Crime in Sports - Bald & Belligerent - Steve "Mental Case" Durbano - Part 1

Episode Date: February 10, 2026

This week, we look at a hockey player, who was a little too violent & short tempered, even for hockey. He never had a goal, other than playing hockey, and he achieved that by being drafted in the 1st round. But the only potential he ever lived up to was his potential for violence. He attacked opposing players, fans, coaches, trianers, timekeepers, and even the police! This temper leads to obvious arrests, and a big future of crime, ahead of him!!   Be terrified of your overinvolved father... until you beat him up, use your hockey stick as just an extension of your hand & hit people with it, and tell everyone that you're on your best behavior, then try to start a riot with Steve "Mental Case" Durbano - Part 1!!   Check us out, every Tuesday! We will continue to bring you the biggest idiots in sports history!!   Hosted by James Pietragallo & Jimmie Whisman   Donate at... patreon.com/crimeinsports or with paypal.com using our email: [e-mail] Get all the CIS, STM & YSO merch at crimeinsports.threadless.com   Go to shutupandgivememurder.com for all things CIS, STM & YSO!!   Contact us on... instagram.com/smalltownmurder facebook.com/crimeinsports [e-mail]

Hello everybody and welcome back to crime and sports. Yay! Oh, yay indeed, Jimmy. Yay indeed. My name is James Petro Gailo. I'm here with my co-host. I'm Jimmy Wiseman. Thank you, folks, for joining us today on our 10th anniversary show.

Wow. This show is coming out the exact day that our first show came out 10 years ago. Unbelievable. Thank you for there's people who have stuck around for 10 years and a big show. here. 10 fucking years. Thank you for doing that. People who've come on recently.

Great. Good for you. Thank you for doing that. Thanks for hanging out with us for 10 years. We honestly, I don't know if we ever thought we never. I can't believe it. I didn't think we'd be doing this for 10 years, this show at all or any other show.

I didn't know what we were doing. We weren't even going to do it for 10 weeks if those numbers stayed the same. Exactly. When we first started, we were, I mean, nobody listened to the show. Nobody. Yeah. So, it was like, huh, what are we doing this for? Why are we even bothering?

And then it worked. Then it somehow it started working. And here we are 10 years later and small time murders on Netflix and all of that. But we know that all that stuff that came later, Netflix and this and that and live shows and everything. That's all from this little seed, this little acorn of crime and sports that I had kicking around in my head for two years that I wanted to do. And didn't know who to do it with. And then it's like, why wouldn't I do it with Jimmy? Because we talk all the time anyway.

I'm like, you want to do this? And now I've been with you longer than I've. was with my fucking wife. That's funny. That was it. Me and you at a Barrow's pizza. Yeah. Saying,

I'm like, do you want to just do this? And you're like, yeah, I'm going to fuck. I'll do it. I was like, all right,

cool, just come over then. All right. The only relationship I've had longer than you was my kids. That's it. No shit.

Yeah, 10 years, it's, yeah, we've been together longer than I've been married to Sarah. This is, it's crazy stuff.

Thank you all so much for making this work. Thanks for everything. for 10 years, we are going to redo an episode from the beginning that definitely didn't get the love that it needed because we just didn't have access to all the things. Like, when we first started, we didn't have, I couldn't afford a newspaper archive website. I couldn't afford that. Literally, like $8.99 a month. I didn't have it to do that.

I didn't even have a bank account when we first started this to draw the $8.99 a month out of. It was literally, I had nothing that's no numbers to type in. I goes, fuck, I had nothing. Yeah. And then we didn't have enough people that. that would be willing to stick around for a couple extra hours to listen to it. Yeah, we want to know. We got to make sure we do this fast that people listen shit.

We figured maybe they can tolerate us for an hour. Maybe they can do this for an hour, but no longer than that, they're going to run. They're going to fucking hate us. So this is before, like, if there was a book on someone, I'd be like, wow, that's sure love to read that, but it's $8 on Kindle. I can't. No, that ain't going to work. You can't do that. So it was tough in the beginning.

Fuck that book. Now we're going to redo this the correct way. And yeah, let's get it. Oh, first, shut up and give me murder.com. Head over to do that. Get your tickets for live shows for small town murder and for the one, Your Stupid Opinions Live show on March 21st in Phoenix.

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And you get a shout out at the end of the show. We'd love to say thank you for everything that you do for us. And that's when we do that. So thank you. And let's get to this here. Here we go. Let's dive back into an oldie but goody here. I think this was like our 11th episode that we did.

God damn. So no one heard it, number one. And number two, we still had the audio that sucked for the first like 46 episodes. We had shit audio because we were using a lavalier mic in my living room and it was terrible. And then we got into a radio station and it got better. So this is a guy, like I said, we had none of the details, none of the newspapers, none of the books, none of the thing like that. It's Steve Durbano. Do you remember him?

The hockey player? I remember 10 years ago. I remember the name. I get it if you don't. Yeah. Steve Durbano, crazy-ass hockey player and a lot of fun, like just wild shit that he gets into. He's like hockey's answer to evil can evil, essentially. He's a nutcase.

His nickname is mental case. Mental case, Steve Durbano is his nickname. So that tells you a lot. Also, demolition derby with a U, like his name. All right. because, yeah, Durbano. And Dirty Durbano also that he earns for being a filth. It's all sexual, too.

All of his dirty. It's all sexual. No, not sexual. Stinky dick. It's all stinky, but on the ice still. So Steve Durbano, Harry Stephen Durbano, is his actual true name. Born December 12th, 1951 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Oh, by the way, quick show note.

We're going to do this. This will be a two-parter. Okay. And on episode 500 will be somebody that most people know. Yeah. It was a recent athlete. Vast majority. Yeah, you guys know him.

So there's that. Okay. So, yeah, he's born in Toronto. We'll talk about his parents are Nicholas and Doreen, Gerbano. Yeah. And his dad is a successful real estate executive. Nice. So he comes from some money.

He doesn't come from, you know, he's not like some of the guys that, who was the guy that was, Spinner Damn it. Brian Spinner something. Brian Spinner. Brian Spinner. Was Spinner his last name? That whole tragedy? I think so. Well, like him, Spencer. Brian Spinner Spencer. That's his name. Spinner Spencer. Spinner Spencer.

From somewhere in the 30s there, you know, just playing in like the frozen pond outside in the woods as well as, you know, dad shot moose out the window. Like this is a different upbringing here. His dad was also a long time, OHA Scout, which is a hockey league. Oh. So I think that's the Ontario Hockey Association there.

And also a junior hockey team owner. He owned a junior hockey team. Oh, shit. So, yeah, this guy is kind of hockey royalty, Steve Durbano here. Yeah, for sure. His dad owned the Hamilton Red Wings. Everybody describes his dad or a lot of people do as a ruthless, demanding guy with a legendary temper, everybody says.

Oh. So, very mad, huh? Outbursts and demanding and ruthless and, you know, and a business guy, you know. Sure. And his mom's name is Doreen, and I don't think she's as ruthless, from what I understand. He's got an older brother named John here. And apparently, Steve, right from the beginning, right into hockey, as you would imagine. Because, I mean, his family is.

Why wouldn't you? Yeah, they're so hockey, intensive hockey family here. He would play street hockey and then going to the job. juniors and all that kind of thing. Always a disciplinary problem, though. Oh. That's an issue there. Lots of trouble, huh?

Yeah, he's always a problem. He's a mess. Mental case is his nickname for crime. And that's a hockey player. They're all crazy. Yeah, and 70s in Canada, too. Yeah, this is, to be a hockey player back then, you had to be ultra-nuts. I mean, this is a, this is like slap shot times.

You know what I mean? Like, this is crazy. There's no visors on. No, no. These guys, half the guys, half the guys, aren't wearing fucking helmets back there. They're just skating around. It's fucking insane.

So he's, you know, he's got a pretty big family. He's got aunts and uncles and grandparents around. Seems to be very Italian. Oh, is that right? Yeah, he's got his grandparents and aunts and uncles here. He's got an aunt named Emilio Castasano and Margaret Cola di Pietro. That's another antihism. Like, wow, that's worse than my last name.

That's something. So dad is a disciplinarian, and also he's involved in hockey on every level. Coaching, scouting, owning teams. He puts pressure on young Steve to be a hockey player right away. Excellence. This is all stuff we didn't know about in the first episode, that he's like hockey's Todd Morinovich also. It's a big deal. His dad is forcing him to do this.

And at six, at age six, and this could add to Steve's issues here. he was apparently molested by an adult during a summer camping trip. Oh, no. So that's not great. 1957 molested, too. That's like, that's they'd tell you to walk it off molesting. They wouldn't even, the guy wouldn't even get in trouble, you know. Can you still walk?

Yeah. That'd be the old Chris Rock joke. Like, I told you to stay away from your Uncle Charlie, God damn it. That's what you get. I told you to stay away from him. That one is jokes? I think it is. You said back in the day, that's,

That's how they handled it. And it was, too. That's what they told. I told you to stay away from that guy. Now your ass is a sore. You didn't know. It's fucking crazy. That's how it used to be handled.

If you thought someone was weird, you told your kids to avoid them. And if they didn't, they got fucked and you dealt with it. Like, that's crazy. No, everyone was like, well, it's not his fault. He's just a child molester. That's wrong with you. Why don't you get near that guy? Why'd you go near him?

It's obviously your fault. Yeah. So not only did you get molested, you got blamed for it back then, too, which is awful. and every level. He had to take it on the chin twice. Yeah. He apparently told his older brother, who was four years older than him at the time that it happened,

but then they never told anybody. They never told him. Really? Never told him. I just kept it to them. So, wow. I have to feel like his dad being a powerful businessman with a huge temper would have probably taken that as a personal affront to me and probably would have killed this man,

or at least beat him with a hockey stick. So they probably should have told that. And he probably knows a lot of really tough. guys that are super willing to go out on the ledge for it. I think he owns a whole squad of guys like that. Yeah. We're wearing ice skates. He'll do whatever he asks. Probably. I assume so. For an extra 50 bucks back then, probably. Especially that. Yeah. Go beat a guy up for molesting my kid. No problem. So that's apparently this is what people think is added to a lot of his problems. He'll have addiction problems and a lot of violent tendencies and self-destructiveness. And, you know,

Keeping that inside, he'll do that shit here. And his dad also has a similar temper, so it's not like he didn't have an example of how to act as well. A very strict household here. Apparently, dad's whole thing was pain equals power. Toughness is every. If you can take pain, you can be powerful. Oh, okay. I thought you meant like as long as you go through a lot of pain, then you're successful.

That's a terrible approach. That's a bad approach. No, this is about toughness. The person who can take the most shit is going to be the most successful. Yeah. That's what he's saying. A childhood friend of Steve's and future Hall of Fame or Steve Shutt called the father-son relationship poison. He said, you could see where he got his temper from.

His father pushed him relentlessly. He just couldn't control himself. A little crazy, but more than that, fearless. That's what he describes Steve here. And he learned to skate, obviously, immediately. And he lived next door to an NHL player as well, a Maple Leafs player and across the street from another Maple Leafs player. Oh. So his dad owns a team and there's two NHL stars around you.

So those Maple Leafs are Maple Leafs? I think we've gone through this before. Have we? Yeah. We went through this. Yeah, we did this for a whole, we did this for about 20 minutes one episode. We did. trying to figure out whether it was, how are they the leafs?

Why aren't you the maple leaves? Yeah. We could, we never could figure it out. No one sent us in a satisfactory answer for it either. They were just like, yeah, that's weird, right? And it was like, no, that's not enough. It's not enough to just say it's weird to move on. This is an NHL team.

You should be able to fucking tell me something. We wondered aloud for the time length of an episode of the office. Pretty much. Yeah. Your average fucking network sitcom, we went all the way through it going, Leafs or leaves? What the hell, man? And why? And somehow this medium dominates that.

Isn't that weird? It's crazy. There are two jackasses who know nothing about anything can argue about leaf or leaves for 20 minutes rather than a well-put-together thing with like 20 Harvard writers and a bunch of actors. But even if the team is the Maple Leafs is a singular one that lives in your neighborhood, is that a leaf? And then two is that leaves? No, they're both leaps. That's got to be right. Because these are the maple leaps.

So they're individual leaps. All right. That just makes no fucking sense. That's the best that's the best anyone could tell us, basically. So there's some incidents involving family that are documented here that aren't great. At age 12, Nick is coaching Steve's team. So dad's coaching the team. Yeah.

Which is rough. Steve made a wise-ass comment. So Nick, Steve was too. far away to hit. He's out of arm's reach, which, you know, for a violent dad is terrible. You never want your kids to be at arm's reach. They've got to be with his punching distance. But the fun part is you've got these little black heavy instruments.

You could huck at him. Well, you also have a long thing that he used to hit that with. And so he didn't have that. So Nick picked up a hockey puck and threw it and hit him in the head with it. Uh-huh. So he did do that. Drilled him in the head with a hockey puck? the hockey puck because he couldn't hit him. He was too far away.

Holy. By age 14, Steve grew a lot here. Steve, apparently from the time he was 12 to 14, he was about 10 inches and 50 pounds bigger. Yeah. So Steve apparently beat the shit out of his father in the locker room at age 14. They got in a fist fight. His dad hit him and he said, I ain't having that shit anymore. Yeah.

I'm in a hockey uniform. In this uniform, when you punch me, I punch back essentially. You know? Also, if he hit me in the guts or anywhere, it's not going to hurt near as bad. No, not at all. Also, one time Nick was waiting in the parking lot after John, the older brother, was injured in a game. And he's got John, like, injured sitting next to him. And why are we sitting here, Dad?

