It’s seems like the possibility of Winnipeg re-aquiring an NHL team are on the minds of everyone. Do a search on facebook or twitter and you’ll notice people in the ‘Peg feverishly networking about everything Winnipeg Jet:
“Anything more on the Coyotes situation?”
“Should we keep the name Winnipeg Jets?”
“What should the colors of the uniform be?”
“We should invite Bobby Hull to drop the puck opening night.”
“Any more seats going in at MTS Centre?”
With momentum building here for an NHL club to return, the most since the team left for Phoenix in 1996, I thought it would be interesting to take a musical step back to the year the Winnipeg Jets stepped on the ice for the first time as a team.
On October 15th, 1972 local Winnipeg entrepeneur, and now chief owner of the Winnipeg Jets, Benjamin (Bennie) Hatskin was high aloft in the owners box at Winnipeg arena receiving more handshakes and hugs and leaning out of the box looking down at the sold out crowd focusing on center ice as the puck was about to be dropped on the first home game in Winnipeg Jets history.
It had been a whirlwind year for Hatskin. The 55-year-old from the North End had kept his promise to the city by delivering a professional hockey club. All through the year, Hatskin had been in the news updating Jets fans on the ventures the club would be involved in, future radio and television deals, and of course, the signings of the players including the “Golden Jet” Bobby Hull.
Ben Hatskin was the most colorful and popular person in Winnipeg.
It’s only fitting then, that the number one song on the charts that October night in Winnipeg back in 1972 was “Ben” by Michael Jackson.
Originally offered to Donny Osmond, it was Michael’s first hit as a solo performer reaching number one the week the Winnipeg Jets took the ice for the first time as a professional team.
And then here comes Bennie & The Jets…
The Winnipeg Jets were in a playoff battle when Elton John’s “Bennie and the Jets” hit number one in April of 1974. It seemed the song title was made for the marriage of Ben Hatskin and the Winnipeg Jet hockey club. I remember Ken “the Friar” Nicholson singing this on the radio every time he was talking Jet hockey with Bennie Hatskin.
Although Bennie and the Jets sounded like it was recorded live in concert, it wasn’t. The record was made to sound live using recordings of the crowd at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver during an Elton John concert the previous year mixed in with a studio version Elton had recorded.
Paul McCartney and Wings – Jet
”Jet” was a single off the lp Band On The Run that would become one of the biggest selling albums of 1974 only being outdone by Elton John’s “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” which contained the hit ”Bennie and the Jets”. (see how this is all tying together nicely?)
The song’s inspiration actually came from McCartney’s dog, a black Labrador Retriever pup by the name of Jet. It was popular here in the city to add an S to the name every time the song shouted out “Jet”!!
Of course, all of this is sheer coincidence when it comes right down to it. But isn’t it wonderful how things sometimes magically work their own way?
Whatever the hockey team is called when the NHL returns to Winnipeg, I hope that same magic will be stirred again in the hopes of keeping the popularity of the club at a peak, so that the sadness of the day when the Jets went away never has to be repeated.
