My 40 Years In Journalism: Chapter 5: Tales From The College Pitch

 

By Mark Pukalo

It was Sunday, September 3, 1981, my first weekend on campus at UConn before classes began. I didn't know too many people, but decided to follow the crowd to the stadium for the men's soccer opener against Saint Louis.

It became one of the best games I ever saw in person for any sport. 

I sat amongst the crazies behind the North goal and watched the Huskies win 4-3 in overtime. I had a new passion. One Halloween I actually dressed up as UConn coach Joe Morrone, with a suit jacket and a clipboard.

I had been a little interested in soccer over the years, especially when Pele came to the New York Cosmos. I monitored New England Tea Men games on the radio. I remember listening to UConn lose on an icy field at Hartwick in the 1990 NCAA quarterfinals.

But that day in 1981, and that season, was when I became a soccer fan. I went to games with my floormates from Fairfield Hall in the Jungle. Am I remembering right? Did we actually take a keg to the game on Wednesdays?

Not sure. Can't be true. 

However, that season ended with me screaming in the kitchen at home in Canterbury after hearing the call of Jim D'Orsaneo's flying header off Jimmy Lyman's perfect cross to win the national championship. The next season we braved a snowstorm to watch the Huskies lose to Columbia in the quarterfinals. 

When I got to the Courant, I was able to write about a few UConn men's games the first couple years, but I did not cover the prominent contests until Ray Reid took over as coach in 1997. While the UConn administration was sloppy and careless the way they treated Morrone at the end, Reid did an amazing job. I wrote about the transition for Soccer America magazine.

Reid was more guarded than most coaches, which made it difficult at times. However, once he got his system in place, he loosened up just a bit. His 2000 team allowed me to write a national championship game story.

That was a memorable weekend as UConn beat a talented SMU team in the semifinals and took care of Creighton in the final with one of my favorite players and people Chris Gbandi leading the way. Gbandi is now the coach in Storrs.

"When the final seconds had ticked away and another talented offensive team had been shut out, they sprinted to their fans and leaped into the crowd. They danced. They hugged. Every second was savored.

The UConn men's soccer team always believed it could be the best in the country. Now, on the same turf where their season ended in tears a year earlier in the semifinals, the Huskies had proved they were champions."

The lasting memory of that game at Ericsson Stadium in Charlotte was Darin Lewis scoring the second goal in the 2-0 win before running to where Connecticut was painted on the field and laying on the T while extending his arms.

It was not my first final four of college soccer. It was my fifth, and last.

My Favorite Soccer Team: "The Sensational Seven"

When the 90s began, I started covering more college soccer. Many weekend afternoons and weekday nights were spent at the University of Hartford. The only bad thing about that was I had to drive over the colossal speed bumps while weaving my way to Al-Marzook Field.

Hated those things. They were like mountains.

No doubt my favorite season was in 1992, when the Lady Hawks took me on a wonderful ride all the way to the Final Four in Chapel Hill, N.C. The cover of the media guide pictured the seniors on that team with a caption reading "The Sensational Seven Seniors."

Whoever came up with that line nailed it.

"When (the seniors) came in as freshmen, they changed the program," Hartford coach Austin Daniels said that year. "There was a solid group there already, but these players were the ones that made the difference in 1989 and got better each year."

Nancy Kramarz, Karen Romero, Km LeMere (bottom from left), Suzanne Laakman, Jeannae Dergance, Beth DeBlasio, Tammy Thompson (top from left). I knew LeMere from covering her in high school at Torrington and Thompson at Simsbury. Kramarz and LeMere are two of my favorite people along the 40-year journey. 

The younger players on that team were great as well, like spirited freshmen Jessica Reifer from California and Amy Fournier from Washington. Junior Rose Daley was awesome beside LeMere up front. I covered Jewel Cooper, Jann Gregory, Lisa Kesselman and Kim Early in high school while Stacy Roth was a co-ed soccer teammate for a few games later on. Great players. Great young women. All of them. And they had a perfect role model.

Daniels was the calm, steady hand on that team's back. The UConn grad became a friend and I was sad to hear he passed away from a long illness last year. He is missed.

There were so many great games to cover that year, but none better than the matchups with coach Jim Rudy and UMass, along with the incredible game against UConn at home. Hartford won 2-1 in front of a huge crowd against the Huskies. A picture of LeMere celebrating the winner, sliding on her knees with arms straight up in the air (below) graced the Sports cover.

Those were the days at the Courant. Great photos, editors who knew what was important, and no on-line stories needed.

Everything set up a battle for a spot in the Final Four with UMass on a frigid November day at Al-Marzook. The Hawks were able to celebrate on the field as they pulled out a 2-1 victory. Owen Canfield was there with me and wrote a wonderful column, as only he could, without seeing the team all year.

The Hawks had a date with Duke in the national semifinals and I took the trip to Tar Heel Country. It was one of my favorites. I was able to get a press pass to the Dean Dome for a basketball game (Cinnamon Pretzels, yum) and really enjoyed the campus.

The only downer was the Hartford offense could not get on track and the Blue Devils earned a 1-0 victory. The Hawks were disappointed they would not get a chance against Mia Hamm, Kristine Lilly and the Tar Heels - even though NC won 9-1 in the championship game played on a sloppy field.

The night after the semifinal game was spent in the hotel bar with the coaches and the seniors. They had moved on. They laughed, they danced, Every time I hear the song "Hip Hop Hurray" from Naughty by Nature, I think of that night. I tried to get them to play some Bruce on the jukebox, but I was outvoted.

Daniels left for Colorado in 1996 and Mark Krikorian brought the Hawks to the NCAA quarterfinals in 1999. That gave me a trip to Penn State where Hartford was beaten 2-0. The soccer field was in the vicinity of the great football stadium. What a campus.

Those teams were solid, but could not match the guts, talent and the personality of the 1992 group. It's been almost 33 years. Heyyyy Ho. ... Heyyyy Ho. Miss those days.

The Whalers And Whalen

The UConn women's team allowed me a trip to the Final Four in Greensboro, N.C. in 1997. The Huskies beat Hartford in double overtime in the second round and routed William & Mary in the quarterfinals to set up a date with powerful Notre Dame.

It was also the first year after the Whalers had moved to Carolina and I was assigned to write a story on the atmosphere at the Greensboro Coliseum. It was good to visit some of the players who made the move to Carolina like Kevin Dineen, Sean Burke, Sami Kapanen, Keith Primeau, Jeff O'Neill, Adam Burt, Geoff Sanderson and Glen Wesley.

I took some shots at Carolina in the story, so apparently it was well received in Hartford. But my primary job that weekend was the UConn women and they gave me an exciting game to cover in the semifinals.

Notre Dame outshot the Huskies badly, but Sara Whalen (left) scored twice and Ellington's Heather Stone made some key saves for coach Len Tsantiris in a 2-1 victory. My press seat was behind the goal where UConn preserved the victory in the second half.

"Put them in any order you want, but the three elements UConn needed against Notre Dame in their NCAA women's soccer semifinal materialized on a magical Friday.

Defense. Luck. Sara Whalen."

North Carolina had too much for the Huskies in the final with US national team players Cindy Parlow and the very likeable Lorrie Fair leading the way to a 2-0 win. I recapped the Final Four in a story for Soccer Digest when I got home.

UConn had plenty of talented players and great people as well, led by Kristen Graczyk (now Corona), and including Carey Dorn, Chrissy McCann, Jen Carlson, Kerry Conners, Kerry Page, Karen Ferguson and Sarah Barnes - among others.

That 1992 game at Al-Marzook and the magical Friday afternoon in Greensboro top the list of UConn women's soccer moments for me.

Two Years With Sasho

A young coach with a big personality took over the Hartford men in 1991 and turned the Hawks into an NCAA tournament team.

Sasho Cirovski was smart, friendly and commanded attention with a strong team in 1991. The Hawks won the league title on the wet turf at Nickerson Field against BU to reach the NCAAs for the first time, led by forward Vito Serafini among others.

I traveled to Columbia for the first round win, but could not follow Hartford to Charlottesville to see their 2-1 loss in four overtimes against Virginia. The Cavaliers went on to win the national title.

