The Jerseys, Numbers and Players in Slap Shot

Slap Shot came out 30 years ago and time has done little to damage it's appeal. Often hailed as one of the greatest sports movies ever made even non-hockey fans can quote large portions of it verbatim. The amount of Chiefs related merchandise seems to grow with each passing year (as do the number of rec league hockey teams who sport the jerseys). And, lets be honest, what better way to show how much you love a movie is there than to go out and spend over $100 on a team jersey that only existed for a couple of minutes on film? Nancy Dowd (who wrote the script) must be very happy every time she sees a Denis Lemieux jersey at her local mall.

Now, buying a jersey that is featured in the film is no problem, let it be Ogilthorpe, Hanrahan or your choice of Hanson brothers, there are a ton of places on-line that sell them as well as customize them. Be advised that many don't accurately reflect those featured in the film, and that at no point are the Chiefs ever shown wearing nameplates - nor are the Long Island Ducks jerseys orange. The Syracuse Bulldogs jerseys are nearly identical to those worn by the Flyers during the 1970's, and the Hyannisport Presidents are exactly those worn by the North Stars during this same period of time. For reasons I have never understood the Chiefs are the only team who actually wear the Federal League patch. Some teams have nameplates, others lack TV numbers. Whether any of this is actually done for a reason is questionable. But so is the use in actually delving this far into the subject to begin with...

Some Basics
There are 7 teams shown in the film:
Charlestown Chiefs
Lancaster Gears
Broom County Blades
Hyannisport Presidents
Long Island Ducks
Syracuse Bulldogs
Peterboro Patriots
If you're really interested Slap Shot Tribute has the logos here.

Besides the Chiefs the only team that is shown in both home and road uniforms is Hyannisport.
Ross "Mad Dog" Madison who is announced as being on the Bulldogs roster in the last game between Syracuse and the Chiefs is actually never shown on the ice (as far as I can tell) and I still have no idea what number he wore...
The following jerseys are for players who actually have speaking lines or are named specifically within the film's script.

The Charlestown Chiefs Roster

Denis Lemieux - #1
"You do that, and you go to the box. Two minutes by yourself...and you feel shame."

Morris "Mo" Wanchuk - #2
"Not Poodle."

Dave "Killer" Carlson - #3
"Coach, I want that hundred dollars."

Billy Charlebois - #5
"Ensemble number 32: entitled Omar Sharif and modeled by Chiefs defenseman Billy Charlebois who hails from, if I can read the card here, Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan."

Jim Ahern (A) - #6
"I knew there was a reason he made the trip."

Reggie Dunlop - #7
"I am personally placing a hundred-dollar bounty on the head of Tim McCracken. He's the head coach and chief punk on that Syracuse team."

Andre Bergeron - #8
Not a word in the entire film!

Ned Braden - #10
"Somebody's gonna kill you, ya dumb son of a bitch, but it's not gonna be me."

Johnny Upton (C) - #12
"I'm gonna flash'em, Joe."

Jean-Guy "Froggy" Drouin (A) - #14
"Finit?"

Jack Hanson - #16
"That's what we're here for guys, to win."

Steve Hanson - #17
"Dave's a killer!"

Jeff Hanson - #18
"Hey fellas there's six of 'em out there for us."

Yvon LeBrun - #30
"Well played, good win, two points..."

Hyannisport Presidents

Nick Brophy - #8
"Anybody throws me against the boards I'm gonna piss all over myself."

Broom County Blades

Barclay Donaldson - #9
"I gotta contract!"

Long Island Ducks

Tommy Hanrahan - #1
"Cover the point goddammit, cover the point!"
(The Islanders were nearly named the Ducks and actually considered using this color scheme.)

Syracuse Bulldogs

Tim "Dr. Hook" McCracken - #9
"Major surgery - open heart."

Andre "Poodle" Lussier - #16
"Andre, of course, has been living in semi-seclusion in Northern Quebec ever since the unforunate Denny Pratt tragedy."

Ogie Ogilthorpe - #2
"This young man has had a very trying rookie season. What with the litigation, the notoriety, his subsequent deportation to Canada, and that country's refusal to accept him....well, that's more than most 21 year olds could handle."

