Dishing Hockey and Donuts with Award-Winning Author Roland Merullo

Award-winning author Roland Merullo loves hockey (and donuts) as much as I do. He wrote something to that effect to me and then signed his name in the copy of Lunch with Buddha I had purchased.

I haven’t read all of his books, such as the one with a donut on the cover, but I will buy them because I anticipate more hockey, more donut references. But it’s more than that. The magic of Merullo is his thought-provoking style of storytelling. He makes me question my own behavior and beliefs but not in a Thou-shalt, heavy-handed fashion. His fiction is unique yet real, affirming and enlightening, funny, spell-binding.

Characters in his books seem to have a thing for hockey and those halo-like treats that serve as one of this site’s hallmarks, so I asked Merullo about this connection. We traded email, and I now present these six questions and answers.  

Jim Dwyer: I know you shy away from donuts now—but what donut do you equate with paradise?

Roland Merullo: Honey dipped or chocolate honey dipped, but my tastes are eclectic.

JD: When you were twenty-four, you broke your back. So hockey, as you wrote in a 2012 Facebook posting, is "off the table." But you must have played as a kid in Revere or at Phillips Exeter. What are one or two of your fondest recollections of those days?

RM: I skated at the MDC rink in Revere, and play street hockey in front of my house, but I never was on the ice with a stick until 11th grade at Exeter. I made the club all-star team, and have many great memories from those days. I also played a little club hockey at B.U. and Brown, and in a men’s league on an outdoor rink the one year we lived on Martha’s Vineyard (my wife taught at the high school). That was AFTER the broken back. Many great memories but my last goal was a tip-in on a shot from the left point. I just laid out my stick and it went into the upper right-hand corner. A good shot to retire on.

JD: One more real-life question before we move on to your books: Who was and perhaps still is your favorite hockey player?

RM: Eddie Shack, hands down. I liked his nuttiness.

(JD’s note: Eddie once owned a few donut shacks, so to speak).

JD: In Breakfast with Buddha, Otto Ringling has a hockey scar. How would Otto describe the incident that gave him that mark on his neck?

RM: He was on the wrong end of a high stick.

JD: Otto's "breakfast" companion, Volya Rinpoche, loves miniature golf, but what does he think of hockey?

RM: Well, he’s from Siberia, so we have to assume he would enjoy it. He fell asleep at a baseball game, however. I saw one game in Russia, actually the USSR, in 1977, when they still called themselves amateurs. No fighting, a little checking, but the best passing I have ever seen.

JD: If Rinpoche were to meet Jesus in an American Savior sequel, where would they meet for donuts?

RM: The donut shop where Jake meets Janet in Allston in my novel, A Little Love Story. It’s made up, based loosely on a shop in Hadley, MA, on Route 9, with a very talkative Greek owner.

Check out a Merullo novel or non-fiction book from your local library. Buy one from a real or virtual shelf and then have him sign it at one if his events. 

Toronto Entertainment Mashup: Eddie Shack/Bruce Bell

Clear the Track/A Story to Tell/Here Comes Shack/Ring the Bell

Eddie Shack, whose antics prompted Douglas Rankine and the Secrets to sing about the beloved Toronto Maple Leaf, and Bruce Bell, Toronto’s accredited his-storyteller: Their paths originate in Sudbury, ON and their passions converge.

Shack, born in 1937—eighteen years before Bell—left his hometown for Guelph, where he played for the Biltimores in the Ontario Hockey League. In 1957, he graduated from the OHL to the American Hockey League to perform for the Providence Reds. A year later, he ascended to the Show, as he joined the New York Rangers. Shack then took his hockey shtick and continued his tour with other NHL and minor-league teams including the Maple Leafs, Rochester Americans, Boston Bruins, Los Angeles Kings, Buffalo Sabres, and Pittsburgh Penguins. In 1973, he returned to Toronto. 

The same year that Shack rejoined the Leafs, Bruce Bell left Sudbury straight for the 416. A comedian, actor, and playwright, Bell toiled in the proverbial minor leagues of show business, in Toronto’s entertainment district. Never amassing a fortune yet enjoying the gigs, Bell realized that his reputation as a top-tier Toronto performer was taking root. 

Eddie “the Entertainer” played two seasons in the Leafs organization to end his hockey career. Although retired from the NHL, Shack turned to acting. He starred in TV commercials for the Pop Shoppe beverage brand and performed in a Schick razor promotion; the first star of that stunt was Shack’s massive moustache—shaved clean from his face. He let it grow back, of course, and continued his career in hockey show business. The four-time NHL All-star was often a fan favourite at NHL Alumni games. 

Meanwhile, Bell’s interest in continuing his diversified entertainment career waned. Oh, he still loved to perform, to tell stories. He merged his zest for entertaining with his love for Toronto—its history and architecture, its character and characters—and, in 2000, he incorporated Bruce Bell Tours. In 2004, he was appointed the honourary historian of the Hockey Hall of Fame Heritage Building.

Shack, who won four Stanley Cups with the Leafs, is not a member of the HHOF, but he still calls Toronto home. He still wears his Maple Leaf jacket as he walks through the St. Lawrence Neighbourhood where Bruce Bell conducts his one-of-a-kind tours.

update: June 18, 2012
Bruce Bell is the honourary historian of the Hockey Hall of Fame Heritage Building, not the Hockey Hall of Fame, as orginally posted. I apologize for the error.