(upbeat music) (upbeat music) - [Narrator] Coming up on the next "Off 90", we learn the history of John Marshall Hockey, visit with jewelry maker Andrea Turini, (upbeat music) and take a look back at disc golf in Austin.

It's all just ahead on the next "Off 90".

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music) (pucks thudding) Earliest Minnesota hockey games date back to the 1880s with what was first called ice polo.

The first game of that was in St.

Paul.

The first record of hockey in Rochester happened on outdoor rinks in the 1910s.

And the first high school hockey in Rochester was in the late 1920s at Rochester High School, which later would become John Marshall.

Rochester Hockey grew in popularity through the fifties and sixties.

- I think, in the seventies, you know, if you wanted to be, you know, an athlete, you played hockey, just, you know, the groups before them from the fifties and the sixties.

And now, I think, there's other, you know, options for kids, you know?

(pucks thudding) (players screaming) With the advent of, you know, many more sports and a lot of kids just focus on one sport early on.

(gentle upbeat music) - [Narrator] In 1967, the North Stars came to Minnesota when the National Hockey League expanded.

By the 1970s, Rochester boys were excited about hockey.

(gentle upbeat music) - Paul and I go back to when we were skating outside at Allendale Rink, which is kind of a infamous rink for the rink rats that grew up in Northwest Rochester.

- Well, when I first started skating, I lived about two blocks from Allendale Rink and I saw these guys who could skate without their ankles touching the ice, ankles are straight.

And I'm like, "They were my heroes."

(upbeat music) - We knew we could play the game, but you know, our goal was to get to the state tournament.

Beyond that was just, as they say gravy.

(upbeat music) - Yeah, the two top goal scorers in the state.

And then he also had some really good talent underneath them.

Defensive side, you know, he had Paul Butters, he had Jeff Nelson, Tom Taylor, John Erickson.

These guys were solid D. We took a lot of chances offensively, and I think, we're good enough defensively to take those chances.

- [Interviewer] You said you had one of the best goal scorers in the state when you guys said that.

- Well, the best goal scorer, - Who was that?

- That'd be the guy next to me.

- [Interviewer] Okay, you were the best goal scorer in the state.

How many goals did you score?

- I had 61 my senior year.

- [Interviewer] It sounds like a lot of goals.

- It's about three a game, - It's a lot of goals.

(all chuckling) - We've got guys that played in the NHL from John Marshall.

There's Jeff Teal, Doug Zmolek, you know, are the NHL guys that come to mind.

We've had Olympians, Doug Zmolek, was drafted by the North Stars.

Podium one at Stanley Cup in Colorado.

So, we've got a Stanley Cup winning alumni, which is awesome.

(upbeat music) (pucks thudding) Hockey's expensive as everyone knows, equipment gets expensive.

You know, you need a lot of expendable income and time and not every, you know, family has that ability.

I think, the biggest thing is when you look at the numbers in youth hockey here in Rochester, it's about the same as they were 30 years ago.

You've added some schools, which thins, you know, the herd so to speak, but you can look and see that the way John Marshall's set up for their sport boundaries.

If you have a starter house like up in the manor here in Rochester, that's where you'd start raising a family.

When they get too big, you have to get more space.

(upbeat music) And the bigger houses are a little further out of town.

And the John Marshall boundary hasn't really expanded into those areas.

It's more of some of the apartments and things downtown, which doesn't afford a lot of kids.

But the time commitment youth hockey is, I don't know, if we can go back and roll the clock back and say we're gonna be able to get, you know, hundreds more players.

I mean, I was just reffing a game the other day and I talked to a Chaska-Chanhassen parent and they said they had 175 kids tryout for Peewees alone.

Well, that's like, you know, 10 teams of 17 kids.

We have four teams to six teams of Peewees here every year for four high schools.

And they split into two high schools.

I think, every sport has their little run, but I think, if you're gonna look at say what sport, I mean, I would probably say it's a tennis town, really, to be honest.

Well, a couple years ago when we were finishing our JM Century merger, we did some research and we talked a lot of alumni and we kind of told 'em what the situation was.

And I mean, nobody wanted to keep the program going more than those guys.

And I think, one of the things we had to, you know, let 'em know is we just can't do it.

So, it's either we let JM hockey die and let it go away, or we find a place, you know, that our kids can stay at JM and play.