Well, hold on, son, you'll see. Eventually, when everyone left, John saw why. It's because Nick tried to run over the referee with his car. He was waiting for the refs so he could run him over with the car. Bad calls today, so this is what he's going to get. Yeah. It's a real lot here. Now, Steve dropped out of school at a young age to focus on hockey.

He was playing hockey, period. There was no other. What's the point? Dad owns the team. I'm going to do this. And he didn't think he needed school because he was going to be a hockey player, and that's that here. And there's articles, tons of these articles about, you know,

you know, Steve Durbano, you know, playing so well. Then there's also articles like this here. At one stage of the proceedings, this is during a game, the whistle blew at 1509, there were 10 Dixie and 11 Woodbridge players on the ice. That's way more than you have in a hockey game. The reason is, most of them acting as combatants or peacemakers. The two exceptions were a Ranger player taking the chance to practice his shooting at Ranger Netminder, Terry Fray, at the other end of the ring. So while a brawl is going on, two full teams, there's fire and pox at him? No, no, no, no.

There's another guy down there not involved in the fight, just practicing with the goalie while everyone's fighting. He's taking practice shots with the goalie. With his own goal. Yeah, the goalie stayed in the net. And he's like, here, let's practice a bit here while they're all fighting. Don't handle this. It took five minutes to restore order, only to have it break out again.

And the overall delay was amounted to about 25 minutes. Woodbridge's Steve Durbano took on Paul Evans in a one-sided deal, and Durbano landed at least four punches to every one by Evans. Dang. Yeah. When the smoke cleared, Evans and Miller drew game misconducts for Dixie, while Durbano and Pete Mayberry got similar sentences for Woodbridge. In addition, Durbano drew two majors and a 10.

So Durbano just tons of penalty minutes all the time. Wow. A 10 minute of penalty? Yeah, 10 minutes of penalty. Wow. So they said, here's another one from a game. Last Thursday night's game was one of the cleaner ones in so far as the penalty parade was concerned. Only eight penalties were assessed, all minors.

Woodbridge has a habit of using their weight legally or otherwise to wear down the opposition. Possibly the reason for the Tea and Cookie's party was the absence of Steve Durbano. So he's not there. It's fine. That's amazing. They said he has compiled close to a. 150 minutes in penalties so far and appears to be a shoe-in to beat Weston's Reform badman Bill Lastic's 1965 record of 195 minutes.

He's on a record-setting pace. Here's another article. The fighting began after Steve Durbano of Woodbridge was sent off for a face-off interference and en route to the penalty box speared Terry Draycott of Dodgers. Draycott collapsed and several Weston players surround. rounded Durbano swinging hockey sticks at him. What the fuck? So he's walking off to go to the penalty box and just takes a cheap shot with his

put with a stick at somebody and then they all try to beat him with sticks. Wow. Fighting move from the center ice area to the end boards and one Weston player, Gary Ford, climbed into the stands to try to get at Durbano from behind. This is slap shot. This is crazy. Now we've turned into literally this is just slap shot. Where's Hanrahan?

Like, what's going on here? This is fucking stupid. Ford was assisted by some of, some addle-headed fans. At one point, Durbano minus his sweater, that's a jersey in hockey, was defending himself with a broken hockey stick. That's even scarier, isn't it? Because now he's got, now he can stab you to death with it. Now he can't just beat you.

Now he's got shards and splinters. That'll run you through. That's not good. Fuck, man. He can now kill vampires. he finally reached the corridor leading to the dressing room, but Hugh Harris of Weston followed him to continue the fight. That's when the police entered the picture,

and Sullivan tackled the last five minutes of the period onto the third period. They just said second period's over. This is fucking a mess. Wow. Durbano received a major for spearing plus a match penalty. All right. So he's all in these minor league hockey programs.

in Toronto, and he comes up pretty quick. At age 16, 15, 16, he played 21 games for York Steel, which sounds like a bunch of guys that leave the steel mill to play hockey. Yeah, it's probably that, right? That's probably how it started, kind of like the Packers were actual meat packers at some point. The Metropolitan Junior B Hockey League, he posted one goal, nine assists, and 10 points. So this is his first kind of structured actual, like a junior, a real league.

basically. That's not like a kid league. Here's an article. Opposition beware. Durbano is back. Jesus. Attention all Metro Junior B. Clubs. Beware. Steve Durbano, last year's

bad man in the Metro League is back. After his history of making a scene last year with Woodbridge Dodgers and his early retirement by league officials, Durbano will appear in the colors of York Steel. Okay. Durbano is only

15 years old tops the scales at 190 pounds and towers at an even six feet. Towers at 15 years old? He's a big kid. Dang. Six foot 190. He's a big 15 year old. That is a big deal here. They say if the York Steel Management can control Durbanos temper and keep him to playing ice hockey,

they will have themselves a good find and a keep them honest defenseman or keep them honest defensemen. So he played on one of his father's junior B teams. don't know that could have been Woodbridge. He also took a job sweeping floors at Maple Leaf Gardens, where the leaves play. So he's all into hockey here. They say last year's bad man, here's another article, Steve Durbano, trying to live down his reputation, but is having a tough time doing so. He picked up another major in this game for his part in a third period fight.

Management have warned him to stay away from trouble, and he realizes he must stay out of the penalty box to improve his chances of moving up in the third. the hockey world. Yet he still seems easily intimidated into retaliation. He's got a temper. Yeah. He's got a temper. That's very interesting. Now, at this time, by the way, if you're in the market for a car, the sales, Jimmy, the sales, they're here. We have Canadian cars? Oh, no, it's American cars in Canada. The Dodge Boys are turned on, Jimmy. They're turned on. Watch out. 68. brand new 68 Chrysler V8 automatic transmission power steering

brakes radio white wall tires and wheel covers $3,523 just a Chrysler we don't have a model just 68 Chrysler that's all it says All right

That's all you're getting This is Cooksville Ontario Home of the Dodge Boys Who are turned on Is that all we got? That's all we got It's all they'll tell us about It's price fever

The dog boys are turning out A Chrysler And that's all we're going to Let me ask you this, though. You want to go down there and find out what Chrysler that is, don't you? You bet I do. I think that's what it is. I think that's what they're doing.

I think you want to go, where is that? Which Chrysler is it? That's 3523. This is the 300 or the Imperium? Which piece of shit is it? Which one? God damn it. So at 16 and 17, he joined the Toronto Marlboro's like the Cigarette of the Ontario Hockey Association.

Now this, we've talked about the Marlboros before. There's tons of hockey players that we've talked. talked about that they've played. It's kind of an elite minor league team here. For the 68-69 season, he plays three full years with them from 68 to 71. 68, 69, he had 45 games played, six goals, I'm sorry, five goals, six assists, 11 points, 158 penalty minutes. So that's what he does. Busy. Yeah. Here's an article from 68. Steve Durbano, who has been groomed, that's not great, as Marley's tough guy spent 47 minutes proving it. He slammed assorted Canadians with body checks.

Had several run, that's capital C Canadians, not just from Canada. Had several running feuds and built up his reputation. He made one move too many. He picked a fight with the Habs Gary Connolly, who hit him a couple dozen times about the head and ears. Oh, that's not good. Oh, and the ears. Spocked in your ears hurt so bad when they're cold.

Oh, yeah, on the ice. Durbano earned himself a game misconduct for threatening gestures to the referee. Jesus Christ. They said, had he made these moves against Connolly, he might have had at least a draw. Now, Durbano and Doug Acombe scored the goals. He did score a goal, though. Right. 6970.

He had 53 games, seven goals, 25 assists. 32 points. That's getting better. Then 371 penalty minutes. Holy shit Which was a record at the time for the OHA Yeah, it should be. That's a lot.

That is a shitload here. November 11th, 1969, after high sticking and then arguing in the penalty box with fans and timekeepers, by the way, and a 10-minute misconduct and game misconduct from the referee. He then got in a fight with the cops

and route to the dressing room. He fought the police on the way there. So he tried, he fought hockey players, fans, timekeepers, and police that night. Yeah. Wow. Imagine having that much energy. Just fighting everybody. You got all the time. Imagine having enough energy to get in a fight,

and then when you're done with it, getting more fights. Be like, and I'll fight you too. Like, I'm done. You want something? I've been fighting. It's fine. Yeah. We're good. Hey, everybody. Just going to take a quick break from the show to tell you how to eat faster and better with Factor. FactorMeals.com.

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So that's a lot. He was arrested for assault, causing bodily harm for fighting with an officer. He was released to return to Toronto with the team, but he is charged with assault here. So that's not great. The timekeeper summoned the referees, and Durbano was given a misconduct. A further argument ensued,

and a referee tacked on a game misconduct. Yeah, an altercation in the area left a police one with blood on his face. Marlboro coach Gus Bodnar was struck in the face during the same disturbance, and Durbano was charged with assaulting a police officer. Jesus Christ. Here's another one from

1969, November 15th. While McMahon was being taken to the garden's first aid room, Erwin and Marlborough defenseman Steve Durbano exchanged words, then battled briefly and both received major penalties. In the brawl with Durbano, Irwin was knocked down and aggravated the ankle injury he suffered

in the first game of the Hawks, with the Hawks on Tuesday. Wow, so this is a mess. That's a lot. Okay. Off-duty services suspended. They said if there are police officers at tomorrow night's OHA, OHA Jr. A game at the Garden City Arena, they won't be off-duty officers, as has been in the past. So the police have suspended all off-duty extra duties of its members as a result of the fracas last time. So the cops

are no longer able to go make a few bucks on the side at night doing this. That's fucking hilarious. December 8, 1969. Despite many reports to the contrary, the local police department have not charged Marlborough Steve Durbano, nor did they arrest him after he allegedly hit a fan with a stick late in the game here Friday night.

Holy. So this isn't about the police thing. He was arrested for that. This is about hitting a fan with a stick. Durbano was taken into custody temporarily, but was allowed to go home on Friday night and no further action will be taken unless the said fan swears out a civil complaint.

complaint. Okay. January 12th, 1970. Yeah. Time out for brawling. Okay. Uh-oh. A full-scale war broke out at 16 minutes 37 seconds.

Marley Steve shut. That's the guy with the quote earlier. Yeah. Faced Glenn Siddall and Jean-French. And John French tackled Rangers Dave Cresman. Before it was over, the ice was littered with gloves, sticks, sweaters, pads, and writhing bodies. These four, plus the Marley's Steve Durbano and Ralph. Oh, Hopiavari of Kitchener drew majors.

Hopiavari found himself in a rather ticklish situation. He faced Durbano and Shutt at the same time. When he looked to see what Durbano was doing, Shut punched him. Well, that's how you do it. That's why two-on-one works better. Keep your head on a swivel, friend. No shit.

Here's another one, February 2nd, 1970. Assault charges are exchanged. Okay. Uh-oh. Defenseman Steve Durbano was charged with a assault causing bodily harm here last night before an Ontario Hockey Association Junior A series between Marley's and St. Catherine's Blackhawks. The charges were the result of an altercation during a game here from November involving Durbano, a St. Catherine's policeman and the coach. So this is when he gets charged for assaulting the police officer.

They just waited until he came back for the next game to arrest him for it. Here we go. February 17th, 1970, hockey game assault charges dropped in court here today. Uh-oh. So apparently all those charges get dropped. That's the assaulting a police officer. Yeah, they don't say why. They just talk about the scuffle and say how Gerbano publicly apologized to the police officer in court and said he realizes, realized that the cop was only doing his duty and trying to protect the players and spectators.

The judge said he can understand the differences between players from time to time, but those differences shouldn't involve cops or fans. That's a fair statement. February 24th, 1970, Steve Durbano here remanded to March 9th on a charge of common assault. Charge was laid by the hockey spectator after an incident on December 5th. So that's the one where he went after a fan with the stick. February, this is getting confused. There's so many incidents in like three months.

It's confusing. February 20th, 1970, this is a good Toronto Star article here. Marleys, that's Marlboros, Marleys are tops on hate parade again in Junior A. Everyone hates them, apparently. They say Marlboros are back in an old familiar role, the most despised team in the Ontario Hockey Association, Junior A series. For many years, Marley's had all the popularity of a skunk at a garden party with the fans in other big cities because of their big aggressive players and anything but gentle approach to the game. In the past two seasons, the club was caught with a gang of small players who played with abundant finesse and little success.

The other teams have been waiting for this chance for a long time and took great delight in knocking Marley's out. Well, the party ended this season when Toronto rolled out a crew of big, robust lads who play the game. with all the subtlety of a wrap in the mouth, led by the rambunctious defenseman Steve Durbano, who's accumulated approximately 348 minutes and penalties this season. Shocking. Marley's are prepared to tackle all comers. So now they're...

What is that? Two minutes at a time or five minutes at a time? It depends on what the... There's all different penalties for minors and majors and all that kind of thing. So it depends. So this is a lot. So they're talking about a big fight, and they say Durbano, of course, was in the thick of it,

slugging it out with the Pete's Mickey Donaldson, one of the chief punch throwers from the bench. Jesus, Gerbano received a game misconduct. So they're all just they're talking about how it started out with they have a big team of lads and then they go through a bunch of listing of

all of Durbano's fights basically. So he's the guy definitely leading the way here. March 3rd, 1970. Steve Durbano is told to be good or else the league tells him that he better be good or they're going to suspend him.

They say, we told Durbano that we had no intention of curbing his aggressive style of play. We also told him that we didn't want to suspend any player, but if he continued his foolishness of telling off referees and such, we'd have no choice but to call him before the OHA executive, whatever the fuck. So now he's at a point, they say, where he faces a $100 fine for each misconduct penalty. Oh. So that's something. Yeah, when you're getting a fine for each penalty, when you're put in the box for that much time, that's a lot of penalties.

