Maven's Memories: How Chico Resch Became A Goalie

By all accounts, Glenn (Chico) Resch remains among the most popular players in the Islanders almost half-century of action.
Following his degree in education from the University of Minnesota-Duluth in 1971, he eventually found a home in Uniondale.
Glenn's ascent to stardom coincided with the young hockey club's first outstanding season, 1974-75.

He became the club's starting playoff goalie in a run on the expressway to Dynasty. Resch's small frame and quirky behavior -- kissing goal posts -- won the hearts of fans throughout the league.
No less fascinating was Chico's very beginnings. In an exclusive interview, he told me things about his birth -- and pre-birth, no less -- that were as quirky as the goalie we came to know and love at the Coliseum.
Here's what Resch told me -- in question-and-answer form:
Stan Fischler: You were born in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. What were you told about your birth?
Chico Resch: "They told me that it was a warm day, July 10, 1948. My dad was driving my mom to Providence Hospital. Unfortunately, the right front tire of dad's 1928 Chevy flew off only three blocks from home. With mom in heavy contractions, dad had to do something. He sprinted home and retrieved my grandpa's 1934 Ford and continued the trip to the hospital. I was born around Noon, the third child of Ella and Joe Resch. As it happened, I was their third child and only boy of six children."
SF: When did you discover hockey?
CR: "When I was three years old, the family moved to Saskatchewan's capital city, Regina. My dad was a big hockey fan and listened to play by play legend, Foster Hewitt, doing the Saturday night broadcasts of Maple Leaf games from Toronto. By the age of five, I'd be listening to 'Hockey Night In Canada' with my dad and Uncle Frank. From listening to the broadcasts, I got inspired to play some kind of hockey."
SF: What was the first type of hockey you played?
CR: "My dad and Uncle Frank set up two wooden fruit boxes in our basement. They became the 'goal posts' and I became the goalie. What they did was to get hold of a small, red rubber ball and take shots at me and that's how my goaltending career was launched. I was only six years old at the time but in my heart, I was really in my 20s."
SF: Who was your goaltending idol?
CR: "The great Glenn Hall was starring for the Chicago Blackhawks at the time and he became my favorite. Meanwhile our basement hockey took on a life of its own. We had a good rivalry -- me against dad and Uncle Frank. They were always being the Toronto Maple Leafs and I was against them so I had to be different. Actually, my disdain for the Maple Leafs began with those basement games; and it stayed with me for the rest of my life!"
SF: When did you move from the basement games to a real ice rink?
CR: "I was eight years old and after school -- beginning in early November -- I'd walk over to the neighborhood outdoor rink. When I got there, I'd stand on a snowbank that the players had built up after they shaved the snow off the rink. I'd watch two games a night as often as possible."
SF: How much fun was it?
CR: "Well, it was and it wasn't. For starters, our winters in Regina were really,
really cold in those days. I'd often stand there shivering. Still, I was so mesmerized by the game of hockey that I kept coming back for more and this lasted for three straight weeks until there was this turning point that would change my whole life."
SF: What happened?
CR:"One night I was standing at my usual spot on the snow bank, waiting for the kids to come out of the warming shack when, all of a sudden, I heard a voice. I looked down the rink and there was the man who shoveled and watered the ice. He was yelling something in my direction, motioning at me to come on over to him. For a second, I had a panic attack. At the time -- if you can believe it -- I was shy and reserved. But, a voice inside of me said, 'Go, you can trust him.'"

SF: Could you trust him?
CR: "Absolutely. His name was Jack and he turned out to be a wonderful man. He said to me, 'I've seen you standing on that snow bank, night after night, watching the other kids play hockey. Well, the goalie for one of the teams hasn't shown up tonight, would you want to play goalie for that team?' Mind you, Jack didn't know me at all but when I look back I have to consider it divine intervention. After all, I had already become one of the 'greatest' basement-trained goalies in all of Regina. Now I was getting a chance to take it upstairs to the real world and do it on ice."
SF: Then what happened?
CR: "I told Jack that there was a problem -- I couldn't skate. Plus, I didn't have any goalie equipment. On top of that, I told him that I had never played goal on the ice in a real hockey game. But Jack seemed not to mind and the next thing I knew, the guy led me to that nice, warm dressing room in the shack. He pulled out a pair of real goalie pads and had me lay down on them. Next thing, he buckled the pads onto my legs."
SF: Was that the end of it?
CR: "No, he grabbed me by the back of my snow jacket and helped me to my feet. Then he found a baseball catcher's chest protector and strapped that on me. Finally, he saw a pair of goalie gloves in the shack and helped put them on me. Best of all, he handed me a goalie stick to hold for the very first time in my life. 'Okay, kid,' he said, 'you're all ready.' And I thought to myself, 'Ready? Ready for what?"
SF: Then what?
CR: "I could hardly move. I could hardly drag that big piece of lumber that was the goalie stick. Worse still, I was in my rubber snow boots, not a pair of skates like the other kids. And I'm saying to myself, 'How is this all going to come together?' But before I could answer my own question, Jack grabbed me by my jacket and helped me out the door right on to the outdoor rink. He actually helped me shuffle to the bright, red, rectangle goal crease painted in front of the goal net."
SF: Did he just leave you there?
CR: "He sure did. But Jack did tell me, 'Kid, don't worry, you'll be fine.' And, looking backward, I guess Jack was right. It was the beginning of a great love affair -- me and goaltending. Me and that crease were inseparable for the next 32 years."

SF: But you couldn't play goal in your snow boots forever?
CR: "That's true. What happened was that I survived that first game and played well enough so that Jack told me, 'You can play the rest of this season in your rubber boots, but by next season you're going have to learn to skate like the rest of the kids.'"
SF: What did you do about it?
CR:"I was so inspired to continue playing hockey that I spent all my free time that winter of 1956 learning to skate. I would go to another outdoor rink where they just had public skating and kept on practicing to be able to skate in a hockey game with the other fellows. I practiced and I practiced and, finally, I got to a point where I was good enough to play goal with skates on and not those kid snow boots."
SF: Is there a moral to this story?
CR: "Yes, there is. Let me say, first of all, that in my wildest dreams, I never once thought that those first pair of ice skates would ever lead me to glide across the ice of an NHL arena. But I had worked at it and I had practiced and I had a friend, Jack, who was willing to help me at the start. I look at it as a case of divine intervention and, in the end, it created a miracle! Chico Resch became a big-league goalie on Long Island and played for a Stanley Cup-winner!"
For the record, Resch eventually would graduate to the Regina Pats of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League. He was good enough to be recruited to the University of Minnesota-Duluth in 1967 and spent four years with the Bulldogs. In 1971, he turned pro with the Muskegon Mohawks and a year later to the New Haven Nighthawks.
In 1973 he played most of the season in Fort Worth but had a two-game tryout with the Islanders. A year later he became the Isles number one goalie, splitting assignments with Bill Smith.