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Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about basketball and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the basketball urban legends featured so far.

BASKETBALL URBAN LEGEND: Dave Cowens once took a break from the Celtics during the season to drive a cab.

Dave Cowens was the fourth overall pick in the 1970 NBA Draft and was named Co-Rookie of the Year at the end of that season.

By his third season in the NBA, Cowens was one of the best centers in the game, and in that 1972-73 season, Cowens averaged 20.5 points per game and 16.2 rebounds on the way to being named the NBA Most Valuable Player (although, amusingly enough, he did not make the First Team All-NBA, something he never managed to crack during his career).

After the Celtics won the NBA title in 1974, Cowens actually wandered around Boston celebrating with the “regular folks.” He famously ended up sleeping on a park bench that night. That was likely a sign of things to come for Cowens (think Pulp’s “Common People” – actually, instead, think William Shatner’s cover of Pulp’s “Common People”).

The Celtics won another title in 1976.

The following year, though, Cowens was feeling “burned out,” so he actually took a 65-day leave of absence from the Celtics to, I guess, find himself or whatever.
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Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about basketball and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the basketball urban legends featured so far.

BASKETBALL URBAN LEGEND: Del Harris once set a pick on Michael Adams during a game!

Michael Adams probably had the best year of his career in the 1990-91 season, while with the Denver Nuggets.

And he was having a particularly good game against the Milwaukee Bucks on January 29, 1991, as the guard went for 41 points in the game!

Well, Bucks coach Del Harris was none too pleased with this.

HOW displeased? Well, read on to find out!
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Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about hockey and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the hockey urban legends featured so far.

HOCKEY URBAN LEGEND: Did Wayne Gretzky Coin the Phrase “Skate to where the puck is going, not to where it is”?

The phrase “Skate to where the puck is going, not to where it is” has become one of the great business seminar phrases of all time, used by all sorts of self-help gurus and business advisors and appearing in any number of books about leadership and achieving business goals.

It is always attributed to Wayne Gretzky, the “Great One.”

Is that accurate?

Nope. it was originated by Gretzky’s FATHER, Walter Gretzky, who taught the phrase “Go to where the puck is going, not where it has been” when the Great One was just a kid.

However, Walter (and pretty much anyone associated with professional hockey) will tell you – this is not good advice for a professional hockey player, as no one needs to be told not to go where the puck no longer is!

And if everyone went to where the puck is going, you’d have a whole pile of people all around the puck, which is not good for a hockey team – spacing is usually a lot more valuable than having everyone go after the puck.

Still, in very basic terms, yes, it is fine advice – it’s just not something that the Great One came up, no matter how many more times he’ll be quoted as originating it over the years!!

The legend is…

STATUS: False

Jill Rosenfield has a great examination about the legend of this phrase here. Well worth reading. She got the great quote from Walter Gretzky, as well as some other good quotes (including legendary Coach Herb Brooks mocking the phrase).

Feel free (heck, I implore you!) to write in with your suggestions for future urban legends columns! My e-mail address is bcronin@legendsrevealed.com

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Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about hockey and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the hockey urban legends featured so far.

HOCKEY URBAN LEGEND: A Hall of Fame goalie used to vomit before each game.

Besides his great goalie play, Hall of Fame Goalie Glenn Hall might be best known for his amazing consecutive games streak, where he not only played in 502 consecutive games between Oct. 6, 1955 and Nov. 7, 1963 (for two different teams), but he played in every minute of every game!

This being when goalies did not wear masks, it is pretty amazing that he was able to avoid being injured during that time. In fact, when he ultimately DID miss a game, it was after a muscle injury suffered in the LOCKER ROOM getting dressed!!!

I say the consecutive game streak is what he is best known for besides his great goalie play (he won two Vezina Trophies for Best Goalie – although he shared both, as he was platooning in both seasons as they came later in his career), but he might actually be more known for vomiting than he is for being the goaltender that led the Chicago Blackhawks to their first Stanley Cup in twenty three years in 1961 (their last until 2010)!
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Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about hockey and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the hockey urban legends featured so far.

HOCKEY URBAN LEGEND: A Superior Court Judge allowed a suspended coach to coach a playoff game.

In the 1988 Eastern Conference Finals (then called the “Wales Conference”), the New Jersey Devils were playing the Boston Bruins.

Tied at a game apiece going into Game 3, the Bruins defeated the Devils badly, by a score of 6-1.

Devils coach Jim Schoenfeld was none too pleased with the referee work during the game, especially a penalty that had given the Bruins a two-man advantage (which resulted in a goal for Boston).

So as the game ended, and referee Don Koharski was exiting the rink, Schoenfeld began berating him over the calls.

