Brendan and his father-in-law Bob sit side by side on a bench in a locker room with hockey gear hanging behind them
Longtime Madison financial advisor Bob Frank had pretty much given up on ever being able to accompany his son-in-law, former Badger and veteran National Hockey League defenseman Brendan Smith, on a hockey road trip with the team.
Most league teams set aside a date each season in which players can invite their fathers or mentors along for an inside look at how a professional hockey team prepares for and travels to a game. For the dads, it’s tremendous fun, a closeup view of big-time hockey — without ever having to be checked into the boards.
Smith, who last month played in his 600th NHL game, had often invited his own father, Lester Smith, on the trips. But Brendan, who in 2017 married Bob Frank’s daughter, Samantha, at The Edgewater in Madison, knew his father-in-law was interested. “I had quietly been lobbying Samantha,” Bob was recalling last week.
It nearly happened a few years ago, when Smith was playing for the New York Rangers.
“I was hearing from Samantha that I was in line,” Bob said.
At the last minute, it got changed to a mother’s trip.
“Devastating,” Bob said.
Smith is now with the New Jersey Devils. Both he and the team are having good seasons. Bob and his wife, Jeanne, watch the games in Madison on a cable package that I imagine costs about as much as flying to New Jersey.
In late November, Bob got a text on his phone. It was from Brendan. “Would you be interested in going on a dad’s trip?”
“I had kind of forgotten about it,” Bob said.
Let me pause here and note that I have known Bob Frank most of my life. We were junior high and high school classmates. To quote one of our favorite authors, the sportswriter Dan Jenkins, we’re as close as you can get without buying each other jewelry.
I heard right away when Bob got word about the father’s trip — it happened in late December — and last week I had a chance to debrief him over beers at The Laurel Tavern.
Bob and Jeanne flew to New Jersey and spent the holidays with Brendan and Samantha, who have two children, Nolan, 4, and Ryenn, 2.
Courtesy of Bob Frank. From left: Nolan, Brendan, Samantha, Ryenn and dog, Brodie.
Bob saw a morning “skate around” practice at the Prudential Center and then a Devils home game against Boston that the Bruins won, 3-1. The road trip to Pittsburgh for a game against the Penguins began the next day.
“I was excited but nervous,” Bob said. “Not sure what I was in for.”
What he got was a chartered plane trip and a nice dinner once they were in Pittsburgh. The highlight was meeting the players and other dads. “Amazing,” Bob said. “Like a mini-United Nations.” A number of the Devils come from Europe, and, of course, Canada (Brendan is originally from Mimico, Ontario). Bob saw firsthand the needling humor and camaraderie among the Devils players that Brendan says is what he’ll miss most when his playing career is over.
The game against the Penguins was the following night. On arriving for the skate around that morning at PPG Paints Arena, Brendan brought Bob down into the Devils’ locker room where the staff treated them “like royalty” and volunteered to take a photo. Later, during the practice, a Devils team official approached Bob and said that because he was one of the few fathers-in-law on the trip, MSG Networks — which televises the Devils games — wanted to interview him that night before the game.
“I agreed and immediately regretted it,” Bob said. Another reason to be nervous.
In the afternoon, the fathers got a tour of Pittsburgh’s Roberto Clemente Museum. At the arena that night, Bob and another father, Tomi Haula (a Finn whose son Erik is a Devils forward), were taken to the media room.
In the interview, Bob was asked if he had any good stories about how Brendan and Samantha met. Bob explained that Samantha was bartending at the Kollege Klub, the legendary University of Wisconsin–Madison campus bar, when Brendan, who knew her slightly, came in with some Badger hockey teammates.
“I’m going to ask her out,” Brendan said.
He went up, chatted and bought a beer, came back and sheepishly admitted he’d folded. Hadn’t asked. His teammates howled. This scenario repeated itself a couple of times before Brendan finally found the resolve to ask. The rest is history.
In telling the story, Bob hadn’t reckoned with the fact that Tomi Haula, whom he’d grown to like during the trip, is himself a former athlete, having played — of all things — American football in Finland. Haula knew all about locker room banter. Later, on the victorious bus to the airport — following a rousing 4-2 Devils win — Haula said in a loud voice, “Brendan, I hear you didn’t have the courage to ask your wife out!”
You can imagine what the rest of the Devils did with that. Out came the needles. Brendan turned to his father-in-law.
“Thanks, Bob.”
Still, by any measure, a great trip. As Bob said, not bad for somebody who a decade ago thought icing was something you put on a cake.
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