ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, December 12, 1996 TAG: 9612120007
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RALPH BERRIER JR. STAFF WRITER
THE CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS' Eric Weinrich is the only person born in Roanoke ever to play in the NHL.
There have been washed-up, scrub goalies like the kind who used to sport the colors of the old Virginia Lancers who spent more time in the Roanoke Valley than Eric Weinrich did.
Still, those guys weren't born here.
Born in Roanoke in 1966, Weinrich approaches his 30th birthday this month in the garb of the Chicago Blackhawks, for whom he is experiencing one of the best starts of his seven-year NHL career. He's the only person born in Roanoke ever to play in the National Hockey League.
``Sometimes people ask me how I started to play hockey in Virginia,'' said Weinrich. ``I quickly tell them I was only there for a year.''
The family moved to Maine when Weinrich was barely a year old, leaving local hockey fans to wonder if Roanoke Valley hockey history would be different had Weinrich honed his hockey skills here.
He still would have grown up a hockey fan, at least. Perhaps his earliest childhood memories would have been of going to minor-league hockey games at the Salem Civic Center with his dad, a Northeasterner who migrated southward to go to school. As a teen-ager, Weinrich would have spent many hours on the ice at Vinton's LancerLot, where he would play in men's leagues as a teen-age phenom.
Maybe NHL scouts would have flocked to Vinton to find a burgeoning hockey factory tucked away in the Blue Ridge. Eric Weinrich could have been the first of a long line of Roanoke Valley hockey players to make the big-time. Who knows, Radford University might have a nationally prominent hockey program right now had Weinrich gone there. Right now, the Roanoke Express could be skating off to practice in Weinrich Rink, part of the Valley's sprawling ice-skating franchises named after its favorite hockey-playing son.
Alas, we'll never know if any of that would have actually transpired or if it would have resulted in Weinrich earning a living where he does now - in the NHL. After all, the chances of a Roanoke Valley boy growing up in the 1970s becoming an NHL player was about as likely as molten lava flowing down the slopes of Mill Mountain or the Roanoke River running black with oil.
Still, there are two incontrovertible facts: Eric Weinrich was born in Roanoke and he plays in the National Hockey League. He's the only guy in the universe who fits that description, even if he did grow up in Maine.
``Sometimes, even programs and stuff will say his hometown is Roanoke,'' said John Weinrich, Eric's dad. ``That's okay. That's kind of nice.''
Eric was born at Roanoke Memorial Hospital on Dec.19, 1966, to Sandra and John Weinrich, a young couple from Rhode Island who had moved to Virginia in order for John to finish his education. When Eric was born, the Weinriches lived on the Boulevard in Salem, John was working at Langhorne Pharmacy and taking architecture classes at Virginia Tech and Sandra was teaching elementary school.
``We loved Virginia,'' John said. ``I tell you what stuck out. The people. We had so many good friends. We would have considered settling there.''
The Weinriches were around when the Roanoke Valley got its first hockey team in 1967. John attended several Roanoke Valley Rebels games at the Salem Civic Center during the winter of '67-68.
``The first year [of the Rebels] was kind of amusing, because most people didn't know what was going on,'' he said. ``They were cheering offsides, cheering icing. I had a great time.''
John got a job with an architectural firm in Maine in 1968 and the Weinriches left the Valley for good. Eric was the only one of the Weinrich children born in Roanoke and, according to his dad, probably would have been a baseball player had he grown up in Salem.
``He was a hell of a baseball player,'' John Weinrich said. ``He had scouts looking at him. He could've played that if he hadn't stayed with hockey.''
He stayed with - and starred in - hockey. He became a second-team All-America at the University of Maine before playing for the 1988 U.S. Olympic Team in Calgary.
He broke into the NHL with New Jersey and was named to the NHL All-Rookie Team in 1991. He was dealt to Hartford in 1992 then traded to Chicago early in the 1993-94 season. Heading into this season, he'd never scored more than seven goals or 38 points in a season. He's got four goals and seven assists in 30 games while playing solid defense for the Blackhawks.
He's never been back to Roanoke, though.
``I've seen pictures of the place,'' he said. ``I've always thought about visiting there. My brother Jason was in the East Coast [Hockey] League with Johnstown last year, so he played in Roanoke last year. I kind of follow Roanoke a little.''
One day, maybe when he gets a chance during the off-season or when his playing days are over, Weinrich will visit the town where he was born but is as foreign to him as a Southern accent. Just as long as he's not plummeting through the minors to get here.
``I'd like to go back there,'' he said. ``Just as long as I'm not playing there.''
LENGTH: Medium: 95 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Slapshot photo. Eric Weinrich, who was born in Roanoke,by CNBwas a second-team All-American at the University of Maine and played
on the U.S. Olympic team in Calgary in 1988 before beginning his NHL
career. color.