Cooperalls and The Mullet

There is nothing more satisfying than educating the youth of today.

The other day I am getting my seven year old son ready for hockey and I mistakenly asked him where his garter belt was. I had to then explain to him that prior to Velcro, his old man and all hockey players used garter belts to hold up their hockey socks. A barrage of seven year old insults and mockery ensued. (there actually was some pretty good lines…one about hot ladies on skates, but some things always stay in the dressing room……)
But the garter belt thing wasn’t always the case and it got me once again thinking of days gone by. I told him when I was young, a good portion of the time we wore long pants instead of hockey socks and that they were called Cooperalls. I got from him a dazed and confused look on his face much like the time I told him McDonalds was going out of business. So thank god for the Internet! We did a little research and this is what we found.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Cooperalls are a type of discontinued ice hockey equipment, which were made by hockey manufacturer Cooper. They consisted of a girdle with built in pads that wore snug to the body. Over the girdle is a shell, which came in two sizes: a traditional looking hockey pant (down to the knee) or a long pant (down to the ankle). The long pants became synonymous with the name Cooperalls and were worn in place of hockey shorts and did not require leggings. Cooperalls were the standard for youth hockey players in the early 80s. Cooperalls were first used professionally by the Philadelphia Flyers in the 1981–82 NHL season. The Hartford Whalers wore them for the 1982–83 NHL season. Following considerable criticism^[1] and concern for player safety, the NHL banned the use of long pants.^[2] However, the girdle and short shell design is still available from some hockey manufacturers.

So that took care of that issue. But then comes this zinger of a question, “Dad, way back then did you have one of those real goofy haircuts, a Mallet????”
Being a good father I quickly corrected him and told him that I indeed did have a Mullet back in the day. I also told him that he should be respectful of the Mullet and that it was one of the greatest hairstyles in history.....  ‘Business in the front, Party in the back!’ I also educated the young lad on some of the other aliases for the legendary hockey haircut, such as:
Nebraska Neckwarmer
Kentucky Curtain
Arkansas Ape Drape
Schlong (short/long)
West Virginia Waterfall
The Cyrus Virus
By this point we were travelling well down memory lane. He then said to me, “Dad, those must have been great times, what was your favorite car back then???”
“The Camaro IROC.” I responded.
Again with the stunned look he inquired, “What does IROC stand for???”
Once more, being a good dad, it was time to be honest and teach the boy…., “Italian reject out cruising……”

Needless to say, Mom is not impressed……J

Long live Cooperalls, The Mullet and Muscle Cars!!!!