole in what will be a very tough presidential term for him.

11/22/96 Third annual road trip to Green Bay 24 Duffers get their Silver anniversary Hockey bags. The King misses a wide open net in front of 4,000 fans. King throws his infamous striped underwear away. Stump kills a mouse in his bed.

12/30/96 Second annual New Year’s Eve skating party moves to Saint's Ice Spectrum.

2/2/97 Beak opens new Duffer Web page, compliments of US Robotics The URL is http://homepage.usr.com/b/beak/ US Robotics drops website a year later and all sites are lost. Beak started publishing Duffer Newsletters on the Geocities web site until his nephew started lopatka.net in April 2000. Click here to see the first Duffer Newsletter rescued from the Geocities site before it was closed. Newsletter #99 on March 7, 1997

3/14/97 Sixth Annual Hayward Trip to Hayward Wisconsin. Duffers publish 100th Computerized newsletter as the team heads for Hayward road trip. Duffers win 2nd straight beer drinking trophy. A group of 3 Duffers were threatened with jail at 3 AM if they didn’t stop laughing. Newsletter #100

Duffers are dazzled by Comet Hale-Bopp. The King answers only to Bagh Wan. (he heard that Kings don’t fair too well when comets appear) Read More....

Duffers discover that on a 3 day road trip, you have taken all of the steps needed to reach Optimum Health.

Dr. Andrew Weil has a book, 8 weeks to Optimum Health. In this book, he outlines a program that will help you achieve optimum health. Here is his program.

Take a break from watching the news. TV news is a depressant. No Duffer has ever watched the news on a road trip.

Go to a Hot Tub and sweat. We spent several hours in the Super 8 Hot Tub last week.

Go for a 25 minute walk Harvey’s shopping expedition more than fulfilled that requirement.

Exercise sensibly then take in plenty of fluids. We played two fast paced hockey games and took in plenty of fluids.

Have some garlic and olive oil. If you ever went to a team dinner, you know that the Bagh Wan’s choice of restaurant will give you plenty.

7/26/97 Fred Bobka had his name added to the King’s meaningless trophy at the picnic. Fred was the 15th recipient of the trophy. The trophy has the same problem as the Stanley Cup. There was no room for Fred on the plaque, so a new plaque was added to the back. We now have room for 13 more Duffers.
Green Bay Gambler Kevin Granato follows his cousins foot steps and becomes a Badger.

8/97 Donny Granato gets married and leaves Green Bay for a Professional coaching job with the Columbus Ohio Chill.

8/97 Comet Hale- Bopp departs, the King comes out of hiding and shows up at the Duffer picnic.

9/97 Duffer SOD, Brian Kaft, survives a plane crash in Alaska
Duffer Average Age hits 43 Papa Joe will turn 68 this season. Youngest Duffers, Tommy Z will turn 27.

1/98 The president of the United States creates a media frenzy when rumors of his romantic involvement with an intern hit the news. The French are puzzled. They can’t understand why he only has one woman.

1/29/98 Thirty-Six Duffers board an American Airliner for San Jose. We played 2 games in the Shark Tank and we watched the Sharks and Tony Granato play the Black Hawks and the Avalanche. Tony scored to win Brinks $50 in the pool. Tommy Z told Bernie Nichols that he had $5.00 on him to score the first goal. Bernie replies “That’s a stupid bet, Tom”. Brinks and Papa Joe scored 2 while Hitman and Hacksaw scored once. Sunday morning at 6:15 AM, Papa Joe scored 2 goals in 24 seconds. Thor was asleep on the bench and the Geek was late with the camera, so there was no video of that historic Duffer event!

2/98 El Nino hammers San Jose, California as the Duffers get out of town just in time. PGA Golf tournament had to be cancelled because of the heavy rains. Henrys Bar and Restaurant had to pile sand bags up to protect the Hockey Hangout.

2/3/98 Duffers are described as “self-deprecating” in the Chicago Tribune this morning. A page and a half was devoted to Cammi Granato.

2/13/98 On the other side of the world, Cammi Granato was busy scoring 2 goals and setting up 2 more as Team USA scored 6 goals in the 3rd period to Beat Canada 7-4 in Nagano, Japan

2/13/98 Three generations of Duffers team up for a score. Beak took a pass from his Grandson Mike and set up Beak Jr. for the First 3 Generation Goal.

3/13/98 Friday the 13th, Muzzy announced his retirement from the Duffers. The King granted him Emeritus status with the following privileges: He could go to the picnic, as long as he supplied the ice cream and paid his picnic fee. He would be welcome to Bowl for underwear, for a fee of course. He would be welcome on all Duffer road trips, if he pays. He would be welcome at the Bar on Friday nights, especially when it’s his turn to buy. He would be welcome to throw tape balls at Fred, sitting by the garbage can.

4/17/98 The Village of Downers Grove honored Cammi Granato with a parade. The Duffers dressed up a Split Second Towing Flatbed with red , white and blue bunting, then filled it with Duffers and Pictures of Cammi. A picture of Cammi was on one side of the Puck, with the Duffer logo and the Duffer Web page address on the other.
The King drove Klinger’s Harley as Beak roller skated down Main street with SODs, DODs and GODs. The Duffers threw candy and Cammi Duffer pucks to the Crowd. Duffer Float was named “Best in its class.”

5/5/98 Twelve year old Miller ultra -Lite scores his first Duffer Goal. Referee Agatha Morey who was inspired by the Cammi Day parade reffed her first solo game. She whistled Papa Joe down for carrying the puck over 3 lines.

6/20/98 Duffers celebrate Nick Bresha’s 75th Birthday at the annual picnic. Hacksaw Pavichevich became the 16th Duffer to have his name put on the King’s Meaningless Horses Ass Trophy. 10 years after Nick was so honored at the 1989 picnic.

July 17, 1998, an offshore quake triggers a wave that strikes the north coast of Papua-New Guinea, killing some 2,000 people and leaving thousands more homeless.

1998-President Bill Clinton is charged with lying to a federal grand jury, and faces impeachable offenses. His actions with people such as Jennifer Flowers, Paula Jones, Monica Lewinsky, and the Whitewater affair, have been exposed extensively to the public. If the Senate chooses and he does not resign, he will be only the second president to ever be impeached.

The Blizzard of 1999 was a strong winter snowstorm which struck the Midwest United States and portions of eastern Canada, hitting hardest in Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Ontario and Quebec dumping as much as 60 cm (2 feet) of snow in many areas. Chicago received a recorded 21.6 in (55 cm).^[1] The storm hit just after New Year's Day, between January 2 and January 4, 1999. Travel was severely disrupted throughout the areas and the cities of Chicago and Toronto were also paralyzed. Additionally, record low temperatures were measured in many towns in the days immediately after the storm (January 4 - January 8)

1/22/99 Duffers fly to Columbus to watch Donny Granato’s Chill mix it up with the Chiefs! Mike “The Nailer” DeVivo scored his first Duffer goal in our afternoon game on the big rink.

February 1999 after 24 years of being a woman, Renée Richards says don't do it!

7/17/99 Chris “Berserk” Mazurk receives King’s meaningless trophy
at the Duffers Picnic.

7/25/99 Jan Presecky gets busted at the Jimmy Buffett Concert trying to take a bottle of water past security. Her Son and Daughters managed to smuggle in rum and alcohol. http://www.lopatka.net/Buffett/1999.htm

In Turkey, more than 17,000 died and 50,000 were injured in a magnitude 7.7 earthquake that struck August 17, 1999, about 150 miles west of Ankara.

8/27/99 Duffers meet at Famous Dave’s to celebrate Hacksaw’s retirement and plan help for Cammi’s celebrity game at 7 Bridges.

8/29/99 Duffers provide security for Cammi’s Golden Dreams for Children Celebrity Game. Donny Granato is named Peoria Rivermen coach.

10/1/99 Magoo becomes the second Duffer in History to lose a double header. John started the game on the Whites. He was traded to the Blues for Tom Morgan With 10 minutes left in the first period. He left a losing team then helped his new team blow a 2-0 lead, as the Whites scored 4 unanswered goals to Win 4-2. Tom Morgan became the second Duffer to score a goal for each team. Johnny Z was the first.

11/5/99 Duffer GODs score 3 goals. Bobby Presecky, and Mike Lopatka scored for the Whites.

December 31, 1999-The U.S. will turn over the Panama Canal to Panama as voted by the U.S. Senate in 1978.

The term "Duffer Virtual Reality" was coined in this millennium when Klinger was describing an event that took place in 1979 at the Duffer Banquet. He had every detail down like he had taken copious notes. Then Beak reminded him that He was not there. He looked puzzled and started to argue until Beak reminded him that he didn't join the Duffers until 1980. "Duffer Virtual Reality" takes place when you hear a story many times in a smoke filled bar while downing a few beers. Soon your brain puts those stories into a section of your brain where you can tell those stories better than the guys who were actually at the event.

1/28/2000 The Alien stops the Rivermen’s 10 game winning streak as Duffers get 15 to cheer on the Rivermen. Alien went home Saturday and the Rivermen started a new streak. Art Koudelka becomes the Official Peoria Duffer organizer. Art provides us with goalies and players as needed. King tries to eat a bowl of gravy and Berserk loses his shoes.

3/4/2000 Harvey scores 3 goals in Peoria then blows the lights out of the Peoria Civic Center with his Hair dryer. King negotiates a trade with Peoria owner Ann Griffin. Duffers get Jason Christie for Beer nuts and Stump.

4/1/2000 The Mayor of Hayward Wisconsin, had to supply the Duffers with 2 goalies for the Saturday night game. Harvey scored 4 goals on one of the goalies, while Beak banged in 5 on the other one. Tweedy’s team lost the championship game on Sunday.

4/4/00 U.S. Women's National Team Wins Silver! At IIHF Women's World Championship. - Beak and Wheezer watched Cammi and the USA women down Sweden 7-1 on Saturday. On Sunday, USA out shot Canada 32 to 23, only to lose 3-2 in overtime. Cammi was named outstanding Forward.

4/11/00 Brinks, Beak and Beer-Nuts were on the road again as they went down to St. Louis Saturday to cheer Tony Granato and the Sharks on to a 4-2 play off win over the Blues. They then went to Peoria to see the Rivermen beat the Johnstown Chiefs, 4-3 in overtime.

5/4/2000 Duffer God, Michael Gregory Spillman was born to Beak’s daughter Kathie and Mike Spillman. Mark Lopatka launches Duffer web site lopatka.net

7/10/2000 John “Magoo” Landry is awarded with the King’s Meaningless trophy at the Duffer Picnic.

9/1/2000 Duffer-Peoria connection continues, as Jason Christie is named Head coach of the Rivermen.

Nov 8, 2000 In Florida 19,000 votes were reported disqualified in West Palm Beach. Election officials began a recount and the US presidential election winner remained in suspense based on the Florida result.

Nov 14, 2000 In Florida the official recount showed George W. Bush leading Al gore by 300 votes.

Nov 16, 2000 The Florida State Supreme Court ruled that "there is no legal impediment to the recounts continuing."

11/18/2000 Duffers present Jason Christie with a Duffer Jacket thanks to Clubhouse Designs and Uncle Bob. Jason gives Duffers a tour of his $375,000 Rivermen Coach.

Nov 22, 2000 Gov. George Bush called on the US Supreme Court to stop the vote counting in Florida. In Palm Beach Circuit Court Judge Jorge Labarga ordered election officials to consider dimpled ballots. In Dade County election officials called off the recount due to their inability to meet the Nov 27 deadline.

Nov 23, 2000 In Florida the Supreme Court rejected an emergency plea by Al Gore to force Miami-Dade County to resume manual counts.

Nov 26, 2000 In Florida Sec. of State Katherine Harris certified Gov. George W. Bush as winner in the state's presidential election, 2,912,790 to 2,912,253.

December 25, 2000 We were treated to a Christmas Solar Eclipse this morning. There will not be another Christmas Eclipse until the year 2307. Beak captured the event with his digital camera and telescope. http://www.randolph.cps.k12.il.us/Archive%20Site/eclipse.html

Jan 1, 2001 In Canada new cigarette warning labels became effective. 16 rotating labels included such warnings as "Cigarettes cause mouth disease" with a photograph of blackened, bleeding gums.

January, 2001, 7 Duffers packed the Berserk Van and headed for Madison to watch Kevin Granato play for the Badgers Read More....

More than 20,000 people were killed and 600,000 left homeless by an earthquake of magnitude 7.7 that struck January 26, 2001, in the Indian state of Gujarat.

2/16/2001, Klinger Krash Award was created when Beak's skate blade snapped off. We had a record crowd watching, as Tom Zagorski's Office coworkers came out to watch. Read more.....

Feb 28, 2001 In Washington state a 6.8 magnitude slab earthquake shook Seattle. It was centered 32.6 miles below the surface along the boundary of the Juan de Fuca tectonic plate and the continental North American plate. Damages were later estimated at $2 billion.

Mar 6, 2001 It was reported that Chinese psychiatrists have decided to stop classifying homosexuality as a mental illness.

Mar 8, 2001 The US House approved $958.3 billion in income tax reductions over 10 years.

3/9/2001 Duffers return to San Jose to skate in the Shark Tank and party with Barry Melrose, Gary Suter, Tony Granato and Pete Stemkowski.

Mar 14, 2001 The DJIA fell 317 to close at 9,973. The Nasdaq fell 42 to close at 1,972.

Mar 20, 2001 In South Africa new AIDS statistics indicated that 25% of the adult population, one of every 9 people, was infected with HIV.

Mar 22, 2001 The 135-ton Mir crashed into open seas between Chile and New Zealand.

Mar 25, 2001 In the Academy Awards "Gladiator" won 5 Oscars including best picture and best actor for Russell Crowe. Julia Roberts won best actress for "Erin Brockovich." "Crouching Tiger" won for best foreign film and best music score. Steven Soderbergh won best director for "Traffic," which also featured Benicio Del Toro who won the best supporting actor. Marcia Gay Harden won best supporting actress for her role in "Pollock."

Mar 30, 2001 The Bush administration suspended a late Clinton rule that directed federal agencies to assess whether prospective contractors had violated federal laws.

2001 Apr 13, In China a 5.9 earthquake hit Yunan province and at least 7 people were killed. 42,000 homes were destroyed in the Shidian area.

Apr 13, 2001 In France up to 15,000 people were evacuated from the region of Vimy due to fears of explosions from a World War I bomb storage site.

Apr 18, 2001 The US Federal Reserve lowered short term interest rates by a half point to 4.5%. The DJIA rose 399 to 10,615. Nasdaq rose 156 to 2079.

April 27, 2001 Young Duffers, Tweedy, Tommy, Stump, Dan and Bob Granato win senior men's state championship and league crown.

May 1, 2001 The space shuttle Endeavour landed at Edwards Air Force Base in the Mohave Desert following the installation of the billion-dollar robot arm on the Int'l. Space Station.

