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<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div>Craig Cimini<\/a><\/span><\/span>2025-10-06T12:15:39-04:00<\/span>For more than half of their history, the Reds were led by Player-Coaches<\/a><\/h4>
Other than being great hockey players, what do Dit Clapper, Doug Harvey, Bobby Hull and Andy Bathgate have in common with the Reds\u2019 Art Lesieur, Terry Reardon, Fernie Flaman and Dave Creighton? At one time [...]<\/p><\/div><\/article>
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/rihhof.com\/rireds.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Curley-Oden-Golden-locks_1200x600Banner-700x441.jpg\")
<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div>Craig Cimini<\/a><\/span><\/span>2025-06-01T20:42:13-04:00<\/span>The Legend of Curly Oden: First Rhode Islander to tryout with the RI Reds<\/a><\/h4>
Over the storied history of Providence\u2019s RI Reds, a number of notable local high school stars earned the privilege of tryouts with the pro team: among them, Billy Thayer, Al Bentley, Roger Bedard, Allan Soares, [...]<\/p><\/div><\/article>
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/rihhof.com\/rireds.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/57-58-Reds-Ballet-on-TV-10_Cleanup-copy_1200x600BannerWeb-700x441.jpg\")
<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div>Craig Cimini<\/a><\/span><\/span>2025-06-01T18:09:10-04:00<\/span>If hockey was played on \u201cSwan Lake\u201d, our Reds would have been favorites.<\/a><\/h4>
When watching the Russians play hockey, especially when we first paid very close attention to them in the 70\u2019s, it was said that it appeared at times like ballet on ice. The truth is that [...]<\/p><\/div><\/article>
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/rihhof.com\/rireds.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Bernie-Luckowicz-scores-on-Spartak_1200x600BannerWeb-700x441.jpg\")
<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div>Craig Cimini<\/a><\/span><\/span>2024-07-14T19:23:25-04:00<\/span>Reds vs Reds: When the Soviets Invaded the Civic Center<\/a><\/h4>
Maybe the Reds were simply doing their part to advance U.S.-U.S.S.R. relations in 1970s. Or maybe the touring Soviet Union hockey team needed to prove they were better than their record. In either case, the [...]<\/p><\/div><\/article>
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/rihhof.com\/rireds.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/DC3-Plane_1200x600BannerWeb-700x441.jpg\")
<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div>Craig Cimini<\/a><\/span><\/span>2024-07-06T15:20:39-04:00<\/span>The Red\u2019s iconic DC-3 and the Lady Stowaway in (Plane) Site<\/a><\/h4>
One evening I was browsing through TV channels, looking for something interesting rather than watching prime time network offerings. I luckily landed on the Smithsonian Channel, whose historic presentation that night was \u201cPlanes that Changed [...]<\/p><\/div><\/article>
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/rihhof.com\/rireds.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Marciano_Scherza-picBanner_1200x600Web-700x441.jpg\")
<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div>Craig Cimini<\/a><\/span><\/span>2024-07-05T08:20:32-04:00<\/span>Main Event: Rocky vs Chuck? A Match that Shouldn’t and Didn’t Happen<\/a><\/h4>
In his 13 seasons in pro hockey, Chuck Scherza of the R.I. Reds earned a reputation as a scorer, fierce checker who could dig the puck out of the corners, and a tough customer who [...]<\/p><\/div><\/article>
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/rihhof.com\/rireds.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Zellio3PicBanner1200x600_Web-700x441.jpg\")
<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div>Craig Cimini<\/a><\/span><\/span>2024-06-02T17:24:41-04:00<\/span>Zellio Toppazzini: You\u2019d Think They\u2019d Get His Collector Card Right!<\/a><\/h4>
As the R.I. Reds \u201cPlayer of the Century\u201d, Zellio Toppazzini had little difficulty getting his name on the list of top scorers among professional hockey greats. He had 786 points in 785 American Hockey League [...]<\/p><\/div><\/article>
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<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div>Craig Cimini<\/a><\/span><\/span>2024-07-06T16:48:44-04:00<\/span>The Long and Lasting Legend of 17-Year-Old Norm Desaulniers<\/a><\/h4>
It\u2019s every sports-minded young person\u2019s dream to hit the home run that wins the game\u2026nail the shot that beats the buzzer\u2026score that sudden death goal. The ultimate thrill, however, as improbable as it might be, [...]<\/p><\/div><\/article>
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/rihhof.com\/rireds.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Bower_1956-copy_1200x600BannerWeb-700x441.jpg\")
<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div>Craig Cimini<\/a><\/span><\/span>2024-07-07T07:33:37-04:00<\/span>Johnny Bower’s Long & Winding Journey to the Hockey Hall of Fame<\/a><\/h4>
Johnny Bower took some unusual turns during his trip to the Hockey Hall of Fame, including a detour that brought a championship to Rhode Island and a pair of vintage pads to a young goaltender [...]<\/p><\/div><\/article>
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/rihhof.com\/rireds.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Reardon-on-ice-arguing-call_1200x600BannerWeb-700x441.jpg\")
<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div>Craig Cimini<\/a><\/span><\/span>2024-05-14T17:17:12-04:00<\/span>Christmases to Remember<\/a><\/h4>
For those who regularly attended games at the old Auditorium, it was a different era than today. There were few quality shows on black and white TV and the National Football League had limited support [...]<\/p><\/div><\/article>
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/rihhof.com\/rireds.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Glenn-Miller-Orchestra-2_1200x600BannerWeb-700x441.jpg\")
<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div>Craig Cimini<\/a><\/span><\/span>2024-05-13T06:47:58-04:00<\/span>The RI Reds (un)Official Theme Song<\/a><\/h4>
The Beer Barrel Polka was the Theme Song of the Rhode Island Reds, played at every home game when the Reds hit the ice for each period of play. The tradition began sometime around World [...]<\/p><\/div><\/article>
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/rihhof.com\/rireds.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Jean-Baptiste-Pusie-Rengers_1200x600BannerWeb-700x441.jpg\")
<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div>Chris Tourtellot<\/a><\/span><\/span>2024-05-12T16:21:14-04:00<\/span>The Clown Prince of Hockey<\/a><\/h4>
Jean Baptiste Pusie, born in Montreal in 1910, was one of the most colorful players of his time, on the ice or off. The 6\u2019, 200 lb defenseman turned pro in the IHL in 1929-30 [...]<\/p><\/div><\/article><\/section><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1040","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rihhof.com\/rireds.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rihhof.com\/rireds.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rihhof.com\/rireds.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rihhof.com\/rireds.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rihhof.com\/rireds.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1040"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/rihhof.com\/rireds.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1040\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2441,"href":"https:\/\/rihhof.com\/rireds.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1040\/revisions\/2441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rihhof.com\/rireds.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}