News today that actor Patrick Swayze has lost his battle with Pancreatic cancer. He was 57. Swayze starred in many movies, and ironically I was quoting a line from his movie 'Roadhouse' at Oilers training camp today, where bar owner Frank Tilghman says to Dalton (Swayze 'I thought you'd be bigger'.
For a group of Brandon, Manitoba teenagers who realized they would never play junior hockey, Derek Sutton was a bigger than life character in Youngblood. Ok, that's going a bit far, but Youngblood was a cult flick for us growing up. Swayze played Hamilton Mustangs captain (he was 34 years old when the movie came out, but played a 21 year old) Derek Sutton who along with Dean Youngblood (Rob Lowe) helped win a Memorial Cup against the hated Karl Racki and the Thunder Bay Bombers.The closest Youngblood will ever get to the Academy is if a guy named Oscar worked on the film, but it still has some great scenes. Tea with Miss McGill, every junior hockey players dream. Cynthia Gibb....well you know what I'm talking about. Of course there's the bonding session in the bar where the Mustangs get Dean Youngblood plastered on Tequila (a scene me and my buddies re-enacted with horrifying results one evening) and of course....ding ding, paging Dr. Sutton.
The hockey action was laughable, the acting average but the entertainment was priceless...for us atleast. I love it so much I own a Hamilton Mustangs jersey and t shirt (www.madbrothers.com) and Guy and I used to do Youngblood trivia last year. It is easily the best junior hockey movie ever made.To close, here are some of Swayze's more memorable quotes from the movie.
"To the game and getting out of this hick town! Thank God there is a sport for middle-sized white boys."
Sutton:Try to stay on side.
Youngblood:Pass the puck.
Sutton:Don't tell me to pass the puck.
Hanna (ref):You love birds want to settle this later, I gotta game to ref.
Sutton:Blows ref a kiss
"I made 91 goals before you got here."
"a round of tequila...coli moni de cahoni....woo hoo."
"Go hump your st. Bernard scum nuts"
Sadly Swayze becomes the second member of the cast from Younglood to pass away this year, as Peter Zezel also died because of complications from a rare blood disorder.
2 comments:
Nicely done Dean. It's time I watched this movie again.
Rest in peace Patrick Swayze and Peter Zezel, now joined in hockey heaven by a third member of the cast, Ed Lauter. I enjoyed his acting in many movies (The Longest Yard, Death Hunt, Born on the Fourth of July, etc.) but have always felt the definitive role of his career was as Hamilton Mustangs head coach Murray Chadwick. Thanks for the memories!
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