That's getting money that piles up. That'll pile up, especially when you're not making a lot of money. March 10th, 1970, Steve Durbano remanded again, apparently. The charge was laid by a hockey spectator. It's the same one, though, again. So the same spectator. So they bring them back to court again. April 3, 1970, a crowd of 5,221, which frequently set up a chance.

of chicken, chicken, chicken, when Steve Durbano backed off some early trouble spots, eventually choked on their shouts late in the game. They choked the chicken? They choked on their chicken shouts. Choke him a chicken chants.

Why would they call him that when he wouldn't fight? Because he wasn't fighting because he's supposed to be good because they told him he didn't get kicked out of the week. He's costing him money, you guys. Shut the fuck up. Yeah, apparently he got in a fight.

So, okay. Yeah. They said the fight was instigated by Sittler and Durbano, who had secure sweater holds and did not appear capable of breaking the death lock until Durbano started budding his head into Sittler's face. Holy! He starts headbutting him.

When the scrap eventually ended, Durbano was on his way to the Toronto bench when Maloney came off the London bench, casually skated toward Durbano and launched a roundhouse right. Durbano was peaking, however, and he avoided the blow and caught Maloney in a neck lock. He's fighting somebody else. Oh, boy.

Speaking of that, right under that, article is another event that sounds similar to this. Go see some wrestling. Oh, we're in Canada? In Canada. Dory Funk Jr., who is the father of all the funk boys, Terry. Right, yeah. Dory Jr. or, no, that's Junior. Dory Sr. is that. Yeah. So this is the Funk's brother, NWA champion, all that. I don't know why. I saw junior in my brain, I thought senior.

Fighting Gene Kinnisky. Oh. Who's a big star, especially a huge star in Canada here. also Whipper Watson, another big Canadian star, and Bulldog Brower versus the fabulous kangaroos, the sheik, not the Iron Sheik, the original Sheik from Detroit there, versus Flying Fred Curry. Who else here?

The Outlaws. What happened to the original Sheik? The original Sheik is Sabu's uncle. You know who Sabu is? Okay. ECW guy, that's his uncle. The original Sheek was like the original hardcore guy. He was the guy who had weapons and stabbed.

Really? Yeah. The Abdul of the Butcher Act, he did it first. I believe did it first anyway. I can't see the original chic. He's a fucking nut. He's based in Detroit. He owned big time wrestling, which was the Detroit territory for years and years,

slowing out of business in the early 80s. Yeah. He's a nut. He looks just like him. That's pretty amazing. It's pretty funny, too, because he was, like, gone for a while. Then he came back, and they were trying to say he was like, you know, yeah, it's tough for him. He's getting older.

He's like 43. He was like 68. when he was like, yeah, he's now, it's hard for him. Like, 43, he's been wrestling for 30 years. What the fuck he didger? And he was just the chic, no metal at all. The golden, nothing. And then the original, it became later when Iron Sheek.

So you had to do that here. Massed Assassin versus Luke Klein, Sweet Daddy Seeky. There's another Canadian star there. Sputnik Monroe. These are all old school Canadian guys. April 23rd, 1970, assault charge dismissed against Urbano. That's nice.

There you go. I guess there was conflicting evidence. This was the December 5th hitting the fan incident. Here's an interesting thing. Wow, what an odd ad. This is an ad from a radio station, CFOX 1470, Montreal, Quebec.

And it says, some people might not, Some people might not like being number two. We love it. We're shit and we love it. What the fuck, man. Wow. 1970, 71, Turbano plays in 49 games, seven goals, 32 assists for 39 points, 324 penalty minutes.

Yeah. Name to the OHA second All-Star team. He had a lot of suspensions and arguments. all that kind of shit here. It's just Durbano all the time fighting. They said there's, here's Marley's Edge Juniors. This is November 9th, 1970. They said, if there's one thing Alan Globensky of the junior Canadians can't stand,

it's an insult, especially if the one doing the insulting is Steve Durbano. Okay. And that, says Glabensky is why he and Durbano went after each other, immediately following Toronto's 9-8 victory over the Canadians last night at the forum. He, he, Durbano, called me a fucking nut, says Glablensky, messaging in red-purpleish welt on his, or massaging. They spelled it messaging, messaging a red-purple welt on his neck. I'm like, I read that right.

That's messaging. So I said to him, you didn't play much tonight, did you, dummy? And then he starts jabbing me with his stick. So I had to go after him. There you go. Had to. Had to do it. Bench for the second period.

Glabensky was sent on to play right wing. He is normally a defenseman. Seconds after Canadians, blah, blah, blah. Okay. So November 28, 1970. Steve Durbana will be here. It says, don't miss the grudge match between these teams. This is a ad just for a game.

Yeah. And they're hyping it with the fight. Because it's St. Catherine's Blackawks. We've been fighting with all the time. That's where he beat up. That's where he hit the cop and all that shit. Yeah. So their ad is a picture of Steve smiling.

And it says, Steve Durbano will be here in big fucking letters. Wow. Hate him. Yep. Get your tickets early for this one. Holy shit. Also, give seasons hockey tickets for Christmas.

Yeah. Seasons of them. Yeah, seasons of them. December 21st, 1970. Here we go. Marley's win big. So Steve Durbano. here.

Durbano was involved in three altercations with Peterborough players, including a big second period brawl that emptied the benches, and he was kicked out

of the game in the third frame. Jesus Christ. The Pete's coach Roger Nielsen threatened retaliation the next time the club's meet.

He said, it's the last time we're putting up with that. In the next game, we'll go after one of their top players. We have no other

resources. I hate to tell a kid to go out and injure, but after this one, I don't care. That's what I got to do. This guy just admitted in the paper. He was putting bounties on other team's players.

And they're like, that's fine. That is amazing. And I don't care. And I don't care. Jesus Christ, that's a, imagine like the NHL today if you said that. You'd be suspended for a year for doing that. We'll be hurting Crosby next game. And I don't care.

I told me, I hate to tell somebody to go break a leg, but at this point, I don't care. I don't care. Jesus Christ. Two of the players Durbano hit. Ken Richardson and Craig Ramsey were sent to the hospital for examination after the game. Dang. December 20th, 19th, or 22nd, 1970. At the weekend, Tubby was in Montreal,

where he attempted to convert Alan Glabensky into a peaceful hockey citizen. Glabensky is a defenseman with the junior Canadians who fights better than he plays hockey. Lebenzky is one of four junior A players who has acquired four misconduct penalties. these this season. The others who will soon have a command chat with the whatever head of whatever the fuck are a bunch of guys and Steve Durbano, of course. They're saying Durbano is the biggest problem in the league. Wow. And yeah. So they're saying they're waiting on a big report because they're getting like a full like referees report on Durbano.

Yeah. Everybody put together your dossiers and hand them in. He's terrible at hockey, but he fights a lot. That's all it is. It's what it is. They said, I knew. we were going to have some problem with Durbano in that game by the first period. Short, short, short read, broke his stick over Durbano's helmet and got a minor penalty for high sticking. That's a minor? No, that's not a minor. My word.

The referees hate Durbano, so that's a minor. Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's why. Go ahead and hit him with a stick is what that says. Here is December 26, 1970. Merry Christmas, everybody. Peterborough coach and Durbano suspended.

The coach, too? A coach of another team and Durbano is suspended. Is it because he said, I don't care? We'll talk about, I guess. Durbano had been suspended from Toronto's next two games. He received three penalties. Okay, I want, I don't know why the other coach. Maybe that's why they don't say in this article.

First quote. Possible. His suspension ends in a few days. He missed two games from that. So there's that. January 18, 1971. Durbano's deeds don't deter 67s. They talk about Durbano is fighting and all that, but they still lost, essentially.

Their team is called the 67s? There's a team called the 67s. We have the 76ers, so why not? Yeah, but 76ers are about Philadelphia and 1776, right? What the fuck is 67ers or something? Probably whatever that probably means something in that town. What is the 67ers? They are a Ottawa.

So see if maybe Ottawa became the capital in fucking 1867 or who knows what that is. We don't probably. In the United States, we know zero Canadian history. Oh my God. Zero. Less than. We're taught nothing. We're taught they're there and they have like they still have like queens on their money.

That's all that they teach us about. We're told. We know nothing else. Yeah. So we kind of don't give a shit. Yeah. Well, we just don't learn it. It's, you know.

Yeah. So no one teaches us. The Ottawa citizen, January 18, 1971, talking about him being suspended, says, and this is fucking amazing. That action, when Durbanos speared McSheffrey in the throat, can result in serious or even fatal injury very easily, the doctor said, following a game. A blow like that can cause an injury to the larynx or carotid artery and can result in fatal quick suffocation. Yeah, neck injuries are no good. That's scary stuff. January 30th, 1971.

In London, a fight midway through the final period sparked by Toronto's Steve Durbano and London's Jay Babcock lasted about 10 minutes. Oh. You know how hard it is to fight for 10 minutes? That is insanity. It stopped when the arena officials played the national anthem over the loudspeaker. They were out of ideas. They couldn't get them to stop. Oh, Canada saved the day.

No one could get them to stop. So they're like, maybe if we play the anthem, they'll stop fighting. And they did. It worked. I just flexed some Canadian knowledge on you, James. I didn't. I just pulled their fucking national anthem out of my ass. I think we all know that one. We've all seen a Blue Jays game. I think it's fine. Yeah. Ryan Reynolds taught me. I just every Canadian, every time there was a Canadian,

oh, there's a baseball game or any game. They play the Canadian anthem too. Yeah, I just don't know any other words than Oh, Canada. Canada, my home and something land. Does I say that? Something, something pride. You got pride in there? Yeah, pride. I think it's something about native pride or some shit.

I don't know what it is. All right. Here's another ad, St. Catherine's Blackhawks. Steve Durbano is coming to town. Need we say more? Get your tickets now. They don't even say the team that's coming. It's Steve Durbano's going to be here.

You want to kick his ass? Steve Durvano's team. Come yell at him. Oh, that's amazing. Jesus Christ Wow So he's just built as a heel Everywhere he goes, huh?

Yep, he's the heel He sells tickets That's exactly what it is Wow That's how they would sell tickets To these minor league games back then They had Fucking hate sales

Yep And they play each other so often These teams There's only like, you know, eight teams in the league Or something So they're constantly playing each other It's not like you don't see him

For six months again Every three weeks You gotta play these people Just hate selling like crazy Yeah I guess The OHA president, Clarence Schmaltz, said that he's going to apparently suspend Urbano again for his last fight that he was in for the national anthem brawl, the one that had to, the anthem had to stop it. Yeah, all Canada to get it going.

April 17, 1971, referee Tom Smith handed the game well, handled the game while these old newspapers are hard to read. calling 16 minor penalties, eight aside. Durbano came charging out of the penalty box onto the spectators, or into the spectators, at four minutes and 34 seconds of the second period, but additional police were called and nothing further developed. And there's a picture of him trying to fight the fans here. That's what he was trying to do. Fight the Ottawa fans.

So 1971, April 27th, the OHA President Clarence Schmaltz, and his secretary manager will confirm, this morning to decide if further punishment is necessary for Steve Durbano. So they're just for slashing this time. Jesus Christ. So they said May 1, 1971, Bo Pitt won't charge Durbano. So the St. Catherine's Blackhawks assistant trainer, Harry Bow Pitt, Howie Bowpit, after consulting his father, Bruce, has decided not to press charges against Steve Durbano.

Bo Pitt was allegedly struck by Durbano when the Toronto player swung his stick at the St. Catherine's bench during the second game of the OHA Junior A Finals. The 18-year-old Bo Pitt was knocked unconscious until two days ago and until two days ago suffered severe headaches. He gave him a severe concussion with a stick. Howie and his mother Betty visited Bruce in Toledo earlier this week, returned to their home in Niagara Falls yesterday, and Mr. Mrs. Beau Pitt said they would not take civil accident or civil action. He said it was an unfortunate incident, but we consider it closed. Okay. Okay.

His junior totals, 147 games, 82 points, 853 penalty minutes. Wow. So more than 10 times the penalty minutes is points. Shit. That's a lot. That's not good, right? I mean, it is, if that's your job, to be an enforcer. Yeah.

You know, and especially back then, enforcer was a legitimate role that you needed to have. on your team. People with drool over having a good enforcer, yeah. So, 1971, June 10th is the NHL amateur draft. Yeah. Okay. Here we go. The first two, I even know are big time stars here. Number one pick in the 1971 NHL draft, Jimmy. Guarantee it has a V in the name. It does not, actually. No? No, but it has It has a

What looks like an English word pronounced in a French way, which is hilarious. All right. Right off the back. Gila floor. Gila floor. That's a name?

That's a very, very famous hockey player. First name? G. Y, W. G.Y.W. G. Got it. Yeah. So it's spelled guys.

It's pronounced Gila floor. It's a big hockey star. I know that. Marcel Dion. Second overall. Christ, he played 1,348 games in the league. so he must have been pretty goddamn good, I would say. Number three, the Vancouver Canucks pick Jocelyn Government,

which was a ballsy move picking a young lady back then in the third pick of the NHL draft. Very ballsy. They think it outside the box, Jimmy. Last name, government? Government with a, it's G, it's Guarevamont, but it looks like government. Gene Carr, Ricky Martin there by the Sabres. Good for him.

My God, he looks nice. magnificent today. Man. I had no idea. Puerto Rican pop stars also played Canadian hockey. That's awesome. Ron Jones of the Bruins,

Chuck Arneson of the Canadians, the Flyers with two picks in a row. Picked Larry Wright and Pierre Plante, however, whatever the fuck it is. Rangers, Steve Vickers, Canadians, Murray Wilson,

Blackhawks, Dan Spring. 13th overall, the New York Rangers Choose. Steve Durbano. Now, 13th? Overall, man, that's first round. For an enforcer, huh?

