Between the Covers: Book It!…Puck It!

23 Jan Between the Covers: Book It!…Puck It!

Editor’s note: Book It! is a (mostly) weekly column from Daiva Chesonis, co-owner of your favorite local bookstore, Between the Covers. The blog will offer tips about what to look for in the store when you stop by to browse or for a cuppa at High Alpine Coffee Bar. In this week’s edition, the focus is on hockey.

We sure like to shush around on cold, slippery stuff around here. Usually there’s slope and angle and gradient involved, but there’s another way to slide around on four edges and get that same exhilarated high: play hockey.

Did you know there’s a vibrant and very active hockey culture in Telluride? From the teeny little Lizard Heads that are just learning to skate with a stick in their hands to the robust adult coed league whose championship game fills the venue with hundreds of rowdy, flask-bedecked friends and family, this town has the frigid fun thing going on. The Hanley Rink in Town Park is hockey HQ and one look at the tightly scheduled ice times accommodating all the different age groups is proof that indeed this is an all-ages addiction.

To complement all that icy interest, BTC has always had a decent selection of books about the game and its stars. (We even carry Finger Hockey kits and a mini rink game called FastTrack.) And recently, some legends of the game penned memoirs. Here are a few of the titles we stock that active players or sports bar lovers of the game will savor: “Mr. Hockey” by Gordie Howe; “Orr: My Story” by Bobby Orr; “The NHL: A Centennial History” by D’Arcy Jenish; “Between the Pipes: A Revealing Look at Hockey’s Legendary Goalies” by Randi Druzin; and “Shooting from the Lip: Hockey’s Best Quotes and Quips” by Chris McDonell.

That said, the most interesting new book on hockey at BTC isn’t about a player at all; it’s about George ”Doc” Nagobads.

The publishers of “Gold, Bronze, & Silver: A Doctor’s Devotion to American Hockey” describe the go-to medic for the USA from 1967 to 1990 this way:

“Nagobads served as team physician, multilingual problem solver, travel guide, and surrogate father to the young men traveling the world in pursuit of glory and gold. Fluent in four languages, Doc was the perfect person to handle challenges with passports, border crossings, KGB agents, and the youthful exuberance of young men looking to have a good time in sometimes-unfriendly environments. Doc’s journal and camera were always with him as he traveled with over thirty teams, including the gold medal-winning 1980 US Olympic hockey team. This book includes the story of Doc’s stopwatch, a key ingredient to beating the mighty Soviet team and performing a miracle on ice. Over one hundred and thirty photos complement the tales of camaraderie, friendship, injuries, pranks, and misadventures.”

It’s a unique book and a time capsule of sports history and we’d love to show it to you.

So there you have it, a sport that not everyone associates with a ski town and a bookstore that gladly feeds the fire of ice-laden literature.

FYI: If you find yourself without plans on March 6, put on some layers, fill a flask, and head over to the Hanley to see the puck fly in earnest for the championship title. Regardless of whether it’s The Buck or Oak or The Cornerhouse or The Brown Dog or The Floradora or one of the other locally sponsored teams hugging and kissing the championship trophy, you’ll have a blast plus a renewed outlook on sub-cultured Telluride.