Age doesn’t thin ice for local hockey player

Guy Cipriano

Ron Weis was in his early 40s, taking verbal hip-checks from his father, Kenneth Weis, about a new hobby.

Photo courtesy Jay Horgas

Ron Weis, right, with good friend and former Penn State Icers head coach Joe Battista, turned 70 Wednesday but still plays hockey regularly in the Nittany Hockey League.

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What would Kenneth think today, knowing his son played hockey last night as a 70-year-old?

It’s a question Ron pondered Tuesday, one day before turning 70, one day before his friends rented out the Penn State Ice Pavilion to celebrate the occasion.

“My father found out I was playing hockey when I was 42, 43, and thought I was crazy for playing a kid’s game,” he said. “I’m sure he still thinks I’m crazy.”

Crazy? Perhaps to others. To some, he’s a local adult hockey stalwart.

Weis owns computer disks with the names of everybody who has played in the Nittany Hockey League, which locals call the NHL. He can pinpoint key events in the league’s three-decade history from memory.

Teammates and opponents refer to him as the NHL’s “commish,” a title that started as a joke but doesn’t begin to describe his impact on the league.

Nobody has played in the local adult league longer. Weis was on the ice for the league’s birth on Christmas Eve in 1980. He plans to skate when the league begins next season in September.

“It’s been a wonderful gift,” Weis said. “I have been very lucky. I have met so many nice people along the way and it came out of nowhere. I don’t know how somebody else can have something like this.”

Most sports stories begin with a father introducing a son to an enticing game. This one begins with the father following a son.

Weis’ oldest son, Marcus, started playing hockey in the early 1970s, and Weis attended practices and games, where he met Bob Hettema and Dave Wilson.

Hettema, who directed the local youth league, encouraged Weis to begin skating. Wilson, a business professor from Canada, needed somebody to help coach an elementary team. Weis, a Pittsburgh native who moved to State College in 1957, agreed.

Weis viewed Wilson as the boss. Weis did what he was told.

Most of the children couldn’t skate at first. Neither could Weis. They gradually learned the most basic of hockey’s fundamentals.

Once a year, the fathers would play a game with their children. The fathers wanted to play more, but ice time proved scarce.

The fathers received abundant ice time on that Christmas Eve when workers at Penn State’s then-outdoor ice rink allowed a group to play deep into the evening.

The men didn’t have gloves, helmets and pads or a Zamboni to clear snow from the ice. The puck often glided into snow piles and burrowed. It didn’t matter.

They were addicted to hockey and wanted to play more.

Tom Ray, Norm Hutcheson and Hettema organized Centre County’s NHL once Penn State’s new rink opened in 1981. Players were told to bring $10 and they were organized into Red, White and Blue teams.

Men entered and left the league, which eventually expanded to 10 teams and more than 180 players. The current NHL features nine cleverly-named teams.

Weis, who plays for the Harrisburg Wolves, never went anywhere. Hockey developed into his recreational outlet.

He doesn’t run or hike for exercise, but he plays two hockey games per week, including what regulars call the “Weezers and Geezers” pickup game. When the weather improves, Weis plays tennis.

“He inspires a lot of guys to keep going, keep sweating and keep strapping them on,” said Jay Horgas, a league referee who participates in “Weezer and Geezer” games. “We’re all in decline. We get a little worse. We get a little slower. But guys see him and think, ‘Maybe I can do that when I’m 70.’”

Weis offers the leagues more than an inspirational linemate.

Weis performs mundane but important tasks such as creating schedules, paying league bills and enforcing rules. Weis raised three sons and worked as an architect, but the “commish” helped the NHL become a glitch-free league.

“Leagues sometimes hinge on one person carrying the load,” Horgas said.

Weis retired from his full-time job at age 62.

He has yet to retire from hockey.

“When I think I’m 70, I’m amazed by what I’m doing,” he said. “One day I’m hurting, the next I feel like I can keep going forever. We need more outlets like this for men. I still feel like a boy in many ways.”

The “commish” turned 70 on Wednesday.

He received a birthday gift that made him feel like a boy.

There’s nothing crazy about that.

Guy Cipriano is a sports writer for the Centre Daily Times. He can be reached at 231-4643 or gciprian@centredaily.com.