Patrick O'Sullivan p. 1| 2 |3

Favourite Steve Cherry story of all-time?

The famous "bus duty" story, it's just legendary but I'm sure Steve Rawski could tell it better. But Steve's (Cherry) quite the OHL veteran coach, he knows what he's doing and he's been known to make a few funny comments. Not necessarily on purpose, 'cause he's not the sharpest knife in the drawer. But he definitely means well and he's a nice guy. I don't think the bus duty story would be funny if they couldn't hear me tell it.

Agreed. The Spezza story is probably funnier anyway.

(laughs) I got that second hand, from the great Steve Rawski because I was not on the team last year...So they're on the bus and they probably lost big, as they did many times last year, when they won all of 3 games. They're being loud and shit after the game, and obviously Steve Cherry is not going to be happy about that because you don't laugh after you lose.

Of course.

Right. So Rawski and Mike James are being extremely loud. And Steve Cherry decides to point out the fact that they are being loud after a big-time loss. So (Cherry) asks James, "What's so funny?"

James says, "Nothing it's just a joke Rawski told we were laughin' at that."
So Steve (Cherry) goes, "Well maybe you should laugh at this: You need 6 credits to graduate high school. You're wasting your life. Jason Spezza got 6 points last night. How do you feel about that trade?"

(laughs) And of course Mike and Steve (Rawski) were flabbergasted by that comment. But they knew coming from Steve Cherry, you can never expect too much. They went on to tell that story numerous times to many people.

That's damn funny. Now let's get serious. When you were eight years old, you set your family's couch on fire. Are you a pyromaniac?

No. I'm not a pyromaniac, I've calmed down quite a bit from my younger days. Actually a few of my friends had the fascination with fire. We liked to light shit on fire, it was just kind of a hobby. We never really let it burn completely, we usually put it out. But I don't know what to say about that. It's a little embarrassing.

The loveseat was totally consumed by fire.

Actually that was the one instance where it did get out of control, and I would like to know how you found that out, I'm a little unhappy about that. I ran like a little baby to get my mother cause I didn't know what to do. So she saved the day, because that's what mothers are for.

What's the worst thing you've ever done?

I really don't want to say. It's not bad, but I just don't want to say anything.

It didn't involve jail did it?

No, no jail. Well I never got caught, it's something every teen does though.

(laughs) You mean shoplifting?

Yeah. I felt really bad about it one time, and I actually brought something back. I was like 10 years old (laughs).

So you were like a little delinquent.

No, no. I just had a fascination with stealing.

And fire.

(laughs) That too. But this was all under the age of 12. I was quite the hyper kid. I was known to get into a few school yard tilts.

Really?

I was actually big for my size at that point. I was a scrapper in my younger days, I used to steal people's hats in the school yard, and make them chase me so I could punch 'em (laughs). I got into a few serious fights. I was very competitive, and I still am, but I'm obviously not tough these days.

So what happened? When did you grow out of it?

Basically when I stopped growing in height, and everyone was bigger than me. Yeah, after Grade 6 I kinda shut'er down in the fight department.

(laughs) And the fire department?

The fire department was, fortunately, never called (laughs). I just stopped playing with fire all together.

Do you have any pets?

I have two cats and a dog. The dog's name is Cody, it's a sheep dog like in Babe. One of the cat's is named Fluffy - named by my 7-year-old sister - and the other is Glory. We got Glory on Sept. 11th, I guess my mom thought that was patriotic, so she named it Glory.

Your first game in the OHL was postponed because of the attacks. When you did play, you brought out a small U.S. flag on to the ice with you.

That was the first legendary stunt I pulled off in the OHL. I pulled a little flag out of my pants and held it up for the U.S. national anthem.

That's cool. Now I understand you give your sticks a special "Rick Vaive" tape job?

Yeah I didn't know that, but my good buddy Mike Mole, one of the many players traded away this year...we probably went through a good 40 guys on the IceDogs roster. Anyway, Mike pointed out to me that I had Rick Vaive tape job. I guess he thought that was kinda funny cause Rick Vaive was not the greatest coach in his opinion. So I just carried out the Rick Vaive -- Mississauga tradition.

What exactly IS the Rick Vaive tape job?

It's nothing spectacular. It just went slightly higher up on the heel, like I guess Ricky had in his NHL playing days.

You have an extensive knowledge of the movie Dumb & Dumber. Would you say you were more like Lloyd Christmas? or Harry Dunne?

I'd have to say Lloyd. He's not that dumb, and he's kinda witty. But definitely his style of dress, the clothes that he wears I could easily pull something like that out of my closet. Other than that, I don't know. I definitely don't own the man's hair cut that's for sure.

Speaking of fashion...have you ever worn the shoes of a homeless man before?

(laughs) Yes, and I'm pretty damn proud of it too. We affectionately called him a bum...but he didn't have a home, and he lived on the street. That's probably the best thing I accomplished in the OHL this season, off the ice and maybe even on the ice, it was just that good.

You were kind enough to give him Bobby Turner's shoes though.

The full story needs to be told. We had a week off before our last game, so a bunch of us were going out. But we knew previous to this that you could not wear white shoes into this particular establishment. But Bobby Turner being the intelligent person that he is, claimed that he could because he's so smart he can talk his way into anything. So he wears these white running shoes, that I wouldn't even show my mom, they were that dirty and not cool at all.

Were they like old skool adidas?

Yeah they were adidas. So we get down there and try to get in (to the all-ages club). And the guy says, "No. Sir you have white shoes on, you can't get in." Then Turner starts with, "I came here previously in the summer and I had white shoes on, and I got in fine".

At this point the guy got pretty upset, and told us to leave or pay the consequences. So we kindly left, and went to a restaurant to try to think of someway to get into this place. Me being the intelligent young mind that I am, said that we should try and find some black shoes or something so that we can get in. But of course nobody was gonna buy a pair for just one night, that would of been retarded.

So I glanced out the window and this person caught my eye...well it was more the shoes. I knew at that point I had to have them (laughs). I announced to everyone that I was going to ask the bum if he would like to trade shoes. And I said that Turner should do it, because he was the one with the white shoes.

We knew that the bum would trade because he was getting the better deal, because the little things he was wearing were not good, and not clean, at all. So Turner is not happy, and says he isn't going to trade. It was one of our last nights together with the boys, so I wanted to have fun.

I declared that I would switch shoes with the bum and let Turner wear mine, giving the bum Turner's shoes. Everyone would be happy. So we walk over to the homeless person, and I asked him kindly if he would like to trade shoes with us, as we were trying to get into an establishment where you needed black shoes.

He said, "I don't fuckin' care just give me some money." (laughs)

RRM: What? (laughs)

That's what he said. So we make the switch, and the bum's shoes were actually very small and they hurt my feet the entire night. And quite dirty as you can imagine. But we went back and got in fine. I got a blister from the boots, but it was all in good fun and definitely a night that I will never forget.

But you made Turner give you his socks?

Oh yeah. I did mention to Turner that since he had my nice clean shoes he had to give me his socks so I could double wrap, so that I not acquire any diseases from the homeless man.

And what happened to said shoes?

Those shoes were brought into practice and hung from the lights above my stall. They probably broke some health guidelines, but stayed there 'til the end of the season. I told many people this story, because I'm proud of it. Being a rookie, I felt that I had to step up and take one for the team.