May 7, 2001 In Alaska 4 Anchorage school children were stabbed by Jason Pritchard (33). Pritchard was shot with rubber bullets and taken into custody.
I could see using rubber bullets if he used a rubber knife. Get the lead out!

Jun 7, 2001 Pres. Bush signed a $1.3 trillion tax cut bill. It included rising exemptions on estate taxes until 2010 at which point they would return.

Jun 14, 2001 Pres. Bush clashed with EU leaders in Sweden over his global warming policy. The EU leaders said they would move to implement the Kyoto treaty without the US.

7/1/2001 Beak retires after teaching 39 years in the Chicago Public Schools. Many Duffers help him celebrate. Retirement Party Pictures

8/30/2001 The Chicago Sun Times published Beak's Letter to the Editor that protested pension laws that give politicians a bigger pension than their salery.

Sep 6, 2001 In SF Barry Bonds hit his 60th home run of the year and became the 5th player in history to do so.

9/7/2001 Duffers move to Bolingbrook to start 31st season. Alien finds us 8 weeks later. Mean age jumps to 47.77 Years.

9/11/01 Terrorist hijack 4 planes and kill nearly 3000 innocent people in New York and Washington D.C.

9/11/01 Rivermen coach, Jason Christie and his wife Kelly, are blessed with a baby boy.

11/17/2001 Nick "Ball Pin Hammer" Hawrysio scored his first Duffer goal, when he beat his dad after several attempts. He is learning the Duffer ways quickly, he gave Beak 2 bucks for a beer in the locker room. The goal was scored in The Peoria Civic Center in front of a sparse crowd of 5. Doc’s Daughter Becky, the Peoria Goalie’s Father, 2 window washers and Beer-Nuts. Let’s hear it for Mr. Nuts! He was suffering with a pulled “Hammy”. Did he call in sick? No, he went to Peoria and suffered through our game, moved cars for players that were parked illegally and stayed up most of the night listening to Beak and Bob Plager stories.

Oct 31, 2001 Halloween this year came with a blue moon, the 2nd full moon of the month. The Bush administration said it would adopt stricter arsenic standard for drinking water as proposed in the final days of the Clinton administration.

We had 18 Duffers go to Peoria on Saturday November 17. We played for almost 3 hours and the Rivermen beat the Arkansas River Blades twice. 11/23/01 Peoria and Mr. Clean

11/18/2001 Scores of people heard the Leonids. The sounds weren't rumbling sonic booms or the loud crack of a distant explosion arriving long after the meteor's flash had come and gone. Rather, these were exotic, delicate noises, heard while the meteor was in full view. Scientists call them "electrophonic meteor sounds."Some Duffers were returning to their rooms in Peoria at that time.

11/22/01 A record number of Duffers and family showed up at Seven Bridges to give thanks. Eddies new camber provided a handy party place in the parking lot.

Dec 17, 2001 Space shuttle Endeavour returned to Cape Canaveral following A 12-day mission for a crew change at the Int'l. Space Station.
2001 Dec 17, In Afghanistan US Delta forces pursued some 300 al Qaeda fighters in the White Mountains. Mullah Omar was reported to have retreated to the mountains near Baghran.2001 Dec 18, Hundreds of al Qaeda and Taliban fighters were reported to have slipped into Pakistan from Afghanistan.

Jan 1, 2002 Pres. Bush announced that envoy Gen. Anthony Zinni would return to the Middle East to push for steps to renew peace talks.

Jan 4, 2002 The US Postal Service announced an increase in 1st class stamps to 37 cents from 34 to take place June 30.
Jan 4, 2002A WSJ editorial by former US Army officer Ralph Peters blamed Saudi Arabia as the source of fundamentalist terrorism. "We must be prepared to seize the Saudi oil fields and administer them for the greater good."

Jan 4, 2002 Antonio Todde, an Italian shepherd listed by Guinness as the world's oldest man, died just shy of his 113th birthday. "Just love your brother and drink a good glass of red wine every day."

Jan 12, 2002 The US continued bombing on suspected Taliban and al Qaeda hideouts in Afghanistan.

Feb 1, 2002 Pres. Bush named Jim Tower (45), former Florida Sec. of Health, to lead his initiative to give federal money to religious charities.
Feb 1, 2002 The US Justice Dept. asked the president's staff for all Enron-related documents back to Jan 1, 1999.

February 1, 2002 The Duffers held their 2nd annual Christmas Party at the Berserk Barn. Http://www.lopatka.net/2-8-02

Feb 8, 2002 Pres. Bush opened the 19th Winter Olympic Games as part of a 3-hour ceremony at Rice-Eccles Stadium at the Univ. of Utah campus.

Feb 14, 2002 Sharon Watkins, Enron Vice President, testified that Jeffrey Skilling was behind the accounting that led to the company's bankruptcy and that CEO Kenneth Lay was probably duped by his executives and was unaware of the depth of Enron's

February 15, 2002 9 year old, Ryan Dzingel, took his father's shift and scored 2 goals in the final minute to tie the game at 8*. Ryan tied the youngest Duffer Goal record, held by a Duffer GOD Bobby Fetting. Bobby broke Tweedy's record.**

**Tweedy beat Stump when he was 10 years old on Mothers Day, 1981.

Beak and Hitman's Extraordinary Adventure began on Friday, February 15, 2002 at the Bolingbrook Rocket Ice Rink where they each scored a goal to help the home team Whites win the meaningful contest. They continued their winning ways the following day in Peoria where they each scored 2 goals. Peoria Meaningful Duffers, Emil and Rod also scored. (Emil had 3) The well rested Beer Nuts also scored. After the Rivermen game, Rich Storm, Tommy Z, Hitman and Beak found a big screen and watched the USA men tie the Russians. Beak and Hitman arrived in Salt Lake City on Monday February 18, 2002. They went to the airport and picked up Klinger and McGee (We found out that Frank was called Fibber McGee by his Dad) and then they went to dinner with Brinks who picked up their tickets for the USA semi final game.

Feb 24, 2002 The XIX Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City came to a close. In one of the last events Canada beat the US hockey team 5-2 for the gold. Cross-country skiers from Spain and Russia were stripped of gold medals for failing drug tests.

Apr 1, 2002 Grace Lopatka was born to Dan and Sabine. Maryland beat Indiana 64-52 in the NCAA basketball finals.
Pres. Bush said he would sell Governor's Island in NY Harbor to NY state and NYC for a nominal charge.

April 20, 2002 The Duffers win a medal in the fire Engine Pull contest as Cammi Granato is honored with a parade in Downers Grove Illinois Http://www.lopatka.net/4-26-02 The Duffers dressed up a Split Second Towing Flatbed with red , white and blue bunting, then filled it with Duffers and Pictures of Cammi.
The King drove Klinger’s Harley as Duffers roller skated down Main street with SODs, DODs and GODs. The Duffers threw candy and Cammi Duffer pucks to the Crowd. A picture of Cammi with the Duffer logo and the Duffer Web page address was on the puck. Duffer Float was named “Best in its class.” 2002 Parade Pictures

May 2002 Bill Louis' wife read about the Duffers in the Plainfield Sun and suggested that it was just the thing he needed to get back into hockey. Bill read the article and recognized Jim Micelli's name. He called him up and started playing in May 2002. He got tagged with the handle "By the Way" by Bobka after meeting the Duffers for only 3 minutes. BBTW Played hockey in Canada just like all other Canadians.

June 6, 2002 Pres. Bush proposed a new Cabinet department for domestic security. The Department of Homeland Security would operate on a $37.5 billion budget and have 169,154 employees.

June 15, 2002 Arthur Andersen was convicted of obstructing justice by shredding Enron-related documents in a verdict that boosted prosecutors' efforts to get to the bottom of the Enron scandal.
June 20 and 22, 2002. A number of Duffers and Duffer wives enjoyed the Jimmy Buffett concerts. The King, Boris, Beak, Beavis and Dill Deau baked in the sun on the first day of summer as they watched the Cubs blow an 8-0 lead. Many Sox fans left after 4 innings because they couldn't take the pain. Beavis got ticket stubs from one of the dejected Sox fans and ended catching Konerko's game winning home run. As Yogi says, "It ain't over till it's over". Hacksaw was exhausted after he saw over 20 "points". (Known as Runs in the USA.) He said that he felt he had watched 35 Soccer games. We had 20 Duffers, SODs, GODs, DODs, and WODs show up at the Sunday game that the Cubs won. Thor was happy, because he got to keep the cup full of money that he was holding when Mark Bellhorn hit a home run. He was playing one of Beavis' money games with Tweedy, Tommy Z and Rich Storm.

July 9, 2002 Pres. Bush spoke against corporate fraud and vowed to "use the full weight of the law" to punish corporate crime.

July 10, 2002 The Dow Jones fell 282 to 8,813.5 and Nasdaq closed down 35 to 1,346.

July 13, 2002Lauren Kraft of the Bolingbrook Sun has published a story about Bono's Cruzzin Saturday Nights Car show. She interviewed Ken Lopatka at the Downers Friday Night Cruise show. You can see Ken's 57 Chevy and many more classic cars every Saturday night at Bonos.

Aug 9, 2002 Barry Bonds of the SF Giants hit his 600th homerun and joined the ranks of Henry Aaron (660), Babe Ruth (714) and Willie Mays (755). His hat size increased by one. Was it caused by steroids or success?

9/04/02 Beak's Mauna Kea Sunset picture of Venus was featured on NASA's Spaceweather.com website in August and the Earth Science Picture of the day site posted it on September 4, 2002 .

September 6, 2002 the Duffers started their 32nd season and they added 2 new members. Bill "By the Way " and Lorenzo were granted Duffer status by the King.

Friday the 13th turned out to be a very good day for Hacksaw and Beak as they started the day with a scenic flight over the Joliet and Plainfield area. It was a successful flight, because they were able to walk away from the plane after the landing. (A full digital video of the event is available upon request)
Their good luck continued when they put on their Duffer Home White sweaters and ended up skating with Cammi Granato on half of their shifts, thanks to Uncle Bob's 50 second shifts. Cammi got an assist on her Dad's goal, when she passed to Papa Joe to start a 1-2-3 goal. She later set up Beak with a give and go play that Beak silently buried to give Brian "The Brain" and the Whites a 2-0 Meaningful win. Cammi finally took a shot and scored in the third period. "By the Way Bill" scored 2 and Berserk added one to give the Whites a 6-2 Meaningless win. Lorenzo and Tommy Z scored for the Reds.

Golden Dreams 4th annual Fund Raiser

Oct 6, 2002 A fire broke out on the Limburg, a French oil tanker off the coast of Yemen, setting barrels of oil ablaze and sparking an explosion. The explosion was soon determined to be the result of a terrorist attack.

Oct 15, 2002 In Iraq Saddam Hussein won the presidential referendum for another 7-year term. He claimed a 100% victory the next day

October 12, Uncle Bob's Hat Trick puts The Anvil, Stump and The Ghost into beer glasses. Read More...

Oct 25, 2002 Hurricane Kenna hit Mexico's Pacific coast and over 150 people were injured in the states of Jalisco, Nayarit and Sinaloa. 3 people were later reported killed. Damages were estimated in tens of millions.

November 8-11, 2002 Brinks and Beak go to Kitchener, Ontario to watch the 4 Nations Cup. Cammi was named player of the game when she scored 4 goals against Sweden. Cammi is leading the professional Women's Hockey league in scoring with 15 goals. She plays for the Vancouver Griffins.

November 28, 2002 Thanksgiving, is a Happy Holiday, as Eddie the anvil provides Brats, Beer and Rum for 32 Duffers.

December 11, 2002 Don Granato brings the Ice Cats to town. 20 Duffers showed up to cheer for the Cats. On December 12, Brinks, Beak, Beer Nuts, Buck shot, Knarf and Berserk went up to Milwaukee and watched the Ice Cats beat the Milwaukee Admirals 4-3. Thank you to Coach Granato for a great week.

December 13, 2002Friday the 13th was good luck for Beak and bad luck for his son Tweedy, because Beak scored an incest goal on his son for the Meaningful game winner. Http://www.lopatka.net/12-20-02

December 20, 2002 Frank had a hat trick before the game. His trick gave him a concussion. Frank says Bob Plager was right, “a concussion is not as bad as a hang over.”

March 2, 2003 Tony Granato donates an autographed Patrick Roy stick and an autographed Avalanche Jersey to a St. Rita fund raiser. Klinger bought the jersey and Berserk bought the stick for his wife to be.

April 18, 2003 Brian "The Brain" Shut out the Reds! That was the first Duffer shut out since Tweedy had a summer shut in July 1991. Read More...

April 25, 2003 The King was honored before the game when Frank presented him with the King's Meaningless Trophy. The trophy is now retired. The King received it in 1983. 19 other Duffers had their names added to the trophy since that time.

May 2nd, 2003 Pres. Bush stood on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier with the banner "Mission Accomplished" behind him and announced the end of major combat operations in Iraq

June 7, 2003 Frank was presented with the Klinger crash award at the Duffer Picnic.

September 5, 2003 Duffers start their 33rd season! The King plays 2 periods as he turned over the purse strings to Rich Storm. The new King invited a friend of Bill By the Way to join the Duffers. Perry Lea played hockey in Canada with BBTW and was called the Flea. Frank locked Sean Morgan, in the locker room. It wasn't until the first period ended that Eddie asked Tweedy if he heard the noise. Tweedy got the key and released the youngster from his 40 minute nightmare.

September 12, 2003 Eddie the Anvil turned in the first Duffer Shut out since the Brain did it on April 18, 2003.

October 24, 2003 3 Meaningful Hat tricks!! Thor, Papa Joe and Beak each had 3 goals. Read More....

November 21, 2003 Stump gets a new hip and Rich Storm announces the trip to Denver in March.

November 27, 2003 Darien IL The Turkey Day skate produced a record crowd with many goals. Read more...

November 28, 2003 Peoria IL Some of the Duffers skated off their turkey for 2 hours and 45 minutes in the Peoria Civic Center, then we watched Jason Christie's Rivermen beat Cincinnati. Click here to Read More...e

December 5, 2003 Nine meaningful goals were scored by 5 Meaningful Duffers. Beak lead the way with 3, Papa Joe and Hacksaw had 2 each while Knarf and Thor picked up solo blasts. Read more...

December 12, 2003 Bolingbrook IL Cammi and Rob Granato helped their Dad score a pair of goals. Read more...

December 26, 2003 A magnitude 6.6 earthquake near Bam, Iran, killed 42,200 and damaged or destroyed 85 percent of the buildings in the area.

January, 2004 NASA's twin robot geologists, the Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, launched toward Mars on June 10 and July 7, 2003, in search of answers about the history of water on Mars, landed on Mars January 3 and January 24. They began returning valuable data that hinted at a previous history of water activity on Mars. Spirit and Opportunity have uncovered rock patterns, mineral presence, and spherule existence on the Martian surface that strongly suggest that water once flowed freely on the Red Planet.

