“In hockey, goaltending is 75 percent of the game. Unless it’s bad goaltending. Then it’s 100 percent of the game because you’re going to lose” was credited to former professional hockey player and coach Gene Ubriaco in 1992. The saying has become a hockey adage, but with the first percentage (also “50 percent of the game” or “90 percent of the game”) varying.
Wikipedia: Gene Ubriaco
Eugene Stephen Ubriaco (born December 26, 1937) is a Canadian professional ice hockey executive and former player. He is currently the Director of Hockey Operations for the Chicago Wolves of the American Hockey League (AHL). As a player, Ubriaco played three seasons with the Pittsburgh Penguins, Oakland Seals, and Chicago Black Hawks in the National Hockey League. In 1970, he returned to school to become a coach, which led to his returning to the NHL as the coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1988. He later moved to the Chicago Wolves as coach in 1994 and has remained with the organization ever since.
Google Books
The Sporting News Chronicle of 20th Century Sport
By Ron Smith
New York, NY: Mallard Press
1992
Pg. 327:
“In hockey, goaltending is 75 percent of the game. Unless it’s bad goaltending. Then it’s 100 percent of the game because you’re going to lose.”
GENE UBRIACO
Google Books
Hockey Shorts:
1,001 of the Game’s Funniest One-Liners
By Glenn Liebman
Chicago, IL: Contemporary Books
1996
Pg. 88:
“In hockey, goaltending is 75 percent of the game. Unless it’s bad goaltending. Then it’s 100 percent of the game, because you’re going to lose.”
Gene Ubriaco
20 May 2009, Winnipeg (Manitoba) Free Press, “Playoff goalies know the Oly score, try to ignore it” by Cam Cole, pg. C4, col. 2:
PITTSBURGH — “Goaltending is 75 per cent of the game,” longtime coach Gene Ubriaco once said. “ Unless it’s bad goaltending. Then it’s 100 per cent of the game, because you’re going to lose.”
Twitter
pixelpuck
@pixel_puck
#HockeyQuoteofTheDay “In hockey, goaltending in 75% of the game. Unless it’s bad goaltending. Then it’s 100% of the game.” Gene Ubriaco
9:00 AM - 28 Aug 2011
Twitter
Samuel D. Behrens
@bqaggie
Goaltending is 90% of a hockey game…unless it’s bad goaltending. Then it’s 100%.
8:10 PM - 14 Oct 2014
Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN)
Bad times for Wild beget lots of questions
Article by: MICHAEL RUSSO , Star Tribune Updated: December 27, 2014 - 9:27 PM
(...)
Russo: What’s the old saying, goaltending’s 50 percent of hockey, unless it’s bad goaltending? Something like that.
Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.
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Above, Big Apple Corner at 54th Street and Broadway in Manhattan. Google Maps. Stolen and missing, 2021-2024.
Above, John J. Fitz Gerald, from the Aug. 15, 1931, Binghamton (NY) Press, pg. 14.
Listen to Robert Emmerich introduce "The Big Apple," a hit song from 1937. Music written by Bob and performed by Tommy Dorsey's Clambake Seven with Bob on piano. Lyrics written by Buddy Bernier and sung by Edythe Wright. Audio provided by Dorothy Emmerich.
Also listen to a 1937 "The Big Apple" song by Ozzie Nelson and his Orchestra. See a 1929 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald and a 1931 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald.
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