For an enforcer. There was only 14 picks per round back then. Wow. That's still first round. Number 15 overall, the California Golden Seals. That's the stuff that makes you're pissed not have weed in it when you're on probation. That's a team? That's a team.

They picked Ken Baird. I just wanted to get that team name out. I didn't know about that one. That is very funny. California Golden Seals. Yeah. So there's... What else is Golden Seal?

That's clearly named after the product, right? The product was they named after here. Golden Seals probably... Oh, I wonder if Golden Seals are a... Because they're in the Sun. Seals. Yeah. I would think that's a golden state.

Golden Seals. Maybe. It's got to be. Got to be, right? God, there's a lot of rounds in this draft that I don't know any of these fucking people. Bill, here's a guy with a H-J-T. You know that name? No, he played 800.

HAT. Played 840 fucking something games in the league, though, which is not too shabby. It's a lot of fucking games. If you play over 800 games and anything, that's pretty good. It really thins out as you get, like the last round six has nobody that ever played in the NHL. Wow. Just a bunch of non-guise who never made the league. What is that about, do you think?

Just that that's the last round. I mean, look at round. Why even draft? Round seven in the NFL, an NFL draft gets cut a lot too nowadays. I think that's it. June 12th, 1971, Steve Durbano feels tough image with no handicap, is the headline here.

When Steve Durbano was selected as the first round draft choice by the New York Rangers this week, some people saw it as a sign that crime in hockey is a paying proposition. They go on to talk about all the shit that he did here. A sign in Ottawa's auditorium aimed at the junior 67's read, Kill Durbano and win a free trip to Hull.

Okay. That can't be great here. But they talk about it. Six foot one and a half, 200 pounds, Durbano is worth watching. He played crudely and with nasty intent for much of the time. For this, he suffered in penalties, suspensions, and fines.

But the scouts noted that few opposing players devoted all their attention to the puck when Durbano was in the vicinity. He's a distraction in a good way. Yeah. Yeah. One club owner said he's an animal. He shouldn't be allowed on the ice. Oh.

Yeah. And another guy said, he's the kind of guy you have to have on your team. He's a great guy in the dressing room. He's the first player in the dressing room to listen when the coach starts to speak. So it's basically either you love him or you hate him. Yeah. Durbano. He's a great teammate.

At least locker room guy. Yeah, they love him. They love him there. That said, let's give Durbano some of his own. Let's hear it. Let's hear what he has to say for himself. here. Okay, here we go. Steve Durbano, in his own words, or in their own words, quote, I hate to lose. I'd do anything to win. If a guy I know has a bad leg and he's a good man for

them, I'll try to hit it. I'll try to hit him on that side. You've got to try and slow him down. I know when I'm hurt, the other guy sure take a run at me. Junior hockey is violent. It's more violent than pro hockey. Fans cause a lot of it, though, especially in the small towns. Sure. Yeah, they have signs kill you. That's a... And they're on top of the ice. Yeah. If they pay enough, I'm sure they'll sit on the bench with you. No shit, man.

Oh, really. Steve said he's the first to admit that he's caused most of his troubles on the ice. He said he also got away with things, but his reputation has hurt him. Yeah. He said that certain things were unfair. He said, like one incident with Petersburg, he said, that looked worse than it was. The linesman was off balance when I touched. him, you know. And he said, I'm sure, and a teammate says, I'm sure he would have fallen even if

Steve hadn't touched him. He was hopping from one fight to another and there were gloves and sticks all over the place. He was off balance and falling when Steve touched him. Apparently, he pushed over a referee is what happened here. But he was already going down. But he was already going down. So who gives a shit? That's what they're saying. That's fine. I mean, he was going, maybe he was trying to help him up. Maybe that's what it was. So Steve says here, a lot of times referees will say one more word and it's a misconduct. Some nights, you just say the word and you're gone. I don't know why you say it.

There are nights you can talk to a referee and there's other nights when you say something and he yells, get out of here. In a playoff game at Peterborough, I went to the referee and he said, get out of here. I went to a linesman and said, look, will you tell that dummy to blow his whistle louder so he can hear it above the crowd? And he went to the referee and the referee nodded at me and that was okay. Okay. Yeah. He talked about being when he was 12, you know, he was five foot one, and then when he was six foot tall by the time he was 14.

So he said that was his father who owns the Hamilton Red Wings had just acquired the Woodbridge Dodgers out of the Metro League. He said, I was big enough, but I was really out of my class. I'd grown a lot that year and I wasn't used to it yet. I couldn't really skate with them. And they push you around so you have to push back. So he's saying that's where the fighting started. Yeah. Was not being really up to snuff in a league. And then he had to fight because they were pushing me around. Sure. Yeah.

His old coach says, he doesn't get nasty. He just says, okay, guys, let's do some thinking about hockey. Steve said, I've told them at times to shut up and sit down. The way the club puts it to you, we pay you for two and a half hours. That's all you ask. I don't think that's too much for them to ask. I think hockey's a great way to make a living. I've always looked forward to making it in the NHL.

Well, let's find out if he can here. So he also talks about just his personal life and, you know, that it affects him off the ice because people think he's a bad guy and all that kind of bullshit. So there we go. Steve Durbano is a ranger now, September 10th, 1971. He's signed in his contract. and he said, I'll tell you this, my penalties never came up in any talks I had with the Rangers. He said, nobody gives a shit here.

Ranger Rookie is no Fontanado, is what this next article says. Quote, the biggest disappointment during the first week of Ranger training camp was defenseman Steve Durbano, the club's number two pick in the June amateur draft. He was supposed to be the new Louis Fontonado, big, rugged, and reckless. Durbano's big enough, 6'1, 205 pounds, and rugged enough, but he's a little too reckless. Demoted to the Rangers' minor league camp after committing too many mental lapses and scrimmages, Durbano lost his temper in a game against the Boston Braves of the American League, drawing two minors and a 10-minute misconduct in the first six minutes. In the second period, he lost the puck to boom, boom, Karen,

and allowed the gray-haired minor leaguer to skate in for a breakaway goal. So he allowed Paul Newman. Minor league. He allowed Paul Newman to get away with the Yeah. With the puck there. Sucks pussy. Sox pussy. November 11th,

19771 here. They say if the present pace continues, Omaha's Steve Durbano will rewrite the record book for professional hockey. Durbano, a rookie defenseman, has collected 84 penalty minutes in 10 games this season. projected over a 72 game season, that's over 600 minutes or almost 600 minutes. That would be a record. The record is 331 minutes at this time. It would destroy the record.

He's looking at doubling it here. Yeah. Wow. So, man, he's in the minors here. And one, the visiting coach said, Omaha's not good. They're not going anywhere this year. And one of their players said about Steve. Oh, Steve Durbanos said he's not so tough.

When he fights, he uses his stick. On skates, he's a stumble bum. That was hard to get out. I've never heard that used as an insult. You're a stumble bum. Yeah. That seems a little different here. So Steve Durbano surpassed the league record for most penalty minutes in the season.

Yay. He did it. He did it. 334 minutes. He did that in February. Put your head down and fucking get after it. You can do it. You can do anything, James.

Two months left in the season, by the way. Yeah. Yeah, he set a record this season, 410 minutes he served. So good for him. April 22nd, 1972, they're saying that that's a, everyone's very impressed. There's all these articles everywhere about how many penalty minutes that is and how impressive it is almost to be able to get that penalty many minutes and still have skated at all, really, otherwise. May 26th, 1972.

Steve is traded. Uh-oh. Where's he going to? He has gone to the St. Louis Blues. Yes. So June 28, 1972, he signs with St. Louis, a multi-year contract. So there we go. 72, 73.

He's going to be with the St. Louis Blues. Okay. They're 32, 34, and 12 back then, finishing fourth in the NHL West Division. which it was not called at that time. It was called some other fucking, they had like the Adams and the Smyth and all those divisions back then. So the Blues still had the same logo back then.

That's pretty good. Yeah, so they ended up going to the playoffs and losing to the Blackhawks and the playoffs. They can go to the playoffs in fourth place? Yeah, basically most of the league goes to the playoffs in hockey. It's really... Good thing they do that.

Yeah, they do that a lot. It's kind of like basketball is the same thing. could be under 500 to make the fucking playoffs. Do they still do eight and eight? Yeah, basketball is 16 teams. It's a lot. And hockey does the same thing. Do they still do that?

Yeah, same shit. They do the playoff, the play in thing, right? Yeah, yeah, but I don't have to count that as like a playoff. That's part of the playoffs, right? Because then only some of them get to... Well, you have to win that to get into the playoffs. So I don't see how it could be part of the playoffs. That's what I mean.

So at that point, you're allowing like 20 teams to get in, right? Yeah, yeah, yes. Yeah, 20 teams have a shot at that point. Yeah. Still have a chance. I'm looking at this roster. Okay, this roster has one, two, three U.S. born players. Every other single player on the team is born in Canada.

Every other player? Every other player on the team except for three guys are born in Canada. Isn't that amazing? And how many are in it? Jesus, there's like at least 20 guys, 25 guys. They're all Canadian, except. for three. Not even low Russians, no Eastern Europeans, no. It's just interesting because they were all under the iron curtain at that point. It's just very interesting. So September 17th, 1972, here's Durbano in the paper. They say, is Steve Durbano a dirty hockey player? Steve says, quote, sure, I play dirty, but it doesn't bother me. Yes, I'm dirty. I don't care, is what he said. I still sleep well at night. A lot of guys do dirty things to me too.

If someone's trying to park himself in front of our net. Say again. When the puck goes, men are constantly doing dirty things to me. I have to do it back to them. When the puck goes into the corner and I'm sure the referee isn't looking, I'll whack him across the ankles with my stick. He won't be so ready to stand there next time his team has the puck. Those are just little tricks of the trade.

He said, every year I say to myself, I'm going to cut down my penalties. But your reputation follows you and everyone wants to prove you're not so tough. Pretty soon you're into a scrap and the penalty minutes start piling up. My reputation as a tough guy started in Junior B when I was only 14 years old. I weighed 195 pounds and everyone who came at me on the ice, I knocked him on his can. When I was 14, I was suspended for 10 games because of a big fight in St. Catharines. It's still the biggest brawl I've ever been in. Even bigger than the one where they had to play the anthem.

Jesus. He said, you can't make a hockey club just by being tough. You can be the toughest guy in the world, but if you can't do that, hockey part. You won't make it. No, that's true. Yeah. It is tough when you can't play. When you can punch. Sure, but you've got to be able to play. Imagine someone saying that about football.

Like, I mean, you have to be able to do the football part too. I mean, that's a, yeah. Yeah, I mean, imagine coming out here and just throwing punches. That's crazy. That's crazy. That's amazing. So Steve is, you know, he's trying to clean up his act. He said the last four years in both Junior A and Central League, I've always

scored about the same. I've always finished with around 40 points, usually six to seven goals, 30 to 35 assists. I hope I can do the same for the Blues. Yeah. So there we go. He said he's happy to be there. September 29th, 1972,

rookies Steve Durbano and Dave Schultz, who's a Flyers brawler, by the way, known for that for years. 15 minutes and 56 seconds into the second period, they start fighting. So there you go. Durbano drew a minor penalty for ruffing and a major for fighting and a 10-minute misconduct. Yes, that's what ends up happening.

The Flyers General Manager called it just a typical St. Louis Philadelphia game. October 11, 1972, here we go, St. Louis Post Dispatch, teammate Steve Durbano would like nothing better than to score his first NHL goal as a wedding present. Durbano was married Sunday in a secret ceremony. Oh, that's great. The secret, because if it wasn't a secret, someone would have come up and fucking punched him in the middle of this. Yeah. Yeah, he would have...

Next thing you know, the fucking bride swinging a stick. Yeah, your bride would be in danger, too. She's going to catch one. Priest has the jacket pulled up over his head, catching fucking strays. That's going to be wild. He said, we didn't tell anyone because with these guys on this team, anything might have happened. He said because there's a lot of pranks that go on with the blues, and he didn't want anybody pranking his wedding.

Wow. As it is, someone took Durbano's white shoes and painted just married across them in red ink. All Durbano has to do is find out who flunked spelling. Oh, because it's just married spelled wrong. And I'll have caught the call. Just married, M-A-R-I-A-D. Marry, yeah. Yeah, these guys do get hit in the head a lot.

Yeah, but an A? An A. Wow. Sir. Wow. That's a, my, would you take in school, hockey? My friend.

Just hockey? English at all? That's like, he missed so bad. It's like he was blindfolded and spun around three times in a, like a fucking pinata. In his defense, everybody on their defense, everybody on the team is from Canada. And some of these people, English might not be their first language also. Okay. Fair.

So it might have been a French Canadian guy trying to put a prank out in English. Are there A's where E's go in that? language? I don't know. Can you spell anything in French? No. There you go. Yeah. I mean, I guess spell twas. Yeah. And menager. Anything not out of pornography that we can say in French. Exactly. Yeah. So and monaja, spell that. You might fuck that up. That's a fun one. There's an apostrophe in there somewhere. There's an apostrophe. Like there's an, hey, I know something. There's an eye. I I don't know what's going on.

So, yeah, that's hilarious. So Steve, somebody did that. Yeah. Okay, here we go. Attention men. The hairs, Jimmy. You've got my attention. The hairs, not the sales.

