Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.3 4.3bsd-beta 6/6/85; site l5.uucp
Path: utzoo!lsuc!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ihnp4!qantel!ptsfa!l5!laura
From: laura@l5.uucp (Laura Creighton)
Newsgroups: net.politics.theory
Subject: Hockey
Message-ID: <252@l5.uucp>
Date: Sat, 9-Nov-85 09:54:10 EST
Article-I.D.: l5.252
Posted: Sat Nov  9 09:54:10 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 11-Nov-85 21:11:47 EST
References: <237@gargoyle.UUCP>
Reply-To: laura@l5.UUCP (Laura Creighton)
Organization: Nebula Consultants in San Francisco
Lines: 61

In article <237@gargoyle.UUCP> carnes@gargoyle.UUCP (Richard Carnes) writes:
>Shortly after Teddy Green of the Bruins took a hockey stick in his
>brain, *Newsweek* (October 6, 1969) commented:
>
>  Players will not adopt helmets by individual choice for
>  several reasons.  Chicago star Bobby Hull cites the simplest
>  factor:  "Vanity."  But many players honestly believe that
>  helmets will cut their efficiency and put them at a
>  disadvantage, and others fear the ridicule of opponents.  The
>  use of helmets will spread only through fear caused by
>  injuries like Green's -- or through a rule making them
>  mandatory.... One player summed up the feelings of many:
>  "It's foolish not to wear a helmet.  But I don't -- because
>  the other guys don't.  I know that's silly, but most of the 
>  players feel the same way.  If the league made us do it,
>  though, we'd all wear them and nobody would mind."
>
>The *Newsweek* story went on to quote Don Awrey.  "When I saw the way
>Teddy looked, it was an awful feeling.... I'm going to start wearing
>a helmet now, and I don't care what anybody says."  But viewers of
>Channel 38 (Boston) know that Awrey did not. --T. Schelling
>-- 

Hello there.  Bobby Hull is older than my father.  This is ancient in
hockey playing standards, where 27 year olds are considered ``veterans''
and 30 year olds are called ``aging''.  Almost all hockey players are
Canadians less than 35 years old.  Most are in their early 20s.  All of
these people did junior hockey in Canada which is more organised than
football in the US.

As kids these people were *forced to wear helmets*.  This is the ruling.
If the NHL forced people to wear helmets, they would wear them but lots
of people would mind.  Remember that all the people these days who are
not wearing helmets chose to take them off.  Hockey helmets do decrease
your periferal vision, and it is the case that a player will whack a helmeted
player on the head if the referee i snot looking.  This sort of thing does
not happen as frequently to unhelmeted players.  Also, if you are ever in a
fight, a good many of the more comfortable helmets turn out to be lousy
protection from directed punches and can do a great deal of damage.  There
are helmets that do not have this problem but they are lousy helmets for
performance reasons.

Helmets are hot.  I've seen kids pass out because they were too hot in their
helmets, though never a profesional.  

The fact is that unhelmeted professional hockey players have chosen to live 
this way.  They are not minors.  Why are you in such a hurry to take this
choice away from them?

Laura Creighton (daughter of minor league hockey coach, dater of
		 professional hockey players, most of which are younger
		 than I am now, sigh)

-- 
Help beautify the world. I am writing a book called *How To Write Portable C
Programs*.  Send me anything that you would like to find in such a book when
it appears in your bookstores. Get your name mentioned in the credits. 

Laura Creighton		
sun!l5!laura		(that is ell-five, not fifteen)
l5!laura@lll-crg.arpa