Zamboni Rodeo: Chasing Hockey Dreams from Austin to Albuquerque

Janet Money is a writer and policy analyst for the Canadian Cystic
Fibrosis Foundation in Toronto.

Jason Cohen describes the world of the minor professional hockey leagues
as a “secret culture.” For all but the most rabid hockey fan, it
might have been better to leave it that way.

Cohen spent a season with the Austin, Texas Ice Bats of the now-defunct
Western Professional Hockey League. Zamboni Rodeo is a chronicle of the
ups and downs of that season. It began as an article in Texas Monthly
magazine, and truly, its appeal will be largely regional, mainly of
interest to friends and families of the Ice Bats.

These players, however hard-nosed or naive about their career
prospects, just don’t skate off the page into the reader’s heart.
Sure, the minor pro leagues are necessary to help restock the National
Hockey League (along with major junior clubs), but does that mean we
need to know about them? The account of the 1998–99 season is
accompanied by some first-rate photos by Darren Carroll, reproduced in a
grainy style that well reflects the seamy, grindstone atmosphere
surrounding the Ice Bats.