The Hawks made it back to the NCAAs next year, but lost at Seton Hall in the first round. Then, Cirovski was gone. Maryland stole him away and the Terrapins have won three national titles since.

Cirovski (left) called me after he decided to take the job in Maryland. He was almost apologetic. He thanked me for my work. I told him how much fun it was covering his teams and wished him luck. I heard he later nominated me for the New England Soccer Writer of the Year. Didn't come close to winning, of course. But it was nice of him.

Hartford wasn't the same to cover afterward. Jim Evans had some success, but did not have the same personality and talent as Cirovski. I was able to take a trip to UNC-Charlotte for an NCAA quarterfinal game, which the Hawks lost 3-0 in 1996, but they only made the NCAAs twice.

Southern Nights In Florida

Ray Reid built a dynasty at Southern Connecticut before taking over at UConn. I rarely saw them play, but I was able to cover the Owls in the Division II Final Four twice.

The Owls beat Gannon 2-0 in the 1993 semifinals and lost in the final at Melbourne, Fla. However, the thing I remember most about that weekend was the pulsating semifinal game between Seattle Pacific and host Florida Tech.

My story was in already and just needed a line on who won the other semifinal that would never end. The teams tied 3-3 in regulation and skillful Tech delivered two goals in overtime to take the lead, but Seattle Pacific scored with 62 seconds left in the second OT and in the waning seconds to survive. After 30 more minutes of scoreless sudden-death OT, it took 13 rounds to end the penalty-kick shootout in Seattle Pacific's favor.

A story on the internet said the game last 4 hours and 7 minutes. It is one of the best soccer games I have ever seen for skill and drama. Just amazing.

The two players I remember most from that Southern team were talented goalie Bo Oshonyi and midfielder George Kiefer, who would later become the head coach at USF.

The following year Southern returned to the Sunshine State as I was introduced to my future home. The Owls took on the University of Tampa in a 0-0 tie as goalkeeper Rick Koczak from Wallingford put on a show before the hosts won a PK shootout.

Tampa felt like home. It wasn't long before I started vacationing here. I guess I can thank the Owls 

Central Had Plenty Of Heart

You almost forget about Central Connecticut soccer, but I had some good times occasionally covering teams coached by Shaun Green (men) and Mick D'Arcy (women).

Green, a product of Newcastle, England, was a great interview and stuck around for more than 30 years as coach - well after I left the state. It all nearly ended in the early 2000s when he suffered a heart attack. His recovery turned into a feature story for me. I look back at some of the quotes now and think about how just being diagnosed with heart failure a few years ago changed my life.

"The problem is you tend to think you always have something left in your account," Green said. "You always save a little bit of yourself. Since then, I'm not that way. I try to get as much out of every day as I possibly can. Every day is worth 10 times what it was before. ... If I do live until 80, I'd feel blessed that I had a heart attack. It's made me a much better person."

I knew D'Arcy (left) a little before he took over as coach at Central. He was an assistant with both the men and women at Hartford and worked for Tony DiCicco's camps. D'Arcy, a native of Ireland, is approaching his 26th year as coach. I can still hear him yelling "Ohhhh, Mr. Referee!"

The best memory I have of his team was their 1-0 victory at Boston College in the first round of the 2003 NCAA Tournament. I wrote my story in a little hut near the field, on the outskirts of the campus. Kelly Shimmin led the Blue Devils, who lost to UConn in the second round 3-2 in three overtimes. Don't remember that game. Perhaps I was covering something else that day.

 The Huskies went on to the NCAA championship game that year, only to lose 6-0 to North Carolina.

Woooooooo!

Some of the players with the men's college teams I covered went on to suit up for the Connecticut Wolves.

The Onolfo Family founded the team that played in the USISL to start in 1993. Clif Onolfo ran the Wolves for the first four years until the city of New Britain bought the team. While his brother Curt played for the national team and was always classy, Clif was more of a snake-oil salesman.

It was a poorly run team off the field, but there were some memorable moments at Willow Brook Park. Tony Meola showed up to play one night for example. I think Glastonbury's Erik Barbieri scored on him. They met a club team from Latvia one night. National team player Janusz Michallik played some games with the Wolves in 1995 as well.

The best thing about the Wolves was player/coach Leszek Wrona. The former Polish national was always a pleasure to talk to. He went on to coach other teams and then led the girls and boys squads at Plainville High.

On To MLS

The 1994 World Cup created a buzz that turned into a new pro league in America. Major League Soccer opened its doors in 1996 and I was allowed to cover the teams in Foxborough and New Jersey the first few years.

I traveled to cover the New England Revolution more often than the New York/New Jersey MetroStars and had a lot of fun with it. The Revs had a good following and some characters, led by Italian goalie Walter Zenga early on.

I didn't write on deadline some nights in Foxborough and I can remember zipping out to the media lot after the game ended, listening to the Beatles classic song "Revolution." You always worried if MLS would survive early on, but look at it now.

I covered the first MLS Cup final as D.C. United beat the LA Galaxy 3-2 in Foxborough. Not sure about 1999 and 2002. Really enjoyed some of the Revs teams that could never win a Cup. Michael Parkhurst (left) was one of the best defenders and Shalrie Joseph was fun to watch in the middle of the field while Taylor Twellman and Clint Dempsey could score with anyone.

Twellman seemed to start every answer after games with "At the end of the day. ...," which became a running joke in the press box. Later, he became an analyst on TV. Maybe he was just fooling with us.

Dempsey was a force, and always a good quote. However, some of the players used to joke about how bad his try at rap music was. Lots of swear words. LOL.

Miss those trips for night games at Gillette Stadium. I don't watch as much soccer these days. Perhaps some day, I will get into it again.

Those crisp autumn days in New England will not be forgotten, though. Whether it was Joe Morrone Stadium, Al-Marzook Field or even at Yale, where the men made a run in 1991 under Steve Griggs and Rudy Meredith's women reached the round of 16 in 2005, it was more than just a job.

Soccer was my life in the 90s.

My 40 Years In Journalism, Chapter 4: American World Cups

 

By Mark Pukalo

I came down the elevator from somewhere in the Chicago clouds on June 17, 1994 and met the door man at the ground floor with shock washed across his face.

"OJ. He's in a bronco. With a gun to his head!" he said.

Huh?

It was a total surprise to me. I was so focused on my job covering the opener of the 1994 World Cup soccer tournament at Soldier Field between Germany and Bolivia that I had not heard about the madness on the left coast the previous few days.

I was heading across the street to Kitty O'Shea's for some food, beer, a little Irish music (the Unicorn Song was heard) and to watch the Knicks-Rockets in the NBA finals. Unfortunately, every television in the wonderful bar had the bronco chase.

It was crazy. 

The FIFA Men's World Cup returns to the United States next year (unless they move it) for the first time since and I probably won't be able to attend any games. I still have so many great memories from 31 years ago. Someone asked me recently what was the best experience in my career and it's easy. The summer of 1994.

I had covered the U.S. national team for quite a while since they qualified for the 1990 World Cup in Italy. My first story was on Paul Caligiuri, whose long-range shot beat Trinidad & Tobago to get the Americans back in the tournament after a long absence. I interviewed him one day after the team trained at a small field in Wallingford.

One of my favorite stories was when I called John Harkes (left) at his home in England when he was playing for Sheffield Wednesday between 1990-93.

"The Daily Telegraph said of Harkes: "The last American to hear such roars of approval - from one side of Wembley Stadium at least - was Bruce Springsteen."

One of my best friend's sisters Pam Calhoun Sievers lives in the Chicago suburbs and close to where Germany was training before the Cup opener. I proposed that I fly in a few days earlier, go to the Germans camp to do a story, and my editors approved. I believe the first night I was there I watched the Rangers win the Stanley Cup.

The Germans' camp was amazing. They trained on a beautiful high school field and held a press conference afterward. In pure German form, everything was set up impeccably. I got what I needed and headed to Chicago.

The press room at Soldier Field was huge and when I received my seat I realized I would be out in the sun. It was brutally hot and I sat way down near the center line for the pregame festivities. Oprah apparently fell through the stage after introducing Diana Ross. Bill and Hillary were there.

