Friday Night

 On Friday night we held our Polar Bear Beach  party, where everyone wore their own unique (?) idea of beach attire. During the day and during the  the beach party, several NHLBCC attendees were interviewed by a Ron Plants of from WGRZ television. It was the lead story on the 11 o’clock news. Of special interest to them were comments on Buffalo’s new third jersey, which has caused some uproar.

  Buffalo’s Kevin Rider as well as the N.Y. Islanders Gary Harding were interviewed regarding the fans viewpoints. And, of course, Gary made a comment about the Isles fans felt about the “Gorton fisherman” jersey.

  Also there were a number of attendees from booster clubs that no longer had teams. Interviewed from the“Defunct Division” were Joe Watkins (AFFC), Doug Rassch (Minn), Sandi Pantages (Seals), Kathy Marshall (Cleveland) and Marty Evtushek (Hartford). 

 And speaking of those clubs, it was good to see our old and new friends from Cleveland, Hartford and Minnesota return.

 Saturday after the breakfast / general membership meeting, there also the luncheon cruise on the Miss Buffalo excursion boat, a daytime cruise out onto the Niagara River and Lake Erie, for a view of the Buffalo skyline and the shores of Fort Erie Ontario.

 And for some of the delegates meeting.

 Delegates meeting -

 The main items discussed and/or  passed were:

Philadelphia’s report on the 2007 convention; reinstituting the NHLBCC “Hall of Fame” committee with Joe Watkins (AFFC) and Joan Rog (Chicago) as co-chairpersons and awarding Chicago with the 2008 convention.

Saturday night was our pajama party. Here also, we were treated to people’s unique (?) ideas of what to where to a pajama party.  It was “interesting” sitting down to a formal meal wearing pajamas.

  Then it was time for the d.j and dancing and eventually back to the hospitality rooms and surviving the night.

 Survivors night was held in the Buffalo Hospitality Suite…aka The Freezer….right near the ballrooms starting around 2 a.m. Our hosts provided us with lots of things to use for entertainment to help us stay awake and our minds off of how cold the room was.

 The evening began with a bingo tournament played for all kinds of small prizes. Veteran Survivors entertained themselves by doing crossword and jigsaw puzzles, playing games like Uno and Poker and Scrabble. The 8 Rookie Survivors were initiated by playing traditional initiation games including Buzz, Blow Hockey, Simon Says, Musical Chairs and Charades. The night was topped off by the Rookie version of Last Comic Standing and a rousing chorus of drinking songs.  Group pictures were taken around 6am in front of the hotel fountain and then it was off to breakfast and goodbyes.

 And, of course, Sunday morning there was breakfast and many, many good-byes and “see you next year.”

Next year - "Brotherly Love and beer is why we're here." 

See you in Philadelphia!   

             Click logo for convention details. 

Contributing to article - Cathi Flanagan and Joe Watkins

More pictures - next page

      Photo credits : Cal Kitson, Betsy and Joe Watkins