'He was Johnstown hockey': Jets legendary player, coach Dick Roberge dies at 91
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JOHNSTOWN, Pa. – Decades after his prolific playing career and championship coaching tenure with the Johnstown Jets, Dick Roberge’s name and hockey legacy still resonate within the city.
A Cambria County Sports Hall of Fame member whose jersey No. 11 hangs in the rafters at 1st Summit Arena @ Cambria County War Memorial, Roberge died early Wednesday.
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He was 91 and less than a week from his 92nd birthday.
“He was Johnstown hockey,” said Dave Hanson, a rookie on coach Roberge’s 1974-75 Johnstown Jets team that won a league championship and inspired the motion picture “Slap Shot.”
“You had guys like Dick Roberge and Don Hall that stuck around and had such great careers in Johnstown.”
Known as “Johnstown’s Gordie Howe,” Roberge played 17 seasons as a high-scoring forward with the Johnstown Jets.
He spent two years as a player-coach and two seasons as a head coach of the Johnstown franchise, including the memorable pro North American Hockey League Lockhart Cup championship season in 1974-75.
‘Not too much on records’
His 1,741 regular-season point total at one time ranked first among any minor league player in hockey history, even though inexplicably the mark officially isn’t recognized by sports historians. The Eastern Hockey League initially wasn’t considered a pro league by statisticians early during Roberge’s career, even though the players were paid for playing.
That didn’t bother Roberge, who during an interview for The Tribune-Democrat 2007 book “Slapshots and Snapshots: 50 Seasons of Pro Hockey in Johnstown,” said, “I’m not too much on records. If it’s that way, it doesn’t bother me.”
The remark typified Roberge. His actions spoke more than statistics.
With the Jets, he appeared in 1,159 games, tallied an eye-popping 737 goals and collected 1,699 points.
Including the playoffs, Roberge’s numbers increase to 790 goals and 1,834 points with the Jets. He also played briefly for the New Westminster Royals in the Western Hockey League and appeared in one game with the Pittsburgh Hornets in the American Hockey League.
‘Go for it’
“Dicky was the start of my time in Johns- town,” said former Johnstown Jets defenseman Jim Mair, who played alongside Roberge from 1966-69. “The first game I played was when I got into it with Blake Ball. I asked Dicky, ‘These guys are running at us. Does this happen all the time?’ Dicky said, ‘Pretty much.’ I said, ‘Well, we aren’t going to put up with that.’ He said, ‘Go for it.’ ”
During 1966-67, Ball was an enforcer with the New Haven Blades. He had a stretch of five 300-plus penalty minute seasons in a six-year span.
“That’s what started my career right there when I ran into Blake Ball and dropped my gloves,” Mair said. “I’m not going to say I won or he won, but it was a good fight.”
Roberge impacted his team both as a player and a coach.
‘The leader’
Steve Carlson was a rookie on the 1974-75 team, netting 30 goals, including the historic game-winner in a playoff semifinal-clinching upset in Syracuse.
Roberge’s ability to mold a team of young players and seasoned veterans – advancing from near the bottom of the league in January to a championship a few months later – influenced Carlson, who later coached the Johnstown Chiefs in the ECHL.
“He was one of the first coaches I had when I turned pro,” said Carlson, who with Dave Hanson and his brother Jeff Carlson, starred in the movie “Slap Shot.”
“When I got to Johnstown, Dick was really the leader,” said Carlson, then a 19-year-old. “He helped me develop into a pro hockey player.”
That year, Roberge only was three seasons removed from a 28-goal, 75-point campaign with the Jets when he retired after the 1971-72 season.
“At that time, I felt that he still could play,” Carlson said. “I watched him in practice. He was so strong.
“He taught us the way to win. We were struggling. He pulled the whole team together. He said, ‘OK, this is what we’re going to do, and this is how we’re going to do it.’ He got us into the playoffs and he led us into the finals.”
‘Grasp on that league’
Hanson, who, like Carlson, eventually played in the National Hockey League, believed Roberge’s nearly 20 seasons as a player provided the coach a different perspective.
“I didn’t realize it at the time, but looking back, Dick obviously had a great grasp on that league and what it was like to play in that league,” Hanson said. “He knew how difficult it is on the bodies and the minds.
“The key players on that team were fairly young guys, Steve, Jeff, Jack (the Carlson brothers), myself, and some college kids out of Minnesota.”
The younger players had a difficult time transitioning into the pro game, he said.
“We’re all away from home for the first time. That was a tough schedule to be sitting on that bus all the time,” Hanson said.
“I think Dick just knew, ‘These guys need a break.’ He allowed us to go home (during the holidays), which is unusual. I remember the Carlsons and myself driving from Johnstown to Pittsburgh in a snowstorm to get to the airport. We got to go home refresh, relax and recharge the batteries.
“I think it just galvanized the team a bit.”
In addition to the young stars such as the Carlsons, Hanson, Jerry Welsh, Guido Tenesi, Jean Tetreault and goalie Louie Levasseur, the 1974-75 team included experienced veterans such as captain Galen Head, Johnny Gofton, Vern Campigotto and Ron Docken. Ned Dowd, whose sister Nancy Dowd wrote “Slap Shot,” was on the team.
“As much as knowing how to handle the young guys, he knew how to handle the older guys, Campy, Galen and Gofton,” Hanson said. “He put them in roles suited for them that benefited the team. Roles they might not have been used to.”
‘Never give up’
Roberge’s philosophy and execution of the game plan was a product of his playing days with the Jets.
“He knew the history of the league and what the league was all about,” Carlson said. “He coached the way he played – never give up. Always play the way you know how to play.
“He gave the players the luxury of being creative, but also he had a strict form of defensive hockey that he taught us.
“Defense wins games. That’s what we did against Syracuse (in the semifinal win). He instilled that in me.”
‘100 point seasons’
From 1954 to 1972, Roberge set a standard with the Jets. He scored 100 or more points 10 times, and was a 10-time EHL all-star.
Roberge played on a line with another Johnstown hockey legend, the late Don Hall, a left wing who netted 393 goals and 978 points from 1951-62, and center Kenny Coombes.
His best statistical season was in 1964-65, when Roberge scored 139 points, including 63 goals.
Roberge netted goal No. 700 in Clinton, New York, Feb. 4, 1970. At the time, only he and the legendary NHL star Gordie Howe had 700 goals in the professional game.
“I can honestly say in all of my sports I played, I never met a guy like Dick Roberge,” Mair said. “He was a complete gentleman. He was a hell of a hockey player as his record projects with his goals and everything else. He was a great coach. I can’t say enough positive things about him.”
Roberge had a role as a referee in the movie “Slap Shot,” appearing in a memorable scene when he ejects the Hanson brothers, played by Steve and Jeff Carlson and Dave Hanson.
Amid a chaotic line brawl in the movie, Roberge’s character methodically points to each of the Hanson Brothers, shouting, “You, out,” as he ejects them, even while they continue to pound the opposition.
‘Hockey and golf’
After hockey, Roberge became a golf professional in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and eventually retired after decades in that sport.
“He got both things that he loved to do in his life,” Mair said. “He got to play hockey and set records, and he got to be a golf pro.
“Not many people in their lives get to do two things. Some of them don’t get to do the first thing they love.”
Mike Mastovich is a sports reporter and columnist for The Tribune-Democrat. He can be reached at 814-532-5083. Follow him on Twitter @Masty81.