CHAMPIONS SPEAK - 2011 Hall of Fame Inductee Rod Buskas - Athlete
by Sandy Kirstein Wright
Sometimes, athletes are just too humble and Rod Buskas is no exception. When I was writing up Rod’s citation for the program and looking for information for this introduction, I asked Rod if he had any scrapbooks or news clippings. Well, I asked the wrong person.
I spent an afternoon with
Rod’s biggest fans, his mom & dad, Maxine and Sieg, and was
able to peruse all the memorabilia that they had saved and
scrapbooked. Rod’s citation in the program doesn’t expound
on his achievements in Wetaskiwin so I will do so now. Once
I saw the scrapbooks I found out a lot more about Rod’s
participation and achievements. When he was a youngster it
became apparent that Rod was going to excel in sports. He
started his hockey on an outdoor rink at his family farm
playing with his dad, his brother Wayne and his sister
Gail. He didn’t play organized hockey in the Wetaskiwin
minor hockey system until he was eleven years old. Then he
played two years of pee-wee, two years of bantam and one
year of Midget.
It seems like almost every
team Rod played on in Wetaskiwin was a “winner”or a
“contender”. During his two years in Bantam hockey, Rod’s
Pahal Motors teams were second in Provincials both years.
Rod was Assistant Captain of the 1977 Kinsmen Kings Midget
“B” hockey team that won the Provincial Championship.
In tonight’s program it
mentions that, as a kid, Rod was also involved in fastball
and school sports. As a fastball player Rod was on two
Provincial Championship teams. Rod was also a member of the
Wetaskiwin Sport Shop Midget fastball team that won the
Western Canadian Championship in 1977. In grade nine he was
the top male athlete at Rosebrier School and held junior
high records in track and field. In addition, Rod was the
quarterback of the Sabre football team in his Grade 10 year
and was named team “Rookie of the Year”. All in all, Rod,
a pretty impressive athletic background!
At the age of 16 Rod moved up
to Junior A hockey with the Red Deer Rustlers. Playing for
the Rustlers meant moving away from home, billeting with a
family in Red Deer and attending school there. That ended
Rod’s Sabre football career and once hockey season was over,
Rod played junior fastball in Red Deer. Rod did return to
play fastball for the Wetaskiwin Junior Car Capitals in 1979
and was an excellent first base prospect for the Wetaskiwin
Fastball Senior Car Capitals. But, it seems hockey won
over, Medicine Hat was further from home and once he was
playing for the Tigers, he spent his summers
there...probably meeting Debra, his wife-to-be had something
to do with him sticking around the ‘Hat". In his first
years of professional hockey and after he married Debra, Rod
continued spending his off seasons in Medicine Hat.
In 1982, Rod was named
Wetaskiwin’s male athlete of the year along with females Val
Greenwall and Brenda Vergette, two other Wetaskiwin and
County Sports Hall of Fame inductees! Rod was the first
Wetaskiwin hockey player after Val Fonteyne to make it to
the NHL. Val must have been one of Rod’s idols as in one of
the Buskas's scrapbooks there was a saved, Val Fonteyne
autograph's that was given to Rod when he was a young boy.
When Rod played with the Red
Deer Rustlers he was a winger and was one of the leading
scorers on the team. According to Rod, he always hung back
so he wouldn’t get out of position, so when the defense
needed reinforcement, the Red Deer coach moved Rod to
defense. Throughout his stellar junior hockey career, Rod
continued playing as a defenseman. In his last year of
junior he amassed 60 points in 70 games, so he was still
pretty offensive minded.
In the NHL with the Pittsburg
Penguins Rod found his niche and became known as a defensive
defenseman. When interviewed, Rod said,
“I’ve always played
physical. Team mates and coaches expect it from me.
Everybody has his role, that’s mine. I’m not afraid to
protect my team mates. The transition game, from
offense to defense is SO important, that for me, goal
scoring is secondary. I enjoy playing an aggressive
role in our end of the ice”.
When traded to LA, Rod wise
cracked:
“I don’t think they
brought me here for my offensive prowess.”
Rod was the kind of defenseman
that goalies love to have in front of them. He cleaned up
in front of the net and excelled at clearing rebounds and
moving the enemy out of the goalie’s line of vision with his
“in-your-face”, hard hitting, aggressive defensive style.
Rod took pride in keeping the goals against down and having
a good plus-minus rating. One of his NHL coaches was quoted
as saying,
“Rod’s not afraid to
stick his nose in the game. You know he is going to
give his best every time out.”
Rod was also described as
being a team player, there to do what ever it takes to help
his team win - things that go unnoticed on the score sheet,
but more times than not, help in the final outcome of the
game.
Fans and team mates recognized
his value to the team and nicknamed him the ”Bus”. Another
nickname came from fans in Pittsburg's Civic Centre, a
banner hung in the stands lauding “Hot Rod Buskas” # 7.
Probably because Rod was like a hot-rod. No flash, but
lots of muscle!
One of Rod’s quotes was
featured when Sports Illustrated ran an article called
“Pantheon of Pain” which expounded on how, to hockey
players, playing with pain is a badge of honor. When asked
why he returned one period after breaking his nose in a game
against the Red Wings, Rod answered,
“I don’t skate with my
nose.”
All this from a man with a
laid back, easy going personality.
As a kid, Rod had two goals in
life, one was to play hockey in the NHL, the other to be a
pilot. In the off seasons in Medicine Hat, Rod learned how
to fly, which led to his second career in aviation. Rod is
now a pilot for Hawaii Airlines. Kudos to you, Rod, for
reaching your aspirations.
In the NHL, the average career
length is five years and Rod, you played eleven years. You
were lucky enough, and good enough, to play alongside Mario
Lemieux, Wayne Gretzky, Paul Coffee, Kelly Hrudey, Larry
Robinson and Bryan Trottier, all Hall of Famers. All in
all, you had a great hockey career and have been a positive
role model for young Wetaskiwin athletes. Your family is SO
proud of you, your friends are proud of you and your
community is proud of you and your accomplishments. It is
our pleasure to induct you into the Wetaskiwin and County
Sports Hall of Fame
