From the Buffalo News
By ANGEL VERDEJO
News Sports Reporter
7/31/2003
Take a trip to the Fisher-Price Complex in East Aurora and take the elevator to the break room, which might be
better called the game room.
Don't let the company's name mislead you - this isn't a room full of bouncy balls, playpens and building blocks.
This room might rival the game room in the average college fraternity house with a large TV, Xbox,
arcade-style basketball, darts and air hockey.
And everyone thought Fisher-Price was just for kids.
Don't forget the bubble hockey game in the front. That's the reason two trophies sit on one of the tables. Mark
Wojtkiewicz, a principal designer, and Tony Eichhorn, product engineer, are two of the bubble hockey regulars
and won the 2003 National Bubble Boys Hockey Tournament this summer.
40 years old, Eichhorn of Lancaster and Wojtkiewicz of East Aurora have played bubble hockey for years,
but only in the last five years have there been trophies and other prizes at stake. Both men previously had
participated in the national tournament, sponsored by Bud Light and the National Hockey League. Eichhorn
made his fourth consecutive trip this summer, and Wojtkiewicz finished second in 1999. This year, with their
original partners having moved, the two teamed after years of playing each other.
Eichhorn and Wojtkiewicz, who called their team "Little People," won a local competition at Jack Astor's Bar &
Grill at the Walden Galleria. They advanced and won the Buffalo regionals April 2 at HSBC Arena and went on
to the national tournament, held between Games Three and Four of the Stanley Cup finals.
Bubble hockey features 3- to 4-inch players controlled with rods and knobs, and it is a classic barroom game,
along with pool and table soccer. The game can cost up to $3,000 and some offer extras such as crowd noise
and announcers. Like pool and table soccer, bubble hockey has smaller versions that are childhood favorites.
"A lot of kids had them," Eichhorn said of the smaller hockey games. "You'd get them for Christmas. They had
little metal rods and you would use your fingertips to maneuver the guys and pass the puck and score.
Gradually, they got bigger and bigger."
As hockey fans, the men's interest in the game was always there, and bubble hockey was probably an
extension of that and the rod-hockey games they played as youngsters.
"This was just a big deluxe one," Wojtkiewicz said. "This is the adult version of what I played."
Ten years ago, Fisher-Price added a used bubble hockey game to its break room. The game had suffered
through the wear and tear of its time in a bar, but Eichhorn, Wojtkiewicz and the others made do. The game
was a stress reliever at first, Eichhorn said, just a way to step away from work for 20 minutes during lunch.
It started as a one-on-one game. Then, as more workers sought refuge through bubble hockey, the players
formed two-man teams to accommodate the demand. The bubble hockey following acquired a newer game a
few years later, and in time the competition level went up.
"It got incredibly competitive because a lot of teams formed and the level of play was really high," Eichhorn
said. "We played a lot. We played three or four times a week for 20 minutes."
The practicing played in everyone's favor when Bud Light introduced the national competition in 1999.
Wojtkiewicz said the teams were used to working together and were already in a groove.
That year, Wojtkiewicz won the Buffalo regional with partner John DeRubes. The duo swept through the local
competition and topped 29 other teams at the regional tournament. As one of the prizes for qualifying for the
national tournament, participants are flown to one of two cities hosting the Stanley Cup finals and given tickets
for a game.
Most of the participating teams represent the NHL market they are coming from, with Eichhorn and Wojtkiewicz
playing as the Buffalo Sabres each year.
"They sent us to Dallas and that was the year the Sabres were in the Cup, too," Wojtkiewicz said. "In that year,
John and I came in second place."
In June, Wojtkiewicz and Eichhorn were one of 32 teams flown to Anaheim to watch the third game of the
Stanley Cup finals and compete the next day in the bubble hockey tournament.
"It's a huge production, and you just cannot believe the money (the sponsors) put into bubble hockey,"
Wojtkiewicz said. "They fly us all there, you stay in a deluxe hotel. You get tickets to the game . . . plus all the
other prizes and stuff."
Before the tournament began, each player and team was introduced to the crowd as the participants ran into
the arena. Imagine the same game you play during your lunch break but with ESPN hockey guru Bill Clement
announcing you to a crowd.
Wojtkiewicz said the sponsors make the tournament bigger than life, like it's the real thing - the Stanley Cup.
ESPN personnel constantly interviewed bubble hockey teams. Former NHL coach Barry Melrose joined
Clement in calling the play-by-play.
Referees, dressed as actual officials, watched the action, keeping order. ESPN cameras followed all the
games. One projected the game onto the larger television screens, and the other camera caught the players'
expressions and emotions.
The arena for the team's final two matches was set up with the game in the center, under a series of stage
lights. Two levels with about 150 people, including eliminated players, encircled the match, watching, coaching
and yelling.
Eichhorn and Wojtkiewicz played five games en route to the national title. The single-elimination tournament
lasted four hours until "Little People" eliminated "Vermont Sandwich Co.," 3-1.
"It was pure fun because we were absolutely on Cloud Nine. We were floated up in the air - we just won the
whole thing," Eichhorn said.
Said Wojtkiewicz, "You wish you could bottle that and stop time to remember it because it goes so fast."
Then came the grand finale of the prizes. In addition to Stanley Cup tickets, a jersey and a bubble hockey
game each would take home, Eichhorn and Wojtkiewicz faced hockey legend Wayne Gretzky and Melrose in
an exhibition match.
Eichhorn and Wojtkiewicz put their emotions aside for the 41/2-minute game and added another win to their
total, beating the "Great One," 5-0.
"They had no clue how to play the game," Wojtkiewicz said, laughing. "That was our shtick. Wayne may be the
man on the ice, but this dome was our home. I talked smack to the Great One.
"We were up, 4-0, and I said, "Wayne, if you turn that little black knob, the goalie moves side to side.' He gave
me this look like, "I've got rings on my fingers. This is just a game.' "
Eichhorn, at around 10:30 p.m. in Anaheim, finally called home and gave his son the news he had been waiting
for since his father's first national tournament four years ago.
"My son just assumed, "Oh, you're going dad, you're going to bring the game home,' " Eichhorn said. "This
started when he was 7 and now he's 10, and I finally got to call him and tell him, "You know what, I am bringing
the game home this year.' "
Wojtkiewicz said winning the tournament and the prizes was a great ending to all the years they spent playing
and practicing.
"We've gotten trips to the Stanley Cup, we got a couple of games, and our kids think we're heroes," he said.
"All the kids in my neighborhood call me "Bubble Boy.'
"I ride down the street - "Bubble Boy! Bubble Boy!' "
