Morrow Still Has Place in History

Ken Morrow’s phone has been ringing a lot lately, a sure sign the Olympics are approaching. “I become a story every four years,” he said, smiling.

Morrow, a defenseman on the triumphant 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team and now director of pro scouting for the New York Islanders, takes his quadrennial fame with good humor. And he’s proud that even though five Winter Games have taken place since Lake Placid, he remains the only player who has won an Olympic gold medal and Stanley Cup championship in the same year.

“I thought for sure in the last Olympics, having pros in there, someone else would do it,” said Morrow, who joined the Islanders a few days after the Games and helped them win the first of four consecutive Stanley Cup titles. “It lasted for another four years, anyway. But it’s going to happen. Hopefully, it will be someone from the U.S. who does it.”

Morrow believes the U.S. men have a good chance at the Salt Lake City Games because of the continued development of home-grown talent and the certainty of staunch fan support.

“Being at home certainly was a big advantage for us,” he said, “and I think that will be true again, especially with what happened Sept. 11. I think there will be a lot of patriotism.

“I look back at what happened in the World Cup in ’96 [when the U.S. upset Canada] and I think that really opened everybody’s eyes to the talent pool we had to draw on. Basically, it’s the same crop of players, with a couple of additions, and that bodes well.

“I think one thing the average fan is going to have to realize is this isn’t like the [U.S.-dominated] Olympic basketball tournament. There’s not going to be a super team. There’s going to be five or six teams on pretty equal footing.”

He also scoffs at suggestions a U.S. gold medal would constitute a second “miracle on ice,” even though the host country and the coach--Herb Brooks--will be the same.

“It’s like night and day. The whole circumstances are different,” Morrow said. “With professionals involved and even stronger teams everywhere in the world, there’s no comparison.”

Morrow said he hopes to see some games at Salt Lake City, where he might be joined by some of his 1980 teammates. Before that, he will reunite with many of them in Los Angeles for an exhibition game and other events connected with the Feb. 2 NHL All-Star game. The entire team has not been together since they visited the White House after their victory: the best turnout has been 16 or 17, usually without reclusive forwards Mark Wells and Mark Pavelich.

“I know where Mark Wells is, but Mark Pavelich hasn’t been heard from for 21 years,” Morrow joked. “We may have to send one of those drone planes or Global Positioning Satellites to find him in the northern Minnesota woods.”

Gold Medal Memories

Jim Craig, the goaltender on the triumphant 1980 U.S. team, hopes the All-Star game reunion will boost the country’s spirits as much as the team’s victory at Lake Placid did.

“Based on how the world was affected since Sept. 11, we were part of an era when people’s confidence was down and we helped raise it,” Craig said Wednesday. “We can be part of a real positive time in people’s lives now.... I think the Olympians who are going to be representing our country are going to see the response to us and hear the ‘USA’ chant and will understand the responsibility of wearing the USA uniform. They’re the values of America--unity, patriotism and hard work.”

Craig and several teammates will participate in four “Good Hands” youth clinics in Philadelphia, Chicago, Washington and New York before the All-Star festivities. The 1980 players will skate against an NHL Legends team Feb. 1 on a specially constructed rink in the Convention Center.

“Everyone remembers where they were when the team won in 1980,” said Rob Apatoff, senior vice president and chief marketing officer of Allstate and a key figure in reuniting the scattered Olympians. “Usually when you ask people where they were, it’s negative events. That was so positive. These guys deserve the right to come back.”

Craig, who is in retail sales and does motivational speaking, said the Salt Lake team will have to balance home-country advantage against the pressure of high expectations.

“I hope they’re prepared for the responsibility,” said Craig, whose wife is from Salt Lake City and plans to attend the Games. “I think they saw the negative light [at Nagano, where several players trashed a dorm room]. Going there because you’re a well-known name or a talent isn’t enough. This is about who we are. Maybe a little mentoring from us will help them.”

Highs and Lowes

Edmonton Oiler General Manager Kevin Lowe didn’t suddenly become a fan of the Olympics when the NHL players joined the party in 1998.