On Jan. 2, 2004, NASA’s Stardust spacecraft flew within 236 kilometers of Comet Wild 2 and captured thousands of particles in its aerogel collector for return on Earth in January 2006. Findings from a historic encounter between Stardust and a comet have revealed a much stranger world than previously believed. The comet's rigid surface, dotted with towering pinnacles, plunging craters, steep cliffs, and dozens of jets spewing violently, surprised scientists.

Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" at the Super Bowl halftime show gets more attention than the game. Who won? Who played? That Timberlake guy, I think. Anheuser-Busch pulled its popular "Sleigh Ride" television ad after Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction." The ad showed a guy trying to impress a woman with a romantic horse-drawn sleigh ride. But the carriage horse sends an inferno of flatulence into the woman's face and charcoals her hair. Rusty!

February 7th, 2004 Duffers celebrate Christmas for the 4th straight year at the Berserk Barn. Hacksaw gets Harvey's Hair. Read more...

March 5th, 2004 Duffers go to Denver. Beak was traded at game time for Steve Granato and a player to be named later. Beak got the only meaningful goal for the Reds on a pass from Harvey. The next game Beak was traded for Tony Granato. See the picture

March 8, 2004 Antalaha, Madagascar : Cyclone Gafilo with winds of 160 mph and heavy rains left hundreds of thousands homeless and killed 295 people. More than 100 were on a ferry that sank off the island of Comoros.

March 11, 2004 Madrid, Spain: Ten bombs exploded on morning commuter trains in Madrid, killing 202, injuring more than 1,400, causing the worst terrorist attack in Europe.

April 20th, 2004 Tornados rip through Illinois. The tornado in Joliet was one of four to hit in the region. The others were in Utica in LaSalle County, where eight people were killed; Kankakee in Kankakee County and Granville in Putnam County.

April 30th, 2004 Eddie the Anvil turned in his second Duffer Shut Out. Stump scored his first goal with his new hip, to help Eddie get 4-0 the win. Read more...

May 2nd, 2004 More than 600 American troops have died in Iraq since Bush stood on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier with the banner "Mission Accomplished" behind him and announced the end of major combat operations in Iraq.

June 5th, 2004 Many Duffers joined the Grant Importing golf outing at Lincoln Oaks Golf Course, in Crete, IL The Morgans took home the grand prize. Read More

Former President Ronald Reagan died at his California home on June 5, nearly 10 years after announcing that he was suffering from Alzheimer's disease. He is most remembered for teaming up with the Polish stamp stealer to pass the "Windfall elimination" law that screwed Beak and millions of teachers, policemen and firefighters out of their Social Security payments.

June 9, 2004 Beak and the Brain were all excited as they watched the solar transit of Venus -- a celestial event that last occurred 122 years ago. Venus Transit picture

June 12, 2004 Mike Presecky became the first Duffer to receive the "Next generation" Meaningless Duffer Trophy at the Duffer Picnic. Beak presented Bill "The Alien" Allen with the third annual Klinger Krash Award for his concussion. The Brain was called first, but he was late, so his certificate was pulled from the plaque and the Alien won by default. The Klinger Krash award requires the winner to be present. If the Alien had not shown up, Beak would have given the award to Mini Wheezer. Read More

July 31, 2004 Blue Moon! A blue moon is the second full moon in a calendar month. For a blue moon to occur, the first of the full moons must appear at or near the beginning of the month so that the second will fall within the same month (the average span between two moons is 29.5 days). July 2004 will have two full moons: the first on July 2, the second on July 31—that second full moon is called the blue moon.

August 13, 2004 After a few scares, Athens won its race to be ready for the 28th Olympiad. And, having run a marathon at a sprinter's pace, it was able to put its feet up and enjoy the show.

August, 2004 Beak goes into the Hockey Hall of Fame! (It cost him a Canadian saw buck) Read More

September, 2004 Hacksaw was inducted into the Illinois Soccer Hall of Fame. Read More

September 12, 2004 Many Duffers helped Cammi celebrate her marriage to Ray. Read More

Charley, Frances and Jeanne raked the Orlando area, which hadn't seen a direct hurricane hit since Donna in 1960.

October 1, 2004 The price of crude oil futures ended above $50 a barrel on Friday, despite rebels in Nigeria's producing region agreeing a truce with the government.

October 15, 2004 The 400th Issue of the Duffer News hit the locker Room. Read More

Red Sox beat Yankees, then win World Series!
November 2, 2004 George W. Bush wins his first election, gets 4 more years. Read More

November 9, 2004 Tom and Ericka's are blessed with a new daughter. Hacksaw found a cure from his ailing health. For weeks, he had been following his doctor's orders. No alcohol, plenty of couch rest, clean air, good food etc. He used the George Costanza "opposite method" to cure his ailment. He got off of the couch and skated 3 full periods, he came off with his equipment soaked with perspiration, then had a few beers and laughs in the freezing cold parking lot. At Bonos, he celebrated Tom and Ericka's new daughter with a cigar and some greasy foods that he chased with some shots and beers. He was cured! That cure will not appear in the American Journal of Medicine. Maybe the Placebo Journal will run a story on it.

NASA's X-43A research vehicle screamed into the record books on Nov. 16, 2004, demonstrating that an air-breathing engine can fly at nearly 10 times the speed of sound. Preliminary data from the scramjet-powered research vehicle show its revolutionary engine worked successfully at approximately Mach 10 (nearly 7,000 mph) as it flew at an altitude of approximately 110,000 feet.

November 25, 2004 Smallest Thanksgiving turn out in history, we barely had 2 lines. The good news was each Duffer had to eat 4 of Eddie's brats each. Read More

November 26, 2004 Largest group of Duffers headed for Peoria and skated for 3 hours! Vidas Formica flew in from Seattle to join in the fun. The Anvil's Camper was filled with "day trippers, beer and brats". Beak gets his hip shot up and gives thanks. Read More Go To Peoria History

December 4th, 2004 Eddie the Anvil was completely surprised when he walked into the Grove Sports bar on 111th Street. He gave many tributes to the Duffers in the bar that was packed with family and friends. He was born on January 25th, 1955. Read More

December 26, 2004 Strongest earthquake since 1964, unleashed a tsunami that killed over 190,000 in Indonesia, Thailand, India, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and East Africa. U.S. scientists said that the massive earthquake that devastated parts of Asia permanently moved the tectonic plates beneath the Indian Ocean as much as 98 feet (30 meters), slightly shifting islands near Sumatra an unknown distance,

December 27, 2004 Papa Joe announced his retirement from the Duffers with an e-mail to Beak. He was 74.89 years old on that day.

January 1st, 2005 The Duffers started the year with a morning game and an afternoon Holiday Skate for Family and Friends. Fruitcake's youngest son, John, scored his first Duffer goal. Read More...

January 28th, 2005 Three generations score in one game. Beak scored first on his son, Dan, then his 13 year old grandson, Jeff, scored a goal of his own. Beak's Son, Ken, (Jeff's Dad) completed the historic task when he scored in the third period. Read More....

February 15th, 2005 Beak's 7th Grandchild is born at 7:11 PM. Audrey Caroline weighed in at 8pounds, 3 ounces. Read all about it......

The National Hockey League cancels its 2004-2005 season, becoming the first North American professional league to cancel a season due to a labor dispute.

February 22, 2005 Mike "The Nailer" DeVivo just edged out Franklin Dunn with a vote count of 867-739!!! to Win the Republican Race for Highway Commissioner. Read More.....

March 11, 2005 Beak Stirs a Duffer Steroid Controversy! Beak got a mystery steroid shot in his hip socket last November, and he went out and scored in 3 straight games. Now that hs production has fallen off, He paid a visit to his Doctor with the 3 inch needle. This time he had both hips shot up and he scored on his first shift on a beautiful pass from Tommy Z. He also scored the next day in Peoria. Read More...

March 12, 2005 The Brain and the Anvil go on a road trip to Peoria's Civic Center. 3 foot high official referee, complete with red arm bands and he even had his name sewn on his shirt, put the King in the "Sin Bin". We had 14 stay overnight. Read More....

March 18, 2005 The royal family returned. Jerry "The Prince" Miceli was able to drag his Dad and brother Rick off of the couch. We hadn't seen the King since the last time Jerry came to town and we hadn't seen Rick since he got married several years ago. Read More...

April 29, 2005 Berserk scored the first Duffer Cyber space goals. He e-mailed Beak that he had 2 goals, even though he was not at at game. Only Sanchez caught on to the cyber prank. Read more....

May 6, 2005 Fred Fruitcake Bobka "Bought" Beak a beer, so that he would give his son Joey a good write up for his 4 goal night. If you know Fred, you know he would never buy a beer. He actually gave Beak a free beer from the Brinks' cooler in the parking lot. Read more....

May 13, 2005 On Friday the 13th, Jeff Lopatka became the first Duffer GOD to score 4 goals in a game. Read More.....

June 18, 2005 Grant Golf outing brought out some long lost Duffers. Don Granato signs a contract to coach the new AHL Peoria Rivermen. Read More....

June 25, 2005 Beak and Carole celebrated their 44th wedding anniversary at the Duffer Picnic. Beak presented Mini-Wheezer with the Klinger Krash award for his spectacular crash into the Brain. Mike "The Czar" Presecky presented Geno Cromwell with the Duffers "Next Generation Meaningless Trophy". Read More....

July 11, 2005 Beak finally gets a new hip at LaGrange Hospital. Many Duffers flocked to see Beak on Heroin. He never stopped talking! Read More..... See X-rays.....

December 10, 2005 Beak gets a shot in butt by a Tim "Basketball Jones" Smith then scores a goal. The shot just missed his 5 month old hip replacement stitches. Read more......

January 28, 2006 Rich Storm hosts the Festivus party. Tweedy silenced the Anvil at Rich Storm's Fantastic Festiveas Festival with a prank phone call.

March 10, 2006 Duffers light up The Brain and the Anvil 27 times! (Only 2 Meaningful)

May 5, 2006 Coach of the St. Louis Blues, Donny Granato, returned to his roots with one shot on and one shot in. We also had five Granatos on the White team. Senior Goalie, Eddie the Anvil put on the White jersey for the 1st time, but he was foiled when his son Nick beat him 4 times and led Tweedy and the Reds to a 7-6 win. Read more...

May 12, 2006 Rick Storm made his return to Cyber Space with a picture of the Anvil in action.

May 19, 2006 Picture Night featured 6 Granatos, 3 Lopatka's and and for the first time in duffer History no Mazzarella's. The guys present contributed $246.00 to the St. Jude Run. Goalie Garrett and his Mom thanked us for our help.

May 26, 2006 Last game of our 35th season! Newcomer Tim "Basketball Jones" Smith completed his first Duffer season with perfect attendance. Tim was responsible for bringing Bill Conti out. Bill turned out to be one of our most reliable guests. His Nick Name is in the works. He could be called Roids, after BALCO founder Victor Conte, or The Maestro" Why? Bill Conti is the musical conductor/director that wrote the themes to The Right Stuff, Rocky, Dynasty, and Falcon Crest.

Rich Storm ruined his perfect attendance on Picture Night when he could only see out of one eye. Geno was not impressed with that excuse.

June 17, 2006 Beak presented Thor Miller with the Klinger Krash award for his self inflected series of crashes in March when he threw his stick into the air causing a laughter break. Mike "The Czar" Presecky presented Geno Cromwell with the Duffers "Next Generation Meaningless Trophy". Read more...

The Duffers were driven out of Bono's, their favorite Bar, by loud Karaoke noise. We tried Ditka's for a month, but left after we were victims of sexual harassment. We finally ended the season at Buffalo Wild Wings. Bill By the Way likes this place, because he can take money from Mini Wheezer and Thor in poker games.

October 13, 2006 Fred "Fruitcake" Bobka made the score 121-5 when he scored the 11th goal of the game on Friday the 13th! That was the highest score ever produced by The Bobka Factor.

February 23, 2007 Prohibition befalls the Duffers as Rocket Ice Officials declare a moratorium on locker room drinking, The Duffers get put out in the cold. Bill Gaston sends 8 autographed copies of his book, Midnight Hockey. Read More http://www.lopatka.net/3-2-07/index.htm

April 20, 2007 There was a Hockey first, when 2 goals were scored in less than 5 seconds. That has been done before, but not 1 goal by each team without a whistle! Art blew one past the Brain, but the puck came out so fast that Referee Hacksaw never blew the whistle, so Kevin picked it up, raced up ice and fired it past The Anvil. After a discussion, 1 goal was given to each team.

June 16, 2007 Tim "Basketball Jones" Smith is awarded the "Next generation" Meaningless Duffer Trophy and Boris alias "Hacksaw, Mr. Clean, Dr. Evil, Fuzzy" Pavichevich was awarded the Klinger Krash Award for some of the spills that he had while refereeing. http://www.lopatka.net/6-22-07/index.htm

July 13, 2007 Second summer game is on the new rink with the old locker rooms, but hooks and shelves are installed.

August 1, 2007 A Russian submersible dives to the sea floor under the North Pole and declares the North Pole for their empire. " One small dive for a former commie, one giant leak and we're all getting the hell out of here before we become another Kursk!"

August 2nd, 2007 A deadly collapse of a Minnesota bridge over the Mississippi River killed 13 and injured 79. Maybe the Russians caused that!

August 4th, 2007 Barry Bonds tied Hank Aaron's Home Run record. He hit the tying homer off a former Giants draft pick, Clay Hensley, who was suspended in 2005 for violating baseball's minor-league steroids policy. How cool is that! Clay got a Barry Bonds autographed bat and was sent down to AAA Portland the next day. Bonds said, "That Sucks"

August 19, 2007 Beak, Buckshot, his wife, Lisa and Daughter Lindsey watched Carlos Zambrano pitch 3 perfect innings then ate peanuts and drank beer for a few hours while the rain washed out the game. Lisa got busted for having a 5 pound bag of peanuts in her back pack. Rainy Cub Game

September 14, 2007 Special ED became the 3rd Duffer to lose a double header.* Beak went over to join the White team, so he got 2 wins. Tommy Z had just scored to put the Reds up, 1-0, but Tweedy scored to tie it at 1. Brinks added 2 Meaningful goals to give the Whites a 3-1 lead. Tommy scored again, but his brother ,Johnny Z, put it out of reach when he redirected a pass from Basketball Jones and slipped it behind the Anvil to give the Whites a 4-2 win. The Whites also took home a meaningful shut out. 2-0
*Magoo lost 2 when he was traded for Butt Head on October first, 1999. Butt Headed set a record that day, when he scored one for each team. Beevis Coughenour was the first Duffer to lose 2 in one night, a few years earlier.

September 21, 2007 Mike Moffitt (Kramer's bookie, Scott Wayne) scored his first ever Duffer Hat Trick.

