From the archives: Zamboni's 50th birthday

This story was originally published in Newsday on February21. 1999.

One of the biggest names in sports has cleared the way for thousands and captured the fancy of millions. Utah Jazz guard John Stockton has proven himself a devotee, as has Disney chairman Michael Eisner, whose company owns ESPN and two pro teams.

This big name was around long before Michael Jordan or John Elway and is still going strong without having won any championships or played in a single game. Superstars and titles and franchises come and go, but after 50 years, the Zamboni is still rolling.

Zamboni might not be the last word in sports lingo, but it's close. It's near the end of Random House Webster's College Dictionary: "A brand of machine that smooths the surface of the ice on a rink."

The Zamboni -- a van-sized gizmo that shaves scuffed ice, spreads a thin layer of hot water on it and leaves a sheet that sparkles like a mirror -- has done more than find a niche since Frank J. Zamboni invented it in 1949 for his skating emporium in Southern California. It has made a name for itself.

"I don't think there's anybody who doesn't like the Zamboni," said Rich Larkin of Bellmore, who has been driving the Zamboni at Nassau Coliseum for 26 years. "I hear it, Hey Zamboni Man! There's no place I can go where somebody doesn't say, Excuse me, do you drive the Zamboni? "

During the NBA lockout, Stockton drove the Zamboni for the Utah Grizzlies of the International Hockey League. "He used to come to the ice to bring his kids to skate. He rode it a few times, then the guys let him try it," said Matthew Jakes, the Grizzlies media relations coordinator. Stockton tried it during games and kept doing it. "He was pretty good at it. We never announced he was out there. I don't think anyone noticed at first, then some fans near the glass realized who it was. Then it was like the wave. People were going crazy when he went by."

Eisner once trained on a Zamboni for a few hours and drove it during an Anaheim Mighty Ducks game.

The Zamboni might not have looked like much when its designer jury-rigged the first one with a Jeep engine, a wooden tank from an A-36 bomber and a chassis from an oil derrick, but it has seemed like a gift from above to lots of people. Some are more grateful than others, as former Islanders defenseman Tom Kurvers learned when he played for the Seibu Bears in Tokyo several years ago.

"I was with six North Americans on the team, and we were walking in front of our home rink after practice one day. There was a Shinto or Buddhist priest -- I'm not sure of the religion -- out there peforming a ceremony. They were blessing the Zamboni," Kurvers said. "They had fruits and candles and all kinds of things on the table. They had 10 workers standing there in formation. We ran and got disposable cameras.

Most people who have seen it have a sense of wonder about the Zamboni. It might be the mechanics of it. "I think it's a holdover from the original," said Al Tyldesley, manager of the Charles Moore Arena in Orleans, Mass. and former head of the Frank J. Zamboni Hall of Fame for ice rink managers. "It very closely resembles a wooden ark. If you sat in an ice rink and watched the machine go around, it looked like the finest invention Rube Goldberg came up with."

Maybe the fascination is in the dignified way it covers the ice at 9 miles per hour. Or it might be the perfection it leaves when every inch of the ice is shining.

It might be the name.

Face it, it's the name.

"Both of my grandparents came from Italy," said Richard Zamboni, 65, president of the Paramount, Calif., company his father founded -- and named, after learning that his first choice, Paramount Engineering Co., was taken.

Frank Zamboni grew up in Idaho and Utah. He moved to California in 1922 at 21 with a ninth-grade education and a hope of thriving in an older brother's electrical business. "There was a lot of dairy work around here, and they got work in refrigeration," his son said. The Zambonis were doing just fine, selling blocks of ice to farmers and homeowners, until the late 1930s. "Home refrigerators came along, and that saw the end of the block-ice business," Richard Zamboni said.

Resourceful, they put their expertise and equipment to use by opening a skating rink, Iceland. That succeeded, but left Frank frustrated by the 90 minutes it took every time they had to resurface the ice. "They had a tractor and planers that cut the ice down, then they had people scraping the snow into a pit. Then they had to go out with a hose, and finally, they had to go out and squeegie the dirty water off," Richard Zamboni said. "It took three to five people and he didn't feel he had the people when he needed them."

