Robin Bennett has been a hockey fan going back to the days of the Salem Rebels. He remembers the heyday of the late John Brophy, who passed away in May at the age of 83. Bennett likes the game so much he’s now a local minority owner of the Roanoke Rail Yard Dawgs team that arrives in September. Bennett also owns Sports Haven on Williamson Road, the official merchandise headquarters for the Dawgs.
“He was always dressed in black, had that snow white hair like [wrestler] Ric Flair,” recalled Bennett of Brophy, remembering the Thanksgiving night matchups between the two teams at the Civic Center. “You just loved hollering at him – he fed on it. He loved it [and] was a tough nut.”
Brophy, a long time minor league player who later was head coach of the NHL’s Toronto Maple Leafs, was best known locally as head coach for the rough and tough Hampton Roads Admirals of the ECHL. They were the nemesis of the Roanoke Express, and the Roanoke Civic Center was often near capacity when Brophy and company came to town. “He always had a tough, tough team,” said Bennett.
Brophy was booed whenever he would cross the ice, heading to or from the opponent’s bench at intermissions. After a bruising, hard fought win over the Express, a comment made by PA announcer Slam Duncan about another “class act” on the ice by Hampton Roads got him suspended. One former Admirals player that went to the Express in an expansion draft, Dave “Moose” Morrisette, always got grief from Brophy and his old team. “He always had tough, tough [players],” said Bennett of Brophy’s Admirals.
John Brophy and company could stir some emotions in Express fans for sure; many of those same hockey diehards are bound to resurface this fall when the Rail Yard Dawgs take to the ice for the first time. “He was made for show business. If he hadn’t made it in hockey he could have made it in professional wrestling. There’s no doubt about it,” said Bennett. In fact Brophy’s later career as a silver-haired player-coach in minor league hockey was a model for Paul Newman in the movie “Slapshot.”
Bennett said Express head coach Frank Anzalone “couldn’t stand Brophy … they were the opposite of each other.” Brophy on the other hand “loved the attention.” Old Express fans will have no trouble remembering when John Brophy’s teams came to town.
By Gene Marrano