October, 2007 Wind fed fires force nearly a million Californians to leave there homes. Thousands of homes are destroyed.

November, 27, 2007 America's Mayors meet to address Mortgage Melt downs. 2 million home owners are in danger of losing their homes.

January 11, 2008 Perry "The Flea" Lea scored 3 goals. One for his team and 2 Meaningful goals for his opponents. He deflected a goal in for Thor and He tipped in a Bobka goal that set another record. (Fruitcake scored 2 weeks in a row.)

February 2, 2008 Duffers celebrate Festivous at Rich Storm's house. The Duffers favorite Bar was closed with no notice. we were driven out of Bono's in late 2006, by loud Karaoke noise.

February 5 and 6, 2008. The event began on Super Tuesday, while 24 U.S. states were holding primary elections and caucuses to select the presidential candidates for the upcoming presidential election. Missouri, Illinois, Arkansas, Alabama, and Tennessee were among the affected regions in which primaries were being held. Some voting locations were forced to close early due to the approaching severe weather.

Eighty-seven tornadoes occurred over the course of the outbreak. The storm system produced several destructive tornadoes in heavily populated areas, most notably in the Memphis metropolitan area, in Jackson, Tennessee, and the northeastern end of the Nashville metropolitan area. At least 57 people were killed across four states and 18 counties.

February 8, 2008 Papa Joe became the first 78 year old to play in a Duffer Hockey game. He had a good game, almost took a spill, when he stepped on the puck, but he recovered nicely. His only blunder was when He brought in 2 cases of illegal beer. Click here to read more...

February 15, 2008 The Reds had 13 players while the Whites only had 11, so Tom O'Connor volunteered to go Red, but he couldn't find a Red Sweater, so he skated with the Whites for 1 period. While he was there, The Whites had a 2-1 Meaningless lead and a 1-0 Meaningful lead. He got a Red jersey and played the rest of the game in a Red jersey. He scored the Meaningful winner as the Reds won 7-4 Meaningless and 2-1 Meaningful. Read more ... A search of the Duffer History Page found that TO was the first Duffer to win 4 games in one night. (Beak won 3 on September 14, 2007, when SPED became the 3rd to lose 2 in one night) Magoo lost 2 when he was traded for Butt Head on October first, 1999. Butt Headed set a record that day, when he scored one for each team. Beevis Coughenour was the first Duffer to lose 2 in one night, a few years earlier. How do I know this? I used the lopatka.net search engine to find this bit of trivia.

March 6-9, 2008 Duffers caught a plane to Phoenix, Arizona, where they read the latest Duffer News. (The Brian Beach Ball Issue) We played 3 games, watched 2 baseball games and a Coyote Hockey game. Ben Oskrob debuted as the White Duffer goalie. He ended the White losing streak on Thursday, but lost on Friday when Beak beat him for the game winner. He shut out his Dad and cousin Mini Wheezer in both games. Uncle Bob provided food and beer after every game. He even got us free ice time. Read more... Brinks made a call and Tony got us 15 free VIP seats for the Sox - Angels game. Read More... Many Photos are posted at: http://photos.lopatka.com/ Click on: Phoenix Road Trip.

March 9-12, 2008 The King and Beak extended their stay in Arizona with a train ride to the Grand Canyon. Read more... View pictures at: Grand Canyon

March 20, 2008 A 7.2 magnitude earthquake occurred 230 km (140 miles) SE of Hotan, Xinjiang or 3105 km (1930 miles) W of Beijing, China.

March 21, 2008 Fruit Cake used the money he saved buy not going to Phoenix to buy a new "Union Suit", Read More...

March 27, 2008 Wally Phillips passed away. From January 1965 until July 1986 Wally did morning drive on WGN Radio. Read Beak's Memoirs

March 28, 2008 Mini Wheezer scored 4 goals in a game that had a scoreless 2nd period. Read More...

April 11, 2008 Tipsy Terry, scores his 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Duffer goals in a 9-9 shoot out!

May 9, 2008 The 2007-08 season ended with Stump and Beak playing in 34 regular season games this season without missing a game. (They also played 3 in Arizona, and one on New Year's day) Their Titanium hips will need a lube job before next season. Frank finished a close second with 33 games this season. He missed the last game while he was in FLA, the land of the "Underwater Specialists". Read more.....

May 11, 2008 Mothers Day Tornado hit Georgia after 20 people were killed by storms in Oklahoma and Missouri.

May 26, 2008 A band of violent weather moving across the country's midsection killed eight more people Sunday as tornadoes, heavy rain and hail belted parts of Iowa and Minnesota, darkening Memorial Day weekend.

June 7, 2008 Bill "The Maestro" Conti was awarded the Klinger Krash award for his "head over heals" flip caused by the Bookie, who would have been given the award if the Maestro had not been present. Perry "The Flea" Lea gets the Next Generation Meaningless Trophy at the Duffer Picnic. He failed to pick it up after it was engraved on opening night, because he moved to Texas. Mike kept the trophy all year. Beak thought Perry had the trophy and told Perry that he has to return it at the next Picnic Committee Meeting. Perry was looking all over his house for the trophy until Mike confessed that he had the trophy. Read More.... June 14, 2008 Iowa is under water. Click here to see pictures.

August 8, 2008 Don Granato Junior, Duffer SOD (Son Of a Duffer), was named head coach of the Chicago Wolves. He played hockey along with his Dad and cousin. His brother Tony was in the stands scouting the Duffers. Read more.....

August 18, 2008 Tropical Storm Fay hit Florida a record 4 times, killing 36 people and causing $180 million in damages.

September 1, 2008 Hurricane Gustav Batters Gustav caused serious damage and casualties in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, the Cayman Islands, Cuba, and the United States. It has caused over $20 billion(2008 USD) in damages, the fourth most destructive hurricane to ever hit the United States.

September 5, 2008 Twenty one Duffers showed up to start the 38th Duffer Season. Read More.... The Anvil unveils his new goalie mask.

September 10, 2008 The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world's largest and most powerful particle accelerator to date, built near Geneva, in Switzerland started accelerating particles on this date. Some predicted that the world was going to end with the production of stable micro black holes and the creation of hypothetical particles called strangelets.

September 12, 2008 Hurricane Ike batters Texas. Galveston bore the brunt of the storm, floods filled the historic district with 7 feet of water at the storm's peak. Ike had a 500 mile diameter. Perry survives in his new home near Huston Texas. Watch Geraldo Rivera get knocked down by a wave. Death toll climbs to 51 in Texas. More than 600 people have died in Haiti after four major storms hit the impoverished Caribbean nation in less than four weeks.

September 19, 2008 Geno scored the first Meaningful goal of the season, after 2 weeks of 0-0 Meaningful scores. The game featured many meaningless goals as the Reds won 8-6. Read more....

October 10, 2008 The Dow finished down 128 points for the day and nearly 1,900 points for the week--Making it the worst in it's 112 year history. It was a 22.1% decline! Beak paid $3.98 for a gallon a gas, he thought that was a deal after paying $4.27 on the 4th of July.

October 10, 2008 Biggest crowd of the year turned out to welcome Perry back. Beak and Thor Back door the visiting goalie thanks to passes from Tommy Z. Stump scores and does a celebratory dance. Read more....

November 7, 2008 Seniors go wild! 70 year old Hacksaw is a plus 5 with 2 goals and one assist. 68. 8 year old Beak gets the game winner. Read more.....

November 21, 2008 Anvil puts on a White Sweater, but Tweedy picks up the win for the Reds. Read more....

November 28, 2008 Playing in his second game in 30 hours, 70 year old Frank Presecky gets the game winner. Read more....

Back in 1971, we got excited by the Duffer "Century Line" When Beak, 31, Dick Bajlavick, 33 and Jim Huff, 36 totaled 100 years. Now Beak, Boris and Frank are pushing 210 years!

December 12, 2008 Fred Fruitcake Bobka helps the Reds end the Brain's 7 game winning streak. Berserk returns, scores a pair and gets burned. Tim's wife brought their children and their grandmothers out to set an attendance record. Read more....

December 26, 2008 The Whites won the final game of 2008 to give each team 14 wins and 5 ties The Reds averaged 5.85 goals per game. The Whites averaged 6.45 goals per game. Click here to see the complete Statistics for 2008

January 1, 2009 Hundreds of the Duffer Family turned out to honor Tim "Basketball Jones"Smith at our annual New Year's day party.

January 9, 2009 The Duffer History Page showed up on a Google search for "Mike Moffitt" Seinfeld.

February 20, 2009 4 Hat Tricks were scored. Tommy Z, Johnny Z, Bill By The Way and V-Man. Read More...

February 27, 2009 Eleven out of twelve Reds show up at Buffalo Wild Wings to give the Reds a big win. Read More...

March 13, 2009 Our second Friday the 13th game in as many months is bad luck for Brian as he has 15 pucks miss him. Read More...

May 8, 2009 Picture Night brings out 31 Duffers! Thor gets a Meaningful Hat Trick! Reds Mount a Miracle Comeback http://www.lopatka.net/09-05-15/index.htm The 2009 season ended with the Reds scoring 1 more goal than the Whites. 119-118. The Whites ran away with the Meaningful race, 36-24 after outscoring the Reds 16-1 in January. Stats page

June 6, 2009 Terry "Crash" Nance became the 8th recipient of the Klinger Krash Award. (What took him so long?) Stump became the first Duffer to receive the Tim "Basketball Jones" Smith Perfect Attendance Award and Mini-Wheezer was honored by the Czar with the Next Generation Meaningless Award. http://www.lopatka.net/09-06-12/index.html

June 28, 2009 Cammi threw out the first pitch at the Cub Sox game. The $45.00 price tag to watch two so so baseball teams kept most of the Duffers at home. http://www.lopatka.net/Cub-Sox/index.htm

August 8, 2009 The Stanley Cup Champion Pittsburgh Penguins named Tony Granato as assistant coach. Granato compiled a 215-104-17-16 record and led Colorado to a Northwest Division title in 2003. Read more...

September 11, 2009, the Duffers open their 38th Season. 71 year old Hacksaw Pavichevich
scored the first goal of the season to lead his Polar Bears to a 6-0 meaningful win. Brinks scored 2 and Thor had a hat trick! The Duffers added 3 new members to the club. Viorel "V-Man" AKA "Rembrant" Tamasi, was assigned number 39, Tom "T-O"O'Connor got number 33 and Dave "The Goalie" Young received number 34. For the second straight year, the winner of the Next Generation Meaningless Trophy failed to show up for the presentation ceremony at Wild Wings. Read more...

September 29, 2009 A magnitude 8.0 earthquake just before 7:00 am on Tuesday triggered the tsunamis which, according to survivors, rose up to nine meters as they pounded into coastal settlements.
At least 170 people in the South Pacific were confirmed dead following this week's powerful earthquake and subsequent tsunamis.

October 2, 2009 Tom "T-O"O'Connor was presented with Jersey number 33 as he became a member of the Duffer's Hockey Club. Read more......

October 30, 2009 Tom O'Connor was tabbed Big Buff after he scored 3 goals in one shift. Read More.....

October 5, 2009 The DJI was up 112 points and closed at 9,599.75, 3000 points higher than last March. Beak paid $2.39 for a gallon of gas at Mobil, 2 dollars cheaper than last year.

January 1, 2010 The Duffers started the year off with a Hockey Game at 11:00 A.M. Papa Joe, who is about to turn 80, skated and both of his sons joined him. 32 duffers played with almost half of the players coming from these families. (3 Mazzarellas, 3 Granatos, 3 Lopatkas and 3 Preseckys) Read More...

January 8, 2010 Mini Wheezer scored 5 goals and picked up 5 assists in a game that was decided by the Bobka Factor. Read More...

January 8 2010 A short time after Mini Wheezer yelled eureka when he scored 5 goals, the town of Eureka was shaken by a 6.5 earthquake. The Governor of California was on TV when it happened. The estimate of damage in Eureka came to $14.3 million.

January 12 2010 Haiti was struck with a 7.0 earthquake. The earthquake was the worst in the region in more than 200 years and left the country in a shambles, without electricity or phone service, tangling efforts to provide relief to an estimated 3 million people who the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said had been affected by the quake. 100,000 are feared dead.

January 15, 2010 Papa Joe, who is in the last month of being a septuagenarian set a new record for Duffer Hockey when he fired 2 goals past the startled Anvil. Joe will join the octogenarian group in late February. Go Joe! He seamed to have all of his mental faculties after the game until he started talking about bringing his wife on our road trip to Nashville. Click here for the rest of the story.

February 12, 2010 Papa Joe Mazerella became the first Octogenarian to play in a Duffer Hockey game. He scored again giving him 4 goals in the new year. One sad note, he failed to make it to the bar after the game. The Duffer Rules Committee will have to decide if his record goes in with an asterisk. His sons did make it to Buffalo Wild Wings to join the drinking team with a hockey problem. Read more....

February 26, 2010 Beak Hits 70! Only 15 skaters give up watching Women's Curling and show up to play hockey. Fruitcake stayed home and lost his bid for perfect attendance. Mini Wheezer is the last man standing. Klinger made a bid for the Klinger Krash award when he landed in the net and moved it 3 feet back. Read more.....

February 27, six weeks after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake wreaked havoc on Haiti, an 8.8-magnitude temblor struck just off the coast of Maule in Chile. A tsunami swept through the fishing village of Constitucion and other coastal towns. The quake, with an epicenter 70 miles from the country's second-largest metropolis, Concepcion, and 186 miles from the capital of Santiago, shook the six major Chilean states and parts of Argentina.

More than 500 died, and the disaster caused more than $30 billion in damage, leaving more than 200,000 Chileans homeless and destroying about 20 percent of the country's wine

March 20, 2010 Stump Turns 50! Joe "Face Plant" Evans reports on his first Hockey Lesson Read more....

The Cumberland River flows directly through downtown Nashville. In a once-in-500-years event, the river crested in May, suddenly overwhelming thousands of Tennesseans with 13 feet of water coming in through windows and forcing them to huddle in attics. The Nashville flood, washing over the center of America's Music City and a good portion of the South, killed more than 30 people and caused at least $2 billion in damage in Nashville alone. The Duffers got out of town just in time.

May 30, 2010 What could be more surreal than a giant hole opening up beneath your feet? Sinkholes are a phenomenon in which groundwater weakens bedrock, causing it to cave during a storm, and they are not uncommon. In fact, in Florida sinkholes are so common that the state is considering creating a sinkhole insurance program.

In the wake of Tropical Storm Agatha on May 30, a perfectly round hole spread from the middle of an intersection in downtown Guatemala City, eventually reaching 66 feet wide and 100 feet deep. The crater formed overnight, stunning scientists and riveting people, as the gaping maw grew large enough to swallow up a three-story clothing factory.

May 1, 2010 The Duffers help the Romeoville Rampage Women raise funds for the MLF Read more......