The game was fine. Jurgen Klinsmann (above), who lived in California and would later coach the US National team, scored the only goal in a 1-0 German win. I might have sat in the press room for the second half because it felt like 100 degrees outside. Then, I found out about OJ.

I stayed up way too late and got very little sleep before heading to the airport for m early flight to Detroit to cover the first USA game at Pontiac Stadium. The flight was overbooked and I had fear for a while that I would be bumped.

Swiss fans were ringing cowbells on the flight. I was told that there would be shuttle rides to the stadium at the airport in Detroit. But I had to fight to get into a car for the half hour ride to the Silverdome.

I walked to the entrance at Pontiac and the guy at the door said something like, "Do you really want to go in there?" You did and you didn't. It felt like a sauna inside and I made it to my seat with very few minutes to spare before the kickoff.

It was an amazing game. I had a perfect view of Eric Wynalda's brilliant free kick that found the net as the Americans worked out a 1-1 tie. Somehow, my pass for the media area (the infamous Mixed Zone) was not in my packet (well, it was, but I could not find it at first). I was lucky to see some people I knew from US Soccer and I joined the scrum around Tony Meola and Wynalda, among others.

What a day. I went to the work room at the media hotel and watched Ireland beat Italy.1-0 on Ray Houghton's beautiful shot from way outside the penalty area. 

I believe I covered 11 games in the tournament, staying in Foxborough or Giants Stadium for the final nine. I don't remember something from all of them, but a few stand out.

The first game I made in Foxborough at the old stadium was Greece versus Argentina. Diego Maradona was likely playing in his last World Cup at 33 and scored a magical goal in a 4-0 triumph for the Argentines. He only played one more game before failing a drug test and getting banned for the rest of the tournament. I was there for his last goal in a World Cup.

The only other memorable first-round game was in East Rutherford, N.J. and it wasn't because of the play on the field. The crowd was like none I have ever seen. It was a 0-0 tie, but the fans of Norway and primarily Ireland sang the whole game. I've sat in many arenas or stadiums with stirring atmospheres. This one was the best.

I also covered four incredible 2-1 games in the knockout rounds.

First it was Italy versus Nigeria in Foxborough. Roberto Baggio saved the Italians with a goal in the waning minutes of regulation and forced a penalty before converting the winner in the 110th minute.

Next it was a quarterfinal in Foxborough between the Italians and Spain. My lead in that story read this way.

"Blood dripped Luis Enrique's nose, spreading across his Spanish national team uniform in the final minutes. A look of distress washed across his face.

Enrique's nose was broken by an errant elbow from Italian defender Mauro Tassotti. But the sucker punch the Italians laid on the Spaniards a few minutes earlier was much more painful."

Baggio's 88th minute goal gave Italy the win and sent them to the semifinals in New Jersey.

Another Eastern quarterfinal at Giants Stadium was an upset as Bulgaria sent Germany home earlier than expected. The irrepressible Hristo Stoichkov tied the game with a banger of a free kick and Yordan Lechkov's shiny bald head delivered the winner for Bulgaria, which barely qualified for the tournament. In the something you will rarely see category, the Bulgarian press stood up and cheered the win.

That set up a semifinal with Italy, and Baggio scored twice in the first 25 minutes. Stoichkov cut the lead in half before intermission, but the Bulgarians could never find the equalizer. 

It looked like this would be Baggio's World Cup. However, he missed a penalty in the shootout after a 0-0 tie and Brazil took the trophy. I did not attend the final at the Rose Bowl, but wrote a story while watching the game with both Italians and some Brazilians in Hartford.

It was sort of an anti-climactic end to an amazing month. The travel was tough at times, but it was all worth it. It was a different time in America. People enjoyed the diversity. They came together to watch the beautiful game.

We may never get that back

Hail To The 99ers

It was 1991 and the United States women's soccer team had just won the first FIFA World Cup in China.

I have memories of writing something when they got home, centering around Wilton's Kristine Lilly. The 20-year-old was at the University of North Carolina and a key member of the Americans' midfield.

It was the first of many stories I wrote about Lilly, Mia Hamm, Michelle Akers, Julie Foudy and many others. They were amazing group to be around and when Wethersfield's Tony DiCicco took over as coach, the coverage went to a new level.

The World Cup came to the USA in 1999 and the tournament was a springboard for women's sports in the country. Every sport. Fans fell for this group of players, who were so tough, so skillful and so accessible.

I covered the tournament with our incredible soccer historian Jerry Trecker and my friend Lori Riley. Lori was pregnant with her daughter Kate at the time, but she soldiered on through the games we covered in Foxborough and Giants Stadium.

I honestly don't remember many of the games we were at, but the final first-round game under the lights in Foxborough was not forgotten. Shannon McMillian broke a scoreless tie in the 56th minute with a howitzer of a shot and Tisha Venturini added two goals for a 3-0 win over North Korea.

We all had to watch the final against China at the Rose Bowl on television, and what an event. Yes, it was a 0-0 tie, but it is still one of the most intense games in my lifetime.

Lilly saved a shot off the goal line and former UMass star Brianna Scurry made a save in the penalty-kick shootout before Brandi Chastain's left-footed shot heard around the world.

I'm not sure which of the players was my favorite to cover over the years. I know the best anecdote was in a Sports Illustrated article about Mia Hamm. Her mother was a dancer and her dad a fighter pilot. That was Mia - poetry in motion and tough as nails, except when I made her cry with a question once.

It is one of my claims to fame. I made Mia cry after the 1992 NCAA Championship game. I asked her how she felt about this being the last game for her and Lilly to play in Chapel Hill. Oops. Lilly had one more year because she sat one out, even though the media guide said "senior." Despite the mistake, the thought still made Mia cry.

Way to go Mark.

Lilly (left) was shy and hard to reach on the phone, but she was always willing to chat as she got to know me. It took me about a month to get her on the phone in Chapel Hill for a story. It took me quite a while to get her when I was writing a story for the "50 best athletes of the 21st century in Connecticut" series. That might have been one of my best pieces ever as I caught up with many of the boys she played on a team with when she was a little soccer wizard.

Foudy was always good to talk to, Akers classy and Tiffeny Milbrett was an under-rated interview. 

There will never be another women's team like them. They were pioneers. I was lucky to spend time covering them.

My 40 Years in Journalism, Chapter 3: Stories From The Road, Oddball Memories

 

By Mark Pukalo

I finished my story on the Celtics-Sixers game in the press room at the Spectrum in Philadelphia early in 1995, and asked what the number was for a cab to take me back to my hotel near the airport.

"Oh, cabs don't come out here this late," was the reply.

Huh? How the heck am I going to get back?

I'm not sure who spoke up first, whether it was Hall of Fame Globe writer Jackie McMullan or the person from the Sixers' radio or TV crew that had another spot in his car for me. But, thankfully, I had a ride.

I don't remember whether there was some bad traffic on the highway or the guy was trying to impress us with his local knowledge, but the driver said he was going to take an alternate route. He knows what he's doing, I thought, sitting in the backseat with Jackie - the first woman to win the Curt Gowdy Media Award from the Basketball Hall of Fame.

We took a left at some point down a side street and, what the  ... is going on? Dozens of people were running toward us, fleeing something. They streamed by and there was silence for a few seconds.

"Oh, no. They do illegal drag races on this street some nights," the driver said.

Drag races? Police had apparently broken up the fun. Wonder if James Dean got away. 

We turned around and finally got back to our hotels. I always exaggerate it a little bit and say I almost died in a car at 32 with Jackie McMullan. But who knows if we had gotten to that spot a minute earlier? I only covered one or two more Celtics games in my career, but when I saw Jackie again at the old Boston Garden once after that she remembered the strange trip. She couldn't have been nicer.

In parts of five decades as a sports writer, there were oddball trips and some very memorable events I covered outside my main beats. I will have full blogs on both my life covering college and pro hockey and college, pro and international soccer soon.

This one is about all the rest, like the one time I covered the New York Yankees.

Somewhere in the 90s, I was asked to fill in for Jack O'Connell on a quick two-game series in Kansas City. I flew out to KC and hopped in my rental car for the half-hour trip to a hotel in the city.

