[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 158 (Thursday, October 12, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S15138-S15139]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        TRIBUTE TO ROGER CROZIER

 Mr. ROTH. Mr. President, on September 29, 1995, at the Dupont 
Country Club in Wilmington, DE, the 5th annual Roger Crozier 
Invitational Golf for Adoption was held. This event benefits the 
Gladney Center, which places children for adoption throughout the 
United States, and the National Council for Adoption. It was created by 
an accomplished athlete, a successful 

[[Page S 15139]]
businessman, and a strong advocate for the cause of adoption, Mr. Roger 
Crozier. During the evening of the event, a special ceremony was held 
honoring Mr. Crozier for his achievements and efforts on behalf of 
adoption. The well-known sports writer, Tony Kornheiser, wrote a 
befitting tribute for the evening and I ask that the tribute by Mr. 
Kornheiser be printed in the Record.
  The tribute follows:

                       Remarks by Tony Kornheiser

       Many of you in the audience may be young enough that you 
     are not familiar with the great career Roger had in hockey. 
     So let me fill you in a bit:
       He played 14 years in the National Hockey League as a 
     goalie. Of all the sports that I've covered, I think hockey 
     is the toughest to play. You're hardly in motion at all in 
     baseball. You're in motion all the time in basketball--but 
     when you touch somebody in basketball you're called for a 
     foul. In hockey, there is continuous motion and frequent 
     violent hitting. True, the hitting is harder in football, but 
     there is more rest between plays. So I think hockey stands 
     alone in what it asks of you physically.
       And of all the sports I've covered, I think playing goalie 
     is the toughest position. The puck is flying at you, 
     frequently at speeds exceeding 100 miles an hour. And often 
     there are people between you and the puck, screening off your 
     vision, so you don't even get a good look at the puck as it 
     hurtles towards you. Sometimes, just before it gets there, 
     just as you have your glove out to snatch it, somebody will 
     nudge it with a stick or a skate, and you have to readjust 
     instantaneously. As a goalie you are asked to be a wizard 
     with your stick and glove, and an acrobat on your skates. And 
     don't you ever forget that every eye in the place is on you. 
     And should that puck trickle through your legs, or skip over 
     your stock, or rip into the net behind you . . . you will 
     hear boos that will make your ears burn. No matter how many 
     pads a goalie wears, he's always naked out there. Sometimes I 
     think goalies wear those masks less for protection from the 
     puck than to hide their faces, so the booing fans won't know 
     who to chase after the game.
       Roger Crozier did this for 14 years at the highest level of 
     hockey in the world. Can you imagine the skill and courage 
     and reflexes it took to do it for that long.
       You can't be ordinary and last 14 years. They'd have 
     shipped you out long before that.
       Roger was very good from the start. He was named Rookie of 
     The Year in his first season in the league; his name is on 
     the Calder Trophy along with people like Bobby Orr, Mario 
     Lemieux and Denis Potvin--giants of the game. In Roger's 
     rookie season a Canadian hockey writer said of Roger, ``Few 
     goaltenders have descended on the National Hockey League 
     in the past 10 years with the impact of the acrobatic 
     Crozier. This sprawling, weaving, twisting hockey octopus 
     is a fan's delight.''
       Later in his career Roger played for Buffalo and 
     Washington, expansion teams where there were so many holes in 
     the defense that a goalie feels he's skating through swiss 
     cheese. When a goaltender gets hot people say, 
     appreciatively, ``He stood on his head tonight.'' Well, with 
     an expansion team even standing on your head can't help. But 
     in those early days with the Detroit Red Wings, Roger played 
     on a team that gave him a chance to strut his stuff. Canadian 
     columnist Red Burnett talked about Roger's goaltending style 
     then, saying. ``He usually makes a last second lurch with the 
     speed of a striking rattler to block or glove the puck. Some 
     say he has the fastest catching hand in the business.'' Roger 
     was in fact so fast and so good that in 1966, even though 
     Detroit loss the Stanley Cup final to Montreal, Roger was 
     named the Most Valuable Player in the playoffs. His name is 
     engraved on the Conn Smythe trophy with Wayne Gretzky, Jean 
     Beliveau and Guy Lafleur. That's very elite company.
       Every generation throws another hero up the charts. People 
     my age look back with awe and reverence at athletes like 
     Jerry West, Oscar Robertson, Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle. 
     But my children don't even recognize those names. For them 
     it's Shaquille O'Neal and Ken Griffey Jr. When I go back even 
     further and mention Bob Cousy or Ted Williams they look at me 
     like I must have fought in the Civil War.
       So it is that Roger Crozier's deeds on the ice grow a 
     little dimmer with each passing year and each successive crop 
     of wizard goaltenders. But as a sportswriter, and 
     particularly as a grateful adoptive parent, I thought you'd 
     like to know what this fine man did before you knew 
     him.

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