June 26, 2010 Bill By The Way Louis was presented with the Next Generation Duffer Meaningless Trophy, He was the 7th Duffer to receive the prestigious award. Joe "Face Plant" Evans became the 9th Duffer to receive the Klinger Krash award. Mike "Mini Wheezer" Oskroba became the second Duffer to receive the Tim "Basketball Jones" Smith Perfect Attendance Award. Read more....

The monsoons come every July in Pakistan, but the 2010 torrents were the worst in 100 years. By the time the rains subsided, a full one-fifth of the country was underwater -- an area of land that, if located in the U.S., would stretch from Minnesota to Texas. So far, the floods have taken the lives of around 2,000 Pakistanis, and the death toll is likely to rise, especially among children, as diseases like cholera and dengue fever threaten to spread, and as 6 million left homeless face the brutal cold of winter.

August 13, 2010 Friday the 13th was good luck for Beak as he flipped a pass from behind the net and Brian knocked it in to his own net. Bill BTW had Bad luck as T&A made him bleed. Tweedy took the loss Read More...

September 1, 2010 Heralded by a familiar if updated theme song dubbed “The Enforcer,” Chicago’s most fabled news-delivering duo — Bill Kurtis and Walter Jacobson — returned to the anchor desk decades after their famously successful stints together, during the ‘70s and early ‘80s, at WBBM-Channel 2. “I checked the number of beds in the nursing home and decided I better get back to work,” Kurtis told the Sun-Times shortly before his Sept. 1 debut. Despite heavy pre-launch promotion, the veteran team’s 6 p.m. weekday newscast has garnered underwhelming ratings and remains in third place.

September 8, 2010 The contiguous United States had its fourth-warmest summer (June-August) on record, according to the latest NOAA State of the Climate report issued.

September 10, 2010 The Duffers open their 39th Season. Thor scored the first 2 goals of the season in a losing cause as the Reds won the season opener 7-5, with first time Duffer Goals by Joe "Face Plant" Evans and Kevin Rench. Frank (Blood Clot) and Papa Joe (Weak Back) were placed on the 90 Day Duffer Disabled List. Read more.....

January 1, 2011 The Duffers started the year off with a Hockey Game at 11:00 A.M. Tweedy gets his money's worth. Family skate and party followed. Read More...

February 1-2, 2011 The Chicago area gets hit with the biggest blizzard since 1999. Pictures are posted here: Click here for blizzard pictures

February 18, 2011 Full moon produces some strange things. Beak scored 2 incest goals as the Anvil shuts down the Whites. Read More...

February 25, 2011 Massive Klinger Krash occurs when the Alien, Face Plant Joe, Crash Terry and Bill BTW meet at center ice. Beak turned 71 at Wild Wings. Read more...

March 12, 2011 An 8.9-magnitude earthquake hit northern Japan early Friday, triggering tsunamis that sent a wave filled with boats and houses toward land. Read the full report on how the quake hit Japan and generated a Pacific-wide tsunami. Death toll passed 18,000

March 17, 2011 A Lamers luxury coach filled with Duffers headed for Pittsburgh. After picking up Grandpa Ken in Cleveland, we arrived in Pittsburgh and were greeted by Mr. and Mrs. Tony Granato, Darrin and Lu from Canada and Formica from Seattle. Three other fans flew in to make it an unforgettable St. Patrick's Day. Pictures...

March 18, 2011 Pittsburgh Penguins, coaches play with the Duffers. Beak asks Penguin's Head Coach, Dan Bylsma, if he was Slap Shot Star, Dave Hanson, when he entered our locker room. Papa Joe sent the following memorable moment in 2015: "Forgot to tell about the shot in Pittsburgh that "The Anvil" stopped in the second period at the Robert Morris Rink.
Tom Morgan somehow happened to lose a puck that happened to come to me and I had a bit of a breakaway. Probably only about 15 seconds.
I knew Tom could have caught me in nothing flat but he remembered the rules about hindering and he allowed me to shoot. (now there is a gentleman) Coming in on the left wing I shot and hit the left pipe. Anvils left glove pinned it to the pipe and so no goal for Papa but a great stop for Eddie the Anvil." Read More... (It took Papa Joe 4 years to share this great memory. I confirmed it with the Anvil on April 10, 2015 and he remembered it well)

April 2, 2011 Duffers help Rampage women raise over $5000 for the Mario Lemieux Foundation. Beak scores a spectacular shoot out goal. Read More...

April 8, 2008 A Mazzarella Hat Trick occurred when 81 year old Papa scored and then each son had a goal and an assist for an 8-6 win for the Whites. Fred "Fruit Cake" Bobka's bid for perfection was ended when his Doctor put him on blood thinners. He had not missed a game in the 2010-11 season. Read More... More on Page 4,

April 15, 2011 Reds score 6 goals and lose 6-4. Joe Evans, who was tagged "Face Plant" in Nashville, got a new nick name by The Anvil's son in law Joe. He started calling him Drago, the Russian Boxer. Read More...

April 27, 2011 Tornados kill 139 people in Alabama. 875 April tornados killed 361 people in 11 states.

April 29, 2011 Bill "The Alien" Allen scored the final game winning goal of the 2010-11 Season. Beak had perfect attendance on the ice and at Wild Wings in the 2010-11 season. Read More..

May 1, 2011 President Obama announced that Osama Bin Laden is dead in a televised address to the nation.

May 6, 2011, The Oskroba's host a Pittsburgh Reunion for the premier showing of the Duffer Pittsburgh DVD. An eight pager (Booklet) of Pittsburgh semi-true stories was distributed with instructions to read and shred. (Ask a guy who grew up in Chicago in the 1950s about the 8 pagers that were printed in Washburn High School Print shop)

May 19, 2011 The Duffers received the following e-mail: Congratulations Duffers! The photos you submitted to the Mario Mosaic have been approved. You will now officially be a part of the updated Mario Mosaic at the beginning of the 2011-12 Pittsburgh Penguins season in the new CONSOL Energy Center.

After the 20’ x 8’ Mario Mosaic is revealed next season, the Mario Mosaic website will re-launch. You will receive an email containing the website link and your individual photo search code so you can share it with friends. All proceeds from the Mario Mosaic will benefit the Mario Lemieux Foundation’s cancer research projects as well as Austin’s Playroom Project, which creates sibling playrooms in medical facilities. Learn more about the Mario Lemieux Foundation and Austin’s Playroom Project here.
From everyone at the Mario Lemieux Foundation and the Pittsburgh Penguins, thank you for participating in the creation of the Mario Mosaic!

May 22, 2011 A monster tornado killed at least 141 people in Joplin, Missouri when it tore through the heart of the small city, ripping the roof off of a hospital and destroying thousands of homes and businesses. Weather officials said the tornado that hit the city of 50,000 at dinner time on Sunday was the deadliest single tornado in the country since 1947 and the ninth-deadliest tornado of all time, they said.

May 24, Fifteen more Tornado deaths include 10 in Oklahoma, 3 in Arkansas and 2 in Kansas. The total number of tornado deaths has exceeded 1000 for the year. What caused this? Gulf of Mexico waters are 2 degrees higher than usual this year. The Gulf Water was heated by the record number of days that exceeded 100 degrees last summer in the South. See September 2010 NOAA State of the Climate report.

May 30, 2011 Special Memorial day Duffer Newsletter was issued with a list of picnic duties and a tale of how Hacksaw made a young mom cry. Read More...

June 10, 2011 Eighteen year old Dan Smith became the youngest Duffer in recorded history to win a game.* Thor fell on his head during warm ups and was unconscious for 4 minutes. He recovered to play his regular shifts and have a few beers. Read More...

*Stump surly won some games in prehistoric times when he was in High School.

June 18, 2011 Tom "Dimples" Zagorski received the Klinger Krash award and Tom "T&A" Ambrosia was awarded the Next Generation Meaningless Trophy. Beak almost received the Tim "Basketball Jones" Smith Perfect Attendance Award for showing up every week for hockey and he never missed a night at Wild Wings. The Czar ruled that he did not have perfect attendance since he missed the March 18 game while playing 2 Duffer Games in Pittsburgh. Read More...

June 21, 2011 Downers Grove gets hit with a Tornado, Tommy Z goes days without power. Beak's house had power, but they were in Michigan celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary. Another Tornado touched down in Mount Prospect. It was just over a year ago that Downers was hit on June 23, 2010 with a tornado. As of June 23, 2011, there have been 1,592 tornadoes reported in the US in 2011 (of which at least 1,140 were confirmed). 2011 has been an exceptionally destructive and deadly year for tornadoes; worldwide, at least 551 people perished due to tornadoes.

June 22, 2011 200 horses and 100 people were rescued from collapsing barns at Churchill Downs after a tornado struck the iconic park. in Kentucky.

August 12, 2011 with a Full Moon rising, 18 loyal Duffers were rewarded with brand new hockey bags that features huge numerals and the new 40 year Duffer logo. The Full Moon sent all of our Duffer goalies into hiding, but we had a great game that featured 3 Meaningful goals scored on the rookie goalies. Our first bags, pictured in our 1995 Green Bay pictures were replaced with our Silver Anniversary Bags before we went to San Jose in 1998. Read more.....

The sweltering month of July has come to an end, but not before over 2,000 records were broken by high temperatures. The Huffington Post reports that some cities hadn't seen this kind of heat in 140 years. Texas has experienced one of the worst droughts on record, the elderly and athletes alike continue to suffer from heat stroke, and large amounts of warmth and moisture were trapped under a "heat dome" that brought high temperatures and thick air to much of the U.S. According to The Washington Post, trends suggest that "man-made factors are almost certainly playing a role in the heat's intensity." The article cites scientists who blame the heat in part on urbanization and a higher concentration of greenhouse gas emissions. A record number of confirmed tornados, 1,421, were recorded by August 1st.

August 17, 2011 Tropical Storm Greg (Beak) formed in the Pacific off Mexico's southwest coast. Greg grew into a hurricane on August 18th as it continued moving near the western coast of Mexico, following Tropical Storm Fernanda out to sea.

August 18, 2011 Tropical Storm Harvey was named and is expected to turn into a full-fledged hurricane as He barreled across the Caribbean gathering strength. He expected to raise havoc in the bars and dance halls in Belize and the southeastern Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico by Saturday night.

August 27, 2011 Harvey and Greg turned out to be quite harmless, but as Hurricane Irene prepared to batter the East Coast of the United States, federal disaster officials warned that Internet outages caused by the storm could force people to interact with other people for the first time in years. News of the possible interpersonal interactions created panic up and down the coast as residents braced themselves for the horror of awkward silences and unwanted eye contact. As officials warned people in the hurricane zone to stay indoors, residents feared the worst: conversations with members of their immediate family. At the Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA chief Craig Fugate offered these words of advice for those who may be forced into direct contact with other human beings: “Be prepared. Write down possible topics to talk about in advance. Sports is a good one, and of course the weather. Remember, a conversation is basically a series of Facebook updates strung together.” He also offered these words of hope for those trapped interacting with other people due to an Internet outage: “At some point, the wifi will go back on, and hopefully you won’t have to go through anything like this again for a long, long time.” In a related story, the Rev. Pat Robertson said the best way to prepare for Hurricane Irene is not being gay. Irene caused major flooding all up the East coast. Damage estimates throughout the United States range from $10 to $15 billion.

September 9, 2011 Twenty Six Duffers showed up to kick off our 41st season. In the 2nd period, the Steve and Steve had a bone crushing collision. Steve "Lil Bro" Mazzarella was trying to stay on side as Steve "Rembrandt" Granato was heading his way at ramming speed. Beak was thinking about nudging Steve off side, but before he could get a glove on him, Rembrandt hit his teammate at full speed and knocked the snot out of him. Both of them are in the running for the 2011-12 Klinger Krash award. Read More....

September 16, 2011 Ever since the Czar presented the Meaningless trophy to Tim Smith in 2007, the recipients have been reluctant to accept the trophy. In 2008, Perry the Flea left town when his name was engraved on the trophy. In 2009, Mini Wheezer went to watch a bunch of Hillbillies race around in circles when he was honored. In the last 4 years, only Bill BTW had the guts to show up and take the trophy home. We thought that tradition would continue when T&A was honored this year, because he is always at the bar every week, but he was nowhere to be found when Mike made his presentation speech. Read More...

September 30, 2011 John "Johnny B" Bocain scored his first Duffer Hat Trick. Read More...

October 7, 2011 The first game in October sunk to a new low, when only 14 guys showed up. Mini Wheezer took advantage of the slow pace and bagged 4 goals on the guest goalie. Read More...

October 14, 2011 Beak missed his first Duffer game in 2 and a half years. He had a good excuse because he went to South Bend to watch Duffer SOD, Ryan Dzingel and the Ohio State Buckeyes beat Notre Dame.

October 21, 2011 It happened again, for the second time in 3 weeks, only 14 skaters showed up and players were forced to take Harvey like shifts. Normally there are 90 minutes of ice time and if we have 3 full lines, each player has an average of 30 minutes each. (Unless Harvey is "sharing" ice with you, you may be lucky to get 5 two minute shifts, because Harvey likes to take 7 or 8 minute shifts.) Unfortunately Harvey was not there, so each guy had to skate an average of 64.28 minutes each. I can't believe that Duffers are staying home to watch the baseball team with the worst record in the playoffs (St. Louis) play in the World Series with home field advantage. I want to see the best two teams play in the World Series and I want to see the best team have the home field advantage. Read More...

October 24, 2011 A powerful earthquake with a magnitude of 7.2 struck eastern Turkey Sunday, collapsing some buildings and causing over 500 deaths.

The team in the playoffs with the worst record won the MLB playoffs. (Formerly know as the World Series when the best teams played for the title) Their manager retired after that. Their new manager kept Mark McGuire to teach the players how to do drugs and not get caught.

November 24, 2011 Only 21 Duffers showed up for our Turkey Skate. Even Stump stayed home and we were without our Frozen Coconut Rum drink for the first time in 30 years. Read More...

December 23, 2011 We had a record turn out for our Christmas Eve, Eve game. 34 Duffers got off of the couch to sit on a crowed bench. This was just 2 days after our Christmas Lunch at Tilted Kilt. Read and see more...

January 1, 2012 Thor took advantage of a poor turn out and scored 2 goals. There were more people in the stands (20) than we had on the ice. Read More...

January 6, 2012 The Anvil gets a 6-0 shutout Read More... The Duffer News added a new feature called "Duffer Trivia"

January 13, 2012 The Anvil has good luck again on Friday the 13th and wins a 6-5 thriller. Read More... He was presented a Shutout patch at Wild Wings by the Czar That event inspired a Beak Cartoon the following week.

January 20, 2012 A 7 inch snowstorm caused a record number of Duffers to stay home. Brinks was in Arizona at the Sox Fantasy Camp, so we had to play a game with only 7 players on each team. Read More...

