The Snoopy Senior World Hockey Tournament is an annual event that draws hundreds of hockey players to an ice rink in California. But unlike other tournaments, this one is specifically for older adults. Eugene’s Oregon Old Growth is a team with players ranging in age from 70 to 83. Mike Sheehan and Bob Carolan both just returned from the tournament last week. They join us to share more about the world of senior hockey and what keeps them on the rink.
This transcript was created by a computer and edited by a volunteer.
Dave Miller: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I’m Dave Miller. The National Institute on Aging has some advice for how to help you live longer and better. Among their top recommendations are staying active, interacting with family and friends, and participating in activities you enjoy. They don’t tell 80-year-olds to play ice hockey, but they might as well, given that it seems like a recipe for cardio and camaraderie, and even joy. The big draw for hockey players of a certain age is the Snoopy Senior World Hockey Tournament, it’s an annual event in California that draws dozens of teams with names like the Colorado Fading Stars, the Elder Skatesmen and the California Antiques. Two teams from Oregon competed in the 70 and over category recently: the Portland Old Buds, and the Oregon Old Growth from Eugene.
I’m joined now by two of the Old Growth players. Mike Sheehan is 72. Bob Carolan, the team’s current organizer, is 83. Welcome to you both.
Mike Sheehan: Thank you, Dave.
Miller: Bob first, what goes through your mind when the puck drops at the beginning of a game?
Bob Carolan: What goes through my mind is “this is thrilling.” It is the most fun you can have. It’s exciting, I’m with my friends. And as Charlie Schulz himself, who ran the Snoopy tournament for decades, said, “it’s the most fun you can have.”
Miller: For people who were confused by why Snoopy ended up in the tournament name, it’s because the Peanuts creator, a lifelong hockey player himself, founded it almost 50 years ago in 1975.
Mike, what about you? What’s the feeling at the very beginning of a game?
Sheehan: It’s excitement. Appreciation for, here I am, at this point in my life and we’re playing hockey. And of course, the adrenaline’s going, you wanna want to get a hold of the puck and try to go down and score a goal. But it is that excitement, exhilaration, that is the feeling.
Miller: Mike, when did you become a hockey player?
Sheehan: I grew up in a town outside of Boston that is pretty big on hockey. There’s a large pond in the middle of our town and it would freeze every winter. So I began probably about 5 years old skating on that pond. We would go after school, bring our sticks and skates down, and skate and play hockey until it’s dark, and then come home.
And then there was a gap where I didn’t skate. And then they opened up the rink in Eugene, and the rest is history.
Miller: How long was that gap?
Sheehan: For me, it was about 18 years. I was about 20, I moved to Oregon to go to school. And approximately 18 years later, they opened the rink in 1989 here in Eugene.
Miller: And I should say this is a rink that you wrote a book about called, not coincidentally, “Rink.” What was it like to get back on the ice after almost two decades?
Sheehan: Boy, you take one step on the ice, just a flood of feelings come back. It’s a lot of childhood – not necessarily memories, more just the feeling. Being able to skate, which is a freedom of movement kind of exercise. It didn’t take long. Certainly rusty, but you feel the puck on your stick and it all comes back to you immediately.
Miller: Bob, what about you? How old were you when you became a hockey player?
Carolan: You know, our backgrounds are exactly the same. Probably 7 years old, and I grew up in a different town outside of Boston. And hockey was big too. Just going out after school and playing until you absolutely could not see the puck because it was dark, which was, of course, quite early, five o’clock. And then you hop on your bicycle and go home.
Miller: And did you, like Mike, have a dark period where you weren’t skating, where you weren’t on the ice?
Carolan: I think I had a couple of them, probably each 10 or 12 years. And maybe you could catch a skate in one place or another. But just like with Mike, when the rink opened, it opened a whole new world.
Miller: What does an indoor hockey rink smell like?
Carolan: Ha ha ha, this is public radio?
Miller: This is public radio. You can say a lot. You can’t say words the FCC doesn’t like, but you can describe smells.
Sheehan: Well, you could ask our wives. We have to keep our hockey equipment out in the garage or somewhere, not even in the car.
No, that’s kind of a joke, we talk about the hockey equipment. There’s a smell, there’s kind of a freshness actually when you walk into a rink, because it’s cold. And there is just this kind of aroma that hits you. You hear a lot of sounds, and the skates hitting the ice. So in the rink itself, there’s a real fresh aroma. And what we’re joking about is all of our hockey equipment, which we’re covered from really literally head to toe with equipment, and after a hockey game, it doesn’t smell so great.
Miller: Bob, what is a Snoopy tournament like?
Carolan: The Snoopy tournament has roughly 700 players attend. It’s in divisions. And Mike and I will tell you, we were in the top division, which means we’re the oldest division.
Miller: 70-plus.
Carolan: And clearly the worst division. It starts at 40, and it’s broken up into four teams in each segment of a division. So, for example, there was a 70A, a 70B, and a 70C, and then you play the teams in your division. You don’t take it too seriously … or hopefully you don’t.