The skies were dark and getting darker as I started out. Honestly, I had never seen a sky like this before. Soon after, a special weather advisory came across the radio.

"Golf ball sized hail in the Kansas City area. Take cover."

Golf-ball sized? I don't remember why I did not find an underpass to stop at. Maybe there were none that looked safe. But as I was approaching the city, it started to pour. I'm in a rental car that I'm not used to, on a road I've never seen before and I can't see anything.

Many years later, I had a similar situation when I drove into a blizzard in the West Virginia mountains coming back from a horse racing trip to Kentucky. However, I was in my own car and I was able to follow the lights of another vehicle in front of me, just enough to stay safe.

The monsoon in KC lasted maybe five minutes. Seemed longer. Not sure I have been more scared  Luckily, there was nothing stopped in my way and the road was straight. The hail was more like the size of M&Ms and once I could see again it was time to enter the main part of the city.

That was some 30 years ago, but the complex in Kansas City with the two stadiums (above) and the parking lot was amazing. It was a fun trip and the Yankees treated me well.

Baseball memories are few, but I did cover a handful of games at Fenway. When I saw the movie "Moneyball," I can say that Brad Pitt might be sitting in the Courant's seat when he was talking to John Henry late in the film. Maybe Paul Doyle can verify that. I was there for a John Rocker appearance at Fenway as well.

I also covered the New Britain Red Sox a little bit one season. I remember interviewing Curt Schilling while he was young and sane. I saw Tori Hunter go deep. witnessed a three-run deficit evaporate with two out and no one on, but I will always remember Vladimir Guerrero.

I had heard about Vlad when I talked to someone in the locker room pregame. Then, I saw him make the most incredible throw I have ever seen. He tracked down a gapper on the warning track in deep right center, turned and unleashed a laser beam to third base. It soared, dipped, took one bounce and easily nabbed a runner. I'm not even sure it was the guy that hit it. I'm pretty sure it was the guy that started on first base.

Incredible.

I can name drop, too. I went to the bar for lunch at a nice hotel in Tampa the afternoon before a Whalers-Lightning game back in 1997. Whaler brawler Kelly Chase introduced me to Chicago Cubs Brian McRae and Mark Grace, who were visiting. Cool stuff.

Ouch

This story still seems a bit surreal.

I'm not sure what year it was. Maybe just before or just after the New York Giants won their second Super Bowl in 1990, a group of players came to West Hartford to participate in a basketball game. The opponent this night was the Hartford media. Really.

The game was played on a court at the Jewish Community Center in West Hartford. I honesty don't remember all of the players who suited up on either side, except one. His name was William Roberts, a behemoth offensive lineman who played for the Giants from 1984-94.

I was anxious to play, but early on I went up for a rebound in traffic and I came down on Mr. Roberts' huge sneaker. My whole body twisted and I suffered a groin injury. The pain was horrible as I tried to recover in the locker room.

Wanting to play so badly, I came back to join the team for a bit in the second half. I remember hitting one shot from the corner, but I couldn't really move. It took me at least a month to get off the disabled list.

I will always remember the injury. I still don't understand why the Giants wanted to come to play the Hartford media in a small gym. Must have been some sort of benefit tour. I vaguely remember signing autographs afterward. Some guy 30-something now might have my autograph. LOL.

Out On The Links

Golf provided some great times. The drama or individual triumph always made stories easier to write.

I was there for Tiger Woods' win at Bethpage on Long Island in 2002. What a course. We parked 20-30 minutes away and took a shuttle. After the last round, I got home 3-4 in the morning, just in time to watch the USA beat Mexico in the World Cup.

I covered countless GHOs (won't call it anything else), interviewing Tom Watson, Ernie Els, Tom Kite, Paul Azinger, Phil Mikkelson, Greg Norman, Nick Price, Fuzzy Zoeller and many others. It's strange, though. I was looking at a list of the winners from 1986 through 2007 and nothing really stands out. Heck, I don't even remember local boy J.J. Henry winning.

The golf staff went to a Senior PGA event in Paramus, New Jersey one year to work on the 50th anniversary of the GHO special section and got to talk to many legends. That was pretty special.

I saw Martina Hingis putting on the practice green with then-boyfriend Sergio Garcia in the late afternoon at Westchester CC. I covered Bob Tway's son Kevin winning the U.S. Junior, and wrote an A1 story on Liz Janangelo winning Connecticut Women's Open at 13-years-old.

"Elizabeth Janangelo weighed two pounds when she was born. She was nine weeks premature and spent six weeks in the intensive care unit. Nearly 14 years later, Elizabeth is still doing things ahead of schedule."

However, probably my favorite two golf stories involved the names William Salvatore and Brandi Faia.

Who?

Salvatore was the only player to win the State Junior Championship three times (1956-58) and Wethersfield's Richard Breed gave himself a chance to match it in 1988. However, Jon Veneziano of Berlin stood in his way.

The event was my favorite to cover in the summer. Watertown GC was a perfect venue for match play golf. It is filled with unique risk-reward holes. I loved walking it with fellow reporters and catching the key shots from certain vantage points.

Salvatore was a Watertown boy and did not play much golf anymore. He did not attend, but his mother Doris showed up for the match - likely with mixed emotions.

Neither player had more than a one hole lead through the first 16 holes and they were tied on the 17th tee. Veneziano stuck his approach 2 feet away from the pin and went ahead, but his drive on the 18th slid way right. The state high school champ found a window and landed his pitching wedge on the green. Breed (left) could not make birdie and Veneziano finished it in "Salvatorian fashion" with a long, winding birdie putt.

No player has won three in a row since.

Faia caddied for Dave Stockton Jr. at the Nike Connecticut Open in 1993. She was a relatively tiny young woman who had never done the job before, but proved to be a perfect sidekick for Stockton's triumphant week that ended on Father's Day. If I remember right, Dave didn't use the big PGA-type bag. That one might have been bigger than Faia.

"She never said anything wrong and everything was positive," Junior said of his friend. "She's never caddied before, but it seemed like she'd done it for 30 years."

Take that Fluff.

Junior sealed the event with a 60-foot birdie putt on the 17th green and was an absolute delight to watch and interview. He later played pretty well at the GHO. But that week at Yale GC was one of the best I've had covering an event without the big crowds. 

The best thing about our GHO coverage was the 50-year anniversary issue. We each took a decade and mine was the 70s, which I remember well because I had a chance to go there and watch as a kid. Me and my friend Ty Roby used to sit behind the green on the Par 5 16th hole at Wethersfield CC and one year we hunted several autographs as the players made the long walk to the 17th tee. Wish I still had that pad.

It was the perfect decade for me and I wrote a fun story about the local people who had lemonade stands, primarily Jack and Elsie Grant near the sixth fairway. I also wrote a story on Lee Trevino, who met his future wife - when she was 13 - at Wethersfield. I was able to interview the Merry Mex at the course and wife Claudia on the phone. From what I heard, the article was one of the most viewed in Courant sports history. That surprised me.

Probably my favorite story of that project was on the 1979 GHO, which ended on Tuesday without TV coverage after horrible weather from Friday through Monday. Jerry McGee, who was being sued by a former sponsor, found a way to win the event and Jack Renner was second. The tournament staff did an incredible job getting the course ready Tuesday and the WTIC radio coverage was outstanding. 

I was able to track down both McGee and Renner on the phone somehow. The private Renner was harder to reach outside San Diego, but he was surprised and happy to help. The guy who wore the Ben Hogan hat said he had been out of golf circles for a while, but one of the tournaments he missed was the GHO at Wethersfield.

It was always a tiring week to cover the event, which later moved to Cromwell where we parked in the cornfield. It was a lot of fun most years, though. The GHO media days were not bad either.

The previous champion came in during the early Spring for a press conference and all of us media types got a chance to play the course. One year I shared a cart with ESPN's Chris Berman and had a great time. Saw him a few times after that day and he always came over to say hello. I'm still annoyed I did not win the long drive contest that year. I didn't play very well overall, but absolutely hammered one down the 18th fairway with my old wooden driver. I think someone cheated. LOL.