Jan 31, 2012 ... Residents of the far northwest suburbs were not dreaming last night � a minor earthquake shook the Illinois-Wisconsin state line

January 27, 2012 Joe "Drago" Evans A.K.A. Faceplant scored his first Duffer Hat Trick. Joe had a hard time standing on skates until he took Hockey Lessons. Joe sent out a written account of his lesson. That account can be found at: http://www.lopatka.net/2010-03-26/index.htm (Be sure to read the comments from Rags, Lu and Perry)
Teen Aged Nick also had a Hat trick and even tried to pass. Read More....

February 3, 2012 Joe "Drago" Evans creates a flashing puck, but it had a short life. V-Man had a mysterious Klinger Krash that has some suspecting New Orleans Voodoo underground religious practices at work. Read More....

February 8, 2012 Papa Joe celebrated his 82nd birthday at lunch with the duffers. Beak gave the answers to the latest Duffer Trivia questions. A Duffer Trivia web page was created on this day.

March 8, 2012 The Duffers returned to Columbus. This time they took a bus. In January 1999 it took them 8 hours to fly there. (Fog at Midway) Harvey Stole the Show (& the Puck) in game 1! Ryan Dzingel skated with us in game 2. Read More....

April 14, 2012 The MLF game was a huge financial success as The Anvil was spectacular. It rivaled the show that Stump put on in Hayward back in 1994. Tom "TO" O'Connor bailed us out with a Hat Trick.

June 15, 2012 The Maestro scored his first Duffer Hat Trick in a 4 on 4 Summer Game. Papa Joe announced his retirement at the age of 82. (He did that a few years ago too) Read More.....

September 7, 2012 The Duffers started their 41st season with a nice turn out. The Maestro scored the first goal of the season. The game ended in a 4-4 Meaningful tie when Tommy Z passed to Beak who scored as the horn sounded. Read More....

September 14, 2012 The Anvil goes both ways! The Goalie Pimp failed to deliver 2 goalies for the first time in his career. We are starting to worry about a guy who went from perfect attendance to a no show in just a few years. We only had 15 guys show up. Read More...

September 28, 2012 Pictures of the Duffer Picnic. We were late getting the permit, so we had to settle for a Fall date. "Tumblin" Terry Nance was awarded the Next Generation Trophy. Beak was able to keep his "2011 Perfect Attendance Award" since nobody was perfect in 2012. Viorel "V-Man" Tamasi received the "Klinger Krash Award". Greg Zerkis was named "Rookie of the Year" and Vidas "Formica" Cemarka was given the "Transient Duffer Award" for his many trips here from Seattle. This page gives a History lesson with song lyrics to "We Didn't Start the Fire" and that 70s hit song Put Another Log on the Fire by Tompall Glaser Read More...

October 12, 2012 We only had 14 skaters again. 75 year old Harvey skated the last period without taking a break. Bill BTW helped us by bringing a guest. Jim Smar made quick changes with Kevin "Meat" Rench and demonstrated that Bill lectured him on "The Duffer Way" Read More...

October 17, 2012 The "Attendance Drought" ended when 29 Duffers and guests showed up to produce a fast game with 3 lines. Beak's Reds downed the Whites and his grandsons in a come from behind thriller. This was the first Duffer game that was witnessed by a player's great grandchildren. Beak's grandson Mike had his son Lennie and daughter Carmela cheering them on. Read More...

October 30, 2012 Hurricane Sandy battered the mid-Atlantic region on Monday, its powerful gusts and storm surges causing once-in-a-generation flooding in coastal communities, knocking down trees and power lines and leaving more than five million people — including a large swath of Manhattan — in the rain-soaked dark. At least seven deaths in the New York region were tied to the storm.

November 23, 2012 Arvydas "Harvey" Dikinis scored four goals in a four on four game. Read More...

November 29, 2012 Duffer Lunch Group move to Roundheads Pizza Pub when the Neutral Zone closes.

November 30, 2012 "Harvey" scored again prompting a Rich Storm Tribute to the legend. Read More...

December 4, 2012 SAN FRANCISCO — A new storm system made its way Tuesday through already drenched Northern California, prompting renewed flood concerns in parts of the region. Rain had been falling along the coast and inland areas, but the heaviest rain was expected early Wednesday. Coastal mountains could see as much as six inches of precipitation before the storm moves out on Wednesday, the National Weather Service said. These storms, aptly and more technically known as atmospheric rivers, bring huge amounts of moisture across the Pacific. They are narrow bands in the atmosphere that funnel moisture from the tropics into more northerly latitudes. Over the course of several days, or even longer, the moisture in the system is dropped on a wide area and can potentially cause flooding and reservoir overflow, as has happened in some West Coast communities with the current system. That system also brought strong, hurricane-force winds to some regions and dozens of inches of snow to others.

December 7, 2012 New Duffer Guest of Bill BTW, Jim Smar, showed up with Rick "Gilbert" Fellman's #33 Jerseys. Tom " TO" O'Connor was issued the #33 a few years ago when Rick disappeared after the Las Vegas trip in 2003. Duffer History was made when we had the same number on opposing teams with different names. Read More...

December 21. 2012 The world did not end, so we played hockey and Bill "BTW" Louis made Duffer History when he scored a goal for each team in less than a minute. Read More...

January 1, 2013 The Duffers had to cancel our annual New Year party because the rink had new owners.

January 4, 2013 Thor, Tommy O'Connor and Beak had the first Meaningful goals of 2013. That trio also had the last Meaningful goals of 2012. The Reds picked up back to back 2-1 Meaningful wins. Read More...

January 25, 2013 Eddie the Anvil celebrates his 58th birthday with a big Pizza party. Thor had a natural Hat Trick in the first period. Fred used the Bobka Factor to pull off a win for the Reds. He turned a 5-3 loss into a 19-5 win. Read More...

February 8, 2013 Papa Joe became the oldest Duffer to ever play in a game when he and his sons took the ice on his 83rd birthday. The Czar retired the Jersey Numbers of Frank Presecky, Jim Miceli and Joe Mazzarella. Read more...

February 15, 2013 Shock Wave of Fireball Meteor Rattles Siberia, Injuring 1,500. The Duffers had the night off as a giant asteroid was racing toward earth with an ETA of 1:25. That is when Frank, Klinger and Beak were at The Tilted Kilt hoping that the calculations of a 17,200 mile miss were correct. They thought about wearing their helmets, but they just sat near a large pillar that was far from the windows. This event was reported in Duffer News #699. The asteroid that was half the size of a football field gave Earth the ultimate close shave, passing closer than many satellites when it whizzed by. The asteroid 2012 DA14 missed the planet during the cosmic close encounter. The people in Siberia were not as lucky, as the city of Chelyabinsk, was rocked by an intense shock wave when a meteor hit the Earth’s atmosphere Friday morning. It offered a glimpse of an apocalyptic scenario that many have walked through mentally, and Hollywood has popularized, but scientists say has never before injured so many people. Students crammed through a staircase thickly blanketed with glass out to the street, where hundreds stood in awe, looking at the sky. The flash came in blinding white, so bright that the vivid shadows of buildings slid swiftly and sickeningly across the ground. It burst yellow, then orange. And then there was the sound of frightened, confused people. There are many videos of this event because thousands of Russians don't trust the corrupt police and have installed video cameras on their dash boards that record whenever they are driving. The meteor, which may have weighed as much as 10,000 tons and measured about 55 feet across, was traveling at an estimated 11 miles per second when it reached Earth, according to a report at io9. Vidas Formica reported that the event reminded him of a Duffer Virtual Reality memory that he had. He replied, "that meteor was probably as strong as the famous flatulence that vacated Johnson's Sporting Goods in the early 1980s!" Beak remembered that Saturday morning beer flatulence. He was the one who let the silent gas creep out near the check out line. 10 year old Tweedy was looking at gloves near there, Beak pulled him away to look at helmets, Tweedy said, "Dad I need gloves, not a helmet." Beak said, "Trust me son, you don't want to be near that gas." The King and Wally were just arriving when the cashier yelled to another employee, "Open the door!" The guy replied "It's not hot in here." The cashier replied, "It's not the heat, open the door!" Jimmy and Wally were just entering the store and were puzzled by the opened door because it was near zero that day. They soon understood when they started looking at gloves and Tweedy and Beak were looking at helmets and laughing a safe distance away.

February 21, 2013 The Duffers were featured in a cover story in the Plainfield Enterprise. Reporter Robin Ambrosia covered the February 8th Papa Joe retirement ceremony with pictures and 40 years of Duffer History. On March 13, 2002, The Duffers were featured in a cover story in the Sun Newspaper Http://www.lopatka.net/3-22-02

March 8, 2013 The Duffers have another "Comet Event" as Comet PANSTARRS (C/2011 L4) was in the western sky when we took the ice on Friday and strange things started happening. Thor and Klinger were placed on "Week to week" status as the White team had bad luck. The Red team had good luck as they put 5 Meaningful goals past Jimmy Bones as Beak and Tom O'Connor each had 2 goals. Read More... The Duffers had two other "Comet Events" when they were on road trips to Hayward Wisconsin in 1996 and 1997. A Duffer-Hayward History page was created.

March 17, 2013 CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - An automated telescope monitoring the moon has captured images of an 88-pound (40 kg) rock slamming into the lunar surface, creating a bright flash of light, NASA scientists said on Friday. The explosion was the biggest seen since NASA began watching the moon for meteoroid impacts about eight years ago. So far, more than 300 strikes have been recorded. "It exploded in a flash nearly 10 times as bright as anything we've ever seen before," Bill Cooke, with NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, said in a statement. A NASA satellite orbiting the moon is now on a hunt for the newly formed crater, which scientists estimate could be as wide as 66 feet. Scientists determined the space rock was about 1 foot in diameter, and traveling about 56,000 mph when it slammed into the moon and exploded with the force of five tons of TNT. That same night, cameras detected an unusually high number of meteors blasting through Earth's atmosphere as well. Most meteors burn up well before reaching the ground.

March 28, 2013 Beak took a picture of Sidney Crosby in the Penguin locker room after they shut out the Jets. 2 days later, Rags, Tweedy, Beak and Luke watched in horror as Sid had his jaw shattered by a teammate's slap shot. Beak's Wild Wings perfect attendance string of 2 years ended on Good Friday, although he did have a few beers with Rags and Tweedy in Pittsburgh. Read More...

April 17, 2013 Over six inches of rain fell on the Chicago metropolitan area causing Illinois rivers to rise to record highs.

April 17, 2013 Wednesday's massive explosion at the West Fertilizer Co. in Texas, rocked the town of West just before 8 p.m. local time Wednesday. At least 14 were killed, 200 injured, and scores of nearby homes and businesses damaged or destroyed in one of the worst American industrial accidents in years. A few days later, a basketball sized meteor lit up the east coast. It was seen from Florida all the way to New England. Read More...

April 19, 2013 Harvey scored 2 goals with a shattered stick. Read More.... Back in January of 1994, Harvey shattered a puck when he blasted a slap shot in the frigid temperatures of the Downers Grove IceArena. See picture

April 20, 2013 A strong earthquake that struck the southwestern Chinese province of Sichuan this weekend has killed 186 people, sent nearly 8,200 to hospitals and created a dire dearth of drinking water, Chinese state-run Xinhua reported Sunday.

May 10, 2013 We had to bring in Emily "Rudolph" Hawrysio to get us up to 21 players. Emily is home for her summer break. She is 2 years away from getting her doctorate in Veterinarian Science. Read More....

August 9, 2013 The Duffers had only one summer game and could not find a goalie until game time, when the Bradley University goalies bailed us out. Read More....

September 6, 2013 The Duffers started their 42nd season with a nice turn out. Bill BTW announced that he would be taking half of our regulars to Boston next week. Read More...

September 13, 2013 We had a nice turn out on Friday the 13th, thanks to "Bring a friend to hockey night" Beak, Boris and Klinger scored with assists from the young ones. Read More....

September 27, 2013 We had a goalie malfunction. For the first time since the King named Stump the Duffer Goalie Pimp, we had to play with only one goalie. Stump has been delivering 2 goalies for every game for almost 40 years. Stump thought he settled a labor dispute, but he failed to deliver, so Brian had to play for both teams. He tied himself 3-3. Read More....

October 18, 2013 Eddie the Anvil runs his perfect season to 5 straight wins. Read More....

October 25, 2013 Bill BTW got the meaningful win when he volunteered to play goalie. Read More....

December 7, 2013 The Czar announced the time and place for the next Duffer Road Trip. We will be going to Ann Arbor on Thursday, February 27 and return home on March 2nd. We will watch Ohio State play U. of Michigan on Friday. We will catch a game or 2 of Donny Granato's U-17 USA team and we will play 2 Duffer games.

December 13, 2013 We had a nice turn out on Friday the 13th, and both of our goalies showed up. Hacksaw dropped Terry in the friendly hand shake line. Hacksaw collected his bounty when Tommy Z sent a beer over to him at Wild Wings. Geno slammed T&A with a hard body check. Thor told T&A , "He took you down with one eye!" Read More ....

January 3, 2014 The Reds snapped a 6 game winless streak by stacking the team with Lopatkas. Tweedy played goalie and just missed a shut out. Beak and his grandsons, Jeff and Mike led the Reds to a 5-1 win. Read More....

February 15, 2014 Tommy Z drove the Czar, Klinger and Beak to Madison to watch Ohio State beat the Badgers. Read More....

February 21, 2014 Johnny B picked up his first Duffer win as a goalie fill in. He then went out and bought some white goalie pads that look just the ones that went missing after the Hawk/Penguin Soldier Field game. Read More....

February 27-March 2, 2014 Road Trip to Ann Arbor. T&A became Meaningful and scored 4 goals. Leepin Lou also scored his first Meaningful Goal and was presented with the puck before he headed back to Canada. Thor led us in singing, "I've been Working on the Railroad." He did that for Bill BTW who was on the phone working on the railroad. Trip pictures are posted on Duffer news Number 736, Number 737, Number 738 and Number 739. You can purchase a DVD with all of the pictures on a music DVD.

March 21, 2014 The First day of spring ended one of the coldest winters in a while. Over 6 feet of snow was dumped on the Chicago area and it was blamed on the Polar Vortex. We got almost an inch on the first day of spring bringing the total to 80 inches. We had 89.6 inches in 1978-79 when the Duffers helped swell the crowd for the Blackhawk vs. Cleveland game to 527fans. Click here to see the article.

April 18, 2014 Duffer history was made when Mandi, the granddaughter of Brinks, set him up for a goal. Mandi also scored a goal and assisted on 2 other goals. Read More....

May 9, 2014 Duffer history was made on the last game of the season when we had DODs, SODs, GODs and WODs all in attendance. Duffer guests, Steve The Hammer and Commander Ken threw a great end of season party on the rink patio. Steve and Ken will soon become official Duffers. Read More....