Clarence "Screaming Buffalo" Swamptown - #7
"I'll never forget an exclusive interview in which Swamptown revealed that he calls his hockey stick the "Big Tomahawk," and he usually refers to the opposing players as "the little scalps"."

Gilmore Tuttle - #15
"And from Mile 40, Saskatchewan where he now runs a donut shop: number 15 and former penalty minute record holder of the Federal League from the years 1960 to 1968 inclusive - Gilmore Tuttle."

As mentioned, Ross "Mad Dog" Madison is really never shown on the ice in a way were his number is actually visible, but otherwise that covers pretty much all of the main characters in the film.

All the jerseys can be found in the Jersey Database for use with the widgets on this site in the Misc. section here. This includes the home Chiefs jerseys as well as both home and road with the names.

Misc. Jerseys Round 5: Red Dwarf

If we were to assume that any member of the crew of Red Dwarf actually had some athletic skill we would have to believe that the sport in which they would partake would be Lister's beloved Zero-G football. And so, I give you the team as it could appear long into the future playing an ancient sport. I think that Jim Bexley Speed would be proud of the Dwarfers.

You can get the jerseys for use with the widgets in the Misc. section here.

Misc. Jerseys Round 4: View Askew

Kevin Smith is a hockey fan. I assume. In just about every one of his films he manages to work in a jersey or hockey related something. In Clerks it is fairly obvious, in Mallrats Fanboy, aka Walt Grover, aka Walt Flanagan, is seen wearing a View Askew Vulgarians jersey in front of the comic book shop (available for purchase here), in Chasing Amy they go to a game, Dogma has the Stygian Triplets, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back also has the View Askew Vulgarians jersey, and in Clerks II Randal is wearing a hat for the Leonardo Reapers.

From left to right, Randal's CCCP jersey from Clerks, these were used during the late 80's early 90's by the Soviet Union. They are just about impossible to find at this point. Dante's Penguins jersey from Clerks, granted they didn't have names on the back in the films... Leonard Reapers jersey, these are available from the View Askew shop here, and yes they are all numbered 37. The last one is Fanboy's View Askew Vulgarians jersey seen in Mallrats, and yes it is also numbered 37...

In the future I may do a whole set using the characters from all the films using the old Devils jerseys seen in Clerks.

You can get the 4 available ones in the Misc. Section of the Jersey Database here.

Misc. Jerseys Round 3: The Beatles

It was announced today that Paul McCartney's entire catalog of music will soon be available on iTunes, and in as such one immediately jumps to the thought that The Beatles recordings may also one day soon be available there. (For those of you Beatles fans who don't already own everything they ever recorded...)

Also, if one goes in for dates, two weeks from today marks the 40th anniversary of the original release of Sgt. Pepper. So, with that in mind, round three of the misc. jersey posts are the boys from Liverpool...not in Liverpool FC jerseys unfortunately....but rather in their infamous old swimming costumes (originally from a photo shoot in 1963.)

You can get them for use with the widgets in the Misc. section of the database, or by clicking here.

Misc. Jerseys Round 2: Major League

It was inevitable that these would eventually make it into the database, and so, for fans of the film and the Indians...seven of the more prominant members of the team. Including Willie Mays Hayes, Pedro Cerrano, Rick Vaughn, Jake Taylor and even the skipper Lou Brown.

I know I'm missing the rest of the team, but getting the numbers and names may involve a little more research than I was prepared to do at the moment. (In other words getting a copy of the actual film...) If anyone wants to fill in the rest of the roster, with names and numbers, I will be glad to make the rest.

One thing that is a bit strange about the jerseys they use in the film is the font used for the numbers, I tried to come close to it, but it is definitely not a font you'll find on any baseball jerseys in the Majors, none the less...bats with hats...

You can get them for use with the widgets here: Major League Jerseys

Misc. Jerseys Round 1: The Goonies

Well, to sort of mix things up and get more jerseys into the miscellaneous section of the site I'm going to start a series of posts relating to them. These will probably be all over the board when it comes to the subject matter, but I like to think that they are worth a place in the "non-serious" section of the database.

The first round includes all 8 Goonies from the film. (Put in the database using their actual names from the film.) The font used is called, well, Goonies, and is available for free at dafont.com And, no, that is not Chunk's high score in Pole Position on the left sleeve.

You can see all of them here.

Requests are welcome...