Outside of soccer and hockey, golf probably gave me the most fond memories.

Tennis Anyone?

I did very little with tennis in my career. But the one event, - other than high schools - I covered was a major highlight. I just can't find any details on it. All I can remember is it was a lot of fun and it was close to 100 degrees all week.

It was either in the summer of 1988 or 89 at a small venue in Simsbury with pros over 35-years-old, who all struggled in the heat. Rick Peckham, the Whalers announcer, did the final on the local New England sports channel and one of his lines was, "The players pause for a few seconds to enjoy the first breeze of the week."

Colin Dibley was one name I remember. Perhaps Roscoe Tanner and Rod Laver played? It's going to bother me if I can't find more specifics. It was an amazing week early in my career development.

I vaguely remember covering Hartford FoxForce professional co-ed team tennis at some point. They had a neat stadium set up at Blue Fox Run GC in Avon. The Jensen brothers played doubles for the team.

The only other "sort of" tennis thing I remember is covering one of Ivan Lendl's five daughters winning a junior golf event (Isabelle?). Lendl was there to watch. "Ivan the Terrible" seemed like a decent guy. Apparently, he lives in Vero Beach these days.

Who Am I? What Am I Doing Here?

I was assigned - at the last minute - to attend a get together at the Governor's mansion in Hartford, probably in 1992 or 93. I had no instructions. Just go. Oh, thanks.

I threw on a suit jacket and walked into the affair. To be honest, I'm not sure if I even wrote any kind of story. Perhaps the Courant got a few invitations, someone could not go and they needed someone to fill a spot. I don't remember ever getting an answer.

So, at the time, I was working on the Yale Bowl's bid to host World Cup games in 1994. When I had a moment with then-Governor Lowell Weicker, I asked him a few questions about it and got a quote that I used at some point.

If I remember right, there were higherups from the Courant there. I was told I did well. I'm not sure what I did well. But, great! LOL.

Odds and Ends: Huskies, Warriors and Coneheads

The first time the UConn women's basketball team made the NCAA Tournament, I joined the Husky family and friends at a local restaurant just off campus to see who they would play. LaSalle was to be the first opponent and my byline announced it.

Who could have thought the program would win 12 national titles and not miss the NCAA Tournament since? I still have that sports page (left).

I was able to cover the NCAA men's tournament in Hartford one year, writing a sidebar on a losing team (Army). Early in my career, I traveled to the Trenton, N.J. area to cover the Eastern Connecticut softball team win a national title. It's been so long, but it was one of my first - if not my first - trip out of state to cover an event. The Warriors were a juggernaut at the time.

Another neat memory was covering David Cone's rehab appearance in Norwich after he suffered an aneurysm in his right shoulder in 1996. People wore coneheads in the huge crowd. My story was simple and detailed. The mid-to-late 90s was probably my peak of efficiency before I began to get a little burned out.

The only time I remember covering a regular-season NFL game was a Bengals-Patriots contest at old Foxboro Stadium. I covered the other kind of football much more at that great venue.

I actually enjoyed the few times I covered local stock car racing at Riverside and Thompson. It was a pretty easy night, they had good food in the press box and it was a good change of pace.

It is technically a high school piece, but I also did a feature on Rick Fox's brother Aaron, who played basketball for Suffield Academy. He was an interesting story because he had a bad leg from an accident as I recall, but was still had great hops and was a major factor for the team. He later played at Jacksonville University.

The best I can remember, I covered events in 17 different states from California to Florida to Michigan to Vermont and two Canadian provinces. I have been to only nine other states, counting the time the Whalers charter stopped in Kansas to refuel.

Hopefully, I can build on 26 at some point.

My 40 Years in Journalism, Chapter 2: The Dream Team In The Big City

 

By Mark Pukalo

The summer of 1987 was my last with Shoreline Newspapers. It was time to move on, take a chance at the big time.

The opportunity arose to settle in for a 30-hour position covering high school sports for the Hartford Courant, the oldest continually-published newspaper in the country. The whole thing happened so fast.

It was a bit intimidating, but I had to learn to write on deadline and challenge myself to get better. High School editor Bohdan Kolinsky was my best mentor and a good friend. Bo was the dean of high school sports in the state and his calm hand helped me through the many difficult obstacles I would face.

My first story in the Courant was probably a high school football game. However, most of my time was spent in the office answering phones, taking box score information and writing roundups. 

Most of my memories from those first few years were from the basketball court. 

*Tracy Lis, the amazing scorer leading Killingly to a state girls basketball title. Lis went on to score a bundle of points at Providence College.

*Southington's girls basketball team coached by Joe Daddio, who later went through some scandals. Meghan McNicholas was his feisty point guard and she is currently a volunteer assistant for the Blue Knights with a daughter on the team.

*I covered big Marvin Saddler with St. Joseph-Trumbull one night in a great game at South Catholic in Hartford. St. Joe's coach Vito Montelli (878 wins) was a classic. It was like being led to the governor or a Pope when you went to interview him after a game. Saddler went on to have a solid career at Providence. Montelli passed away in 2023 at 92.

*The most amazing individual performance I ever saw while with the Courant was "Super" John Williamson's son Maurice playing in the state tournament with Wilbur Cross one night in Meriden. Jiggy was unstoppable. A few of his 20-foot jumpers seemed to go through the net without it moving. Boom. Williamson went on to LSU to play for Dale Brown. Teammate Ricky Lopes, an uncoordinated 7-2 center, went on to play at Duquesne.

The thing about that night? I will always remember how amazing Williamson was, but Bulkeley beat Cross. Jonathan Greenfield led the way for the Bulldogs.

*I can never forget Mike Williams from Weaver. He was a fun player to watch on the green court. Mike looked slow, but had a great first step and lots of tricks. He went on to make some big shots for John Calipari at UMass. I don't remember it, but he apparently made the key basket the night Temple's John Chaney stormed into the press conference looking to beat up Calipari. Williams stepped in between. Mike passed away in 2021. R.I.P.

*One event I covered early in my career sticks with me. The national wheelchair basketball championships were at Central Connecticut somewhere between 1987-89. The athletes were great and it was an eye-opening event to see.

Probably the most memorable story I ever wrote was my first-person account trying out for the semi-professional New Haven Skyhawks basketball team in May of 1988. It was a great experience and I appreciated the confidence the editors had in me as a "part-timer." My lead?

"On a dark and gloomy Saturday morning, 28 basketball players climb the steps of the New Haven YMCA building with a dream."

I covered some UConn soccer games and pitched a story on NFL football in 1988, because I was going out to the Cleveland area to visit my aunt, uncle and cousins in August. They lived close to Browns camp and I was awarded a press pass through the New York Giants. Someone in my family knew someone who knew Browns coach Marty Schottenheimer's wife I think. LOL. Being as naive as I was at the time in these surroundings, I wandered into his office and got a brief one-on-one interview with Marty. I remember him being very nice about it. I'd probably be tackled and arrested if I did that today.

I was writing a story about Browns future Hall of Fame tight end Ozzie Newsome. I got a few quotes from Ozzie in the locker room and went to work, putting together what I thought was a pretty darn good piece for my experience. I also wrote a story on the Giants-Browns preseason game.

It was a surreal experience for me in the big time. There were a lot of positives, but one big negative. Jim Jenks, a recently-hired origination editor somehow didn't go for a pretty simple lead and intro to a basic feature. He fooled with the first few graphs and Ozzie Newsome became Ozzie "Smith" in the lead. Somehow, no one on the copy desk or the floor caught the stupid mistake. Can you tell I'm still pissed about it almost 37 years later?

Memories. Ugh.

I had one other standout experience before a major change at the Courant in the fall of 1989. Trumbull won the Little League World Series. I was sent to cover the parade when they got home in late August and the story was to be on A1, the cover of the whole newspaper.

Once again, I wish I had saved that page. I walked the parade route and talked to people, then the coach and players. Chris Drury, the current GM of the New York Rangers, was the key interview. Good thing no one changed his name to Chris "Smith."

The Best Team I Ever Played For

Everything changed in the summer of 1989. 