July 19, 2014 Tom and Erica hosted a great picnic at their house. Read More....

August 23, 2014 The King and Bob Friedlander returned to play golf with the Duffers at Billy Caldwell Golf outing. Read More...

September 5, 2014 The Duffers started their 43rd season with SODs, DODs and GODs joining in on the fun. When the ages of the new members were calculated, Bill BTW became Meaningful and scored the first goal of the 2014-15 season. Steve the Hammer, Commander Ken and Duffer GOD Mike Lopatka joined the club pulling that Mean age down. Doc Dubriel brought out a friend who had not skated since the 1990s. Dinosaur Dan Margoliash scored 2 goals to lift the Reds to an 11-8 win. Read More....

October 10, 2014 Cowboy Joe scored another Hat Trick to lead the Reds and Eddie the Anvil to a 10-6 win. Jim DeGuest had a Klinger Krash. Read More....

October 31, 2014 Our Seattle Duffer Dentist, Vidas "Formica" came in to put his Dad to rest. His Dad was one of our biggest fans. We had 16 Duffers and one daughter of a Duffer at the wake. Tom O'Connor represented us at the gravesite. Vidas and his Mom were very touched and thankful. What a great organization, I'm proud to be a Duffer. Formica played in the Halloween game and scored a goal. Read More...

November 27, 2014 Beak gave up his perfect attendance to to visit Tony and Donny Granato. Klinger drove Beak, Grandpa Ken and Doc to Detroit to see the Hawks get beat by the Redwings. That turned out to be a blessing in disguise, because Tony got the 4 Duffers into the Redwing locker room after the game and Ken was wearing a Blackhawk cap and shirt. Coach Babcock was friendly after the win and posed for pictures and promised to play with the Duffers if we come up there on a Road trip. Beak managed to keep is Wild Wing Perfect attendance going when they finished the night at a Michigan Wild Wings. Read More....

November 27, 2014 We had 25 players show up for our annual Thanksgiving game at Downers Grove IceArena. We had a great turnout and a great game. We had 8 sons and 2 daughters skating in warmups and period breaks. We had four older sons playing in the game with their dads and one grandson playing with his grandpa. Beak had his great grandkids shooting at his son Tweedy. We had a record number of fans in the stands. Some were cheering and others were sleeping. That is the biggest crowd since the MLF game in 2012. Click here to see the pictures and Read More....

December 19, 2014. On the last game of 2014, Matt Hammerman (Steve the Hammer's son) got to play his first full Duffer game. Greg Z and Tommy Z traded Hat Tricks and Matt got a thrilling 8-7 buzzer beater win. Read More...

January 2, 2015 Tom "TO" O'Connor scored the first goal of the year for the Reds, but the Whites went on to 6-4 win with 2 goals by Steve the Hammer. Beak gave a book review of the new book about Keith Magnuson. That brought memories and stories of our encounters with Keith in Madison and Cammi fund raiser. Read More...

January 9, 2015 History was made when the first GGOD dropped the puck for us. Beak's 7 year old great granddaughter Cermela Lopatka got instructions from Tommy Z then gave him a favorable drop. The game ended in a thrilling 6-6 tie. The March 5th Detroit Road Trip is sold out. Read More..

January 23, 2015 The Duffers had the night off and were greeted by the sad news of the passing of Ernie Banks. I posted the following on Facebook:

The Human Race lost a treasure tonight. Ernie Banks influenced me as a teenager more than any other person. He really was the only black person that I "Knew". (I only knew him through radio and television.) He was so nice that I developed a positive attitude toward all African Americans. A few years ago, I went to Arizona for Cub spring training and I was so disappointed that he was not in there. I asked Billy Williams about him and he said that his Mom had passed away and He would not be there. I wanted to tell him how I spent my life working with Black children because of his influence. I always wanted to meet him and tell him that. I am broken hearted that I will never get to meet him now and tell him how he influenced me and many other people in a positive way. May God bless him.

Ernie Banks joined the Cubs when I was a die hard 13 year old Cub fan. Many years later, I took my son Ken out of kindergarten to go to the 1969 season Home opener. We bought Ken a Cub uniform with number 14 on the back. After Ernie homered in his first 2 at bats and the place went wild, Ken kept asking, "when is Ernie coming up?" I told him that he will not homer every time he bats. When Ernie came up, he made a liar out of me as he hit his 3rd straight home run. Ernie hit a line drive single to left in his 4th at bat, so I restored my credibility with my 5 year old. The Cubs went on to win that game in extra innings with a game winning home run by Willie Smith. (I think it was Willie) When Ken got too big for that Ernie Banks uniform, his little brother Dan started wearing in in 1975-7. When Dan got too big for it, we put it in the attic for years until Dan found it and put it on his son Luke. They went to a Kane County Cougar game in 2013 and they put him on the cover of the July "Game Days" program. The PR people were all over him when Dan took Luke to Wrigley Field.

On Wednesday, Feb 18, at 10 AM at Canlan Ice Rink, Commander Ken skated a lap while wearing his Duffers jersey to raise funds for the Illinois Special Olympics. He passed the hat on Friday and many Duffers contributed to the fund. Beak had Duffers sign get well cards for the Czar's Mom and the Brain. Read More...

March 5, 2015 Detroit Road Trip. On Thursday morning, Planes and automobiles filled with hockey bags and Duffers were headed for Livonia Michigan. They arrived at various times at the Marriott where we had 12 rooms thanks to Kim B. We all met at the Wild Wings restaurant for an evening meal. Beak passed out tickets to the Redwing/Flames game and Duffer Road Trip Tee shirts. For pictures and details, click here.

March 6, 2015 We watched a few of the Redwings go through an optional game day practice. We were able to get on the ice after that because the Flames chose not to practice. Thirty Duffers crammed into 2 small rooms that had one shower stall. (no one complained, we were all thrilled to be playing in the Joe Louis Arena) There were chocolate donuts there for us provided by lovely Julie D, of the Redwings. We had a great game that featured a Gordie Howe Hat Trick by Beak. He picked a fight with Mini Wheezer on his last shift to qualify for the honor of being the oldest player to get a GHHT in the Joe. The game ended in a tie and we had a team picture taken with players, coaches and spectators. We had a few beers in the parking lot when we returned our bags. We were asked to leave when we got loud, so we walked 2 miles to Tommy's Bar and had a meal and some beers until we were given a thrilling shuttle ride to the Redwing game. We had 35 tickets thanks to Amber E. For pictures and details, click here.

March 7, 2015 We watched the Redwings practice at McCann ice rink in Gross Point Woods Michigan. After practice, the Redwings left for a game in Boston and we went to an Irish Pub until we played our game at 2:30. The locker rooms were a lot bigger, but we had five fewer players. (One left town and 4 were resting their tired bones) We had 2 casualties in the game. T&A was going too fast for conditions and crashed his kidney into the goal post. A short time, Berserk crashed into Goalie Johnny B and ended the game. Our Seattle goalie Steve took shoot out attempts and foiled 97 out of 100. For pictures and details, click here. We went to Ann Arbor and watched the USA U-17 team play Waterloo then partied until we had to leave. Click here for Party pictures

April 3, 2015 Tom Ambrosia finally got his brother Joe to come out and join in on the Duffer Fun. They formed the Ambrosia line with Joe, Tom and Tom's son Thomas. (Joe made his Duffer Debut in the Joe Louis Arena on March 7) The Duffers helped Dylan Nance raise $6000 for the Hornets Sled Hockey Program. On April 2, The Czar, Beak and T&A paid a visit to Brian the Brain who was recovering from a stroke at Marionjoy. Read More...

April 10, 2015 Commander Ken and the Czar combined their efforts to get the Canlan Ice rink officials to hang a Duffer banner in the rafters on a night when 3 fathers combined with their sons for 6 goals. Read More... Papa Joe sent Beak a Memorable Moment from our 2001 Pittsburgh Road Trip. It was added to the History page at March 18, 2011.

May 1, 2015 The season was extended after our last night at the Tilted Kilt. Bill Barron picked up is second straight win. Read More....

May 8, 2015 Brinks came back from Florida to say hello. The season ended with a cookout thanks to Commander Ken and Steve the Hammer. 15 Duffer Shirts were displayed in a Male Model picture. Beak decided that he will play another year after scoring a goal in the last two games. Read More....

June 14, 2015 We started our summer fun with a party for the Anvil's Daughter. Many Duffers had a great time celebrating with Dr. Emily Hawrysio. Read More.....

June 27, 2015 We had our annual Duffer Picnic. This year we partied at the Brinks' residence, so we had Steve and the Commander bring a light weight grill. Beak brought a cake to celebrate his 54th wedding anniversary. July 25, several Duffers played in a co-ed hockey game to raise funds for a Parkinson's cure. We all got a close up view of Pluto as the New Horizons space craft flew past Pluto after a 10 tear journey. July 27th, Mrs. Beak got a new knee making the Lopatka's a titanium rich couple. Beak got a pair of hips in 2005 and 2006. August 20th, Tweedy helped Wags win another Summer Men's league championship. August 22, Seven Duffers played golf to help raise funds for Beak's high school. The wettest June in Illinois history helped Beak harvest a bumper crop of cucumbers and tomatoes. Monet Mike's Boundless Tattoo shop is thriving.

October 9, 2015 The Cubs were playing a playoff game in St. Louis and a 2 mile wide asteroid was heading toward earth, so only 16 Duffers got off of the couch and we had to play a 4 on 4 game. The Cubs were shutout and only 5 guys showed up at the Tilted Kilt. Rags scored his first meaningful goal. Berserk and Rags became meaningful once the Czar did the math and found that the Mean age of the Duffers was 53.3 years on October 8, 2015. See the list and Read More.....

October 23, 2015 John "Cupcake" Bobka started the game with a natural Hat Trick and then went on to score another after his father made sure he took the puck for framing. (The Czar may send Fred a bill for that puck) Perfect Attendance went down to 5 after Hacksaw fled to Florida when it was his turn to buy beer: Doc, Birdman Dan, Beak, Barron, and Fruitcake are still perfect. Only Doc, Birdman Dan and Beak have had perfect attendance at the Kilt. Detroit Road trip participants rose to 40. Read More.....

November 20, 2015 Fred's 25 year old son, John "Cupcake" Bobka scored another Hat Trick, giving him 12 goals in the last 4 weeks, so Beak had a talk with him explaining that he has become a certified Duffer Gun. That means he has to start behaving like Tommy Z and Tweedy and give up scoring hat tricks every week. Beak told him that He should slow down on a breakaway and look for an old guy to pass too. John smiled and said, "Thank you". Grandpa Ken Lopatka got 2 new knees on November 2. He reports that he is walking without a walker and he is pain free. Read More.....

December 18, 2015 The Anvil ends the year with a Win and a Hug and makes Duffer History for being the oldest Duffer goalie to win a game. Eddie will be 61 on January 25, 2016. Beak and Fruitcake were the only Duffers left standing with perfect attendance.

February 12, 2016 On the night before the Detroit Duffer road trip, Monet Mike played goalie for the first time in his life and he was scored on by Barron who loaned him his pads and helped him dress.

February 13-16, 2016 The Duffers Do Detroit. 79 year old Harvey scores 2 goals in the Joe Louis Arena and Mini Wheezer fell one fight short of getting a Gordy Howe Hat Trick. Read More.....

February 19, 2016 Duffers celebrate Festivus at Tom and Erica's house as Detroit Road Trip memorable moments rolled in. Read More.....

February 26, 2016 Beak scored a goal on his 76th birthday. He also assisted on T&A's goal. He went over and tried to pick a fight with Drago Joe so that he could have another Gordie Howe Hat Trick. (One year ago, Beak got that honor in the Joe Louis Arena) Read More....

March 11, 2016 Stump's son, Kyle, scored his first Duffer Goal. The following night, a group of Duffers went to see Donny Granato's U-17 USA team play the 19-20 year olds of the Chicago Steel to a 1-1tie. Read More....

April 8, 2016 The Duffers had a day off, so a group of them went to Peoria to Watch Ben Oskroba play for the Rivermen. Donny and Tony Granato were named coaches of the Wisconsin Badgers. Jack Kroll was invited to The Edge in Bensenville to participate with 64 other players in the AHAI player Development program. Jack made the cut to the top 32! Read More....

April 15, 2016 The Duffers completed their 44th season with a nice turnout and a great cookout thanks to Steve the Hammer and his son Matt. Twenty six Duffers showed up for the team picture. Fruitcake Fred won the Fred Bobka Imperfect Attendance Award for the 3rd straight year. Fred has never gone to the bar, so that disqualifies him from receiving the Tim "Basketball Jones" Smith Perfect attendance Award. The Czar thought Fred should be recognized for his Duffer Dedication, so we created the Fred "Fruitcake" Bobka Imperfect Attendance Award two years ago. Unfortunately Fred was not present at the awards presentations at the last 2 picnics. (He likes to eat and run and avoid the spotlight.). Beak gave up his chance to get the Tim Smith award again this year when he went to Arizona and missed one game, but he did play 2 Duffer games in Detroit to give him one more Duffer game played than Fred. Read More....

May 19, 2016 The Chicago Blackhawks Coach Quenville came to lunch with the Duffers at the York Tavern. Beak lost his chick magnet status when the pretty blonde waitress asked him to guess her age. He said 38, she was 30.

June 10, 2016 Grandpa Ken Lopatka returned to the ice for the first time in 5 years since he tried to play with us on St Patrick's Day in Pittsburgh. Ken had both of his knees replaced in November. It was the first time that he was able to skate with his Dad, sons and grandchildren! It was a cause for celebration as he skated pain free and even picked up an assist on one of Tommy Z's goals. Read More...

July 8, 2016 The Duffers played their 2nd summer game just 8 days before their annual picnic at Tommy Z's house. John "Magoo" Landry became the 16th Duffer to be awarded with the Klinger Krash award and Commander Ken was awarded with the Next Generation Meaningless Trophy. Click here for more Pictures and details

August 12, 2016 Commander Ken and Ryan gave thanks with a great indoor/outdoor cook out. Ken was honored with his name engraved on the New Generation Meaningless Trophy. Tweedy got to skate with his brother Ken for the first time in 5 years. Read More....

September 9, 2016 The first game of the 2016-17 season started out at a brisk pace with the Whites having trouble getting the puck out of their zone, Barron did a great job of keeping the game scoreless until Monet Mike fired an ice hugging pass from the right point to his Grandpa Beak who was camped off to the left of net. Beak just stabbed at the speeding puck and redirected it past Barron for the first goal of the 2016-17 season. Read More....

September 23, 2016 The second game was not much fun because only one goalie showed up and only 2 guys showed up at the Kilt. Monet Mike and Nick DeJesus had Klinger Krashes. Read More.....

September 30, 2016 Fred "Fruitcake" Bobka broke the scoreboard with 2 Bobka Factor goals. Grandpa Ken Lopatka played in his first regular season game with his new knees. Read More.....