The hairs. Attention men. Hair replacement service. Two ways to replace your hair. And there's a picture of a guy looking like Jeffrey Tambor. And then he's got a full head of hair and he looks thrilled. Staple guns and glue. Tired of wearing an old-fashioned conventional

hairpiece or outdated hair weave, tired of all the problems related with these methods, then you're ready for this all new surgical implant and a mill strand method. Oh, it's the mill strand? You know what this is? Yeah, the milstrand's not a good way to do this. Is this something that all of all guys know, like all the possible? We've all heard of the different ways. I've never heard of that before.

That's hilarious. You're like, oh, milstrand? I know him. Fuck that guy. I think milstraves where they take the hair from your neck. Okay. It's a hair replacement technique that was developed exclusively by Charles Reynolds. Medically tested, medically preferred, and medically applied.

It's safe and secure and permanent. Yes, it is permanent. If you're presently wearing a wig or hair replacement or surgical implant, or if you're considering one, you owe it to yourself to call us and get the facts about this entirely new technique that by 2025, 20, 2026, every bald man will apparently know about. Do they send you literature? The best way to get it done

is to go to fucking turkey from what I understand. That's what I've heard. I've seen people talk about that. I don't know which one Steve Carell got done, but the first season of the office, his hair is god awful.

And then the second season, he looks amazing. It's so funny, you see that when you see guys like all of a sudden you have like way thicker hair now you're like whoa what happened there holy shit nobody talks about it right uh i don't know that i mean i've never heard when people talk about people getting hair plugs uh steve carrell's hair plug shit never comes up we were just watching the righteous gemstones and between seasons gideon grows a lot of hair he gets oh he gets quite a bit and one of the seasons we're like Jesus this is a young man his hair

is terrible. Like, oh, fuck, it's going fast. And then the next season, it's a lot more robust at that point. You're like, oh, man. Looks like a fresh vegetable garden now. Steve Carell's got a very, really clear, thin patch right on the top of his head. And then season two,

I mean, when they go, it's a hit, he goes, I'll be right back. I'm going to be in Turkey. I'm going to be in movies if I can get some hair, basically. I can't be a leading man without hair. Yeah, it was this anyway. Well, I'll be right back. No hair I could be a leading man, but just a little patch back there, not going to work.

Yeah, and his hair, and whatever he got done, I don't know, it's a rumor, I guess. I don't think he's ever said that he did it, but. If he didn't have hair one day and had it the next day, I don't know how. He's got it. It's funny. What else happened? I don't see any other explanation for it, honestly, do you? Yeah, just I stopped drinking Pepsi.

Yeah, it's the weirdest thing. Yeah, it's super strange. I moved. I was right by this cat litter factory. I used to eat a lot of jelly beans. That must have had something to do with it. I'm not sure, but I stopped that and Pepsi. As the office was a hit, I moved.

Everything's great. Got away from those power lines. You know what? I think it's the stress of not having a gig that did it to me. And then once I got the office, it got picked up, it just started growing. I felt much better about it. Soon you get on hit TV show, genetics be damned. Your hair grows back.

Super weird. It reverses aging. It's strange. It's crazy. Look at it. I have less lines and wrinkles, too. Did you notice that? Isn't that amazing? Nobody says shit about it, though.

No. God damn it's obvious. I mean, he has amazing. I mean, it's not a, it's not fucking luscious, but it's certainly pretty incredible hair. That's why let's take our hats off to James Gandalfini, who just went the whole time just getting fatter and balder for years. And didn't you. I have six hairs up there, and I'm never trimming him. Never trimming.

Never trim him. Nope. And also, I'm going to gain 40 pounds. Like it? That's right. That's what I'm talking about here. And then his final meal was like incredible. And it wasn't even a meal.

It was just an all-day snack-a-thon. I was going to say a meal. It was like seven courses. I heard the first course. I was like, yeah, that is a lot to eat. And then they're like, oh, no, then there was this and that. And there was this and that. And booze all day.

The booze all day. Damn, it's awesome. He ate like 40 shrimp. Like, what do you want? You can't do that. That's not good for you. Mimosa's and Bloody Mary's or some shit like that. It was like crazy combination of booze, but it was just that he just drank them all day.

He was living in. What a good life until you dropped dead. Way to go out. In some way. November 27, 1972, he's going to have to take a couple of weeks off here or a while off because he's been hospitalized with mono. Kissing disease. He's got mono. Yeah, his new wife must have gave it to him.

He's got the kisser. Man, where are you been? baby. They said that he'll be out for an unpredictable length of time. You don't know with Mono. And then you'll be weak, so you'll have to come back and figure it out. January 21st, 1973. So that was November 27th now.

We're January 21st. Bloodletting is box office bonanza for flames as the Atlanta Journal headline here, because that was the Atlanta Flames at the time. So they talk about Steve Durbano, a rookie with a record for. madness. There's a book on him. Last year in Omaha, he set the Central League marked for penalty records. The brawl that followed Durbano's sneak attack today took nearly a half hour to clean up when play finally resumed with four players safely locked up for the rest of the game in their respective locker rooms and three more put away in the penalty box. Bloodstain smeared the brilliant white Atlanta uniforms as though the red trim had run in the wash. Awesome. Jesus Christ.

These are new hockey fans in Atlanta. Oh. And they're asking the fans what they thought about it. One said, I just hope they don't expect to see one of these fights every game. Oh, that's one of the players, every game. I don't have enough blood. A bystander said, I thought it was scary. I guess it was somebody who hasn't seen much hockey, but it happens a couple times a year, is what the player said back to that.

Steve Durbano, a haywire hockey player, they call him, said, we should have just hit him over the head with a stick when we came back, when he came back out like that. That would have controlled him. That's what a player said about him. We should have just beaten him with a stick. So, yeah, everybody knows about Durbano. More wrestling, by the way. Paul Jones promotions.

This is all old NWA territory. Paul Jones. Mr. Wrestling, not Mr. Wrestling too. Mr. Wrestling and his protege Mr. Wrestling too, who became a giant NWA star. Sure. Plus Atlanta's favorite, Freddie Blassie. Classy, Freddie fucking Blassie when he was still wrestling and not managing here at the Atlanta City Auditorium. That's the old Georgia territory there.

So you got that. Then February 18, 1973, Durbano given a suspension and a $500 fine. Because apparently these were the outgrowth of Durbano's altercation with referee Ron Wicks in the Blues game against the Minnesota North Stars. Durbano missed Saturday night's game against Chicago and will be sidelined for the next game after that. Apparently, they said the reports of the officials and the NHL videotape provided the NHL office indicated that Durbano, in protesting a misconduct penalty,

pushed referee Ron Wicks, and when Durbano was assessed with a gay misconduct, he threw his glove into the referee's face, slammed his stick on the ice, and shouted obscenities at Wix. that's fair I don't know what's wrong with that He didn't hit him right

No I mean Well he threw a Threw a glove in his face You can't do that probably Yeah you can't hit them with your gear Yeah I mean otherwise that'd be really easy They'd give a penalty And then skate away

As you threw shit at them Every time everybody would do that Just throwing helmets and shit at them So February 26th 73 Hockey Badman Blames Frustration Is what the Toronto Star says hockey badman.

Durbano is almost a Dennis Badman is what that just reminds me. Durbano is almost a cinch to serve 200 minutes in stir, despite the two games he lost through suspension, plus 26 games when he was out with Mono. They said that makes him a liability, right? No player ever was good enough to help a team by sitting in the penalty box, even when he's serving a misconduct sentence, which he does not leave his team short-handed,

He's still hurting it by forcing the coach to change his on ice formations. The coach said, though, Durbano has helped us. He's one of the reasons we were able to pull out of our tailspin, getting him and Barclay Plager back. When I took over his coach, Durbano was sick and Plager was injured. This was bad because I like to go with six defensemen. When those guys were ready to play again, the club started to move. Durbano was not a liability because of his penalties. So, yeah, he said,

you know, he said, it never started to play defense until I was 13. When I was 14, I went way over my head. So that's always his excuses. Well, I've been fighting since I was young because, you know, I had to.

More ads here, Jimmy, more sales. Here we go. Bader for Dotson. That's the whole ad. And then an address and a phone number. So you can trade shit for a Dotson, apparently. If you want to bot a Dotson, call us about pawning your power tools.

Whatever else you got. We'll give you a small Japanese car, and you can have that. So those early Dotsons, though, those mid-70s Dotsons were fucking awesome looking. And they still hold up. They're still pretty cool. Yeah. I just saw one. It was like a 75.

Yeah. It was for sale. It was like 25 grand. Yeah. Beautiful. Yeah, they want a lot of money for that. Yeah. I was like, Jesus.

I wouldn't pay that. I wouldn't anywhere near that brand new. That was like $1,400. It was like $1,400. Yeah. In the early 70s, Jesus. Those things were probably 3 grand brand new. Yeah, you probably...

I probably wasn't even that. It was probably 2,500. Because I think that was the appeal of the foreign car was it's a cheap small car. It's a cheaper small car. I see. 1975, Nissan or Dotson. Dotson. Was it 240?

240, I guess back then, yeah. Yeah, I think it was 240. Well, they had the 240 and the 280s. But let's see. List price. Let's see. For 1975, we were looking at... 35 grand now.

Yeah. And the list price was 3526. Holy shit. For the 240 as much now. Yeah. The 280 was 6 to 7 grand base price. Okay. Well, yeah, that was like the up, up, better model.

Yeah, the upscale model. The fast one with the, it just had the bigger motor. Yeah. They had a 240, 260 and 280. And the 280 was, 280 was cool as shit. That thing's a legit sports car. That's a very cool car. That's what I saw it.

It was black. It had a nice interior. I was like, this is really nice. They're selling those for $35,000 if they're in good, if they're in good shit. Wow. This one was $25 that I just saw. Yeah? I don't know, man.

Maybe scoop that up and resell it. Flip it. I'll send it out to Arizona. Because I know your shit will come up on your local. Yep. Put it on those stupid fucking auctions where they pay way too much money for it. Yeah, yeah, I'm sure you're looking at Arizona. It's getting real annoying.

It's crazy now. Real annoying. That's not going to last. long, I don't think. Although they're not making more of them, so who knows. Yeah, I mean, there is that, but the market shits the bed from time to time. Oh, yeah, yeah, it happens. Whenever the economy crashes, because all those guys, well, as extra cars, that's the first thing that gets sold is that car that you don't need. That helps make everything worth nothing. Yep. Well, I mean, that's the first thing that goes, though, is the car you don't need.

Right. The extra, yeah, the extra one sitting in the garage that you don't drive. The car that doesn't take anyone to work is the one that goes, yeah, that's it. doesn't pick up the kids from school. Oh, man. Atlanta Journal March 15th, 1973, the Omni Mob was frustrated on, quote, Kill Steve Durbano Night. You imagine having that.

It's a whole night? A whole night. This is fucking crazy. Like the mob that climbed out of the stands the other night at Georgia Tech and assaulted Georgia basketball player Ronnie Hogue, it is an extension of man at his worst behavior. A little old lady's pocketbook is suddenly a dangerous weapon. A nice young man in a gray business suit and a horn-rimmed glasses becomes a screaming psycho.

A sedate housewife bellows obscenities that would burn a sailor's ears. If only they could see themselves. But oddly, they can't. No, they cannot. They just describe people watching sports. Yeah. That's what they described. Another one of those sports mobs with distinct personality arrived at the Omni Wednesday night.

Its goal was simple. Kill Steve Durbano. Good Lord. Signs hung everywhere. claiming the fact. One, kill Steve, how killed Durbano sign, stretched 40 feet or more across the upper deck railing in vivid purple. The color, I suppose, I suppose they would like to have, they would like to see the flames pelt St. Louis's bad boy. Before someone accuses me of overreacting, I'm sure they didn't want to really kill Durbano, rather something a bit neater, like a bloody

nose or a lump on the head. You can't hang sides that say kill a man. Yeah, that, that, that rhetoric's scary, babe, especially when it's about you're singling out a guy. And saying kill him. Yeah. In a country where everyone is armed to the teeth. Let's tell everyone to kill a man. Yeah. If you showed up in an NFL stadium with kill any player's name on a sign, that sign's being confiscated. They're not letting it in the stadium. They're not letting you win that. These they were, it was kill Steve Durbano night. They probably

gave way key chains. Yeah. Team co-signed this idea. key chains with just his head with bloody jagged neck marks under it. It's a lot. Yeah, that's a little bit ridiculous, I think, to have Steve kill Steve Turbano. You know, it's fascinating that they could do that in the 70s when you cannot, James, the lack of a clear message there. Yeah. There are too many dumb-dums that would be like, they said to do it. They said to kill them.

I thought everyone would be happy. That's what we're doing. Why aren't you proud of me? I don't know, right under that. Go watch some more wrestling, everybody. All right. More Georgia wrestling. Loser will unmask the Zodiac versus Mr. Wrestling 2.

What? The loser will unmask. Mr. Zodiac? Oh, it's those two guys got to go. One of the masters take their. Yeah. Yeah. Bobby Shane versus Lufez.

That's an old-timer match there. Norville Austin and Bob Armstrong versus the Infernos. Big Bill Dromo in Tarzan. Tyler fighting the brothers Monroe what was that

oh sorry Monroe Sputnik this was there's some of the shit bleeds over from one thing to the next Jerry Oates

and Bob Orton Jr. So that's Cowboy Bob as a very young man there Butcher Branigan and Rick Conrad Pantera

Negra and L so fuck psychodelico. There you go. So March 23rd, 1973, Flyers consider legal action on stick swinging Durbano. They're going to sue him now. In a court of law.

Yeah. He's saying that they're considering taking out a warrant against him after the assistant trainer is hit with Durbano's stick in the second period. The Flyers attorney said that action is being considered, but we're going to think about it. McKenzie, the guy who got hit, said, all I said to him was, I guess we'll get another goal with you on the ice. That's all I said, saying you're a shitty defenseman, essentially.