And I think, the option was, you know, with Century or Mayo at the time and we decided that, you know, we just would go off the north part of the city JM Century merger.

(pucks thudding) (upbeat music) - The season it started off okay.

And then, I mean, we've had some rough spots, but we're looking to get right back on the high road with a few more wins in the future here.

For me, there's a few games stretch where I was playing pretty good offensively and defensively and I'm looking to get back to that, but overall, I think, I've had a pretty decent year.

- Don probably doesn't give himself enough credit.

I think, he's probably more skilled than he thinks, but we've asked him to kind of just simplify his game a little bit.

But awesome kid, good leader, works hard.

His biggest, you know, attribute for us has been his leadership this year.

He's been able to board the sea and make great decisions for us as a group.

Our guys kind of follow him, follow his lead.

He's kind of a quieter leader.

On the other side, you got Hatcher who is a little more vocal, a little more kid that likes to be, you know, in the front and center of the tension.

- I'd say it's been very up and down.

We've had some really high highs and really low lows, but I feel like we're starting to heat up and go on a run here.

I struggled in the beginning of the year.

I was trying to find like my confidence in my game and I found it later in the season and I've been rolling ever since and I've been over two points a game, so it's been pretty solid for me.

- [Matt] You know, I've known Hatcher since he was a little kid coming through our youth program.

And Dom moved in from Montana about six, seven years ago.

So, they're awesome kids.

They lead the right way.

They're doing everything we're asking 'em to do, and the kids are following them.

- The one thing that I wish I would see, Scott and I grew up playing at Allendale Ice Rink.

I drive by there and I see nobody on the ice, just on their own doing their own thing.

They don't have enough unsupervised ice time.

You can try things, you can work on things you would not do in front of a coach who might be bearing down on you.

You know, the way you shoot, how you shoot corners you pick.

Scott and I grew up playing with a tennis ball and we'd have 20 guys, pick teams and do whatever you want, create whatever you want.

A defenseman doesn't have to stay in front of the net, you go up and get in the play.

And it was just something that I feel like they're missing.

- It's a little bit more isolated today, you know, whether you're playing football, baseball, golf, or whatever it is, will make you a better hockey player, or vice versa type thing, you know?

I'm a fan of an athlete playing other sports, 'cause to do the same thing over and over and over, my God, it's just too much.

- [Narrator] In 1993 when the North Stars moved to Dallas where the owners thought it would be more profitable, fans were very unhappy with the move.

Minnesota went without pro hockey until 2000 when the NHL expanded with the Minnesota Wild.

Minnesota is still known as the state of hockey.

(pucks thudding) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - So, I'm Andrea Turini.

I am a jeweler and also a CPA.

I've been doing jewelry for over 30 years.

I primarily do bead embroidery and bead weaving.

It's anything that holding a needle, sewing with beads.

So, I started beading when I was very young and actually, going to bead stores and doing like what we did in the workshop where you pick out beads and just string them.

And my mom who sews taught me to read patterns.

And so, at a very young age, I'm was able to see things in three dimension and then create that using beads as my medium.

I recently moved here from New York and I was able to study with some master beaders in that field and really refine my techniques.

And now, I use a lot of different colors and textures and so, it's a truly a passion.

I really enjoy the medium and had an opportunity through my bead society, the tour guide is actually in my bead society, and she has been going over to the Czech Republic and Brazil and China as a buyer for the industry.

And now, as she's retired, she's leveraged those connections and now provides tours.

(gentle upbeat music) I don't know, if we fully appreciated that.

I don't know, if we fully appreciated that the quality of the beads made in the Czech Republic.

And I think to that end, it's also some of the handmade element, the component to it.

How the industry has continued to use those same techniques and how they created such quality that it was prized by the Native Americans, and you know, for centuries.

And even the antiques that I was able to purchase over there, the antiques between the wars, they look new, you know, the glass is not cloudy.

The patina, the finish on the metal, is not chipping.

And that is a testament to the quality.

And it's a lot of, you know, hobbyists in a way, like myself, that use these materials.

We're really what is helping to keep this alive, because you're wearing plastic buttons, you know, like, it is sort of a dying industry in that sense.

We don't prize the glass handmade buttons like we did 50, 60 years ago when that was the standard.

