Hi, this is Fred Wallace with ” Off the Wire “.
There are circles in life and moments that connect then and now every now and then.
I couldn’t help thinking that when I heard the news of Larry Mavety’s passing.
Larry Mavety was a pro hockey player who played almost 250 games in the World Hockey Association through most of the 1970’s.
If you could do that in the W.H.A., you obviously had survival skills.
When his playing days ended, he turned to coaching and managing, spending decades in the Ontario Hockey League with Belleville and Kingston, winning just shy of 700 OHL games as a coach.
Again, if you last that long in the world of Junior Hockey, that speaks volumes.
So where’s the circle ?
In 1989, Larry Mavety was the Coach & General Manager of the Kingston Raiders of the OHL, who were owned by Lou Kazowski.
Encountering hard times on and off the ice, Kazowski was in the process of shifting the Raiders franchise to Owen Sound, and in fact, staged at least two major planning ( and partying ) sessions with Owen Sound hockey officials and civic leaders.
It was an exciting time.
Everything was in place that spring, until the OHL Board of Governors shot down the proposed shuffle at a meeting on a Friday in early April of 1989 and more or less dictated that Kazowski sell the franchise.
All of this, in the pre-Internet era was unbeknownst to me, and with great enthusiasm that specific Friday, I hustled my way to an airport strip hotel in Toronto, eager to interview Lou Kazowski with the historic announcement and the GREAT news that the OHL Raiders were coming to Owen Sound.
When I got to the venue, the meeting had long concluded, the lobby was virtually deserted, except for Larry Mavety who after making a call on the pay phone graciously did the interview with me in which he related he was unsure of what was ahead for the Raiders, and equally unsure whether he still had a job.
Larry Mavety had been in the OHL for a decade at that point in 1989, and as it turns out he didn’t have to worry about getting work in the hockey world as he remained at the top of two prominent organizations for almost 2 decades afterwards.
I’m Fred Wallace