Remembering Peter Puck

By Rochelle Bergman

I was walking in a vintage store the other day, and I spotted a whole wall of magnets. Most of the magnets were dated from the 70’s. Right in front of my eyes was a magnet that flooded my mind with old memories of hockey games past. I had to do a double take to make sure my eyes were not fooling me! The magnet was the TV cartoon character, Peter Puck!

If you watched the “hockey game of the week” on NBC or “hockey night in Canada” on CBC in the early 70’s, you might remember Peter Puck. As a friendly cartoon puck, he would explain all things hockey to a new generation of TV fans. Hockey on TV was new then and to get people ‘into’ it, Peter Puck was made to answer questions. He spoke about rules, players, history of the game and a lot more. There are nine episodes, plus the “Production Line” and “The Story of the Stanley Cup.” Each is around three minutes. A fast and fun way of learning everything hockey.

The goal of Peter Puck was: all on TV, all to the TV viewer, all to introduce non-hockey lovers to the game! I wonder if the plan worked?

If you google Peter Puck, the computer lights up with websites. You can still buy Peter Puck items or you can watch the cartoons. It seems odd and out-of-place to see the character after all of these years. Back then, technology was not where it is today, cartoons back then were straight forward. Peter Puck was a simple cartoon, trying to explain a game to young and old alike. He made it fun to learn!

I wonder if Peter Puck today would have the same following as of yesterday?