South Jersey Bubble Hockey:
Wayne Gretzky Ranks Local Team 3rd In Nation

Wednesday, February 9, 1999

By Gregg Williams
SJSports Staff Writer

Wayne Gretzky, The Great One, is now the Commissioner of the Bubble Boys Hockey League Tournament, and has ranked South Jersey's own team of Bob Young (Ask the PA) and Mike Patterson third in the nation. The 2000 Bud Light Bubble Boys Tournaments are co-sponsored by the Flyers Wives Fight For Lives. For every team that enters, Anheuser-Bush, and/or its independent wholesalers (tonight was Konard of Deptford), will make a donation of $2 per team, up to $3000 total, to the Flyers Wives Fight For Lives.

You might be asking, "What is Bubble Boys hockey?" Well, it is like the table game of Foosball (Soccer). Each team has a goalie, 2 defensemen, right and left wingers and a centerman. All of the players are about 5-inches tall and you control them by pushing, spinning, or pulling them up and down the so called ice (playing field). The goalie only moves from left to right. This game is often found in bars and gained popularity in the 1980's. Advertisements sponsored by the NHL and Budweiser heightened its popularity last year.

The tournament will be played at various places around the nation. The national champions will get to face-off against the Great One, Wayne Gretzky, and win a trip to the Stanley Cup finals.

The team of Young & Patterson call themselves the Family Team, because the people that follow them around are like family. Young & Patterson started their trip, hopefully, to the Stanley Cup finals two weeks ago. They won their first 4 games at PJ Whelihan's two weeks ago, and won 4 more last week at Armadillo's. In the first 8 games, the Family Team has only let in 4 goals. In the NHL 2.00 goals against average is very good, so 0.50 is outstanding for Young & Patterson. This week the Family Team of Young & Patterson took their show to Ott's Greentop in West Berlin, NJ. They were there to help promote the bubble hockey event. The Family Team has already made it to the second round and would play the winner of tonight's contest. A number of the Family Team followers entered to play tonight and had a great time. After each first round of play, the winners were given a Bud-Light T-shirt with the Flyers' logo on the back. Ott's Greentop was happy to help sponsor the event tonight, because it has ties to the Flyers, and also, to let some local players take a chance to win and have fun. They had a total of 14 teams and by the looks on the faces of the players, there was a lot of fun and excitement.

Photos by Gregg Williams

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