And for that, he lost two teeth and needed eight stitches to close up a wound on his lip. Whoops. Turbano, just as he was skating by, he basically just fucking lifted his stick and smacked the fucking trainer in the face there. Wow. He's not even a player.

Took his teeth and opened his lip. Yeah. assistant trainer. Jesus, not even the trainer. Not even the trainer. Man, the trainer, Frank Lewis, was nearby. He said, I didn't hear him say anything. I just saw his lips moving. I don't know what's going on. He said, I looked at Jimmy's lips and blood was coming out. When I saw that meat head hitting an unarmed guy, I thought it was time to step in. Okay. So, yeah, Doug Faville, who tended goal when the blues used to use the flyers as a punching bag, enjoyed the incident. He said it was beautiful. That

Guy Durbano is loony because they all attacked Durbano after that. So this year, what's he got in penalty minutes this year? Let's seem to be doing it. 231 penalty minutes that year. Okay, he's getting better at this. Regular season. That's not terrible, I guess. It's a lot, but he also had three goals and 18 assists in 49 games.

73, 74, Blues were 26, 40, and 12, sixth in the Western Division. So finally, they don't make the playoffs here. How did they do in the playoffs? Yeah. They lost a coach somewhere in there, too. They had two coaches that year, which means someone got shik-and for such a bad year. Hey, look, somebody from a different country is in this. It's all Canadians, three Americans, and is that a Swede maybe?

What's the half-white, half-red flag horizontally? Don't know what that is. The Red Cross? No, just half the flag is red, half the flag is white. Isn't the Swedish flag blue and yeah, it is? Yeah, yeah. It's Norwegian or something maybe. Yeah, I don't know.

Finland maybe. Who the fuck knows. Who cares? Who fucking nothing. The only thing we learn less about than Canadian history is anything that has to do with those countries. So we don't goddamn no shit. And what the European flags look like. Shit, who cares?

Yeah. Jesus Christ. October 24th, 1973, he breaks a rookie shoulder with a check into the boards. That's nice. November 8th, 1973, a big Atlanta Constitution article, Dirty Durbano, a fighter. Dirty Durbano.

Very nice. Everybody keeps doing these articles about, you know, here, let's talk about Steve and what a bad guy he is, and let's put it in the context of the bigger fucking, it's just, I guess if you're looking for something to talk about in the paper in the sports section, there's something.

One guy here said, if we fought as much as the guys did in the old days, we'd be really banged up at mid-season. Then, too, in the past, hockey players played more for mere pennies. Now, most good players earn $70,000 to $80,000 a year. Wow. The average salary in the NHL is $55,000 a year. Is that right? What year?

73. Jesus Christ. That's tough. He said that they asked Durbano, what about football? And he said, gee, those guys are. crazy. I don't see how they take all that pounding and hitting out there. They've got to be nutty to take all that physical abuse. I imagine that's why they only play 14 games. This is before they expanded to 16 and now 17 here. December 5th, 73, he's suspended again. Oh? Suspended again here

because he left the team's bench during a 4-4 tie. For a fight? Well, we'll talk about it. In that game, Durbano was given a penalty after only nine seconds of play. Wow. And the coach didn't use him on the next few shifts. Durbano left the bench, took his uniform into the dressing room and departed from the arena. He just left during a tie. Jesus. He pulled a fucking Scotty Pippin.

If the ball ain't going to me, I'm not going in the game, let Tony shoot it. Yep. I'm going to beat traffic. He said, I don't, this is Steve, I don't really know what my situation is right now and I don't want to say too much about it. I talked with the general manager and will likely meet the team president later this week. There's been some

problems here for me from the start of the season. especially the past two weeks. But then he wouldn't say what they were. He just said, I feel part of my role with the team is as a policeman. But I think I contributed a lot of hockey to the club last year, too. Enforcer is what he's trying to say here. Temperamental Durbano reinstated by Blues is the next headline. So now he's not only crazy, now he's temperamental as well.

Yeah. Because he left. December 26, 73. The worst of Steve Durbano. He blames his troubles on others. That's the headline. That's a problem. The St. Louis Post Dispatch.

So you can see how it went from, hey, here's this fun guy that fights a lot to how they know there's a pile on coming and everybody's piling on. It's one of those things. Durbano talks about other players here. He talks about a coach here. Oh, no, this is the referee, sorry, a referee talking about slapping him with penalties all the time. And he said he has rabbit ears. That's what Durbano says. He said he was 20 feet away when he called that first misconduct penalty right away.

By then I was really mad, but I didn't think he'd throw me out. I didn't get my money's worth, that's for sure. He got thrown out of a game. So they're talking about he's blaming everybody else. They say between his blowups, he's actually played some excellent hockey. Yeah. But he's not suspended and all that kind of shit. January 17, 1973, traded.

Here we go. He is traded. They say Pittsburgh deals two more players and get Gerbano. So he's going to go to Pittsburgh now. Defenseman Steve Durbano and Abmar, DiMarco, left-winger and left-winger, sorry, Bob Kelly, were traded last night by St. Louis to Pittsburgh for left-winger Greg Polis and defenseman Brian Watson. Okay. So that's terrific.

They're very happy to get rid of Steve, and Steve is happy to move on. 73, 74, Penguins, 28, 41, and 9. Not good. No. Not good at all. Again, coach fired in the middle of the year. Not good again. So two coaches.

He comes into a lot of acrimony all the time. This is another roster with three Americans and all Canadians on it. That is crazy. March 21st, 1974. An article here from the Pittsburgh Press, quote, You knew the game was going to be a rough one. right from the moment Smith used his goalie stick on Steve Durbano. Ah, that's a big stick.

That's a big fat stick. You remember who Steve Durbano is. The guy who lit the fuse so short, or the guy with the fuse. God, I hate these newspapers sometimes. So short, he explodes before you light it. Smith said, I cross-checked him. He was in my crease and in my way. So when the puck went the other way and everybody else went chasing it,

Durbano chased Smith, grabbing him from behind and throwing him down on the ice. All right. Durbano said he's not going to get away with that. I figured I might as well go out and get him when there was no one to get in the way. Then I'm going to fight the goalie. The goalie said, I didn't know he was coming after me. I thought he was just mouthing off.

I think you should know his mouthing off comes with punches. Yeah, it's usually not good. If I had known he wanted to fight, I would have wailed a few. Well, I think by the time he was punching you, you probably should have known he wanted to fight. Should be very well aware at that point. Fucking return fire, brother. So anyway, he said, I don't know why I got a major penalty for fighting.

I never did any swinging. I could have swung a few times when Burt Marshall was pulling Durbano off, but I figured I'd just let Durbano get all the penalties. Okay, goalies have to be calm, I would think. You'd think, yeah, pretty well, yeah. You'd have to be the calm guy on the team. Because you can't imagine if you were like that worked up. You'd be out of the goal every five fucking seconds chasing.

Like, you can't do that. It is fun when there's a brawl, though. and then it's like, that's the best. That's hilarious. Fucking coolest. It's the funniest when they fight because it's like you two have been 100 yards away from each other all night. No beef with each other.

You haven't bumped into each other. There's been no words exchange. It's just hollering each other. We should fight because everyone else is fighting. Squirting their water bottles in their general direction. It'd be fun if they just both went to the side together and like drank their gatorade bottles and like pointed stuff out. That would be more fun.

Like we're not involved in this, right? I fucking love when they ceremoniously go and throw gloves. I love it too, because it's such a long skate. Such a long ride. Even if you were actually mad at the guy, you wouldn't be by the time you got there. So that's what's so funny is like you have no beef with this guy whatsoever. It's great. And then they like half-heartedly fight.

It's like baseball fights. We have to look like we're supporting our teammates. But I don't know you. You don't know me. What are we doing? That's the fucking coolest thing that really shows support of this whole. It's really supportive. No, it's like the relief pitchers running in from the bullpen.

It's like by the time you get all the way from center field. You got a really huffet, big guy. The fight's over, number one. And number two, you're too tired to fight. You just ran a whole baseball field. You just ran. April 3rd, 1974. He's ejected again.

Just all this shit. The guy, him and someone else were ejected for fighting. And this is how it is the other guy. He said, he boarded me. That's the way he likes to play. But I'm not taking anything from him or anybody else. God damn it. Steve said the first time I ran him into the boards.

And the second time, I speared him. I just don't like the so-and-so. Like him, I don't like that guy. I don't like that so-and-so. I don't like him. So I speared him, which is highly illegal. Yeah. This year, for 73, 74, playing for two different teams, plays in 69 games.

Eight goals, 19 assists, which is better than his first year. Sure. 284 penalty minutes, again, more than his first year. July 19, 1974, speaking of hair pieces. Yeah? The article from the Pittsburgh Post Gazette says, Speaking of hair, he noticed belay below was sporting a Fouman shoe mustache, and his new teammate, Steve Durbano, had a new hair piece.

This caused him to ask below, what about mustaches and the same? long hair. And the coach said, I don't care what my players wear in the way of hair, but they better produce for me. Okay. So they're saying he's got a new hair piece, though. Penn's Gerbano, one bad dude on the ice, Pittsburgh posted Gazette from September 74.

So again, this is what he, this is the cycle of having Steve Durbano. Hey, we got Durbano. He's a real badass. He's a real tough guy. Hey, he fucks over the team. Hey, he blames other people. He's not such a good guy. We should get rid of him.

Right. Send him off. We got a tough guy. He's great. He fights. We love him. Rince repeat. Until they got power plays all game long because this fucker's sitting in the box.

Yeah. The Penn's general manager said, Steve is what you'd call a heavy. What is that? Like if you say like someone's going to call in their henchmen to beat you up, what are you can call him heavy? It's like an old term. But I think too many people regard him as a kook, a disturber.

I think some people are going to find out that he can play hockey too. And then he goes into, when I was a junior player, I really wasn't a very good skater. I had to fight. Again, it repeats a story again here. So, yeah, he says a kook. I like the way in sports back then, the word kook had a very specific meaning. Yeah, it's a crazy guy, right? Yeah, but they always used kook as the way.

That was the sports term for a guy who's a little too nuts to play with us. He's a kook. That's what they'd use. That's a dismissive term. You just label a guy a kook, no matter what he does. Doesn't matter. He's crazy. As Jim Bowton talked about that a lot in the Ball 4 book, that he got labeled a kook because he did things a little weird and that was it.

From there, hey, a guy's a kook. Whether he is or not, it doesn't matter. That's what everybody calls him. Durbano said, I don't look for trouble. I really don't. The only time I really make my mind up to go after someone is when I see them take a cheap shot. Then I might say, I'm going to get that guy. All right. He's going to get them.

74 penguins here are 37, 28, and 15. Now we're talking third in the NHL here. They win in 2-0. I guess it's a three-game series against the blues in the preliminary rounds. So he gets revenge. That's fun. And then they go on to the quarterfinals to lose a seven-game series to the Islanders. Oh.

Which that's tough. So then they're out of the playoffs. The next year, that's interesting. We have a, wow, I never saw this before, a bunch of Canadians, four or five Americans and a guy from Italy. Hey. Nelson, Debenette, Debenadee. Debenadee, okay. An Italian guy.

That's new. What the fuck are they playing hockey over? I guess northern Italy is pretty cold. It's cold up there in the mountains. October 4th or October 7th, 1974. Penn's Durbano touches off brawl, and he's suspended. Again, the brawl started after Durbano, about to serve a slashing penalty, squared off with the Crusaders' Richie Leduc. After that bout, Durbano took a swing at Cleveland's Jerry Pinder and both benches emptied.

Durbano was finally sent off but returned to pick a second fighting major up and a game misconduct. Jesus Christ. October 12, 1974. Campbell, bad news for Durbano. So they're talking about a player that he's going to have to fight now. Sure. So that's not great. Defenseman Steve Durbano of Pittsburgh already under a two-game suspension from Clarence Campbell.

Oh, no, that's okay. Received more bad news from the National Hockey League president. He's the president. He was fined an additional $200. Not $200. What will he do then? Jesus Christ. In the first game of the 74-75 season, he was checked.

by Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Andre DuPont and suffered a fractured left wrist. He missed the rest of the season. What? And never regained full power in the wrist. Oh no. Sometimes a wrist will fuck you up forever.

Yeah. So he's lost for the season. They said there was an attempt to correct nerve damage on the wrist. That's a problem. Underwent his fourth operation, November 30th, to correct complications evolving from a broken left

wrist earlier this season. That's rough, out for the whole season. And the penguins miss him. They're saying we've been having problems in our own zone. Durbano would help us there because he's so strong in the corners and in front of the goal. He's also a fine team player,

a good holler guy in the dressing room. He's a good dude. Come on, everybody. Remember the little league coach would tell you to root for everybody? Come on, let's hear some talking out there. Let's hear some chatter. Call that guy, your holler guy. He was chatter. Let's hear some chatter out there. A team needs a guy like Kelly and Durbano. They make the other team think about something other than scoring goals.

So that year he played in one game. Wow. He did have an assist. That's good. And 10 penalty minutes before he broke his wrist. God damn. That's his lowest penalty. One game, 10 minutes in penalties and an assist.

That's it. Not bad. He must get into trouble. He must go wrong when he's bored. thing. How did he break the rest? He fell or somebody hit it? He got checked into the board.

Got checked, yeah. Got checked. That'll do it. January 26, 75, Durbano arrested. Uh-huh. Arrested outside the civic arena last night for disobeyed obeying a police officer. Uh-oh. A penguin's official who was an eyewitness said Durbano was attempting to turn into the parking

lot used by players when he was arrested. He was released after posting a $25,000 bond, or $25,000 bond, not $1,000. Bonham used to saying that. So he tried to show up. They told him he can't park here, and you'd know what he probably. I'm sure he wasn't like, no, no, sir, please, take a look at my credentials.

