The Steve Dangle Podcast - Steve Dangle Interviews Johnny Bower

Episode Date: December 30, 2017

In 2015, Steve Dangle had the pleasure of asking Johnny Bower two questions while Johnny was being honoured at the Hockey of Fame for being immortalized on a Canadian stamp. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey, so we thought about making this part of the best of I have an interview with Johnny Bauer. I don't think I've ever used the audio. I'm 99% sure I wrote about it for sportsnet.ca. I don't think I've ever used the audio. And I just thought I would throw this up. Given Johnny Bauer's recent passing, because I think the interview, I mean, it's two questions, it sort of shows who he is. um so he gets honored at the hockey hall of fame it's fall 2015 uh he gets his own stamp with canada post as part of the great goalie series i think it was six goalies and johnny bauer was one of them and uh you know little 90 year old man about to turn 91 gets up on stage at the podium gives a delightful you know short speech everyone chortles and uh it's it's just very pleasant and hilarious so i see him doing interviews and i'm like oh my god i got to get a few questions with johnny bauer everyone wanted a few minutes with johnny bauer it was difficult for anyone to get in uh an interview because everybody who was there organizers fans media

they they wanted to talk to mr bauer so i get my opportunity had to build up the courage and i go Mr. Bauer, if a man is 90 plus years old, you call him Mr. I don't care what professional setting you're in. I go, Mr. Bauer, would I be able to get just a couple questions with you? And he goes, Yeah, okay, that's, that's fine. But only a couple. And I'm like, Oh, but he goes, he goes, Yeah, only a couple because I just got my teeth operated on. And I don't know, I'm in my twenties. I don't know what he's talking, his teeth operated on. So he answers the first question and sure enough, at the end of the first one, as you'll hear in the audio, his teeth fall out, like his dentures fell out of his mouth. Like, like he had to readjust them. Uh, and I'm ready

to end it. I'm ready to just be like, all right, thanks for your time. That's great. Uh, but he's like, all right, no, let's go, let's go. So he just shoves his teeth back in and answers the second question uh afterwards he gave me like a polite wave and was like okay we're we're done i you know sorry but that's all i can give you and i was more than happy to have the two answers but then sure enough he goes off and he does other interviews again he gave a speech at a podium at the hockey hall of fame and the guy uh recently had his dentures put in and they were on the verge of falling out but uh podium speech interviews uh talking to fans afterwards um mr bauer did it all and um the fans loved him and i think he really loved the fans and i was fortunate enough to get

a picture with him afterwards um i wasn't going to i didn't want to i had this faux professionalism thing on and uh a few people there were like have you ever met johnny bauer you ever got a picture with johnny bauer you should really get a picture with johnny bauer so i'm standing by his table he's just sitting at a table having a beer in the hockey hall of fame you know as one does and there's a bunch of people who look kind of like him and standing around him and they notice me uh creeping around and they're like here here come come come come because they know i'm not going to do it i'm too scared and i think i think it was his daughter who was like here sit sit sit right next to him and got got a few pictures with johnny bauer and he was just he was a man of the

people so uh it's a very small thing but here's uh my two questions uh with the legendary johnny bauer did you ever imagine you would have a stamp even when you were a kid no not really no i had one ambition and that was to to win the stanley cup i said you know that was a dream come true to me so but this was a great honor when they told me that uh you know even when the stanley copper happened. There's things on my stamps on, Johnny Bauer on stamps. I couldn't believe it. They're going to fall out.

Okay. One more? Yeah, I think. So you've accomplished so much. The Stanley Cup, the Vesna Trophy, now you're on a stamp. Is there something else you'd still like to do?

No, the only thing I wished, really wish, I wish my dear friend Tom Worsley was here. He's a comical guy and his family's here. That was great, but I had room with him and he was funny and we didn't win the cup that year or

anything like that, so he said, John, what are you going to do? I said, I'm going back home. What are you going to do? I said, I don't know what I'm going to do. He says, why don't you come with me? So I says, okay, I'll come with you. What are you going to do? He said, we're going to rob a bank. He says,

that's a kind of comical guy comical guy but that's I'm sorry I can't sorry that's it ok