Here they are…

Well, soon after that photo above, Koharski fell down.

He claimed that Schoenfeld has pushed him. Schoenfeld, naturally, disagreed.

He screamed, “You’re full of (expletive). You’re crazy. You’re crazy. You fell, you fat pig. Have another doughnut! Have another doughnut!”

Due to the incident, the NHL suspended Schoenfeld for Game 4.

The Devils were outraged – the league’s investigation into the matter involved calling up both men and asking what happened, then asking some other eyewitnesses, then deciding that they believed Koharski.

The Devils could not believe that they did not even consult video tape footage of the incident.

So on Sunday, with the game on Monday, Devils President Lou Lamoriello wanted to appeal, but he was told only NHL President John Ziegler could overturn the suspension, and no one could locate him (which is utterly bizarre, right? No wonder Ziegler was gone as President within a few years).

Undaunted, the Devils found Judge J. F. Madden of the Superior Court of New Jersey.
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Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about baseball and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the baseball urban legends featured so far.

BASEBALL URBAN LEGEND: A New York man won over two million dollars betting the uniform numbers of his six favorite players.

In 1987, 59-year-old Robert Heuer of Flushing, New York played the New York Lottery.

His six numbers were the uniform numbers of his six favorite players/managers, Joe Dimaggio (#5), Whitey Ford (#16), Willie Mays (#24), Juan Marichal (#27), Casey Stengel (#37) and Willie McCovey (#44) – three Yankees and three Giants.

The result?
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Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about baseball and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the baseball urban legends featured so far.

BASEBALL URBAN LEGEND: A dead runner once scored in a baseball game.

Probably the best hint that a story you’re about to hear is false is if the identical story is told about people in entirely different places.

That’s one of the reasons (but surely not the only one) that the story of a game between two small Minnesota towns in 1903 is a tall tale.

The basic gist of the story is that the semi-professional baseball team from Wilmar, Minnesota was hosting their rivals from nearby Benson, Minnesota.

The score was 1-0 in favor of Benson going into the bottom of the tenth inning.

The Wilmar pitcher, Thielman, had pitched the entire game to that point and led off the tenth with a single.

The next batter, O’Toole (like any great tall tale, only last names necessary), hits a great drive to the outfield. The ball does not clear the fence but it is WAY back and O’Toole has plenty of time to run.

Thielman, though, has just pitched ten innings of baseball and is quite tired. Still, he pushes his body as fast as he can get it to go. However, rounding third, Thielman collapses. O’Toole is right on his tail and figures the only way they’re both going to score and win the game is if he basically carries Thielman across the plate.

And that’s basically what he does, pushing Thielman on to home in front of himself.

Wilmar has won!

But at what cost?

As it turns out, Thielman had had a heart attack at third base! He scored the tying run, but he was DEAD at the time!

It’s a great story, but it’s also pretty much hogwash.
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Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about football and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the football urban legends featured so far.

FOOTBALL URBAN LEGEND: Two Detroit Lions players received a Gold Record while they were still playing pro ball!

If the saying “every actor wants to be an athlete and every athlete wants to be an actor” is true, then I suppose that must be true for singers and athletes, as well.

As pointed out in a recent Music Urban Legends Revealed, for a time in 1970, it was certainly true for Marvin Gaye, as Gaye really wanted to pursue a career in professional football.

He never got as far as being allowed to try out (so we’ll never know if he ever really had any chance of doing so, although we do know that he got in very good shape), but he was allowed to train with the players during the offseason (it being Detroit and he being one of Motown’s biggest artists).

While there, Gaye befriended a lot of the other guys training during the offseason.

Two players he particularly became close with were young Detroit standouts Mel Farr (running back) and Lem Barney (cornerback)…

Farr and Barney came in together in the 1967 NFL season, and they made headlines by winning the Rookie of the Year Award and the Defensive Rookie of the Year Award, respectively (Barney is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame). What comes next is quite surprising.
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Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about football and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the football urban legends featured so far.

FOOTBALL URBAN LEGEND: Edgar Allan Poe played an early form of football.

Reader David wrote in to ask:

I know this sounds weird but I heard that Edgar Allen Poe played some early version of football. Is that true?

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Here is the latest in a series of examinations into urban legends about football and whether they are true or false. Click here to view an archive of the football urban legends featured so far.

FOOTBALL URBAN LEGEND: A player played professional football under an assumed name so that he could play college football, as well!

John McNally was going into his last year of eligibility at St. John University in 1925 when he hit upon an idea.

Years later, he said it was based on walking past a movie marque with the movie titled “Blood and the Sand,” but who knows if that’s actually true (not me). Whatever his motive, McNally’s plan was to come up with a fake name so that he could play professional football and still play college ball!
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