Rink redux


Table hockey is alive and well in Lemont league









By Susan Frick Carlman

STAFF WRITER



They turn up at garage sales from time to time. You might even have one in your
basement, with its miniature icemen perpetually poised to make that dead-on
slap shot.



Jim Rzonca, an active member of the Lemont Table Hockey League, has about a
dozen of them, including one that anchors "the stadium" in his basement. He'll
probably hang on to them all.



The lower level of Rzonca's Hillcrest Drive home is filled with table-hockey
games of all sorts. Among them are a side-by-side pair of Colecos, a 1969 and a
1972 that Rzonca has restored meticulously � right down to the authentic little
decals that line the rinks and the nets that were custom crocheted by a local
woman. There are several older models, including some that are child-size and
qualify as antiques. Beneath the rows of miniature overhead stadium lights,
which hang on both sides of a time clock with the Chicago Blackhawks logo on it
and are surrounded by rows of pintsize National Hockey League team banners, is
a prized Benej � "the Cadillac" of table hockey games.



Rzonca likes restoring the games, but he loves playing on them. Although the
Coleco is no longer in production, the Chicago Table Hockey League still uses
it, and it remains Rzonca's favorite, "because I grew up on it," he said. But
the Stiga is still being mass-manufactured in Sweden, and it's easy to find in
stores.



"Right now the Stiga is the world's game because you can buy it, you can play
it right out of the box," Rzonca said.



The game set up on its own handmade oak stand up in the garage, a Plexiglas
dome-topped Chexx model, has been pretty charmed recently.



"We had quite a bit of success on that one this year," said Rzonca's friend
Jerry Pytlewski, who is commissioner of the Lemont league. "We won a trip to
Anaheim."



After taking the Chicago title, the two players went on an all-expenses-paid
excursion to Southern California for the national finals of the Bud Light
Bubble Boys circuit (motto: "Small men. Big game.") in May. The competition was
exciting, and their lavish prize booty included two free tickets to a Stanley
Cup game. But the trip's prime souvenir is a photograph snapped of the two men,
with none other than Wayne Gretzky standing between them.



"This is (Pytlewski's) claim to fame," Rzonca said, displaying the portrait
that has a place of honor among the framed hockey photos that cover the
basement walls.



Family ties
Table hockey is accessible and family-friendly, the two players agree.

"I used to play hockey," said Rzonca, a muscular guy who makes a living hanging
drywall. "I don't anymore, but anybody can play table hockey."



His 7-year-old daughter, Claire, plays some, but her little sister doesn't have
much use for the game � not yet, anyway. His brother Bill, who lives nearby,
plays quite a bit, especially when they go to the city to take part in Chicago
Table Hockey League events.



Others in the area join them for league play, with family members in tow. Rich
Thill, a friend from South Holland, comes out with his two sons and a nephew to
play.



Pytlewski's son Scott has played in earnest since he was 11. Now 25, he still
plays against his dad some weekends.



"Me and him practice once in a while � and he beats me," Pytlewski said.



Like a lot of other players who enjoyed the game as kids, Rzonca and Pytlewski
stopped playing for a while during their teen years. But the Rzonca brothers
would see ads for Benej games now and then, and they still longed to own one.
They finally broke down and split the cost of one, then started playing in
leagues.



"Now I'm trying to catch up on lost time. ... It's like I missed out," Rzonca
said.



The sport saw its most significant decline in the 1980s, with the rise of the
personal computer and other electronic forms of amusement. A lot of table
hockey sets went into storage around that time and then spent years
accumulating dust.



Now, ironically, it is the Internet that is connecting the game's faithful
again. Games can be found readily on eBay, and abundant league information is
available through individual Web sites. Small leagues are finding each other,
and eight-member groups are growing to 20 members or more.



Spreading the word


Table hockey may be a lost avocation relative to its popularity three or four
decades ago, but if Rzonca, Pytlewski and their fellow fans of the game have
any say in the matter, it soon will have a much broader following.



"We're getting more and more players all the time," Rzonca said with
optimism.

He said maybe 16 or 20 guys used to come to regional tournaments and other
events, but now it's not unusual for 30 to show up.

About 40 players turned out for the Saskatoons' Best of Seven Fellowship
Tournament, which took place Oct. 26 at the Lithuanian World Center with the
Lemont league serving as host. Competitors came from Saskatchewan, British
Columbia, California, Colorado, Boston, Florida and Detroit and were treated to
a nail-biter when Boston's Kenny Dubois upset the top Canadian contender in a
seesaw series of seven games.



"You could hear a pin drop," Pytlewski said, noting that tournament atmosphere
tends to be far more raucous.



The people who love table hockey love it a lot, but Rzonca and Pytlewski look
forward to a day when the game will resurge to the wider popularity it had in
years past � times such as 1982, when the Monroe Games drew 200 players to the
Silver Dome in Pontiac, Mich.



They're doing what they can to promote it. They'll be taking one of the dome
topped tables into area bars over the coming weeks before the next league
season starts in January. They would like to find sponsors so tournament play
can offer a purse. They're working to standardize the rules among all leagues
so everyone plays five-minute games.



They're encouraged so far. The crowds are gradually getting larger, and more
people are finding out how cool table hockey can be.



"My motto is, 'If you build it, they will come,'" Pytlewski said.



We're having tournaments," Rzonca said. "It's a nerd fest, but we're having
fun."