Book builds bridge for Wild followers to cross

The Minnesota North Stars played their first NHL game on Oct. 15, 1967. Bob Showers was a young fan then, later an employee. He decided as a midlife mission to mark this 40th anniversary with a book on the history of the North Stars.

Lou Nanne had wanted to put his hockey stories in a book for years. Showers knew this; they hooked up and came up with a book that would be a combination of Louie's stories, photos and facts.

Showers contacted local publishing companies and found no interest. He decided to go the self-publishing route through a local outfit called Beaver's Pond. Showers and his wife, Donna, took out a large equity loan on their Bloomington home to finance the project.

Nanne called a year ago and said he wanted me to edit the stories he had been telling into a tape recorder.

A meeting with Showers was required before I could give Lou an answer. We sat in the lobby at the Star Tribune one winter day and he laid out his idea for the book. His sincerity and commitment were impressive, although I kept thinking:

"Who is going to buy a book on the North Stars? They've been gone 15 years, they've been replaced and nobody cares."

That's what I thought. What was asked was: "How many words are you looking for from Louie's stories?"

Louie is an old friend, as are several former Turkey of the Year winners. And I figured, "How long can it take to edit 30,000 words ... three afternoons, four at the most?"

I told Louie: "Send me $1,000 and I'll go through stories." I should've known something was up when the check arrived in the next day's mail.

An expert transcriber named Barb Ketter was turning Nanne's tape recordings into English. And the stories just kept coming -- more than 80,000 words before I called Showers and pleaded, "Stop! You must get Louie to stop telling stories."

You will find a few stories based on hijinx that occurred after Louie, the players and teammates were overserved. There were another two dozen that were gaffed in my basement office. Other tales, based on practical jokes, were expunged in the name of good taste.

What must be said is that during the long days in the basement there was a chance for a lot of smiles, reading Louie's story. And it has turned out there was a sizable appetite for those stories and for this nostalgic look at Minnesota's original NHL team.

The success of this look back at the North Stars was one Christmas lesson received on the NHL's longstanding popularity in this area. There also were a couple of social functions last week that included mostly what I call "St. Paul guys" -- the people who went to school and now run businesses there.

These East Metro folks still were talking with excitement over Marian Gaborik's five goals ("The building was absolutely electric") and with anticipation of what might happen when the Wild played host to the Red Wings (not so good).

It wasn't only the guys. The St. Paul wives, sons and daughters also were talking with knowledge and enthusiasm about the Wild.

Almost from Day 1 for the Wild in 2000, there was the impression that Xcel Energy Center was filled with a few thousand hockey fans and many more thousands of fun-seekers more interested in a few drinks and the splendid surroundings.

That might be true for many social butterflies making the trek from this side of the river, but a cynical sportswriter listened to these St. Paul conversations for a couple of nights and discovered something: