Podcast beauties. Interviews with Old Time Steelers Legends.

After listening to some of these Interviews recently, I thought I'd post some links on the blog so you can try them out too.

Although Ken Abbott is a Panthers fan (insert your own booing noise here), he's put lots of effort in to tracking down Old Time Hockey UK players from across the leagues, including quite a few with Sheffield connections. It's great to hear some of the stories from yesteryear, hear about what they are doing now, and helps us appreciate what we have got going on right now.

He can be found on Twitter @OldTimeHockeyUK or at his website http://oldtimehockeyuk.com/  (Here) Thanks Ken.

Here are some of my favourites:

1. Tommy Plommer :   http://oldtimehockeyuk.com/s2e03-the-tommy-plommer-podcast-interview (here)
2. Selmar Odelein :   http://oldtimehockeyuk.com/s2e01-the-selmar-odelein-podcast-interview (here) 
3. The Messiah :  http://oldtimehockeyuk.com/009-old-time-hockey-uk-interview-with-ken-priestlay (here)
4. Laser Les :  http://oldtimehockeyuk.com/les-millie (here)
5. Rocket Ron :  http://oldtimehockeyuk.com/003-old-time-hockey-uk-podcast-interview-with-rocket-ron-shudra (here) (With an associated blog post (here) )

Ken often puts a commentary together on the website too, and here's an example our the Duke from the page referenced above to give you a flavour:

In today’s show I interview Sheffield Steelers legend Tommy “The Duke” Plommer, an 8 year veteran of that Sheffield Steelers team.

Canadian Tommy talks of his time here in the UK, first as a sixteen year old playing a season with the Irvine Magnum Wings in 1985 and then returning to Scotland six years later to play professional soccer for Ayr United.
However the lure of the rink proved too strong, the local team, now the Ayr Raiders, had parted company with their dual national and Tommy was persuaded to switch sports, signing for the Raiders in 1991 – Tommy had already received his dual national status months earlier, his parents having emigrated from Glasgow in 1968.

A year on and with the Ayr Raiders teetering on the brink of going out of business, Tommy had decided to return to Canada to complete his education but changed his mind after receiving a call from Dave Simms who, on recommendation of  their netminder, former Fife Flyer Andy Donald, invited him to South Yorkshire to sign for the Sheffield Steelers,

They were looking for a dual national, I’d already played in the Premier League and wasn’t keen to drop down a division but eventually I decided to try it just for a year – I stayed eight!

Hockey night in Sheffield took off, crowds flocked to the brand new Arena and in no time all 8300 seats were sold out for virtually every game.
It didn’t take long for him to feel at home in Sheffield, he recalls,

“The fans were absolutely fantastic, I was a blue collar kid, playing in a blue collar town and that was perfect for me.

We also talk about the Steelers first Wembley Championship Finals appearance in 1994, where, after a euphoric semi final “thumping” of fierce rivals, the Nottingham Panthers (8 – 0) they faced the Cardiff Devils and with key import D-Man Selmar Odelein pulling out minutes before the game with a back injury, import forward Steve Nemeth having to play with a broken hand, they themselves were “thumped” by a record Playoff Final score of 12 – 1, Tommy recalls,We talk of those early Steelers glory years, of the Championships and the Cup Final victories and in particular “that game, that night”,  25th March 1995 to be exact, when the Steelers travelled to Nottingham. It was crunch time, win and the League title was theirs, lose and it would go to arch rivals, the Panthers.

With all that was going on, literally minutes before Face off, we probably lost the game mentally before it had even started.

We also talk how he got the name “The Duke”, about rituals and superstitions and how he managed to stay with the same team for 8 seasons, a feat totally unheard of in North America.
We also talk of  why he eventually chose to leave the club, opting to play a season for the Hull Thunder instead.

There’s more, much more…

Give them a try, and if you like them tell Ken and tell him you heard about them here - and hopefully we'll encourage him to search out some other Steelers Legends.


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