They Lived ‘Slap Shot’

“You guys the Hansons?”

Spoken by Paul Newman, who portrayed the washed-up player-coach of a dilapidated minor-league hockey team in the 1977 film “Slap Shot,” these words introduced the world to what has become a phenomenon.

The three gangly, long-haired farm boys with thick glasses, first seen assaulting a soda machine and hurling profanity as easily as a high-flying elbow, have in the ensuing 25 years become folk heroes.

Besides the 30 to 40 personal appearances they’ve made each year since 1994, the Hanson brothers have inspired action figures, a tribute band and a legion of fans. Mention the name to some fans and expect to hear “puttin’ on the foil,” “none of that stinkin’ root beer” and other lines from the film.

“The first thing I asked was, ‘Are the Hansons back?’” said Steve Boyum, director of the new straight-to-video sequel, which hits stores Tuesday. “I don’t think you could make a ‘Slap Shot’ film without the Hansons.” During shooting and post-production for “Slap Shot 2: Breaking the Ice,” he said, “they were what people asked about. They’re the thing people remember most.”

The Hanson brothers are actually the Carlson brothers--more accurately, brothers Steve and Jeff Carlson, plus friend and former teammate Dave Hanson. All three played for the Johnstown (Pa.) Jets during the 1974-’75 season, along with the Carlsons’ brother, Jack. Teammate Ned Dowd’s sister Nancy, who was a fledgling screenwriter, followed the team briefly and had her brother make audiotapes of idle hours in locker rooms and bus rides and bars. She met the Carlsons, Hanson and many of the other players who would eventually fill out the fictional Charlestown Chiefs.

Directed by George Roy Hill, “Slap Shot” was a moderate box-office success, buoyed largely by the star presence of Newman. The film was dismissed by many critics as cheap exploitation, and a general sense of indignant outrage seemed to trail its coarse language and on-ice violence.

Although they were aware of the research by Nancy Dowd (who would later win an Oscar for her work on “Coming Home” and write scripts for “Swing Shift” and “Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains”), the team members never expected to be in the film. As Dave Hanson explains in a Great Lakes drawl, “One day I’m having a pregame nap and there’s a knock at my door. I’m in my underwear and a little groggy, and there’s someone who looks like Paul Newman with a bunch of other guys. He says, ‘I’m Paul Newman and these guys want to get a look at what a hockey player’s apartment looks like.’ I said to come in, and he asked for a beer and said he’d like to sit down and watch the race while they looked around. So it sort of kicked in maybe this was for real.”

Many of the wilder incidents in the film--fighting during warmups for a game, attacking fans who threw objects on the ice and landing in jail for it--stem from real events that occurred during what Hanson and Carlson describe as a fairly average season.

Universal Studios offered the guys a movie contract, but they turned it down when they discovered they’d have to act during hockey season. In the ensuing years, they would all move separately from team to team, playing among them a total of 85 games in the National Hockey League. Thanks to “Slap Shot’s” renewed life on home video and frequent showings on cable, the Hanson brothers’ legacy lived on.

In 1994, when Steve was a player-coach with the minor-league Memphis River Kings, he asked Jeff and Dave to come down one weekend for a ceremonial dropping of the puck in hopes of boosting attendance. With short hair, dressed in coats and ties, the reunited Hansons helped fill a 9,000-seat stadium and signed autographs for hours.

Trying it again at the home arena of the upstate New York team Dave managed, and skating with trademark glasses, they attracted another sellout crowd. Ever since, they’ve been appearing mostly at fantasy camps and charity games.

Steve and his wife run the Hanson business from their Kenosha, Wis., home, Jeff is an electrician in Muskegon, Mich., and Dave manages a sports center in Pittsburgh.

Hanson and the two Carlson brothers have also been featured in a display on “Slap Shot” in the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto. “That’s really for the greats,” Steve Carlson says. “We were just average players, so to be recognized like that, as ambassadors of the game, is a tremendous thrill.”

Although they’ve lived with the characters for years, the three were a little nervous about the sequel, their first time acting since the original. “We were rehearsing our first scene and I felt uncomfortable,” Carlson says. “Things just weren’t clicking, it didn’t feel right. And then I put on my glasses, and it was like Superman putting on his cape. After that, everything went smooth. But I still don’t know how actors can stand all the waiting around.”

According to Broderick Miller, screenwriter of the new film, the Hansons had no trouble slipping into character, ad-libbing many of their lines. “They’re such natural comedians,” he says. “If you just let them riff, they’ll come up with great stuff.” Director Boyum seconds this opinion. “My only mandate to them was to make me laugh.”

Trying to define the Hansons’ appeal, Miller says, “It’s not that the Hansons are simple-minded, but that they’re single-minded. They have such a reckless ferocity and enthusiasm for everything they do. Who wouldn’t want them on their side?”

As an example of that enthusiasm, Miller adds, “I was having a conflict on set with someone who was also playing a member of the opposing team. The Hansons knew about it, and before a scene they said, ‘Broderick, this one’s for you.’ And they proceeded to literally slam the guy into the wall like six times.”

Dave Hanson thinks it isn’t hard to understand what makes the Hansons such an enduring presence.

“We’re hockey players. We were able to come across as so natural because we were in our environment. Jeff, Steve and myself are real live people. There’s no acting involved. That’s us.”