I had my first A1 story and my professional basketball career was over, but the most important development was joining a Dream Team of writers/friends covering high school sports. The paper expanded and was ready to zone local sports and news. How things have changed. They have four sports writers on staff today.

Dom Amore, Paul Doyle, Viv Bernstein, Glenn Jordan, Lori Riley, Mark Pukalo, Roberto Gonzalez, Mike Downs and Dan Gerstein.  Later, Cheryl Rosenberg, Desmond Conner and Kevin Lyons joined the group when others were promoted or left.

And don't forget Woj! Yes, Adrian Wojnarowski was a part-timer on this trail-blazing ship, captained by Bohdan. 

One of my first "zone 4" stories was on former Bacon Academy star Ron Wotus, who was in the final season of his mostly-minor league baseball career. They called him gramps in the minor-league locker room that year. Wotus was later rumored to be in the hunt to become Tampa Bay Rays manager before Kevin Cash got hired.

We dove into high schools full force, changing roundups with every edition - 2GSocRound became 3GSocRound. GlennGame, LoriGame and MarkGame mostly ran in the third and fourth editions - which spanned from Suffield to Windham to East Hartford. Preview time became 12-hour days with a good portion of it spent on the phone trying to track down coaches.

At the time, I could not get enough of writing. Origination editor Len Lampugnale, who later went on the ESPN, once told me to go home and get some rest while I was banging out a feature on a cross country runner from zone 3 who was coming back from a skiing accident. He was right.

When the state tournaments and class meets arrived, the hardest and most entertaining part began. Initially, we had little radio shack computers where you could only see a few lines. I'm not sure how we did it at times, covering state wrestling and indoor track meets sitting at a small table or attaching the couplers on a pay phone to try and send a story. I think I would go nuts if I had to do that today. The pictures below are the second radio shacks we received. I still have mine as a souvenir from those days.

Everyone has their war stories of deadline work in odd places. We missed editions at times, but always found a way to get a phone line or talk a school administrator into letting us into the main office to send.

Glenn once wrote while sitting on a covered toilet in the press box at Southern Connecticut. I'm not sure how I got a story in once at Morgan High in Clinton after Tyson Wheeler and New London played a local team in the state basketball tournament. I think I somehow got it in on the fourth or fifth telephone I tried in the main office.

Perhaps my biggest nightmare was later on in 1995-96 when I was covering a Whalers game in Toronto for the first time. No one told me that there was something different about sending from Canada. I had to talk an operator into connecting me to the slot on our copy desk. She probably broke rules to do it for me. Thank God it was hockey, eh? To make things worse that night, I got lost getting back up to the press box at the old Maple Leaf Gardens after the game. Again, somehow, the work got done.

For almost 20 years, I covered high school sports for the Courant. There were plenty of athletes, teams, games that I will remember forever.

* Coach Joe Erardi's Manchester girls soccer team in 1990. What an amazing group to watch, filled with toughness, diversity, grace and intelligence. They tied Wilton 2-2 in an epic state championship game. Central defender Jennifer Brindisi was a strong player, a great interview and had maturity beyond her years. Of course, she later became a high school coach.

*Those NCCC boys basketball coaches, especially Danny Sullivan and the unforgettable George Melnick. Sullivan is a legend at Windsor Locks and Melnick was one of a kind. I did a feature on him and the headline was "I Just Do Crazy Things."

*I covered Dwight Freeney with Bloomfield in a game at Simsbury one sunny Saturday. I remember saying he was the biggest human being I had ever seen, an absolute monster. But he ended up being considered smallish in his Hall of Fame NFL career.

*The Rockville football team, coached by Tom Dunn, was pummeled by West Haven in the 1989 state championship and made it back the next season against Newington. Rams quarterback Steve Mikulski took the team down the field in the waning moments to win 14-12. Mikulski was like Elway against the Browns, systematically taking apart the Newington defense. So I said in my lead that Rockville fans will forever just call it "The Drive."

*Me, Lori Riley, Journal Inquirer legend Matt Buckler and others had some memorable and busy days at the state cross country championships in East Hartford's Wickham Park. What a venue. Looking back at the winners on the CIAC site, only one name stands out - Waterford's Liz Mueller. She won four straight State Opens.

*I like to think I discovered a great little basketball player at distant New Fairfield High named Jennifer Rizzotti, who later won a state championship. The rest is history in Connecticut basketball.

Rizzotti was special. But to be perfectly honest, the best girls high school basketball player I ever saw in Connecticut - even better than Nykesha Sales and Lis - was Nadine Domond at Bridgeport Central. Her athleticism was off the charts. One of the most memorable games I ever covered was when Central came to West Hartford to play Northwest Catholic. Domond and NW Catholic's Sarah Gaspar went back and forth making big shots and Central got beat. I'm not sure what their numbers were, but it seemed like both scored in the 30s. What a night. Gaspar ended up at Georgia Tech. Domond played at Iowa and briefly in the WNBA. Nadine's Wikipedia page says after her career she organized events to feed the homeless and now she is a head coach at Virginia State. I knew there was something special about her.

*I saw Kevin Zahner hit several bombs with Ellington baseball. He later spent five years in the minors with the Dodgers. 

*Jon Veneziano of Berlin golf won two state championships and later made an improbable run the United States Junior at Yale. More on his epic match with Richard Breed at the CT State Junior in another blog.

*Matt Doyle of Simsbury won a state golf title for Ed Lynch, who became a friend. Lynch was a basketball official who coached the Trojans to state titles in boys soccer and golf. Unfortunately, he would have had another state golf title at Simsbury Farms if one of his top players had not signed an incorrect scorecard. The kid keeping the Simsbury player's card recorded the wrong score on a hole. (Garrett Post?) signed it without thoroughly checking it. To this day, I think the kid from the other down-state team did it on purpose

*I saw Scott Burrell play quarterback for Hamden at Fitch High before he played minor league baseball, threw the historic "Late, Great" pass to Tate George for UConn and teamed with Michael Jordan and the world champion Chicago Bulls. Dream team member Glenn Jordan came up with the headline "It's Late, It's Tate, It's Great" that night. I was in the Melbourne, Fla. area with Dan Gerstein and old friend Bill Calhoun at a bar called DJ Bombers. 

*Trumbull's amazing girls soccer team won 49 straight games for coach Abe Breslow. They might have been the best team in state history and Breslow could not have been a nicer guy. Abe's son Craig pitched in the majors and is now an executive with the Red Sox.

*I think I might have covered future Hall of Fame goalie Jonathan Quick playing his first high school hockey game for Hamden High. He later played at Avon Old Farms before UMass and a long NHL career that has included three Stanley Cups. The day he was drafted by the LA Kings, I called him for a quote. It took Jon a while to get to the phone. He was playing whiffle-ball Home Run Derby in the neighborhood. Cool customer.

*One of my favorite athletes of all time was Emily Stauffer from New Canaan. She was a smart, tough and skillful center midfielder. But I found out that she was a much better person than a player. A feature on her covered the All-State issue one year. I later heard about her taking a year off at Harvard to donate bone marrow for her brother Matt, who had Leukemia. I went to Cambridge with Jeff Jacobs so he could do a column on it because I thought that was a better vehicle for the story. Jeff wrote a fantastic column. I made the right call.

*One my other favorites was a young woman from Staples-Westport named Karem Esteva. She was a soccer All-Stater, but Esteva also helped the basketball team to a state title in 1995. I remember interviewing her after that title game and she had a smile that could like up Hartford. Esteva went on to play soccer at Virginia and for the Philippines in the Asian Cup.

*I always loved going down state for Saturday high school hockey games and built relationships with the coaches, especially Bill Gerosa at Notre Dame-West Haven. Marty Roos of Notre Dame-Fairfield, Bo Hickey of New Canaan and Matt Sather at Fairfield Prep. The 1999 Division I championship game went five OTs with ND-Fairfield beating New Canaan 3-2. I did see Max Pacioretty play for New Canaan before he went to prep school and the NHL.

