Sal's lovely tribute to Rick

[PASabreFan]

https://www.audacy.com/wgr550/sports/sabres/capaccio-rjs-calls-will-always-be-a-part-of-us

Maybe this thread could become the written tribute version of the video thread.

[Marvin]

Thanks, @PASabreFan.  I was thinking about doing the same thing.  I'll start.

I was driving from Cleveland with a friend of mine to a science fiction convention in Niagara Falls.  I turned on WGR when I got in range.  At some point, Rick went nuts on a goal where someone made a great move.  She then looked at me and said, "who IS this guy?"  She became an RJ fan at that moment.

[bdomdbom]

I went to an away game at Carolina about 4 years ago and was lucky enough to know someone who got us down to where the players come out of the locker room.  As soon is we got in position, an older gentleman comes walking down the hallway.  I said to my 8 year old daughter, "Do you know who that is?" and she said, "Rick Jeanneret!"  He was very gracious and came over to us and I got a great picture of him with my daughter.  

[Dr. Who]

4 hours ago, Marvin, Sabres Fan said:

Thanks, @PASabreFan.  I was thinking about doing the same thing.  I'll start.

I was driving from Cleveland with a friend of mine to a science fiction convention in Niagara Falls.  I turned on WGR when I got in range.  At some point, Rick went nuts on a goal where someone made a great move.  She then looked at me and said, "who IS this guy?"  She became an RJ fan at that moment.

Alright, I was prepared to believe you until you said "she."

[Marvin]

1 hour ago, Dr. Who said:

Alright, I was prepared to believe you until you said "she."

She lives in the Pittsburgh suburbs with her husband; her 3 kids have graduated college.  I remember her calling me at MSU when "May Day!" went national verifying that it was the same announcer as in 1986.

As I think about it, was it on WBEN at that point?  In my mind's eye, for some reason, I can see the radio set to the middle of the dial.  I remember we lost to Hartford and that FallCon was where John Nathan-Turner announced that the Peri character had been killed off a half hour before his first panel, which was Part Eight of "The Trial of a Time Lord" -- 25 October 1986.  So that makes the game the 5-4 loss to Hartford on 24 October.   I remember JN-T brought the studio cut of "Shada" to the con -- the first time it had ever been shown legally in the western hemisphere.

Aside: some incidents from FallCon (plus other things I can enumerate another time) are a large part of the reason why several writers for the new Doctor Who include references to Buffalo, NY.  (Several Buffalo expats, including the group that ran FallCon, have friends on the production team and were told from the source.)  For instance: aside from "Buffalo" being the over-ride password for UNIT computer systems in "World War Three", River Song was scripted as "the Beautiful River Song" in "Silence in the Library" while the fried ravioli and medium wings in "Voyage of the Damned" were JN-T's favourite American foods.  There are several others.

Oh, and FallCon cemented my reputation among Big Name Fans as an eccentric questioner.  Kids and grandkids of several friends of mine claim this as part of their evidence that I inspired the Indian character in the iCarly episodes, "iStart a Fan War."

[Dr. Who]

13 hours ago, Marvin, Sabres Fan said:

She lives in the Pittsburgh suburbs with her husband; her 3 kids have graduated college.  I remember her calling me at MSU when "May Day!" went national verifying that it was the same announcer as in 1986.

As I think about it, was it on WBEN at that point?  In my mind's eye, for some reason, I can see the radio set to the middle of the dial.  I remember we lost to Hartford and that FallCon was where John Nathan-Turner announced that the Peri character had been killed off a half hour before his first panel, which was Part Eight of "The Trial of a Time Lord" -- 25 October 1986.  So that makes the game the 5-4 loss to Hartford on 24 October.   I remember JN-T brought the studio cut of "Shada" to the con -- the first time it had ever been shown legally in the western hemisphere.

Aside: some incidents from FallCon (plus other things I can enumerate another time) are a large part of the reason why several writers for the new Doctor Who include references to Buffalo, NY.  (Several Buffalo expats, including the group that ran FallCon, have friends on the production team and were told from the source.)  For instance: aside from "Buffalo" being the over-ride password for UNIT computer systems in "World War Three", River Song was scripted as "the Beautiful River Song" in "Silence in the Library" while the fried ravioli and medium wings in "Voyage of the Damned" were JN-T's favourite American foods.  There are several others.

Oh, and FallCon cemented my reputation among Big Name Fans as an eccentric questioner.  Kids and grandkids of several friends of mine claim this as part of their evidence that I inspired the Indian character in the iCarly episodes, "iStart a Fan War."