So, yes, as styles change as capitalism evolves, then this is an industry that unfortunately, is kind of in danger.

They each feed a different artistic creative itch in a way.

The statement pieces are freeform and I'm able to build and use a lot of that geometry and to create a vision that I have, but it's also a lot of mental energy.

(Andrea laughing) And so, sometimes I just wanna sit down with a needle and beads.

And so, the crystal collection, when I was working in New York and I was in finance wearing suits and I could express myself with my jewelry as well.

So, I enjoyed that piece, but now I wear Costco, you know, like we're in the Midwest.

And so, my aesthetic has actually evolved as well.

So now, the Czech collection, I think, really speaks to more of that aesthetic as well, but then also still has the heritage and the culture of how those beads are made.

(gentle music) Getting to come home, I brought back so much beads.

(Andrea laughing) I really, really stretched that 50 pound weight limit and then had it all carried on.

And so, there's a meditative aspect to working with the Czech beads, because each one is so unique.

The colors are so vibrant, the textures, you know, and even the shapes I showed you some of like, you know, the turtles.

And just fun, fun shapes.

So yes, it is really very relaxing to just pick out the colors and put it all together in that collection.

(gentle music) I have my website, andreaturinijewelry.com, where I sell my statement pieces, and then my other collections.

And then I'm also at various local popups, one of them being the Northfield Fine Craft Collective.

And that is a six-week show from November to Christmas Eve.

And it's a really fantastic show of about 30 local artists that are at the pinnacle of their fine craft career.

So, the hands-on workshop then allows people to make either a bracelet or a necklace using my vast collection of stash of Czech glass beads.

And everything is personal and unique to that individual.

The participant gets to design everything.

(gentle music) It is funded by a Southeast Minnesota Art Council grant and that is allowing me to take this presentation to several organizations throughout Southeast Minnesota and share the cultural heritage that I learned and on my tour, on my trip to the Czech Republic last year.

And I have other more presentations.

So, the tour's continuing until October 31st.

So, there's other dates at other Southeast Minnesota organizations that's on my website.

I help the students or participants, give them some parameters that marry to how I design.

So, either starting with a focal and then working your way out or also working within the color wheel.

And so, that's where I started off with like a mini color work lesson.

And then when the students would have questions, I would pull that color wheel back and explain to them if it worked or if it didn't based off of the wheel.

Some of the color work can be intuitive and so, it works but you don't know why.

And even with anything, any medium that you're doing, any artistic medium, whether it's painting or ceramics or jewelry, you know, the color wheel is really the foundation of understanding your work and why it's appealing.

(gentle music) (beads cluttering) That's the best.

When you have an outfit and then you can get your jewelry to perfectly match that outfit.

(gentle music) I am a very creative analytical CPA.

People don't quite understand how the CPA and the jewelry go together, but I think, that both of those are actually very, very creative.

I do a lot of problem solving actually, in both.

So, and I just love, I love color, and I love the arts.

(gentle music) It's really nice to make something that is approachable and then also to kind of connect that as well to the understanding where those beads came from.

Understanding where the materials, the history of those materials, and then having them take that away and enjoy it.

Art is a representation of yourself, your personality, and it's striking how that can come out if you look for it.

(upbeat music) - Well, finally tonight, if you've ever played golf or Frisbee, have you ever tried combining the two sports?

Well, if you have, there's a name for it.

It's called Disc Golf and some folks in Austin got together this afternoon as part of the world's biggest disc golf weekend.

(metal clanging) - Frisbee Golf is played just like regular ball golf, except you use Frisbees or in our term, flying disc, disc, disc, disc.

(ominous music) - Actually, it's a lot the same as regular golf except you got your golf disc that you throw, you count how many throws just like strokes to the object basket.

And then when it's in, that's like when you're in the hole.

- [Reporter] Over at Todd Park, a hole in one of a different sort this weekend golf.

Frisbee golf, Dennis Ricky with the ace.

Check this thing out, it goes around the trees and somehow.

- I'm Scott Scheid, this is my uncle, Tom Hinkle.

- Yeah.

- And I went and knocked on doors and Uncle Tom sold the discs, and that's why we have a course in Austin.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) - Now, these are the second set of baskets on this park.

The first ones were moved out of here and we made Driesner with it.

Then we got good in Driesner and got all the baskets.