*I spent a lot of afternoons just down the street from the office covering coach Steve Kassoy's Hartford Public boys soccer team. He had a rainbow coalition for a team and was forced to deal with a lot of egos, but they played entertaining soccer and big Al Granger was a fun player to watch. They lost to Danbury in the 1990 state finals and dropped a tough penalty-kick tiebreaker at Manchester High in the playoffs another year.

*The most memorable hockey championship day was when Nick Bonino led Farmington to the Div. II title and Mark Arcobello led Fairfield Prep to the Div. 1 title in 2005 at Yale's Ingalls Rink. Both later played in the NHL. I decided to give Arcobello the player of the year and wrote a feature on Bonino for the All-State issue. Bonino was a skinny, small kid the first time I saw him play. The next year he had gotten what seemed like 8 inches taller, but he was gangly and plodding. It didn't matter, He scored 68 goals in 24 games. Bonino went on to Avon Old Farms and within a month into his first season he was skating much better (plyometrics helped as I remember) and his amazing talent poured out. I remember asking Old Farms coach John Gardner if he could be successful at the next levels. Gardner answered by just moving his hands. Bonino had NHL hands. He played 868 NHL games and posted 358 points with two Stanley Cups. Gardner was as honest and sharp as they come.

*One player I followed throughout his career was Somers basketball star Sean Tabb. The kid was so skinny, but man he could shoot and he was such a smart player. Tabb ended up playing for the University of Hartford.

*Speaking of big fish in a small pond, I wrote a story about two Class S guards who could play in college - Coventry's Jack Ayer and Derrik Jerman of Bacon. Jerman played at Stonehill and Ayer at Hartford. I called Jim Calhoun for the story and he gave me a quote. Ayer was an amazing high school player. If I remember right, his team outdueled Vin Baker and Old Saybrook in a big state tournament game. I saw where Ayer recently died. What a player he was. Think Rex Chapman, without the major hops.

*I witnessed Simsbury hockey coach Tom Cross' son start his high school career on the ice. Tommy Cross later played at Boston College before being drafted by the Boston Bruins, where he played three regular-season games and one in the playoffs. He had an assist in the playoff game.

*Glastonbury boys soccer. Erik Barbieri, Max Zieky, Chris Wright, AJ, Dirt Landers, Ken Mehler, Bob Landers. The girls were fun to cover as well. 

*I went down to Newtown High a few times to see a top-ranked boys soccer team and later picked Marcus Tracy as the state player of the year. He played for Wake Forest. Several years later I was living in Florida when the horror in Sandy Hook happened. That day was my first copy-editing shift for Sportsdirectinc. I had 10 college basketball previews to edit and I could not concentrate with what was going on in the background on TV. Later, they showed the soccer field where all the press was stationed. It was surreal. I knew that place. It was a place for fun, not sorrow.

I could go on and on. Coach John Blomstrann's great E.O. Smith boys soccer teams,  the Avon girls soccer champions, the frigid Hall-Conard football game I covered, Claudia Lombard of Guilford soccer and Chris Sawyer of East Hartford baseball. I vaguely remember possibly covering Aaron Hernandez playing basketball for Bristol Central.

My dance card began to expand as time went on, but I covered high schools until I left the paper in 2007. The lack of understanding from parents, the grind of the job and the change in form newspapers took made is more difficult and less fun.

But I will always have the memories of the camaraderie with the Dream Team. We worked so hard and we had so much fun. I can't say enough about that group. I miss those days in and out of the office. There was basketball at the Y, afternoons on the golf course and on the ski slopes. Those late-night (and after-hour) trips to Kenneys with Owen Canfield. Bob Clancy and many others while getting served beers, burgers and fries by the legendary Gemma. The time of my life.

I worked with Connecticut sports writing legends like Woody Anderson, Tom Yantz, Tommy Hine, Terry Price, Greg Garber, Jack O'Connell, Michael Arace, Alan Greenberg, Claire Smith, Jacobs, Bo, Owen and many others. I had great copy editors as well, led by Clance, Lenny, Liz Gramling, Sue Banning, Pat Dunne, Jay Spiegel and Jennifer Overman to name just a few.

We lost Bohdan in 2003 suddenly. No one will ever forget him. That smirking smile, that big winter coat, that slow, looping golf swing, but most of all the way he cared about our group. He was like our second father.

Dom and Lori are still at the Courant and have won well-deserved Connecticut Sportswriter of the Year awards. Paul went on to cover the Red Sox and Cheryl moved to California where she covered the Angels. Viv covered the Whalers and later the Red Wings in Detroit. Glenn moved on to the Portland, Maine paper and is apparently a pickleball superstar. Dan went on to run a Presidential campaign (Joe Lieberman) among many political endeavors, Michael became a professor and has written books, Roberto went on to teach, Desmond covered UConn football and basketball and Kevin is in Texas where he has covered the Cowboys. 

Woj, well you know about him.

We were the "Dream Team," in Hartford Courant sports department history. No one can take it away from us.

The first 10 years or so were amazing. It got more difficult after that, but I was able to do some exciting things in some unforgettable places. I still have many more stories to tell in the next six chapters.

 

My 40 years in Journalism: Chapter 1 - Beginnings, Shoreline Tales

 

By Mark Pukalo

Randy Smith, the late-great sportswriter and columnist for the Journal Inquirer, once told a story about the time he stood in front of old Chicago Stadium with Hartford Whalers coach Jack Evans on cold, wintery day.

Evans, who won a Stanley Cup with the Blackhawks in 1961, looked up at the building and said just one word.

Memories.

Why bother using two when one will suffice?

This 62-year-old can do the same at many venues and in dozens of cities and towns. I have done it while watching several athletes on television who I once covered in high school.

Jerry Garcia said, "what a long, strange trip it's been." Yes it has, but my journey as a sportswriter has been quite exhilarating over the past 40 years.  I made mistakes along the way, learned from them, made some more, and then tried to correct.

My career has been like a good movie. It made me laugh, think and cry. There was plenty of drama in the first 20-22 years, along with a few moments for horror fans. I may have plenty of regrets about my life in general, but I have very few in my working career - ever since the first day with Shoreline Newspapers on August 12, 1985.

While many of my copy editors would have liked me to use less words like Evans, I have so many stories to tell, people to thank, and I'm not going to keep it to 12 inches. I've got eight blogs. Let's start from the beginning.

Pregame: The Road to a Career in Writing

When I was a little tyke, you could tell that baseball was not going to be my thing. It probably didn't help that during the warmup for a Little League All Star Game in Canterbury, CT , I lost a throw from the right fielder in the blinding sun and it hit me squarely in the face. Dr. Lupien did a great job to save my front two teeth.

However, I loved basketball. I worked on my game day and night and captained the Dr. Helen Baldwin Bulldogs as an eighth grader. Unfortunately, scoring 63 points (yeah, right, ball hog) in a 7th and 8th grade league game was not the first step to the NBA. It must have been the shorts (see left).

The first time I saw my name in print for sports was after my Griswold High freshman basketball team won the QVC Championship game. It read "Mark Pukalo added 10 points." It was my only double-figure effort of that season for our dominant team.

Two years later in 1979, I was starting for the varsity in the season opener. The opponent was St. Bernard, led by Harold Pressley. The big man went on to win a national championship with Villanova and played in the NBA. I was pictured "defending him" in the Norwich Bulletin. The newspaper was where my future was.

That season did not go well for me. But I did earn one claim to fame. I took a charge from Pressley in the second matchup. And, they actually called it! Harold and his coach Rich "Suitcase" Pagliuca were not happy with me. Tough.

I had my 1980 MLB picks published in the Norwich Bulletin under Tom Winters' Sunday column. Two of my four picks came through and the Expos finished one game out.

Even though John Breen, my wise first advisor at UConn, suggested that writers major in English, History, Political Science or something else, I made Journalism my choice. While Breen was great, Maureen Croteau became my best advisor. It wasn't necessarily what she taught me. It was her unending moral support.

I learned and wrote some really bad stories for classes. But the best education was writing for the Daily Campus, working with Bob D'Aprile, Dana Gauruder and others. I covered the women's soccer team as a junior and the men as a senior. The last thing I did was write a column on Big East basketball - The Big East Beat. Jim Boeheim and Gary Williams actually called me back for interviews.

