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Ultimate Hockey Trivia

by Don Weekes and Kerry Banks

TV producer and writer Don Weekes and Kerry Banks, recipient of the 1995 National Magazine Award for Sportswriting, have teamed up to produce Ultimate Hockey Trivia, a compendium for the enthusiast and ephemera aficionado alike. Set up in 10 chapters, each with a different focus (from Busting out of the Blocks, which deals with recent records, to Famous Firsts, which concentrates on obscure NHL records), the book is much more than simply a question-and-answer guide. Given the fact that this is Weekes’s eighth hockey trivia book (sales of his previous books total more than 70,000 copies), he has obviously tapped into a lucrative niche market.

Although this book is clearly targeted at the hockey crowd, the answers are well written and put into context that others not rabidly inclined toward our national pastime might still find interesting. For example, I didn’t really think I needed to know the answer to the question, “Who was the first NHL goalie to have his number retired?” But the authors went beyond the mere answer that Bernie Parent holds the distinction (and it happened Oct. 11, 1979) to wonder why, considering all the great goalies that preceded him, it took so long for the honour to be bestowed on a netminder. They also told of a placard at the Philadelphia Spectrum that read “Only God Saves More Than Parent.” These offbeat and interesting bits set Ultimate Hockey Trivia apart from other trivia books.

Weekes and Banks have also included a crossword puzzle, a fill-in-the-blanks section, a word search, a true-or-false quiz, and a matching chart in an effort to appease those who demand a little interactivity with their text. However, since there is only one game of each type and together they constitute only a small fraction of the book, it seems misleading to state that the book is “loaded” with games. With no photos and only four illustrations, Ultimate Hockey Trivia is a text-intensive book best suited for readers ages 12 and up.

 

Reviewer: Michael McGowan

Publisher: Greystone Books/Douglas & McIntyre

DETAILS

Price: $7.95

Page Count: 122 pp

Format: Paper

ISBN: 1-55054-507-8

Released: Oct.

Issue Date: 1996-12

Categories: Reference

Age Range: ages 10+