After seven years of tinkering, Frank Zamboni produced a contraption that could do it all in one swoop -- a contraption that would make Zamboni a household name. (The original made a turn on the ice at last year's National Hockey League All-Star Weekend in Vancouver and will appear at a trade show this year to mark the golden anniversary.)

That first machine caught the eye of former Olympic champion figure skater Sonja Henie, who insisted on having one for her tour. Zamboni prepared one on top of a four-wheel drive Jeep, then disassembled it, putting all the parts in a trailer. He drove the uncovered Jeep and trailer all the way to Chicago. "He just about froze to death," Richard said.

But it was worth a little frostbite. Wherever Henie's tour went, rink managers said of Zamboni's machine: "I want one of those."

Instantly Zamboni was making them one at a time, each one different, at his plant and driving them to customers. It wasn't too long before all major rinks did away with the old practice of having skate-wearing maintenance workers resurface the ice with barrels of water.

Zamboni saw the business thrive long before his death at 87 in 1988. "We've been fairly steady. We got through the doldrums of the late 70s and early 80s during the energy crisis," his son said. "We have machines in 50 to 60 countries. We've sold about 6,500 of them all together." The company produces about 200-300 Zambonis a year. Each one costs between $ 60,000-$ 75,000.

Richard Zamboni still skates regularly at the rink, which his family still runs. He has ceded much of the day-to-day operation of the Zamboni machine business to his son Frank, 43, who has been in charge of the Brantford, Ontario plant since 1983.

Larkin drove the Zamboni through the Islanders glory years. He and partner Al Saxton of Amityville (on the job 18 years), move shows in and out of the Coliseum with forklifts and payloaders. Both say that driving the Zamboni is by far the best part of their work -- and they work in tandem now that the NHL has a rule that two Zambonis must be used during every intermission. That gets it done quicker and allows more time for promotions.

"It's a pleasure, it's not a job," Larkin said, praising the new machines -- propane-powered with Volkswagen engines.

Not that it's easy. A driver has to steer in tight turns, judge the depth of the cut and control the flow of water.

"The hardest part about learning the drive the Zamboni is getting used to the crowd," said Larkin, former hockey coach at Chaminade High. "I still remember my first time out on the ice. Everybody in the place was looking at me, everybody was giving me the zazzer."

Said Saxton: "My first time? My knees were knocking. They still are."

It makes you wonder, as Richard Zamboni has done publicly over the years, what it all would have been like if their family name was Smith. A Zest for Zambonis

The Zamboni is steward to quite a legacy:

-- Cartoonist Charles Schulz bought two Zambonis for his rink. He also drops the name in his "Peanuts" strip often. Marcie to Peppermint Patty: "I've got to meet the man who drives the zucchini." Peppermint Patty to Marcie: "Zamboni." His favorite Zamboni driver? The little bird, Woodstock.

-- The San Jose Sharks dressed their Zamboni in fins and shark teeth. Zambonis also have been outfitted in soda and beer six-packs and milk cartons. Santa Claus often has driven the Zamboni.

-- The expansion Toronto Blue Jays had to borrow a Zamboni from Maple Leaf Gardens to clear snow from the field for their inaugural 1977 game.

-- Zambonis abound in cyberspace. The company sells Zamboni caps, toy trucks, diaper covers and more on its Web site (www.zamboni.com).

-- Tim Codispoti, Zamboni driver at the Rangers practice rink in Rye, appeared in an ESPN commercial, selling snow cones reportedly made of Ranger ice.

-- On "Cheers," Carla's husband Eddie Lebec was killed when a Zamboni ran over him. In real life, Scratchmo, the mascot of the minor-league New Orleans Brass, suffered a sprained ankle when the Zamboni ran over his foot.

A song by the Gear Daddies with the refrain: "I wanna drive the Zamboni," has become a cult hit. It was redone in 1995 by a group known as The Zambonis, which has a new CD coming out next month.