A hometown newspaper with a local office, local owners & lots of local news
A hometown newspaper with a local office, local owners & lots of local news
Annual costume hockey game raises spirits and scholarship funds
Penguin Tom Anderson controls the puck as he skates ahead of Derek and Ty Rackliffe, aka ketchup and mustard, during Saturday's game at the Four Seasons Sports Complex and Event Center. Anderson played in all 10 Robert Rodd Memorial hockey games over the years.
Members of both the red and blue teams pose wearing their finest costumes after Saturday's game.
The annual Robert Rodd Memorial hockey game Saturday presented plenty of challenges for the players - like trying to play when you're laughing at the sight of a ketchup and mustard bottle chasing a penguin around the ice.
"It's hilarious," said organizer Leola Rodd. "Especially for the audience, because you don't know whose team is whose because they're all in costume. But they know."
The hockey game starts out just like any other hockey game for the first period, with players dressed in either red or blue jerseys. Then they turn the lights off for the second period and play with a lighted puck. The third period is reserved for playing in costume.
Other notable costumes this year included the Hamms Beer bear, Thing 1 and Thing 2, a daddy shark, a crybaby and a Minion, a Transformer (or maybe a Power Ranger), a Hug-a-Bee and a hockey player who looked like he might have been a Flemish painter, among others.
Rodd and Joe and Rhonda Broneak started the fundraiser 10 years ago to help raise money for college scholarships and to honor the memory of her late husband, Robert Rodd. Each year they awarded three $500 scholarships to Carlton seniors, and sometimes a fourth, depending on need and how much money was raised.
"Robert was always supportive of education and he liked being with the kids," she said, noting that he worked at the shelter and also volunteered with the hockey program. "He always made sure there was ice ready, even before the big building. First there was a little building with outdoor ice, and he would get up early and snow-blow and make sure there was a space for the kids."
She was nervous this year, as there was a playoff hockey game in Duluth and the Birkebeiner cross-country ski race in Wisconsin. She said things went super well this year, with good weather and lots of people, plus generous donations from community members and area businesses.
This was the 10th and last year for the annual event, at least for a while, Rodd said, unless some other volunteers come forward. It ended on a high note.
"I was tired but pleased," she said Tuesday. "I'm still tired."