It was just a throwaway joke. I used to go to a lot of scifi conventions when I was younger. Girls were at a premium. Great detailed memories on your part. Mine are mostly hazier, though I met James Doohan, Jon Pertwee, and had a nice conversation with a fella from Blake's 7. I also made "eye contact" with Louise Jameson (Leela from Dr. Who) walking through a hotel corridor. Probably meant nothing, though I was pretty good looking years ago.

[Marvin]

1 hour ago, Dr. Who said:

It was just a throwaway joke. I used to go to a lot of scifi conventions when I was younger. Girls were at a premium. Great detailed memories on your part. Mine are mostly hazier, though I met James Doohan, Jon Pertwee, and had a nice conversation with a fella from Blake's 7. I also made "eye contact" with Louise Jameson (Leela from Dr. Who) walking through a hotel corridor. Probably meant nothing, though I was pretty good looking years ago.

I see.  Yeah, females were rare at most SF cons.  The Cleveland club had several and, oddly, much of Blake's 7 fandom was female at the start.  The largest student club at Case Western Reserve, the Star Trek club, was almost exclusively male.  If you don't believe that a university existed in 1986 where the largest student club was the Star Trek club, get a load of this:

Back in the 1985-6 academic year, I had a friend who whose work-study assignment was in the mainframe security group for the new VAX-11/780's.  There had been a data breach of some sort at another geek school, so he was tasked with writing a script to find whose passwords were far too obvious.  With an 8 character limit on things, he knew people might have passwords like "password."  So he wrote a script to try passwords during the first weekend of Spring Break.

Embarrassingly, almost 10% of accounts had the specific password, "Spock" -- no variation, just "Spock".  "SPOCK", "spock", "5pock", "$p0ck",  and numerous other variants pushed the total to well over 10% -- professors included.  The list was every 1 and 2 character combination (42, B7, ST, and DW came up often) with a boat load of references to science fiction, Monty Python, the Goodies, Dave Allen, Benny Hill, class codes (e.g., the freshman programming course was CMPS-131; that and variations on it turned up frequently), people's initials, and their student numbers.  That cracked over 80% of the passwords on campus.  Needless to say, an awful lot of people had to change their passwords after returning to school.

[Dr. Who]

1 hour ago, Marvin, Sabres Fan said:

I see.  Yeah, females were rare at most SF cons.  The Cleveland club had several and, oddly, much of Blake's 7 fandom was female at the start.  The largest student club at Case Western Reserve, the Star Trek club, was almost exclusively male.  If you don't believe that a university existed in 1986 where the largest student club was the Star Trek club, get a load of this:

Back in the 1985-6 academic year, I had a friend who whose work-study assignment was in the mainframe security group for the new VAX-11/780's.  There had been a data breach of some sort at another geek school, so he was tasked with writing a script to find whose passwords were far too obvious.  With an 8 character limit on things, he knew people might have passwords like "password."  So he wrote a script to try passwords during the first weekend of Spring Break.

Embarrassingly, almost 10% of accounts had the specific password, "Spock" -- no variation, just "Spock".  "SPOCK", "spock", "5pock", "$p0ck",  and numerous other variants pushed the total to well over 10% -- professors included.  The list was every 1 and 2 character combination (42, B7, ST, and DW came up often) with a boat load of references to science fiction, Monty Python, the Goodies, Dave Allen, Benny Hill, class codes (e.g., the freshman programming course was CMPS-131; that and variations on it turned up frequently), people's initials, and their student numbers.  That cracked over 80% of the passwords on campus.  Needless to say, an awful lot of people had to change their passwords after returning to school.

Too funny. Dave Allen. That's a blast from the past. I used to have an old cassette tape with some of his skits on it. Missing finger, Irish blarney, just a fella sitting on a stool sharing observations. Sigh. 

[Marvin]

2 minutes ago, Dr. Who said:

Too funny. Dave Allen. That's a blast from the past. I used to have an old cassette tape with some of his skits on it. Missing finger, Irish blarney, just a fella sitting on a stool sharing observations. Sigh. 

I think all of his original episodes and specials are on YouTube.

[Turbo44]

It's not one of his "super famous" calls played over and over again, but, I always remember one he called in the playoffs (maybe 1974 or 75) but it wasn't the fog goal;

" Off the boards to Martin, Martin, a long pass to Robert, he would have been gone.  Here goes Robert, going in on goal, going in on goal, he shoots, he scores! Robert, Rene Robert .... and the Sabres have won, the Sabres have won.  Robert, shooting it on a breakaway, and it's all over, Buffalo has won."

That was my first memory of RJ and obviously, I still have the call memorized.