I'm sure he was a yo motherfucker. He took his fucking wig off and threw it on the ground. He's like, we're going to fight now. I don't take off this Halloween costume right now. Never mind taking your shirt off to fight. Guys should take a wig off and throw it on the ground. That means they want war at that point, right? They aren't willing to fuck this thing up.

What does a good hair piece cost thousands, right? Oh, fuck, I have no idea. No fucking clue. It's got to be. I bet it's three grand. You said turkey's the place to go for hair? For good, yeah, for good hair blood. Oh, for like the surgery, not for the piece.

You're talking about a piece. I'm talking about, yeah, glue it on what's it cost. Is it three grand? What the fuck, James? It's $2 to $600. I bet they vary greatly in quality, though. Yeah. You're getting a moorys for nothing.

Yeah, I bet if there's specialty guys, it probably costs thousands to have. Yeah, there's a custom hair piece is a thousand or more. Yeah. But you're probably not going over two grand, James. Jesus. Well, speaking of hair. Yeah, what do you got? Pittsburgh Press, hair fusion, it says.

Steve Durbano of the Pittsburgh Penguin says, De Nardo's Hair Fusion Center gave me a natural-looking head of hair that can stand up to anything from a bruising check to the wild in the wild NH to a wild NH to a wild NHL free for all and the shower that's sure to follow. Get into the action with a natural head of hair that becomes part of you and allows you to swim, ski, play tennis shower with complete confidence. And there's a picture of Steve with, he was a young man with, dude, it was bald to here and he just had one patch in front with some hair because it's the 70s, so he was trying to have some hair.

Yeah. He looks like. like Rob Reiner from fucking from all the family if he wasn't wearing a piece at that time or doing a comb over. Like it's bad. Not good stuff here. Charles DeNardo's Hair Fusion Centers in Pittsburgh.

That's it. I hate what they're called hair systems. I don't like that at all. No. Well, it seems like it should be all over your body different things that plug into it. It's a system. Man, here is April 10th, 1975. Ironically, the one Pittsburgh penguin who had to be restrained from going at officials

was the one who wasn't even dressed. Steve Durbano tried to berate referee Bruce Hood in a runaway between periods, according to reports. The fans agreed with Durbano and vocally showered their displeasure at the referee. The coach asked later about the officiating was non-committal. He said, you don't find them calling too many cheap penalties in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Outside of that, His only comment was we won the game. So Durbano shows up in street clothes to harass referees. Perfect. June 14, 1975, Penguins Steve Durbano will be filing notice.

He will be a free agent. He's going to file for free agency. So there's that. He said he hasn't received any playoff money, said his father, who's also his agent. Oh, really? Yes. He's got that as his agent? Yeah.

They said the National Hockey League penguins are bankrupt and Durbano didn't receive 99% of his final check of the season from them. So they're not, they can't make payroll this day. Oh, yeah, it's over for them. So, yeah, they said he hasn't received his playoff money. That's bullshit. They said that his contract stipulates he's owed it. So he's in the middle of a four-year contract with the penguins has completed only two years, but has the right to renegotiate after two years. And if he's not going to get paid, fuck it.

July 1st, 1975 here, Durbano is not free. The Penguin's defenseman is not a free agent, they're saying now. The latest issue of the hockey news states that Durbano has filed a notice to become a free agent because the pens didn't come through with the money they were supposed to. However, Penguin's public relations director told the paper last night that the recent loan taken out by court-appointed receiver Jack Button covers Durbano and other players pay. So since we paid him, even though it's late, we paid him. So fuck it.

Yeah, he's got to come. September 9th, 1975, the Penguins are talking with Durbano here. The start of training just a week away, they're saying that negotiations will continue because he's renegotiating his contract. They said, we value Steve's ability most highly and therefore, due to a fractured wrist, it's difficult to negotiate intelligently. however we're discussing the ongoing contract. So, well, that's the thing.

He's been hurt, too. So they're like, well, we want to see if he's got his shit together. And he's coming from the, I think he's coming from the side of, hey, you fucked me over. You better give me money now. I don't need some money now. Yeah. September 15th, 1975, Penguins re-signed Urbano. Oh?

So there we go. 75, 76 Penguins, 35, 33, and 12. It's good enough for third in the Norris Division. So this is maybe when they had these divisions. Their coach is fired mid-season, of course. They end up going to the playoffs and losing in a three-game series to the Maple Leafs here. And the Italian guy is no longer on the roster. They were like, get that guy out of here.

October 10, 1975, he's out indefinitely here. Considered a key element in the Penguins' drive for the Stanley Cup this season was suspended indefinitely by the club president. He apparently stalked out of practice in a dispute with coach Mark Ballou, who got fired, by the way, that season. It was the second such incident in 10 days, according to Ballou, and prompted the coach to ask for Durbano's suspension. Ballou said Steve wasn't satisfied with the way I was running practice. I have three goaltenders, and I want to get them a lot of work. I wanted the defenseman to play their men without sticks.

He thought that was silly. It is silly. There's sticks in a game. It's very stupid. It's very stupid. That'd be like, that'd be like just anything stupid. I'm not even going to put an analogy to it because you get it.

It'd be like doing anything without one of the main components of it. It's the tool and the reason that you win these games. Yeah. Practice driving, but without wheels. All right. Just don't use those. Any wheels on the car and the steering wheel, anything. He said, and about 10 days ago,

he threw his stick into the stands and went into the dressing room. If he's going to act like that, I don't want him on my team. He gets paid to play hockey. I get paid to coach. I know what I want to do out there. Well, you're about to get fired. So that's the difference. He still has a contract.

But they said that I'm sure the fans are getting awfully tired of the selfish tantrums by some of these professional athletes. We have many fine players here, and we won't sell their effort short by the actions of one or two. That's it. Below said there are 20 players here, 20 other players. His actions disrupted them. I can't tolerate that. Steve won't be in practice in the morning and he won't play on Saturday. We haven't talked to him yet.

I tried to get him about four times today, but he isn't around. He's still in town, I'm sure. He's not taking your calls because he knows you're going to be fired probably and he doesn't care. He doesn't want to hear it. No, fucking a fired coach is useless to you. So October 14th, 1975, they said the situation remains unresolved and interviews with the two principles involved. don't clear the air. So him and his coach are still fighting.

Durbano points out that he was told you're suspended without pay. Don't look for an apartment and we're not going to pay your hotel bill. Durbano said, I don't know the situation, if the situation can be smoothed over. They probably can't afford to pay the fucking hotel bill. Probably. You're like, oh, so the bankrupt team is going to fucking talk about, fuck you. He added that I'm checking out of my hotel Tuesday, but his plans are undecided. Below said at this point he wouldn't welcome him back with open arms and added that the situation is a serious one.

He says, I want a player who wants to work hard and devote himself to and who wants to devote himself and wants to play. All righty. So they're going back and forth in the fucking paper with each other in the same interview. So you know that the reporter said, hey, he said this. and then, oh, did he? Well, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Yeah, it's one of those, which is amazing. Durbano said, I've tried to get in touch with them twice without success.

Below confirmed that Durbano tried to talk to him yesterday. He said, I was taking a long distance on the phone yesterday, and then I spent the day in Greensburg and various radio stations and newspapers. I just got home. So I didn't hear from him, so not my fucking fault. So anyway Yeah they're talking about team morale and all this shit It's like well you're not making it better by bad-mouthing a fucking player

The coach has to be above that shit Yeah yeah I always feel like They're the coach because they're more mature than the players Right The players didn't need a more mature presence We wouldn't need a coach they could just play themselves Yeah why is there a coach at all Unless these guys need somebody to follow and tell them how to fucking win games

Yeah exactly yeah be the leader So he's said, Durbano, if the situation isn't resolved, I'll have to be traded. I can't sit out the entire year. So the Penguins reinstate him in October here. He was suspended. About 10 days it ended up being. So here is November 25, 1975. Player wins another round from Penguins. The dispute between the Penguins coach Mark Below and Steve Durbano apparently has been resolved and the scrappy defenseman will stay with the team. It'll be even more resolve when that guy gets shit in. So, yeah. They said, Steve said some things to Mark on the bench in

Minnesota. I've talked to Steve. This is the president of the team. And in his opinion, he was very hot after an incident on the ice and was worked up. He told me he doesn't want to be traded and that he wants to play in Pittsburgh. And if Mark thinks he was being insubordinate, then DeBano will apologize. All right. All right. January 8, 1976, Durbanos threw in Pittsburgh is the headline. Done. They said that the defenseman's tenure is through. This is the penguin president, Ren Blair. He said that he's now prepared to come down hard on the few, quote, spoiled brats on the team and to start babying the fans, he said. He said he's attempting to pursue a course which is best for both Durbano and the Penguins. The last straw for Durbano came Sunday night when he skated off the ice during a game with Chicago. He said, anyone who walks out in the middle of a game will never be right in my opinion. Oh. Yeah.

He said that he feels that he may have gone overboard and giving Durbano plenty of chances to straighten out. He said, I've given him a lot of chances more than most players would get. He said, the reason was twofold. One was that he was off for almost an entire season with an injury, and it was understandably hard for him to get back into form. And the other, he said, is that he's a, you know, he felt the president felt that he hadn't had enough time to realistically and thoroughly judge the team.

He said, but this is January. It's time he comes to grips with his own problems. He said, it'll be hard to trade him, though. He said, I talked to 10 clubs today and not one of them made a concrete offer. Other teams aren't exactly jumping out of the telephone for him. Which seems like somebody who needs a goddamn enforcer would do that. Certainly. I would have think here if you're a tough guy.

Blair said that there's a lot of spoiled brats on the team. Okay. January 10th, 1976, Kansas City Scouts, Kansas City, not scouts for a team in Kansas City. The team, Kansas City Scouts, have traded one of their top scores, Simon Nolett to the Pittsburgh Penguins for rough, tough Steve Durbano in a four-player swap.

He's going to the fucking scouts? Kansas City Scouts. The scout coached. said we need a guy who can go out on the ice and command respect. See, whenever somebody needs a tough guy, we bring him in, and then he wears his welcome out slowly. Durbano's the guy who can do it. He can fire up the whole team and a whole building full of people. Okay.

Kansas City Scouts, 75 and 76 here. They're in the Smythe Division. I honestly wasn't aware they were a team. Yeah, I didn't know. That's an NHL team, the Kansas City Scouts. Really? in the 70s? Yeah, neither of us are big NHL guys, first of all.

So that's the reason why we don't know that. 12, unless it was on NHL-94 Sega Genesis hockey, I don't know that much about it from that period, from any other period. This year, the Kansas City Scouts, Jesus, no wonder why they're not a team for long, were 12, 56, and 12. Oh, Jesus.

Holy shit, that's bad. They had a fold gin to somewhere else in a second. Fuck, yeah, they had three coaches. that year. One of the coaches went 1.23 and 8. Mm-hmm. That was his record. One win. 23 losses. Eight, eight ties.

Eight pushes. Holy shit. That is fucking awful. One victory amongst almost 40 games. 32 games, one fucking win. That's really giving you a chance, right? I would say you

had plenty of chance. They tried. You had plenty. a chance. I think the team might just suck, though, I'm saying. Looking at everybody, I don't know any of these guys. Not that that makes them suck, but maybe your team just sucks. They had three coaches, all of them are terrible. Maybe it's the team.

Here is January 30th, 1976. Durbano return lacking punch. Okay. Yeah, they said the only name that mattered to the slim crowd of 8,360, this is the Pittsburgh Gazette here, was Steve Durbano, the tough, turbulent

defenseman who was making his first a swing through town since prolonged feuding with former penguins coach Mark below landed him in KC. Durbano would be opposite of Bob Battleship Kelly. They had been teammates in St. Louis and became a deadly one-two punch for the penguins when the blues peddled the pair in a package deal mid-season two years ago. So they talk about all this here. They say in the middle of the period, they say at opponents in Casey's latest, as opponents in Casey's latest disaster, the battleship decided early in the second period that he no longer approved of the way Durbano was making waves. Okay, and that is Bob Battleship Kelly.

Yeah. Durbano, moments apart, Durbano had jolted him at opposite ends of the ice. In the middle of the period, they were sent to the penalty box for harmless infractions, and in Root, Kelly says he offered to test the staying power of the hairpiece Durbano wears beneath his helmet. I asked him if his hair was glued on because I was going to take it off. That is fucking funny. He says that he's playing his game similar to what I do. If you disturb my team, I'll run the hell out of you.

That's really funny. Fucking, where's your hairpiece glued on, right? Because if not, when I hit you, it's coming off. Jesus Christ. They also talk about Kelly says he's a mauler, not a puncher. He grabs you by the pants in Jersey. and throws you down. If he wants to go, or if he wanted to go, I'd have beaten his brains out.

Nine out of ten times when a guy gets within three feet of me, I'm going to tag him. Okay. Interesting. March 26, 1976, he suspended two games. Obviously here, sent to the penalty box after a fight, then was reported to have waved his stick at a linesman. Can't do that. April 1, 1976, protests cost Urbano $100. Oh, what did you protest?

He is protesting here. They said, leave it to Steve Durbano to add a little spice to another lost cause. Durbano attempted to take Stan McKita for a little ride, winding up paying the toll for his troubles. Okay, he apparently here, with little more than two minutes to play, he demanded a measurement of McKita's stick, claiming it was curved more than the half inch allowed. Oh. He's trying to do like a pint. entire thing with George Brett there. It turned out the stick the Black Hawk star used to score two goals and an assist was legal.

