By Kristin Bartus
For the Daily
All eyes gaze curiously as he glides along the ice smoothly and effortlessly, leaving a trail behind him. His routine is fairly standard, yet perplexing and intriguing. In the ice hockey mecca that is Yost Arena, when the skaters leave the ice, fans are left to grapple with the mythical creature that replaces them. Then the fans discover the zen of Zamboni.
As the Wolverine hockey team claims championship rights, the quality of ice becomes an important issue that can only be dealt with by the 6-ton resurfacing machine called the Zamboni. While other ice resurfacers do exist, Frank Zamboni's 1940's invention continues to reign as king of the ice.
"I like them. It's a pretty ingenious little contraption," said Doug Daugherty, Yost building manager and administrative assistant in the Sports Facilities Research Lab-
oratory. "I think it is an important part of the hockey game. Most importantly it puts the ice back in shape. I mean, let's be realistic, people don't come here to watch the Zamboni. I think people have gotten used to seeing the two Zambonis out there. I think it's an entertainment thing. A lot of little kids like it."
Although the giant machine captures the eyes of children today as it easily cleans the rink, Daugherty indicated that the process was not so simple in the University's pre-Zamboni days. "According to the old-timers and the guys who played hockey at the old sports coliseum back in the early '40s and '50s, they used to go on the ice actually with large blades and shovels and actually shovel off the ice. Then they would go out with a flooding tank and have a couple of guys pull it, or they'd pull it over at the coliseum with a Jeep." They used the Jeep to pull weighted blades across the ice; the process was finished when the ice was flooded again for a final time.
Mr. Zamboni's invention ended the tedious process of ice resurfacing when the University acquired its first machine with the opening of Yost in the early '70s. Yost still uses the 1969 HDB model to resurface today, next to the model 500 machine constructed and acquired in the early '80s.
When Daugherty began working at Yost in 1990, the older Zamboni was out of commission and was set to be used for scrap. Daugherty's organization decided to call on a mechanic to work on its Volkswagen engine and other broken parts. "Actually, it had sat in the back hallway so long that the fans and kids and whoever walked by broke all the gauges ... and we got it to work again. They both make great ice and they do a good job."
The use of both machines helps to speed up the resurfacing process. With one Zamboni, the process takes 8 1/2 minutes - with two Zambonis working at once, the procress takes 5 1/2 to six minutes. Daugherty considers Yost a trendsetter in its use of two Zambonis on the ice simultaneously. "The NHL a couple years back said that you have to have two now at games. They use two to go around. We've been doing that since '92."
Yost supervisor/hockey director and driver Steve Knuble mentioned several benefits to using two machines at the same time. "For the games we do two Zambonis at once - normally we just do one, just to get done a little bit quicker so the ice has time to get a little bit more water in it. It kind of sits there so we let it dry, but it is actually just freezing."
The ice cannot really be cleaned at a much quicker pace because the Zamboni has a speed governor on it. It runs at approximately seven and a half miles per hour on its studded tires. Speed plays an important part in the resurfacing process. "If you go too fast, you're not making good ice. If you go too slow, you're putting too much water down on the ice and you're also wasting energy," Daugherty said. The Zamboni drivers strive to create perfect ice or "a sheet of glass," as Knuble described it.
Drivers find that skaters rely on well-groomed ice. "Oh yeah, especially the Michigan players. They'll tell you if you do a bad cut," Knuble said. He added, "People like nice smooth ice, because if you don't do a good cut and the ice is bumpy, the puck is jumping around and it won't stay flat."
The players are not the only people who react to the ice quality, as manager of building operations and Kinesiology senior Mike Olson remembered. "Everybody's eyes are on you, so the last thing you want to do is leave any uncut snow. People will boo you ... . As a matter of fact, it happened last year to a few people. So that is the only scare I always have."
Young Wolverine fans Pat Welty, Keith Griffin, and Matt Nenadic affirmed Olson's fears and beliefs about achieving good ice quality. "I think we ... should be able to drive them because (the Zamboni drivers) all miss spots. They go so slow and if we would drive them we would be done with 10 minutes left in the intermission. Yeah, they could do more fun stuff during the intermission." Of course, the thought of 10-year-old Zamboni drivers may be questionable.
University alumnae Jennifer Jonas wants to drive the Zamboni for different reasons. "I've always wanted to drive the Zamboni at Yost. It's just cool. I mean just getting the ice ready for the guys, that's probably the coolest because they're the best."
Nursing senior Whitney Tonkin expressed an even greater desire to drive the Zamboni. "I'd rather have a Zamboni than a car," she said. Her friend, LSA senior Marie Belanger, agreed. "That Zamboni runs better than my car."
If the Zamboni runs better than a car, Daugherty attributes that to Yost's serious preventative maintenance that is conducted by the University's heavy equipment department. "They're great. In fact, we give them a special arrangement where we will actually bring one of their people on-call to a game ... just so that they're here in case a problem happens," Daugherty said.
Daugherty believes all the efforts to maintain the Zambonis are worthwhile. "We can sell all the hockey sticks we want and tickets and popcorn at the concession stands, but if we don't have a Zamboni and our ice isn't good, then we're out of business," he said.
University alumnus Joel Gerring also believes that the Zamboni plays an important role in hockey. "I think Zambonis exemplify hockey. The Zamboni is like its own entity. It has become its own little icon because no other sport has something like that where you actually have to take time out to actually resurface the playing area. You don't do that in any other sport and that's really cool."
As the demand for the machines rises and improvements continue to be made, Zamboni company president and inventor's son Richard Zamboni recognizes the significance of his father's creation. "I feel it has been extremely important and certainly had an impact on the skating world," he said.
The company has plants in Paramount, Calif. and Brantford, Ontario, and each produces approximately 100 Zambonis each year. Zamboni believes his father worked really hard and remained a "guiding light" until his death in 1988.
Zamboni added that his father did not go out with the idea of revolutionizing the skating world by creating the machine, but many believe he did revolutionize it. "You wouldn't have the sport going like it is today without the resurfacing machines," Zamboni said.
The Zamboni continues to gain popularity on and off the ice. There is a series of Zamboni memorabilia including shirts, key chains, and little toy machines available. The World Wide Web boasts numerous sites dedicated to the machines. Cartoonist Charles Shultz often writes a Zamboni into the exploits of his "Peanuts" characters. The band The Gear Daddies wrote "The Zamboni Song" which was featured on the movie soundtrack for "D2: The Mighty Ducks." In addition, a band calls itself The Zambonis, and sings of tales such as falling in love with the hockey referee's daughter.
Zambonis will remain an integral part of ice sports as they continue their popularity. Daugherty encourages anybody who wishes to learn to drive the Zamboni to intern at Yost. The 13 current drivers come from all levels of education and all types of majors.
Although Knuble joked that the coolest part of driving a Zamboni is that, "the chicks dig it," he and Olson agree that one great part is the challenge of driving the machine well. "It's an intriguing machine that everybody wants to know about, and to be one of the select few to drive at a Michigan hockey game is a really memorable experience," Olsen said.
MARK FRIEDMAN/Daily
The famed Yost Ice Arena Zamboni makes a regular appearance.