I also spent the last two years doing radio work for WHUS. I loved calling play by play. If that road was not so long to success, I may have taken it. I did dozens of soccer games, a few baseball contests, a UConn-Yale football matchup and was scheduled to do one hockey game against Holy Cross at the old outdoor rink. It never happened. The phone line in the soccer press box did not work.

Basketball was the greatest experience. I did games at the Carrier Dome (the day Buster Douglas knocked out Mike Tyson), St. John's, Seton Hall (me and Scott Bell got lost on the way in Newark and made it just before tipoff), Providence (two of the players rode back to campus with us. ...) and Madison Square Garden. The 1985 Big East tournament at MSG was the highlight. Pearl Washington, Chris Mullin, Patrick Ewing and that Pressley guy were there.

College life was amazing in many ways. During my senior year, and after graduation, I did a talk show on WHUS with Henry Mondschein called "Sports Line." The day Geno Auriemma was hired, we were doing a show. We went to the press conference and asked Geno to come across the street to be a guest on Sports Line. Geno obliged and obviously that was the springboard to his 11 national titles (edit, 12 national titles) and more than 1,000 wins. Had to be.

Memories.

That was a stressful summer, looking for jobs. I helped my father around the farm. I have a vivid memory of watching the Live Aid Concert on TV. Freddie, Bono, Pete, Sade, Bob and Elvis killed it in London, among others. 

I had interviews with the Journal Inquirer and the Meriden Record. No dice. I went up to Torrington for another and thought I did really well. But they chose a guy named Tony Dobrowolski with more experience.

You always wonder how your life would have changed with one event. Where would I have gone? What would I have become in and after Torrington? Would I still be there, married, with kids?

Instead, I went after Dobrowolski's former job as sports editor of the Rose City Sentinel in Norwich and the Regional Shopper & Reporter in Colchester - two weeklies in the Shoreline Newspapers chain. I don't remember much about the interview with the unforgettable Hal Levy, except that I was 99 percent sure my professional career was about to begin.

The Shoreline Years: A Great Education, Great People

It's been a long time. It's hard to remember everything from those early days in Norwich, Colchester and Guilford. I know I put a lot of miles on the Cavalier.

My first pro story was a feature on Billy Carpenter, a top player in the Norwich area baseball league. Hal, Paul Nichols and I went to the Yankee Conference football media day in August and then I dove into high school sports.

From the start, I felt more at home in Colchester. Kim Potter (now Ryan) and Silvio Albino were great role models as editors and secretary Barbara Kromish was wonderful to me. I had more schools to cover in that area (six) and developed relationships with many interesting people.

I do remember Sentinel editor Damien Rohrr (not sure about the spelling) allowed each writer a chance to submit a column when they had a good idea. Jim Calhoun came to Norwich to speak at some point after he was hired as UConn men's basketball coach in 1986 and that sounded like a perfect opportunity for me. I really wish I still had that column.

I covered a lot of soccer that first fall, centering on good teams at Lyman Memorial, RHAM and Hale Ray. But perhaps the best two memories from that year were at Griswold and Norwich Free Academy with the Sentinel.

I covered future Baseball Hall of Famer Jeff Bagwell playing for Xavier High. I believe he pitched a gem at NFA one afternoon and I used it in the Shopper because he was from Killingworth. The other was the undefeated Griswold football team of coach Paul Giardi.

It is still controversial for some to this day that the Wolverines turned down a trip to the state championship game. However, Griswold had basically 15 players who went both ways and a few got hurt in the final game - an 8-6 win in the mud against 1-8 Gilbert. 

I was with them almost all year. Giardi made the right call, even though powerful Ansonia did not reach the final. It would have been fun if the single-wing offense, led by Brian Rentz, got a chance to show its tricks on the big stage for a series or two. But the safety of the kids was more important. They went 11-0. That was enough.

I really dug in my second year.  I still have the Fall Sports Preview issue with my giant feature story on RHAM boys soccer coach and AD Mike Zotta.

"This is my life. I love coaching. People don't understand what you can do with a young person's life as a coach," Zotta said. "I like to think of the soccer field as my classroom.. ... You have to equalize the discipline with the hugging."

He was hard-nosed. But Zotta, who also coached girls basketball and softball, cared about the kids. He had a leadoff hitter named Kelly Johnson, who must have posted an on-base percentage of .800 one season with 50+ bases. Sweet kid. Killer on the base paths.

RHAM had a great goal scorer named Joe Nielsen, who later went on to play at UConn. They also had a talented goalkeeper and basketball star named Steve Emt. He was one of the best high school athletes I ever covered. Emt walked on to the UConn basketball team, but at 25 a car accident left him paralyzed. He became a coach and then a Paralympic athlete.

I had a special connection at Hale Ray. I remember covering a night soccer match in my first trip to Moodus between the Little Noises and, big, bad Wheeler. Hale Ray played a very entertaining brand of build-up soccer for coach Charlie Boynton. But that night Wheeler just brutalized them with dirty tackles and the referees never got control of the game.

I also covered coach Lou Milardo's successful softball teams at Hale Ray when I was in Colchester and later saw them win a state championship while at the Hartford Courant. We have since connected on Facebook.

I had some good memories with the Little Noises on the basketball court as well. I'm not sure how it all came about, but I practiced with coach Linda Markesich's girls team a few times. I gave their star player Susie Parker some different competition. Three-sport star. Great kid.

I also enjoyed covering Kevin Maynard's Hale Ray boys, who shocked Putnam in the QVC tournament one year. When the 3-point line was added for high school hoops, I did a story on how it would benefit Hale Ray's long-range shooters Frank Cozean and Eddie Kostoss. The story featured the best headline of my editing layout career.

"It's Bombs Away 

At Old Hale Ray"

I worked 70-hour weeks during the seasons. I never got tired of it. I loved what I was doing and I just kept producing copy. We had to put all the stories on disks. It's amazing the extra work that was required to put out a paper back then. At the time, it didn't matter to me.

I had a few stringers, including Rich Zalusky at Bacon Academy. Rich has gone on to have a strong sports writing career. All I did was give him the space to write.

The other top memories from those years?

*Danielle Benoit, a State Open cross country champion in 1986, was from the Regional Shopper area but went to Mercy High in Middletown. I had a picture of her between hockey stars Brian Leetch and Craig Janney as high school athletes of the year from the Gold Key Dinner. What a runner.

*The King and his Court came to Colchester for a special softball game. It's possible that was my first story in the Shopper.

*Coach Mark Brookes' outstanding, fundamentally-sound, baseball teams at Haddam-Killingworth.

*I did a review of one season in the Shopper by using Chris Berman nicknames. I don't know if it worked for readers, but I had a blast with it. My best two were Hale-Ray athlete John Leavitt "to Beaver" and East Hampton coach Joe "Put Your Money Down" Gambolati.

*Having all the athletes from six schools show up together for a picture when I selected an All-Regional Shopper soccer team.

*Hal got the staff into ESPN for the first days of the NCAA  basketball tournament. We could watch all the games on the TVs in one room with endless amounts of food and drink (beer). 

*The K Line. Barbara Kromish ran a football pool each week (college and pro games), which leaked through the Shoreline chain. It made the weekend more fun in the fall and early winter.

There were so many more. But perhaps the best days were just going down to Guilford each week and putting together the pages. I often went out with the staff afterward on Fridays. Gary Samek did the neighboring sports pages in Ledyard, Montville and Mystic the first year. Later, Don Thompson took over and became a lifelong friend.

Hal was great to me. He could be irritable at times, but was always helpful in the end. He gave me the platform and freedom to grow. I remember Hal got mad at me for not telling him I was doing an All-Regional Shopper soccer team. But at the end of his tirade he said something like "you did a good job with it."

Two things I unfortunately remember most about my weekly hour trips to Guilford were tragedies.

I had to drive off the highway for a few minutes when it came across the radio that Len Bias had died. The Challenger exploded just minutes before I arrived at the front desk in Guilford in early 1986.

Awful memories.

However, I have 10 years worth of wonderful memories from 24 months with Shoreline Newspapers. I will never forget the good times and the great people. It was a strong foundation for times to come.