Had the stick been illegal, it would have cost McKee to the $200 fine and a two-minute penalty. It was the legal onus of the payment rested with the plaintiff to the tune of $100. So if you make an accusation, it's not sure you get fined. Interesting. Interesting. He said, Sir Bono said, the last time I was here, I got fined $50 for spearing McKita. I thought I could get some of it back. That's what he said.

So anyway, here we go. This year, Jesus Christ, 75, 76, 69 games, one goal, 19 assists, 370 penalty minutes. He's really getting after it now. He is out of fucking control. And this is with the scouts? This is with the scouts. Jesus Christ. I mean, maybe he's just pissed.

Is this what they hired him for maybe? Yeah, yeah, as a shit team. And also with a shit team, A, you're going to need an enforcer, and B, the crowd has nothing to watch. At least if he comes out, start some fights, there might be something to look at and buy a ticket for. Otherwise, it's just bad hockey. No one wants to fucking pay for that. The Hamilton Spectator says one of the big fist fight matchups for the NHL next season will find Steve Durbano on his own admission going against Dan Maloney, penalty champ of the season with 370 minutes.

Durbano is under league review for a second rumpus at Kansas City. not be allowed to even go to Japan with the scouts. Oh. Wow. And even while the most recent rhubarb is under review, Durbano says he'll get Maloney next year for an attack by the Red Wings earlier this year. He said Maloney attacked him from the rear and banged his nose out of shape. He said, I'm going to wait until everything is perfect. Then I'm going to give it to Maloney the same way he gave it to me.

He's going to get it. Yeah. He's going to get it. May 23rd, 1976, the look of nature ends baldness. Oh. Here it is. Steve Durbano, National Hockey League star, Milestrand is the answer. Millestrand is it, huh?

That's it. They show him looking all miserable with no hair and then looking dapper and debonair with hair. Carmel Renda brings Milestrand to Birmingham with new modern facilities. If you are bald or thinning, call or car. come by our convenient location today. Swim, sleep, work, and play, and complete security with hair. With the hair. With the hair.

This is the rich centers for hair replacement. The scouts relocate here to Denver. That's how the avalanche got there? Nope. That's the Quebec Nordiques is the avalanche. Oh. That's Quebec. I know that for a fact because that happened in the 90s when I knew about hockey.

This is the Colorado Rockies. Didn't know that ever existed, right? They got Colorado Rockies as a hockey team first? Yep. The team president here said Rockies is a natural. It sounds mean and aggressive, the same attributes we expect our club to have on the ice. They said that owners were planning on a contest to determine the team's name, but changed their minds when many people suggested using the name Colorado Rockies.

That seems perfect. Yeah. The 1976-77 Colorado Rockies are 20, 46, and 14. They can move the hockey team out of Kansas City, but you can't move the Kansas City out of the hockey team here. They're not good. They're still stuck. They finish fifth in the division.

Let's see. Three Americans and the rest are all Canadian on the entire team. December 23rd, 1976. Colorado was short-handed because of a wild performance turned in by Rocky's defensemen's Steve Durbano, a former member of the Blues. At 6-11 of the second period, Durbano received a major penalty for spearing Bob Plager after Plager had interfered with Durbano. Durbano also received a misconduct and game misconduct penalty and was responsible for Colorado getting a bench penalty when he refused to go to the penalty box, tried to renew his fight with Plager, and finally threw his helmet at Plager sitting in the other penalty box. Oh, my God.

That is fucking hilarious. From across the ice? Oh no, I guess they're next to each other, huh? Yeah, just right next to you. Hey, Dickhead, and you reach over the top. The game misconduct was Durbanos third of the season drawing out an automatic $1,000 and fine in one game suspension under a new rule in the NHL that season.

January 7, 77, he is waived. Uh-oh. Yep, he's waived and joins the Rhode Island Reds for an American hockey league game. game with the New Haven Red Nighthawks. So, yeah, the Rocky said that Turbano cleared NHL waivers and was ordered to report to Rhode Island at full NHL salary or be suspended. So they have to pay him still.

Yeah. So, fuck it. Yeah, who knows. So here this year, he is, plays in 19 games before he gets waived, zero goals to assist, 129 penalty minutes. Well, it's getting better. in 19 games? I guess that's not

better. That's much more per game, right? That's a lot, yeah, because that would make him with, what, 390 and 60 games. Yeah. And he had 370 and 69 games in all of 75-76. That's more. Now, they say the Danville News on January 29, 1997, performance sheds doubt.

Steve Durbano insists he has mellowed. That's the headline. Yeah. Back when Toronto hockey officials talked about banning Steve Durbano from the rink for life, he was a bloodthirsty teenager, hard-checking his way to the big time. He would have played in the National Hockey League for free. Hundreds of penalty minutes and a decade later, Durbano insists he has mellowed.

His performance this year sheds doubt. The Colorado Rockies this month waived him to the Rhode Island Reds. Durbano thinks the Rockies took the action with the hope of, with a hope the humiliation of the minor leagues would force a breach of contract. So they wouldn't have to pay him, essentially. What they found out is that 25-year-old Durbano, what? 25, he's already been a hairpiece spokesman for four years. Yeah. Been in a trillion.

It seems like he's 43 at this point. Yeah, how's he? Wow. How crazy is that? 25? That's too bad. Wow. Is just tough luck with a buck.

What? Tough with a buck. He is just, as he is with a puck. He offered to let the Rockies buy him out of the contract. It's a two-year, $200,000 contract. He said, give me $90 grand. He said he wants to take the cash and work his own deal somewhere else in the World Hockey Association or in the NHL.

Before he ripped up his jersey, broke his stick, and quit the Reds last weekend. off over the length of intermission between periods. He got mad at that and left. We're sitting too long. Or not long enough. Yeah. Yeah. Let's see.

In seven games, he had speared a New Haven goalie behind the net, getting seven minutes in the penalty box for fighting and unsportsman-like conduct, took off one skate in the box, and heaved it across the ice at the Reds bench after the referee refused to let him have his edges sharp. probably the first skate toss in professional play. I've never, ever heard of a guy take his skate off and throw it across the ice. I mean, Billy Madison evidently tried to stab somebody. We didn't see that footage, though.

That's the thing. We didn't see that footage. That's what I mean. He was banished to the locker room. He embedded the other skate in the ceiling, threw it into the ceiling, piled up 53 penalty minutes, drew 4,000 fans in Rochester, New York after the local newspaper proclaimed the wild man is coming. He didn't skate, though, because his equipment was lost by an airline.

He speared a Hershey Bears goalie, causing a two-team fracas on the ice. According to Durrano, that was just some typical shit. He said, some of these guys figure they'll never play in the NHL, and this is their only chance to get me. That goalie figures, if I don't do anything back, he'll be able to say for the rest of his life, he took me on, and I wasn't so tough. So I speared him, and he learned the hard way. Then I leaned over and said, next time it's going to be your head. You bet.

That's it. The way John Muckler, the Reds coach and general manager, tells it, Durbano was leaning over to ask if the writhing goalie on the ice was okay. The coach said he wasn't talking. He was just asking if he was okay. And Durbano was like, no, no, no, no, no. I was saying I'm going to, I was threatening his life is what I was doing. I was going to hurt him. Yeah.

The coach and Durbano with a shaved head and Fu Man shoe style chin growth didn't speak. the same language. Here was the coach calling Durbano a colorful guy and saying how the Reds wanted him on the roster for the long haul. Buckler insisted he's not a violent person. He just gets all wrapped up in the game and wants to win just like any other pro. And that makes him a violent person. That makes him a violent person.

Yeah. So he said, Durbano says, when I was 14, all I could do is intimidate. I could fight all day, every day and win. That's terrific. You're not 14 anymore. You're in your late 20s and you have no hair. If you're still thinking... Yeah.

If you're still thinking about when I was 14, I did this. When you have no hair, that should be the sign of... I'm not 14 anymore. I'm fucking bald. Unless you've been bald since you were 14. Unless, yeah. In Kansas City, he stirred controversy by declaring that this is the best. That the team in Kansas City sucks so bad.

Not even Christ and the 12 disciples, not apostles, disciples, could help that team, he said. Wow. Not that losing cramped Durbano style that year he chalked up 370 penalty minutes, a record for NHL defenseman. Even if he has thrown away a $2,000 weekly paycheck by walking out on the Reds, Durbano has considered the options. He said, quote, I always wanted to play football. In football, you can step on somebody's face and they don't say anything. You're allowed. It's encouraged. In the 70s, you could. They didn't care. Nowadays, you'd be suspended a year. Yeah, is seeing what the Jacks have been doing?

Jesus, yeah. July 3rd, 1977, he signs with Detroit. Mm-hmm. Here. Okay. He, I guess the, his father is now the owner of the Riverview Gold and Country Club. Sure. They say that.

He signed with the Detroit Red Wings here. And his dad and agent announced that Steve got a good contract with the Red Wings. I guess it worked out. He didn't want to be in the minors, and he's not. Now he's with the Red Wings. So that's good. And we'll leave it right there. Move to Detroit, Hockey Town.

Clearly spinning out. The career is on the way down. Sure. And I think a lot of this, too, he's not as good a player anymore because of his wrist. So all he can do is fight really now. Sure. You know, guys would say before the coaches would be like, oh, he'd have so many more assists and goals if he didn't fight.

Now it's like, I don't think he wants them to realize that he doesn't have that. So he's got to be in the box all the time. I don't know. But Durbano was working at Riverview in the pro shop. He was working for his dad over the summer while they worked out of contract with him. So anyway, there is Steve Durbano.

My God. Yeah. He is about to not be in hockey for much longer and about to have a whole bunch of fucking crimes happened to him as well. But he's in Hockey Town, USA, where they've got a great goddamn team. And a place where they love Bob Probert for years.

Oh, yeah. So, I mean, if you love Bob Probert, who's got a, you know, he's got hate in his fist and a bag of coke in his underwear. If you can love that guy, he can murder in his heart and a song on his lips. You should definitely like Steve Durbano. So we will get into part two next week, which is all chaos. And like we said, it'll just be a two-parter. And then we will absolutely head to episode 500, which will be a special one and all that good stuff here. So thank you, everybody, for listening to the 10th anniversary.

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So then for small town murder, we're going to talk about the perfect neighbor documentary. Mm-hmm. That is where that crazy lady incited a shooting. There's really no other way to look at it. I watched all the body cam footage in a documentary, perfect neighbor on Netflix. We're going to talk all about what a twat she was. So we will do that. That's patreon.com slash crime in sports.

In addition to that, you also get everything we put out ad-free. And you get a shout out at the end of the show, which is right now, Jimmy, hit me with the names of the most fantastic goddamn people in the world who have kept this show going for 10 fucking years. Hit me with them. Right. God damn now. This was executive producer Sarah Younger, Marissa Foster's partner in crime, Tracy, who passed away a few years ago.

Sorry about it. Evidently, he was a terrific man, Tracy. Oh, shit. Other producers also executive producers. Gary Howard is in East L.A. Happy hours in Hobbs, New Mexico. Looks like Gary wins this round. Yeah.

Aaron's. Aaron Zinsley, Robert McLaren, who is Stroke Malone, James. Stroke Malone. Jesus Christ. Very mature. I like it. Karen Richards and Sheree Deacon. Thank you all so much for what you do.

Thank you, everybody. Scarlet Horbeast the 3rd. Ryan Bender, Janice Hill, Matthew Martin, Sarah Rossiter, Dan Caves, Naimo with no last name. Whitney Breed, Kay Spears, Matt Clark, Kim Shantini, James would know last name. Crucy, Lisa Kulunowski, Megan Hanhold. Hanhold, Hannold, it's probably Hanald, right? EU Stinky Nuts. I don't know if that's a real name.

Joe Jabobie, Joe Job, Joe Job, Joe Bob, Joe Jobe, Allison Hughes, Jacob Darling, Darling. I'm all right. Erica with no last name. Anna Eggleston, Oglethorpe. Scarlin. There you go. There's a slap shot reference. We were just talking about that.

Oogie Oglethorpe, was that one of them? Yeah, Oglethorpe is one of the... Was it one of the brothers? That's one of the guys that they were afraid to fight. Wasn't he the tough guy? No, I don't know. I don't remember names. I'm so bad at names.

Scarlett Howard, I call my dog my other dog's name. Both of them. So it's working out perfect. I call my daughter my sister's name. That's just because you're getting old. I'm probably dying. My grandmother used to go, my Jimmy, Jesse, Catalina, bet that she'd go through a whole thing before she'd get to...

It's perfect. In my 40s. I'm already doing it. Marbinski, Hope Reading, Lacey Wheatyrholt, Jamie Johnson, Amanda Wilson, Justin Owens. Did I say Scarlett Howard? I think I did. Stephanie King, Lauren Parks, Lisa Wilson, High as Caz, Mary Angel, Mary Angel Diaz, Cecilia Basterico, Basta.

Oh, that's getting close. Cassie would know last name. Rian and Riley, Sunny R. Pam would know last name. Kennedy Cox, Beth Rubenstein. Jody Bounting, Izzy, Izzy, Brooke, Wren Art, Patrick Gunschock, HMT, Traquit, Traquise Yeager. Traquist? That is a major traquist.

That's a terrific name. Sarah Johnston, Linda Stone, Derek's McEuler, Nate Daly, Lisa Corpy, Patrick T. Patrick T. Patrick T. James. Laura, Laura Kroger, Amber Mahmood, Matt Lehman, Sandra Morse, Ava Destruction, Abola, Ebola with no last name, Lisa Hoare, Jonathan Downey, Linda Hansel, Monica Buecher. I've said that a lot.

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would no last name Shannon Nusaware Nuscher Shannon Wooten Joe Zoe Zoe Anderson Cole W Unicorns would know the last name.

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