October 28, 2016 Grandpa Ken Lopatka scored 4 goals and continued his scoring streak. Read More.....

November 8, 2016 Donald Trump was named president elect even though he got 2,000,000 votes less than Hillary Clinton. He became the second president in the last 16 years to become president after losing the popular election. George Bush received 543,895 votes fewer than Al Gore. When that happened, I had a hard time teaching my students that your vote counts. I hope The Donald can do better than the last loser did. The retirement fund that I had in 2000 was cut in half by 2008. Fortunately I got most of it back by 2016.

November 11, 2016 The Duffer Next Generation Meaningless trophy was spotted at Yankee Stadium and Madison Square Garden thanks to Commander Ken. Read More....

December 9, 2016 We had a poor turnout and played 4 on 4 hockey.Dylan had more falls than his Dad and Commander Ken had 2 Klinger Krashes. The one with Berserk was most memorable. A Great Pizza Party followed thanks to Commander Ken. Read More....

January 13, 2017 Eddie "The Anvil" Hawrysio tossed a shutout on Friday the 13th and became the oldest Duffer Goalie to do that. He was 61.98 years old when he did that! Read More....

January 20, 2017 Seventeen Duffers took advantage of an off day to travel to Madison Wisconsin to see the Badgers beat the Gophers. See Pictures here

March 3, 2017 Beak scored his first goal as a 77 year old and then headed to Peoria where he donated his Duffers Hockey jersey to Jill Stotz to hang on the wall in her bar. She was thrilled especially after Hall of Fammer Denis Sevard and Ben Oskroba added their signatures to his and the many other not so famous Duffers. The jersey is on display at Darling's Dine & Draft at 4450 N. Prospect Suite S1, Peoria Heights, Illinois 61616 Read More......

March 24, 2017 We made Duffer history when only 6 duffer skaters showed up. It was good luck for 9 year old Christian Barron because he got to play in his first Duffer game. He scored a goal on his Dad and became only the second 9 year old to score a Duffer goal. Frank's 9 year old grandson scored and broke the record held by Tweedy who had scored a goal on Mother's Day in 1980 when he was 10. Read More.......

April 14, 2017 Good Friday was good for Grandpa Ken because he had the night off and was able to make it to the game and skate with his Dad, Beak, son Mike and grandkids Carmela and Lennie. Ken looked great for not skating in months because of work conflicts. He scored one goal after picking his son’s pocket and almost got another when he was awarded a penalty shot when Tomas “t&a” Ambrosia fell on a puck in the Anvil’s crease. The Ambrosias padded our attendance in the 1st period. The T&A Father son combination each had a goal. Read More...

April 28, 2017 Commander Ken stayed hot after his hat trick last game and scored to tie the game. Beak was rewarded for wearing white by having his son Ken set up a goal with a pass from the blue line. Beak fired a shot off of the right post just as The Anvil was sliding over to close the 4 hole. Read More....

May 12, 2017 Attendance: 26
We had a wonderful season ending game with 8 Father-Sons, one Father-Daughter, two Grandfather-Grandsons and one Great Grandfather with 2 Great Grand Children referees. Six of those "kids" played and helped us get to the elusive 3 lines! The Anvil had more SODs than the Whites so he ended the 46th season with a stress free win. Read More....

July 29, 2017 Duffer Picnic was held at Tommy "Gas Man" Zagorski's house. Read More....

August 18, 2017: Harvey had a Klinger Krash in the locker room while getting out of his pants. August Fun with golf outing and Total Solar Eclipse Read More....

October 6, 2017 The Oskroba's come to town and get Super Dave Sullivan out of the house. Read More...

November 17, 2017 Vidas "Formica"Cemarka Flew in from Seattle to play hockey and get a Duffer Tattoo from Mike Lopatka at Boundless Tattoo Company Mike also Tattooed his grandpa Beak with a friendly Fire shot. Read More....

November 24, 2017 Ton "T&A" Ambrosia played goalie for the first and last time. T&A is undefeated. Brian Stewart got a great tattoo Read More...

Thanksgiving 2017 Many Duffers, SODs, DODs and GODs * showed up for our annual Thanksgiving Game. Read More...

January 5, 2018 Way back in 1972, when Beak was 32, He centered a line with 34 year old Dick Bajlavik and 35 year old Huffer, who was wearing a Green Bay Packers' helmet. They were named the century line because their ages totaled 100 years. Wow, that was quite an event at the time for the one year old Duffer Hockey organization. Fast forward to Friday, January 5, 2018 when we had 2 goalies that totaled 121 years in age! We had a goalie alert early in the day that was answered by 60 year old Ed Waghorne age 60 defended the White's net and Eddie "The Anvil" Hawrysio defended the Red's net. Those 2 senior goalies turned in one of the lowest scoring games. Read More....

January 26, 2018 Duffers History was made when 6 guys dropped out of the Madison Road trip. One guy dropped out twice! Read More...

February 21-23, 2018 We had 25 Duffers at the Blackhawk practice to celebrate Frank Presecki's 80th Birthday. Ryan Dzingel took Beak's grandson Luke on the United Center ice during the Ottawa's practice time slot. Two days later, after the Duffers' game, we celebrated the Czar and Beak's birthdays with Pizza and beer. Beak hit 78 and the Czar reached 50. The 2/23/2018 game set a Duffer record when the Whites saw a 5 goal lead disappear in the 3rd period. Monet Mike sparked the comeback with a hat trick. Read More......

March 9, 2018 John "Magoo" Landry scored his final Duffer Goal. He retired and moved to South Carolina before the season ended. Read More.....

April 6, 2018 The Duffers had a slider party after a 19 goal shoot out game. 15 Duffers and a little girl, (Beak's great granddaughter, Carmela) Consumes a crate of 100 White Castle sliders. There were several thousand onion bits left on the black floor after the party. Geno Cromwell and Bill By The Way had Hat Tricks in the 10-9 Red win. Olgie Mazzarella had 4 assists, but he had a plus/minus of 0. Beak returned to action after losing his perfect attendance status. Brian Stewart is the only Duffer left with a chance to be awarded with the Tim "Basketball Jones" Smith Perfect Attendance Award. Read More.....

April 13, 2018 "Johnny B" Bocian answered a goalie Alert and returned to play goalie and save the Day. Barron "The Bear" Williams was the star of the game when he shout the Reds in the final 2 periods while his team scored 5 unanswered goal to pick up the 6-4 win. Read More....

April 26, 2018 John "Magoo" Landry officially retired and moved to South Carolina. Read More......

May 11, 2018 We had 36 Duffers show up for the season finale. It may have been the promise of Beer and Brats at the cook out set up by the Commander and the Hammer. We had a record number of Duffer SODs, GODs, Great GODs and a DOD. Jeff Lopez made a Short Version Duffer Video on that day. Read More......

July 25, we a had a group outing at the Kane County Cougar Game, That was the last time we saw Boris "Mr. Clean AKA Hacksaw" Pavichevich. He sold his house and moved to FLA. the land of the underwater specialists.

September 14, 2018 We had 21 Duffers show up for the season opener. Anthony played goalie for the first time and picked up the 9-8 win. Terry complained when Beak passed to his grandson Monet Mike to set up the game winner in the closing minutes. Young guys are supposed to pass to the old guys. Steve The Hammer and Commander Ken provided us with a great cookout and Brian Stewart was presented with his perfect attendance award. Read More....

October 12, 2018 The Czar announced a train road trip to St. Louis to play 2 games and watch Ryan Dzingel and the Ottawa Senators play the St Louts Blues. We will leave the Amtrack Station in Joliet on Thursday January 17 and return on Sunday. Johnny B made his first game and played goalie. Mini Wheezer posted a Live feed on Facebook. Read More....

November 9, 2018 Grandpa Ken scored 2 goals to keep his scoring streak alive. Ken has scored in all 8 games this season. Those titanium knees are working well. Joe "Drago" Evans ended his hold out and showed up playing for the Reds. He was traded to the Whites for TZ when the Whites went 5 goals ahead. Read More....

November 22, 2018 We had 30 Duffers show up for Hockey, Beer and Brats. Read More......

December 14, 2018 Barron The Bear gave the goalie duties to Johnny B who picked up the win and Barron scored a goal! A big thank you to Greg Z who left Wild Wings early and picked up the tab for all 10 Duffers at his table. Our Waitress Dana was the big winner when everybody left big tips for her. She said that that was the greatest Christmas gift that she ever got. Read More....

January 18, 2019 The Duffers took a train ride to St Louis. We played 2 games then watched Ryan Dzingel and the Senators play the Blues. Read More.....

February 15, 2019 Amber Kraft became the first Granddaughter of a Duffer to score a goal. Rick Dzingel scored his first Duffer Goal. Read More....

March 8, 2019 Carmela Lopatka became the first Great granddaughter of a Duffer to play in a game and get an assist on her grandpa Ken's Hat Trick. Read More....

March 21, 2019 Tumblin Terry Nance scored 2 goals in 10 seconds to lead the Polar Bears to a 7-3 win. Read More.....

March 28, 2019 Fred Bobka made his first appearance since the death of his son Joe. Before the opening faceoff, the Duffers formed a circle around the center ice circle to pay their respects to Joe Bobka. Twelve year old Carmela Lopatka became the first Great Granddaughter of a Duffer (GGOD) to score a goal in a Duffer game. Her Dad, Mike, Grandpa, Ken, and great Grandpa, Beak also scored to give the Reds a come from behind 10-5 win. That was Beak's first goal as a 79 year old. Jay "The Sniper" Hernandez scored his first Hat Trick. Greg Dubbs got his first Duffer win, when he played his first game as a goalie. 12 Year Old Ryan Kroll played his first Duffer Game. Will County Judge Dan Rippy scored his first Duffer goal. Read More....

April 12, 2019 Speed Racer Jeff Lopatka revealed the gender of his baby to be with a slap shot. Read more....

April 26, 2019 The Duffers finished their 48th season with a cookout and a 5-0 Meaningful win. Beak completed the season by playing in every regular season game plus 2 road trip games in St. Louis. He will be presented with the Tim “Basketball Jones” Smith Perfect Attendance Award at the Duffer Picnic this summer. Read More....

2019 Summer Fun; Summer Fun Picnic, Lunch at the Vault, Lisle High Golf Outing and Sox park Cookout.

September 6, 2019 We started our 49th season with a poor turnout. We only had 17 skaters and 3 of them were guests. Vidas "Formica" flew in from Seattle and scored a goal. Jeff and Abbey presented Beak with his 3rd great grandchild. Read More...

September 20, 2019 Three Duffers completed another trip around the son. We had a great turnout at the Kilt to celebrate 3 birthdays. GI Joe Mazarella turned 64, Thor hit 70 and Magoo reached 72! Unfortunately, only GI Joe showed up for the party. Commander Ken hosted his back yard MNF party. Read More...

October 11, 2019 with 7 minutes left to play, a rookie Zamboni driver opened the doors and halted the game. The Czar walked on the concrete to close the doors! Beak had a goal and an assist and was looking for a fight to complete his Gordie Howe Hat Trick. Beak was going to punch the driver until he realized that he would have to walk on concrete to throw a punch and he had too much respect for his skates, so he went to the locker room and had a beer. Beak’s last Gordie Howe Hat Trick was in the Joe Louis Arena in 2015. Read More...

November 28, 2019 Thirty Two Duffers got out of bed to play in the 2019 The Thanksgiving game. We had 29 guys show up the following night for our regular Friday night game.

December 6, 2019 Ten year old Zoe Mazurk was given a chance to play when her dad's team got tired of skating 4 on 4 hockey with only 6 skaters. Zoe had a chance to score on her first shift when her Dad set her up with a pass in the slot. Her chance to go down in Duffer history was filed when her teammate Terry "Crash" Nance came flying in from the blue line. Just as she was ready to shoot, Terry lifted her stick, stole the puck and scored a goal. The story has a happy ending as Zoe did score on her next shift and became the first 10 year old girl to score in a Duffer game. Read More...

Friday the 13th 2019 was good luck for Greg Dubbs and the Mazarrellas. Greg picked up another win thanks to GI Joe Mazarrella scored twice for the winners as his son scored once for the losing Reds. Read More...

December 20, 2019 Fred "Fruit Cake" Bobka was filled with pride as his son John was sworn in as an attorney. We had a Christmas when Tommy Z got Fred going with 3 Stooges lawyer humor. Fred went on and on with Stooges stories as he laughed for the first time in a long time. The Three Lopatkas had no problem laughing as they celebrated their 3 generation "Lopatrick". Mone Mike scored early in the game, his Grandpa Beak scored in the second period when he was set up by Lil Bill Conti. Beak's son scored in the third period to to complete the 3 goal 3 generation feat. Read More...

January 3, 2020 The Average of the 34 dues paying Duffers was calculated today. The Mean age was 53.94, just a fraction lower than what it was in 2010. The Mean age is important because that is the age that is used to determine the Meaningful Duffers. The Mode (Most Frequent) age is 49. We have three 49 year olds. The Median age was 52.1. That makes Bill Conti the Cipher. To view the complete the complete list of dues paying Duffers, click here

January 17, 2020 Miserable weather prevented 2 thirds of the Duffers from showing up. We started the year with three weeks of poor attendance that has caused the team to lose over $1000 to start the year. Read More...

January 31, 2020 At the ripe old age of 79.93 Greg "Beak" Lopatka scored his 4th goal in January he was assisted by his grandson Mike. Beak was helped by having 3 full lines that night that allowed him to have short shifts. Beak deflected praise at the bar after the game where we were celebrating Bret Murawski's 44th birthday by saying, "I couldn't have done it if January didn't have 31 days and 5 Fridays this year" Read More...

February 21, 2020 Three Hat tricks! Bret the Dick got his first hat trick, Jay “The Sniper” Hernandez and Tom “T&A” Ambrosia completed the hat trick troika.

Fruitcake” Bobka scored in the 3rd period. Fred pointed to the sky after he scored and skated over to the Red bench where he told Beak that that goal was for his son Joe. That goal made it 6-5 and put the Whites back in the game thanks to the “Bobka Factor.” Read More....

March 13, 2020 Beak scored his first goal as an Octogenarian. Ten year old Zoe Mazurk had 3 assists and a goal to lead the Whites to a thrilling come from behind win. The Rink was then shut down. Read More....

April 5, 2020 Jim "Rags" Ragland passed away in his sleep. Jim was a great Duffer and will be missed.

May 12, 2020, We lost a Founding father of the Duffers, Frank Presecky died in his sleep.

To E-mail the History updates to the Duffer News Web master, just click here! g.lopatka@comcast.net

**Tweedy beat Stump when he was 10 years old on Mothers Day, 1981.

Golden Dreams 4th annual Fund Raiser

Images: Suburban flooding continues on Monday - DailyHerald.com