The other one I remember vividly (though not in verbatim) is RJ calling Danny Gare's 50th goal.  The one when Martin (also going for his 5oth) shot and Gare scored on the rebound.  Gare got a hattrick that game to get 50, while unfortunately Martin, only needing 1 goal for 50 didn't get it. Here is Ted Darling's call on TV but I was listening to RJ call it on radio

 

[Turbo44]

Here's RJ's call.  The pure joy in his voice saying "Danny Gare" is awesome

 

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=10154287090542954

 

[North Buffalo]

46 minutes ago, Turbo44 said:

It's not one of his "super famous" calls played over and over again, but, I always remember one he called in the playoffs (maybe 1974 or 75) but it wasn't the fog goal;

" Off the boards to Martin, Martin, a long pass to Robert, he would have been gone.  Here goes Robert, going in on goal, going in on goal, he shoots, he scores! Robert, Rene Robert .... and the Sabres have won, the Sabres have won.  Robert, shooting it on a breakaway, and it's all over, Buffalo has won."

That was my first memory of RJ and obviously, I still have the call memorized.

The other one I remember vividly (though not in verbatim) is RJ calling Danny Gare's 50th goal.  The one when Martin (also going for his 5oth) shot and Gare scored on the rebound.  Gare got a hattrick that game to get 50, while unfortunately Martin, only needing 1 goal for 50 didn't get it. Here is Ted Darling's call on TV but I was listening to RJ call it on radio

 

Unfortunately pretty sure that is Ted Darling, I too used to get them confused

[PASabreFan]

The Robert goal is from the 73 playoffs.

[Marvin]

2 hours ago, Turbo44 said:

It's not one of his "super famous" calls played over and over again, but, I always remember one he called in the playoffs (maybe 1974 or 75) but it wasn't the fog goal;

" Off the boards to Martin, Martin, a long pass to Robert, he would have been gone.  Here goes Robert, going in on goal, going in on goal, he shoots, he scores! Robert, Rene Robert .... and the Sabres have won, the Sabres have won.  Robert, shooting it on a breakaway, and it's all over, Buffalo has won."

That was my first memory of RJ and obviously, I still have the call memorized.

The other one I remember vividly (though not in verbatim) is RJ calling Danny Gare's 50th goal.  The one when Martin (also going for his 5oth) shot and Gare scored on the rebound.  Gare got a hattrick that game to get 50, while unfortunately Martin, only needing 1 goal for 50 didn't get it. Here is Ted Darling's call on TV but I was listening to RJ call it on radio

 

Thanks, Turbo44.

That was Tuesday 10 April 1973 against Montreal.  The Sabres won game 5 in OT, 3-2.  I remember that call as part of the B side of, "We're Gonna Win that Cup."

[Marvin]

Hockey Stars Magazine #46, 1995-6 season.  The Sabres and Sharks were at the bottom of the league while Pittsburgh and Philadelphia were near the top of the league.  The article is "The BEST of Hockey."

These guys are not Buffalonians, expats, or Sabres fans.

=========================

La-La-La-La-La-FONTAINE DOES IT AGAIN.

------------------------------

Sabres TV play-by-play man Rick Jeanneret looks like Rodney Dangefield and sounds like ... well, put it this way: if there's ever a choice between watching Penguins vs. Flyers on ESPN or Sabres vs. Sharks on the Empire Network with Jeanneret doing the play-by-play, we'll take Sabres vs. Sharks.  Hands down, Jeanneret is the best TV play-by-play man in the NHL -- and he's so far ahead of the rest that there's no second best.

Although Jeanneret is best known for his goal calls ("May Day!  May Day!"  Jeanneret yelped after Brad May scored his series-clinching game-winner against the Bruins on April 24, 1993), there's far more to Jeanneret than, "La-La-La-La-La-Fontaine does it again!"  Jeanneret can make a boring game sound exciting and an exciting game sound like a life-or-death struggle.  It's as if there's an opera being staged; the game is the orchestra, and Jeanneret is the singer.  He is completely tuned in to what's going on on the ice.  Not that Jeanneret is always in tune; his voice screeches, and he sometimes sounds as if he's ready to jump on the ice and join the action.

Jeanneret is so popular in Buffalo that when the Sabres score a goal, his call is replayed for the Auditorium crowd.  Smart move.  Why would anyone go to a game when they can listen to Jeanneret?

[SwampD]

That is awesome!

[Marvin]

Bump.

I think every Sabres fan should read what the Hockey Stars writers thought of RJ -- they were NOT Sabres fans.

RJ is, was, and will always be the PBP GOAT because "...he's so far ahead of the rest that there's no second best."