So then we moved them out of Driesner to Marcusen and put new ones in Driesner.

But I've been playing since them guys showed me.

And I play every Sunday religiously.

It's my religion.

I'm coming out here every Sunday.

I play with the pros.

I donate the money, I call it, 'cause I haven't hit a ace in seven years.

I love the game.

My wife and I, she'd be out here.

But we love the game, we love the sport.

We've worked at it a lot.

I mean, I loved it as much as they did when they showed me.

I grew up on the beach throwing a Frisbee, you know, on the beach.

So, when I met them they said, "You wanna play Frisbee golf?"

I'm like, "Show me what to hit," you know?

And I fell in love with it.

- We were just doing it for fun.

- Playing with the old catch discs.

- Yeah.

We were playing before there was actually golf discs.

- Yep.

Well, there probably were golf discs.

They just weren't here.

- Well, they come out in like '82, '83 so.

- Oh, the golf disc did.

'76 was the first course.

Oh yeah, La Mirada California, I think.

- Yeah, the cones were made in the sixties.

Like that we originally started here with.

Cones were made in the sixties and they got, the holes are so big in the basket in the cone that like a golf disc now, they'll fall through the hole.

You can hit the cone and drop in the basket and it falls out, 'cause it's used to being played with a big whammo catch disc.

- [Commentator Okay.

Today, we're gonna play for 100% payback today out on the course and I'm throwing $20 in for the winner of the old (indistinct) division.

(audience applauding) I can't play so.

(gentle upbeat music) (metal clanging) (gentle upbeat music) (gentle upbeat music) (gentle upbeat music) (gentle upbeat music) (people screaming) (metal clanging) - [Player] Yes!

(crowd cheering) - So, when they got a hole in one, they ran up there and they wrote their name on the post.

That was the thing we did back then.

Instead of painting it on the, you know, we'd put it on the wooden post.

That's how that started.

- I have like five aces out here.

That was back when it all first started the originally 18.

- We're the early aces in the nineties.

- My aces are all basket or cone.

- Pretty much, we have UDisc now on the computer and on your phone.

So, everybody's connected to it.

And that's the professional disc golf and it shows all the tournaments and it keeps your scores.

You put your name in it and it keeps your scores.

So, it knows your average and how you shoot it, what course.

- And it's just for everybody to come out and play and have fun and get started, and just to get people started in the sport and to have fun playing.

- I believed in it and knew it was gonna grow and thought it was, you know, there's no greens fees, there's no nothing.

I mean, I sold a lot of golf discs to pay for the first 45 baskets out here.

I had lots of help from other people too.

But you know, that's I just believed in it so much.

You got, like I say, it doesn't hardly cost anything to play.

It's not like buying golf clubs, and it's a lot of fun.

- Him and Dan Johnson, Larry Bell Richard and Dan were playing the course this way and we were playing our obstacle course that way and we met each other and they had two Frisbees and we had Frisbees.

We all turned and went the same way.

And that's how we met 'em.

And they've been playing ever since.

- Okay, for the amateur division.

Fourth play, Larry Bell Richards from Austin.

All right.

(people cheering) - That was my biggest selling point when I talked at the park and rec meeting was once they finally, you could tell that they were cracking and gonna give us a chance.

I told them, I says, "Once it gets started it will take care of itself."

And it did in a big way.

And they didn't, you know?

- They gave us Driesner and told us to put another course in down there, 'cause you'd come out here and there'd be people on every hole, people standing in line to go and play.

- Waiting.

Yep.

Tom Graff come up one day, he says, "Yeah, we wanna Park and Rec wants you to put another course in."

(Scott laughing) - Needed to relieve some of the pressure off all here.

- Yeah.

Off Todd Park.

So, that's when they put Driesner in.

- You know, like I said, I'm 65 and when I get to 27, I'm, you know, I've had enough.

It puts it on me and you know, I'm fairly fit.

I bike ride and everything so.

But it keeps you healthy, it really does.

Keeps the parks clean.

Everybody cleans up.

Disc golf makes bags for garbage now.

Disc golf companies, they send out bags for strapping to your cart and picking up garbage.

And so, it's really good for the parks.

It really is.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (metal clanging) (upbeat music continues) (metal clanging) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music) - [Narrator] Funding for this program is provided in part by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.