Questions for Quinn: Keep the celly going

So if you missed my first article, the answer is no, my dad never got the Stanley Cup for a day. But there was no shortage of celebrations for Cap’n Rod… be sure to check out part one for some good chuckles.

My mom and I spent a couple of hours on Sunday night after dinner trying to find a photo of me at the Stanley Cup parade in 1990. I even remember it, despite being fairly young. I was sitting on the back of a convertible driving around Commonwealth Stadium. It’s a pretty monumental moment for any kid, you’d think that any parent would have that photo proudly displayed on a wall… but as we discovered on Sunday night, there was just too many Stanley Cup celebrations in the family and that photo is buried in the depths of the basement with hundreds of others. We never found it and now I’m not even entirely sure it was 1990, it might’ve been 1988! So you’re stuck with baby Quinn and one of her favourite hockey men, Glen Sather. That photo was at his house in 1988 at one of the many Stanley Cup parties.

1990 was a good year though because I finally have memories of that time. I remember going to a game at the Northlands Coliseum and when the Oilers won I got to throw a streamer. I remember waiting so patiently to throw the streamer and hope that it unwound properly and flew all the way down to the ice… because yes, an eight-year-old was 100 per cent going to reach the ice from the second deck.

My dad, of course, has different memories. Like at the Stanley Cup party, full of day drinking with all the families at the Sathers’ house:

“I walked through the kitchen screen.”

My dad laughs but said he was so embarrassed.

That’s where a lot of the memories ended – whether that was on purpose to keep secrets, or that they just experienced so much that nothing stands out anymore. That’s how I feel about a lot of my time growing up around the Oilers, there’s too many memories.

So, I decided to go to another source, my dad’s former play-by-play man and one of my favourite people on earth Ken Brown. If you haven’t met Ken Brown, you haven’t laughed like you should… the man is a hilarious story teller. (One thing he told me that always stands out is that when he played in net for the WHA Oilers they called him the porcupine because they always got killed on he played on the road.)

How he described the first Cup and the celebration? A surprise!

“Not that they won the Cup but how good the party could be.”

You don’t know what you don’t know, and Ken said that they just weren’t prepared for the celebration and “there’s a real innocence to that.” Guys were ready to party, but there was a bit of a tentative approach because they didn’t know what to do next.

Kenny said the following year, the celebration started in the dressing room and then they went over to what was then the Northlands Sportex where the organization had a great celebration and party setup!

It was interesting for him, because after the game he had to go down to the room to do post-game interviews. I can’t imagine how hard it is to grab guys out of a dressing room that just want to celebrate their first Stanley Cup. Oilers fans, you’ll appreciate this.

“Gretz came out and did an interview right off the bat,” he tells me. “He was the best to deal with… He was the first guy up and the first guy out.”

Needless to say, they cut that post-game show short in 1984! Ken and my dad had to get in there for some champagne…

And one parting note, to all those athletes throwing on goggles for the champagne celebration, Kenny doesn’t understand what that’s all about.

“Champagne burns your eyes, there’s no question about that, but it’s a pretty nice burrrrrn that you get. It’s a pretty nice feeling.”

Tell me your memories of the Stanley Cup wins. And please pass along those questions so we can keep having fun with this! Catch me @QJPhillips on Twitter or write in the comments.