“I wasn’t all that interested in Nagano. I grew up believing the Stanley Cup was it,” said Lowe, who played on five Cup winners in Edmonton and one with the New York Rangers. “How do you gauge a true team? We’ve been raised to think it’s in a four-of-seven series. But we’re all trying to promote the game.

“And my wife is an Olympian, so I’ve got to be careful what I say. I think I understand more about the Olympics now. Maybe it’s just my perception, and I’m a graybeard, but I think the young guys look forward to it not any more or less than the Cup.”

Being named assistant executive director of Canada’s men’s hockey team helped him see the Olympic light. So has being married to skier Karen Percy, who won bronze medals in the downhill and super giant slalom at the 1988 Calgary Games. “I think having [the Olympics] on this continent makes a big difference,” Lowe said. “If the league is looking for the ultimate exposure, this should do it. I think it’s growing in terms of players’ acceptance.”

Lowe said he confers by phone about five times a week with Wayne Gretzky, Canada’s executive director, as well assistant coach Wayne Fleming and player personnel director Steve Tambellini. They also hold a weekly conference call with Coach Pat Quinn, coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs, and assistants Ken Hitchcock of the Dallas Stars and Jacques Martin of the Ottawa Senators.

Lowe said the staff has narrowed its choices from more than 40 to fewer than 30. The roster will probably be announced Dec. 15 during a “Hockey Night in Canada” telecast, for maximum publicity. Team USA executives will meet in St. Louis on Dec. 15 and are likely to announce their selections a few days later.

“The longer it goes, the better off we’ll be, or that’s my preference,” Lowe said. “I think the way it should have been was to list 40 and decide on Feb 1.”

Music Man

Dieter Ruehle of Burbank will play at the Olympics without lacing up skates.

Ruehle, the music coordinator at Staples Center, will be the venue music director for the Peaks Ice Arena in Provo, site of 25 men’s and women’s Olympic hockey games. Working with guidelines established by the Salt Lake Organizing Committee, Ruehle will mix live and recorded music at the women’s games and play the organ at men’s games. In either case, playing “Three Blind Mice” after a controversial call is out.

“It’s a great opportunity and I’m really excited about it,” said Ruehle, who was trained as a classical pianist and has played the keyboard for the Kings, Avengers, San Jose Sharks and Phoenix Coyotes. “I’ve never missed a game in 13 years, but everybody at Staples has been really positive about it.”

Ruehle, who got the job after a friend e-mailed him a copy of an ad posting, recently attended a training session and was briefed on how to interact with spectators. “We might be approached, because we’re wearing uniforms,” he said, “so we were advised on things like what to say and which hand gestures to avoid because they might mean something different to people from other countries. They’re very organized there. It seems like they’re really doing it the right way.”

Here And There

Shannon Miller, the most decorated gymnast in U.S. history, retired from competition last weekend after combining with Jordan Jovtchev to win the Reese’s Gymnastics Cup team competition in Houston. Miller shared a team Olympic gold in 1996 and won individual gold on the balance beam; she won two Olympic gold medals, two silvers and three bronzes in addition to nine medals at world championships. She plans to team with her mother to write a book about athletes and their parents.

The 2004 men’s and women’s U.S. Olympic marathon trials were awarded to Birmingham, Ala., and St. Louis, respectively.... The International Assn. of Athletics Federations will give U.S. race walker Curt Clausen a bronze medal from the 1999 world championships.

He moved up in the 50k standings after Russia’s German Skurygin, who won the race at Seville, Spain, tested positive for human chorionic gonadotropin, a banned substance.

The life of three-time Olympic gold medalist Florence Griffith-Joyner, who died in 1998, will be celebrated in a ballet choreographed by Judith Jamison, artistic director of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. “Here ... Now,” commissioned by the Olympic Arts Festival, will be presented in Salt Lake City during the Games.... The 2003 World Outdoor Target Archery championships were awarded to New York. They’ll be held in Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx.

Dave Christian and Mike Ramsey of the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team and Paul Johnson of the triumphant 1960 U.S. team were inducted into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame.... Walter L. Bush Jr., a longtime U.S. hockey executive, will receive the Olympic Order at Salt Lake City. It’s the highest individual honor bestowed by the International Olympic Committee.