Ron MacLean
π€ SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
He was so good.
Well, let me give you two.
I'll go to Montreal.
Let me give you two quick things.
I wore Graf skates in Battle of the Blades because Claude was the chairman of Graf.
Did you know that?
I did not.
He resurrected that.
Yeah, he resurrected Graf skates.
And in fact, Bob, at one point, the only skates being made in our country were by Graf in Calgary.
Mike Hill was the guy who fitted me and got me into some Grafs.
But it was foreclosed that I did it.
I wanted to respect, you know, because Bauer had kind of been bought up by Reebok, and I can't forget the whole exchange, but Nike was involved.
So the two staples, Bauer and CCM, were kind of like when all the craft beers get bought up by either Labatt or Molson.
That was what was going on in skates for a while.
So Graf was truly the only Canadian made skate for, I don't know, maybe a year.
And Claude was responsible for that.
And the last thing, I'll just tell you a funny story about Claude.
In Montreal, so we're talking about what the atmosphere is like at the now Bell Centre, it was the Molson Centre, newly minted in 96 when they had the World Cup there.
Canada won game one, Iserman in overtime.