Miller: You mentioned that your team came in third out of four teams in your division if I’m not mistaken, but you did come out ahead of the team from Portland, the Old Buds. Mike, how much do you care about wins and losses?
Sheehan: Not that much to be perfectly honest, at this point. Younger, maybe that was really important. A friend of ours said “it’s not about the hockey.” And I think that’s the feeling, particularly down on the Snoopy tournament. We’re here to have a good time, to celebrate that we’re still playing hockey. You don’t want to get hurt, you want to have fun. And if we win the game, great.
What I like personally is a really close game. I would rather lose 4-to-3 than win a game 9-to-0. So if it’s a really hard fought game, and I feel like we played real well and I played well, winning is kind of secondary. But that’s just me.
Miler: Mike, what has playing hockey in these years of your life meant for you socially?
Sheehan: That’s a great question. And it really is the camaraderie. During the COVID period when the rink was closed and we were all isolated, and then suddenly the rink opened again, it really hit me how much I cared about these people – mostly men, not all, there’s a couple of women – that I’ve played together with and known for like 35 years. The camaraderie is really a big part, and arguably the most important part of it. I mean, sure you get the great exercise, you get to play a game, and it’s fun and all that. But there really is a camaraderie that I’ve found, as I’m getting older, that I really, really appreciate and really value.
Miller: Bob, what’s the locker room banter like?
Carolan: Well, it’s changed. I think the younger players have banter like the movie “Slapshot.” But we have fun. We’re just a bunch of old guys telling jokes. And as Mike says, it’s just very important to us. We’ll even get together, like this afternoon we’ll get together, we have a Wednesday afternoon date. The rink is closed now, for repairs and for the summer. So we get together anyway.
Miller: Bob, you’re a retired pulmonologist, physician. Do you mind telling a story about the time when somebody had a heart attack on the ice and you went over to help?
Carolan: That was actually 25 years ago. And I wasn’t playing in the game. I was watching it and it was at the Snoopy tournament, and this fellow basically had a heart attack and collapsed right in the middle of the ice. Initially, I couldn’t figure out why the whistle had been blown, and then I realized this was serious. I went down, did CPR. Back then, in fact even now, Charlie Schulz made sure that there was a paramedic there. He had all the equipment in, and we were able to treat this guy, and he woke up.
Miller: Am I right that you then saw him a decade or so later, and he was still playing?
Carolan: Ten years later, we’re up in Spokane at a tournament and I ran into him. And that was fun.
Miller: Mike, first. How much do you think about the risks of playing? There’s so many benefits – socially, cardiovascularly, actively. There are also, I imagine, some risks of going fast on ice, maybe smashing into the side of the rink or somebody else. How much does that weigh on you?
Sheehan: It doesn’t weigh on me a lot. It probably weighs a little bit on my wife. People think of hockey as a rough game. We play in a non-check league, but that doesn’t mean there’s not collisions. And people do have an occasional injury, somebody can break a bone or something can happen on the ice. That is pretty much the farthest thing from my mind. I feel like anything’s a risk. It’s taking a risk walking across the street. Certainly, there’s a little more risk when we’re playing hockey. But it’s definitely not a deterrence. If we get injured, we just hope we can get over the injury quickly and get back on the ice.
Miller: Bob, is it fair to say that if you know how to skate, if you know how to play hockey, that hockey is actually easier on your joints than basketball would be, or soccer?
Carolan: Yes. Although we probably break a few more bones than they do. But hockey is a smoother game. One of the more risky games is something like older people playing softball or baseball, because what they’re doing is they’re standing around 99% of the time, and then they go 100% for that 1% of the time. It’s a much smoother game.
Miller: They should get on the ice instead.
I was really struck by a quote in a great New York Times article about you all, almost exactly a year ago in the New York Times. One player said this: “A friend of mine died a couple of years ago. He played hockey in the morning, died at night. You can’t do it better than that.” Mike, what do you make of that quote?
Sheehan: Well, I think it’s tremendous. Of course, we all want to have full lives. I don’t look forward to being old and debilitated, I don’t wanna be a burden to anyone. I think the concept of living a very, very full life, a long life, and passing away quickly doing something that you absolutely love is kind of a wonderful way to pass on.
Miller: Bob, I’m curious how you think about this issue, of a life well lived, and the best version of death?
Carolan: Well, I think Mike said it exactly right. Particularly, in my work – I dealt with a lot of dying people. The long-prolonged illness, trying to keep a very ill person going as long as possible is always a mistake.
Miller: Are you already looking forward to the 50th anniversary Snoopy tournament next year?
Carolan: That’s right. I was at the 25th, I hope I’m still around to make the 50th.
Miller: Bob Carolan and Mike Sheehan, it was a pleasure talking to you both. Good luck in your next game.
Sheehan: Great. Thank you very much.
Carolan: Thank you.
Miller: Bob Carolan and Mike Sheehan are both members of the Oregon Old Growths hockey team. They are both based in Eugene. Mike is the author of the book “Rink.” Bob is the current organizer of the team.
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