Mail Bag

Ken- Reminders of the North Stars exit is sadder than any breakup I ever endured. My father, then my brother and I were season ticket holders and no institution was closer to my heart. I still feel sick thinking about it all. Nights listening to Al was perhaps my fondest memory of youth, especially from the west coast when I was supposed to be asleep.

 Here are some memories that I'm sure are not just mine:

 1.  The silly array of seat colors attributed to the
     construction mess in 1967.

 2.  Dick Stanford saying "The following penalties have been
     assessed"

 3.  Strong beer in the Blue Line Club

 4.  Smith/Payne/McAdam

 5.  Getting on "Fan in the Stands" with Al (I drew Murray
     Oliver, my brother got Dave Keon)

 6.  Ed Belfour being ejected as the 3rd man in the fight,
     New Years' eve in 91 (loudest I ever heard the Met
     except in the finals)

 7.  Paul Shmyr's breakaway goal in the playoffs vs.
     Montreal in 1980

 8.  Plastic dinosaurs

 9.  Tailgating during the playoffs

 10.  Any cheesy North Stars souvnir (swizzle sticks, Pabst
      player sketches etc.)

.... Patrick Lethert, plethert@westpub.com

Ken, thank you so much for this memorial to the best team in Minnesota ever -- The North Stars. Not a day goes by when I don't miss that team. I used to work at Met Center for 3 seasons. I started out in maintenance, cleaning up after the games. I then moved over to Ushering. I've worked over 100 North Star games, and I never got bored at any one of them.

It wasn't always easy working the games, but there was no place else I would have rather been. The North Star fans were the best fans ever. I met many North Stars who would tell me that after games, before exiting the building. Because I worked near the locker rooms after the games, my dream of meeting my "heros" came true. I got to meet my all time favorite North Star, Neal Broten. I also met many others, including Dino Cicarelli, Jon Casey, and Brian Bellows. It was a time in my life that will never come again.

Like so many other fans, I was introduced to the North Stars by my dad. He took me to my first game when I was 12. I can still remember that game against the Calgary flames, too. I can remember watching greats like Bobby Smith, Neal Broten, Dino Cicarelli, and Don Beaupre when they were all rookies. I remember on nights when the North Stars would be playing out west, I would go to bed and hide my radio under my pillow so I could still listen to the game and pretend I was asleep. I was given a North Stars jersey for Christmas one year, and dozens of years later, it is still one of my most treasured memories of the team....

I am really excited for the next generation of the NHL in Minnesota.... All I really care about is carrying on the tradition that my dad started, with my kids: taking them to a professional hockey game in Minnesota and giving them the same kind of memories that they will cherish forever, too. I only hope that my kids will be able to pass that tradition on to the next generation of our family. Fortunately, I think the NHL will be here for a long, long time.

......Chris

Ken, I too dream of better days gone bye. My first hockey game was when I was 8 yrs old and my dad took me. I've got a NS jersey and it's been archived . I'm in the service and don't live in the promised land anymore but there are alot of Minnesotan's that I work with and we can dream of bodily injury to Mr. Green. I'm borrowing your NS logo to make a screen saver for our shop on the ship, and I was mildly suprised to find your page on the net. Bravo Zulu in the Navy means damn good job done. Keep the faith Ken.

..... Mark Perry

To: old fans,

Here's a strange letter that I recieved from the North Stars addressed to the season ticket holders in that final year they skipped town. No one believed the Stars would ever leave us.

.......Ken

My greatest memory came in the spring of 1971, when the North Stars eliminated the hated St. Louis Blues, 4 games to 2 in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. I attended Game #6 at a rollicking Met Sports Center. In a tense game the Blues scored first, but then the North Stars rallied for 4 goals in the last 10 minutes of the second period to blow the Blues away.

Ted Hampson, Lou Nanne, Bobby Rousseau, and Doug Mohns all beat Ernie Fakely to send Met Center into hysterics. In the 3rd period the organist and the crowd serenaded the Blues with a chorus of "Bye, Bye, Blues" over and over. I thought Barclay Plager was going to go nuts and kill somebody. Anyway, after the game (a 5-2 win), Bob Plager went in the North Stars bench, and shook everyone's hand, something I'll always remember. Even though it was a school night, we stayed after the game and greeted our heroes as they emerged from the west side's lower level. It was on to Montreal for the Semi-Finals!

Jeff Burianek, Woodbury, MN

I've lived in Minnesota my whole life and had followed the North Stars since the mid 70's. One of my favorie childhood memories is listening to Al Shaver, calling games on the radio. Those home games were really fun as the siren sounded and the crowd would go nuts after each goal. During the 79-81 seasons, it seemed almost every goal was from the McAdam-Payne-Smith line. Yes, those were the days. It's too bad my son won't have the same kind of memories. Thanks Norm-You Jerk!

