Regina Sun from Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada • 30

Page 30 i mu lying current when we played the Soviet and communist bloc teams. Huck joined the national hockey program after a spectacular major junior career with the Regina Pats. He tallied more then 136 points in each of his two full seasons with the Pats. The centremans big numbers in junior had professional teams knocking at his door with lucrative contracts. But Huck, like many of his fbture teammates on Team Canada, opted to focus on a law education and decided his best option would be to continue on as an amateur player by entering the national program.

Some 30 years later, Fran Huck, the lawyer, is glad he decided to focus on his education rather then chase the glory of professional hockey. I was always committed to an education, and I had a feeling that (Team Canada) was a program that would develop me into a better hockey player in a much larger way, he said. Im glad I took the path I did. Its made me a more well-rounded person and given me an appreciation for more things in life then just hockey. Following four seasons as an amateur player in the national program, Huck eventually had his opportunity to play professionally.

In 1969, he joined the Montreal Voyageurs of the American Hockey League. Huck went on to play with the NHLs Montreal Canadiens and St Louis Blues before toiling with the World Hockey Associations Winnipeg Jets and Minnesota Fighting Saints. In 1971-1972 he played with the Denver Spurs of the now-defunct professional Western Hockey League. Huck finished out his professional career in 1978 with 54 points in 94 NHL games and 194 points in 228 WHA games. Despite his successes as an Olympic medallist, professional hockey player and now as an IIHF Hall of Fame member, Huck tries to keep his accomplishments in perspective.

I'm just a person who had some ability and determination to play as well as I could for my team and my country. I just gave it the best shot I could. I dont read too much into that I was just maybe in the right place at the right time, much like some people are in the wrong place at the right time. The choice is really yours. By DAVID MORRIS for The Regina Sun A Regina hockey star has been forever immortalized for i his contributions to international hockey, i Fran Huck became one of just 90 elite hockey players worldwide to hold a position in the International Ice Hockey Federation's (IIHF) Hockey Hall of Fame following an induction ceremony last month in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Its wonderftjl, its really exhilarating, Huck said of his induction. It came very late in my career but it still feels good. Its recognition from the people who watched intema- tional hockey that my contributions were significant. It means a lot that way. Huck, 53, was inducted into the Hall of Fame based on his play internationally with the Canadian National team during the 1960s.

The Regina native first joined Team Canada in 1966 at the IIHF World Championships in Ljubljana, Slovenia, and was selected to the tournaments all-star team. Huck later helped Team Canada win a bronze medal at the 1966 and 1967 IIHF World Championships as well as at I the 1968 Olympic Winter Games, where he earned his sec-: ond tournament all-star award. He played his last IIHF World Championship tournament in 1969 in Stockholm, Sweden. Now a partner in a downtown Regina law firm, Huck reflects on his years of international hockey play with tremendous pride. --I would think those years are some of my fonder hockey memories, he said.

First off, I was able to play for my country and at that time that was a very nationalistic thing to do. i During the 1960s, there was tremendous nationalism in I international hockey rinks fueled on by the Cold War. 1 Politically, the Cold War was about two competing politi-. cal systems capitalism and communism. On the ice, the Cold War was about two competing styles of hockey North American and European.

i The minimum was to keep your (pcus on winning the game but there was also the idea of two great systems being at odd with one another, said Huck. That was the under I Is Esadk 8wbv while to send a crew. They couldnt even justify bringing their props and big screens up here. Theyve become the epitome of the ugly, arrogant, pompous American types, looking down their noses at everyone. Theyve taken wrestling away from its traditional form since the 1930s.

Theres a legacy. The whole business is screwed up, in our estimation. We sort of felt some obligation to restore a bit of respectability and plausibility. What has happened is almost a travesty. The Hart family also laments a tragedy.

Bruces younger brother, Owen, died in Kansas City during a WWF card in May. Owen Hart was killed while performing a dangerous stunt. When Owen died, we all went through a period of re-evaluating, Bruce Hart says. It got to the point where we wondered whether we wanted to have anything to do with wrestling. We ultimately determined and I dont want to sound sanctimonious or Hollywoodish that its something Owen would have endorsed.

He was becoming increasingly dissatisfied with the whole direction of the WWF. Its unfortunate that he was stricken the way he was. He was one of the guys who despised the whole element. For a while, we thought wed get out of it, but then we figured, Thats what (WWF czar) Vince McMahon would have wanted us to do. That kind of reaffirmed our commitment I hope we can establish Stampede Wrestling.

Im not sure if the public will accept or reject it but, at the very least, we had to go out and try our best. (Rob Van stone is L-P assistant sports editor) Not-so-startling confession: I am an incurable wrestling fan. One of my childhood heroes was a fine gentleman named Dan Kroffat who was Stampede Wrestlings ultimate good guy during the 1970s. Many an enjoyable evening was spent at Exhibition Auditorium, where brave, bold men would wage mortal combat on a weekly ibasis. Part of me longs for those days.

Thats why Ill be at the old Auditorium on Tuesday night. Stampede Wrestling is back. Finally! Itll take a period of re-educating and reacclimatizing the public, Bruce Hart whose family has resuscitated Stampede Wrestling after an extended hiatus says Calgary. People have been brainwashed or indoctrinated so thoroughly by the WWF. We cant denounce them or claim to exceed them.

We just have to try to be a viable alternative. Stampede Wrestling, which existed from 1948 to 1990, returned to the mat on Good Friday in Calgary. The circuit is to return to Regina on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. People will be able to see live wrestling, Hart says. The WWF is so arrogant that they dont even come up here anymore.

Theyve deemed any city with a population below 500,000 as not even worth coming to. Theyve said its not even worth their Give me Abdullah The Butcher (not his real name). Give me the professorial John Cozman. The WWF has got the fans so accustomed to all the superficial stuff fighting on the ramp, the big screen, the invariable dressing room melee, parking-lot chases, a guy with his head stuck in a toilet and graveyard shenanigans, Hart says. It barely even resembles wrestling.

Now the public is looking for that kind of element Thats the biggest problem and conundrum trying to get people excited and attentive without them thinking that were going way back to Lou Thesz and the old wool trunks. What Id like people to think of is that Stampede Wrestling offers action, intensity, good storylines, and bad guys. Stampede Wrestling was unparalleled in that regard. Stampede Wrestling, and other smaller loops, were simply devoured by a monstrosity known as the WWF. But now, there may be a void.

The WWF has become too big. There are a number of reasons we got back into this, Hart says. First of all, we were training all these guys (at the Hart wrestling emporium) and sending them off to the WWF or WCW. We didnt ever advocate that style. Were totally disenchanted with the way the business has become perverted and distorted.

My dad (Stu Hart) has been in the business and bastardized it. Of course, those are the same people who elected Bill Clinton. Wrestling has become an incidental component of the WWF program. The WWF doesnt even refer to its per- formers as wrestlers preferring instead to label them sports entertainers. I am also a WWF follower please dont tell my wife but, even so, it is apparent that wrestling skills are secondary to brava do.

Stone Cold Steve Austin is an outstanding talker. So is The Rock. But neither WWF superstar is a gifted wrestler. Some soup cans from the old Stampede Wrestling circuit were more adept on the mat than Austin, The Rock, et al. Give me Dan Kroffat Give me Archie (The Stomper) Gouldie..