REGINA PATS BOOK DUE - NOVEMBER of 2009

Chris Jaster, Leader-Post -Published: Thursday, September 18, 2008

Ron (Scoreboard) Johnston's passion for statistics, history and the Regina Pats has brought him back to the junior hockey team for which he once worked.

Johnston, who was the team's first statistician from 1965-1974 and again worked in that capacity for the 1977-1978 season, (with Lorne Davis) spent countless years digging up facts about the Regina Pats to complement the stats packages he created when he worked for the team. The fruit of his labour was a five-inch binder of information on the Pats from the team's inception in 1917 to the end of the 2007-08 season.

Johnston wanted to take his project one step further and publish all his information in a book. So Johnston approached Dan Marce with the idea but was told the book needed more of a storyline than what he had. So they recruited Leader-Post sports writer Darrell Davis to help make the book more attractive to readers.

"They asked me if I'd like to write the story ... from his statistical stuff and I said, 'Sure, that would be great' because of my tie-in with the Pats and my dad -- who used to coach and play on the team," said Davis, who also officiated in the Western Hockey League and had written about the Pats during his tenure at the Leader-Post. "To be able to be involved with a project like this was really quite fascinating and (I was) honoured too."

Davis tracked down and contacted over 40 current and former members of the organization to talk about their experiences to make to Johnston's research "more readable.''

"The jist of the book is Ron's statistics," said Davis, "but if you want people to buy the book you have to have some good stories to tell. I took the good stories out of Ron's research and talked to some players and people who were involved with the team and hopefully made it a little more interesting than pure numbers."

The book chronicles the history of the team with chapters designated to the creation of the organization and the origin of the team's name, the 1974 Memorial Cup championship season, Bob Strumm and Dale Derkatch when they restored the lustre of the franchise, and Brent Parker and the Parker family's ownership of the team.

The book, to be published next year, also highlights some bizarre stats about the organization. For example, the organization ran into financial trouble and disappeared for 11 years; Johnny Gottselig played for the Pats as the first Russian-born player ever to play junior hockey in Canada; former Pat Rod Norrish holds the record for fastest three goals scored by one person, as he netted three goals within 20 seconds of each other; and there are 21 former Pats with their names engraved on the Stanley Cup.

But for Davis and Johnston, the highlight of compiling the book was when they talked to Murray Armstrong, a former player who also coached the team to four Memorial Cup appearances.
"I knew about him and my dad said he was the best coach he ever played for," said Davis. "A lot of guys have said that who played for the Pats. Murray Armstrong treated them like men. He taught them how to grow up. Remember, he's dealing with kids that are 16, 17, 18, 19, 20 years old. So he taught them what it was like to be responsible, how to be part of the team, how to act like a mature grown-up and how to play hard for the sake of the hockey team."

"These men learned some great things from Murray Armstrong and I got to talk to the man because I'm the guy that's writing the history book and it was just wonderful to converse with him. He still remembers pretty well everything that's happened with the Pats and it was great talking to him about the Memorial Cup appearances."

Johnston spent over two months compiling full statistics on every player (approximately 1,400) who ever donned a Regina Pats uniform up to the end of the 2007-08 season. These will appear near the end of the book along with award winners and pictures of Pats teams throughout the last 91 years.

"Everybody who's played for the Pats will be mentioned because they'll be in the scoring stats, but not everybody will have a story about them, which is a little unfortunate,'' Davis said. "Maybe we should write another 100 books or something.''