.... UFC, St.Cloud, MN

Greetings from Omaha, Nebraska. I've totally enjoyed your NHL Northstars page. Very impressive work. I feel for you losing your team to Texas. I, too, had my favorite team leave me. The Seals in 1976 left Oakland. I still love hockey though. I've followed Wayne Gretzky's career since day one and have had a lot of fun following his teams. I guess I payed my dues with the Seals.

Here are the three games in my life that I've seen the Northstars play. As an 7th grader I saw the Northstars beat the Seals 2-1 in Oakland on Friday March 31, 1972. The Seals didn't make the playoffs that season. Gump Worsley was in net for the Northstars. I moved to Omaha the following year and my Dad took me out of school for two days to travel with him to the Twin Cities. There, I took in the Mapleleafs vs Northstars game at the Met on Thursday December 6, 1973. The Leafs crushed the Stars 4-1 in front of a full house.

The last time I saw the Stars play was on Saturday January 15, 1983. The Edmonton Oilers dumped the Stars 10-4 with Gretzky scoring 1 goal and assisting on 5 others as the Met crowd was starting to get down on their Stars.

......Bob Marceau; Omaha, Ne.

Ken, I started following the North Stars in the late 70's when I was in elementary school. I grew up in a small town about an hour south of the Twin Cities that was not exactly the hockey fan center of the state. However, once I started watching the game, I was hooked. I remember the Stanley Cup run against the Islanders and listening to Al on my headphones while I did my paper route. I finally convinced my father to take me to a game during the 1983-84 season. Naturally, the team that I chose to see was the always hated Chicago Blackhawks. The North Stars won 10-5, Dino had a hat trick, and Al Secord was given all the respect he deserved from the sold out Met Center crowd.

One of my best memories from college (Winona State University) is when my floor of Morey Hall (about 2/3 of which was Illinois born) rented a charter bus and headed to the Met Center in Nov. 1986 to experience the greatest rivalry in Mn sports history (Stars-Blackhawks). The Stars lost (despite Craig Hartsburg's hattrick), our section got booed (deservedly so), and I'm sure many of my Chicago friends don't remember much of anything from the evening.

Another of my greatest memories, was being able to attend 5 playoff games the 2nd time the Stars made it to the cup. They did win all 5. The tailgating, the noise when the Stars came onto the ice, the high-fives with total strangers, and the parking lot with car horns blaring are all memories that I will have forever......"

.... Bob Staska staskab@emmons.k12.mn.us

Ken, I remember sitting at home and listening to Al Shaver years before I ever got to go to Met Center. When Al called a game you didn't need a TV - you could see everyone....every move....every play....every goal. I remember falling asleep at night with the headphones trying to catch the end of games being played on the west coast.

Mostly - I miss the guys - they were the best and the nicest - always stopping to chat with the kids and to sign autographs. Big Bad Basil - we were all members of the Basil McRae School of Ballet. And finally - I really miss Met Center. In all the arenas I've been to since those days - never have I found ice that smelled as good as our Met Center's ice.

...Timya Ewing, St. Paul MN

.... Keith Gibson, Charlotte MI

It's just not the same any more without my Stars and if you don't really care about another team what's the use?. (Dallas Stars.....NEVER!!!!) The only good that came out of the whole ugly mess is when I heard that they were most definately moving to Dallas. It was then I decided to take my 2 boys and myself to Bloomington and finally see my North Stars live at the Met Center (my visa smarted for months!!!!) Anyways' we ended up at the second to last game at the Met Center and enjoyed a fantastic come from behind win over the Blues. It was a weekend that my boys and I will never ever forget. I shot three rolls of film and ended up bringing home three game used hockey sticks on the plane!!!!

.... Hamilton, Ontario

...Dale Campbell, Woodbury, MN

The fondest memory I have of the Minnesota North Stars was Game #3 of the Stanley Cup Finals versus Pittsburgh. That was the last time I was able to attend a North Stars game and the last win ever for the Minnesota North Stars in the Stanley Cup Finals. I will always remember the deafening sound in the Met that day as the club won for the final time that series. I worked at that time as a radio announcer in Duluth and screamed so much during that game that I lost my voice for three weeks!

Another memory I have is the day they announced the move was official. At the time I lived just outside St. Louis and the North Stars played the Blues that night on local television. The announcement was made and from that point on when they flashed the score, the Stars logo kept flashing between Minnesota and Dallas. Thinking about it still brings tears to my eyes. It's only fitting that a man named Green would destroy the Green and Gold. I will never cheer for them again. Dallas Stars? NEVER!!!

....Kevin Norling knorling@cmgate.com

I may have been only in 5th grade at the time the North Stars moved to Dallas, but I remember that sometimes at night I would ask my Mom why they had to move, and if the was any way that it could be stoped, but every time it was the same answer No.

Some of my favorite memories are when on New Year's we would go to the game, and after we would get to skate on the ice, and maybe if we were lucky one, or two players would come out and skate with us.