Welcome to

Duffer Calendar

The Golf Outing on August 27 at Billy Caldwell Golf Course was a huge success.  We had13 duffers.  Thank you to all who contributed to my High School. (See pictures below)

Duffers Hockey Schedule.  

Friday nights September 9th - May 12th.  8:30pm Start


 

Season starts Friday September 9th, 2016 @ Canlan in Romeoville.

 

 We have no ice on the following dates:
 

September 16th, 2016 (Full Moon)

October 14th, 2016 (Badgers play Boston College)

November 4th, 2016 (Badgers play N. Michigan)

November 25th, 2016

January 20th, 2017 (Badgers play U of Minnesota)

February 10th, 2017 (Badgers play Penn State)     (Full Moon)

March 17th, 2017 (Badgers play Tourney in Detroit)  (St Patrick's Day)

April 21st, 2017

May 5th, 2017

We had several fun filled trips to Madison.  
We watched Kevin Granato play in 2001, then partied with Keith Magnuson and Cliff Koroll. Madison Wis. 2001 We had 7 duffers packed into the Berserk Van.
 

In 1992, Wally Kraft rented a Camper and we went to see Brian Kraft who was captain of his Anchorage Alaska Team play Donny Granato who was captain of the Wisconsin Badgers who went on to win the National Championship. Only the following entry in the Duffer News remains from that trip:


 
January, 1992;   3 Duffer SODs captain their College Teams.  Brian Kraft (Anchorage Alaska)  Don Granato, (University of Wisconsin) and Dan Lopatka.  (University of Wisconsin. River Falls) All 3 players were from Downers Grove.
A dozen Duffers travel to Madison to watch Brian and Don lock horns.  The rented Camper ran out of gas on the way home.

 
I got home at sunrise and had to think of a lie that my wife would believe.  She would never believe that we ran out of gas.

Beak

September 10 Bill BTW would like to have you golf and sail with him on Lake BY The Way.

We were hoping to view the Persied Meteor shower after our game while we munched our brats and drank our beer, but the the rain storm blocked the show, so Commander Ken moved the cook out to the party room.

Duffer News

Duffers Hockey on Speed!

Romeoville, IL August 12, 2016  Attendance: 24
The Game: Whites 7, Reds 7
White goals: Tweedy had 3 Tommy Z had 2 and Dylan and Doc had 1 each. Whites had 4 SODs (Sons Of Duffers) Grandpa Ken, Tweedy, Jack Kroll and Dylan Nance.

Red Goals: Mini Wheezer, Jeff and Nick had 2 each and T&A scored on a pass from his son.  Reds had 2 SODs (t&a and Nick DeJesus) and 2 GODs (Speed Racer Jeff and Monet Mike)  .  Barron and The Anvil played a fine game that had a Men's A league pace.  Before the game, Tweedy and Tommy Z told t&a to go Red even though the Reds already has Nick DeJesus Jeff and Mike.  That move required Dan and Tommy to shift their game up from Duffer speed to an all out A league pace and they did.  Tweedy and Tommy scored early and gave Barron and the Whites an early

Ryan posed proudly with the Duffer's New Generation Meaningless Trophy.  His Dad was the latest Duffer to have his name engraved.

lead.  Nick DeJesus and Speed Racer Jeff answered to tie the game at 2-2.  Mini Wheezer scored to give the Reds a one goal lead, but Tweedy canceled that with his second goal.  Mini Wheezer scored again and regained the lead for The Anvil's Reds.  Speed Racer Jeff wired a wrist shot from the point that no one saw until it moved the top of the net for a 2 goal lead.  The Whites told the ever polite Dylan Nance that he could score since they were down 2, so he did and made the score Reds 5, Whites 4.  Shortly after that, Doc found the puck on his stick in front of the net, so he tied the game.  Tweedy and Tommy smelled a win so they each scored a goal with less than 5 minutes to play.  Tom "T&A" Ambrosia took a pass from his son Thomas "t&a" and scored on a one timer to cut the lead to 7-6 with one minute left to play.  With the clock winding down, Nick DeJesus beat the Barron just before the final buzzer sounded to tie the game at 7-7. 

Memorable Moments:

  • Commander Ken and Ryan gave thanks with a great indoor/outdoor cook out.  Ken was honored with his name engraved on the New Generation Meaningless Trophy.
  • Tweedy got to skate with his brother Ken for the first time in 6 years.
The indoor cook out gave everyone a chance to sign the Get Well

Card for Klinger.

8 Lopatka's were on the ice. (Lennie and Carmela are pictured below)

The rain stopped just in time for this group of golfers to hit the links. You can tell the good lord smiled on us with no rain after 9:00.

These are the Duffers (Plus the King) who supported this great cause. We thought the hogs ate him but he came back just fine.

My foursome came in with the top score thanks to 8 one puts.

Coach Granato corrected my swing by having me hit left handed.

These two carried the the King and Thor.

Watching these 2 lefties crush the ball made me a switch hitter.

The King and Papa Joe are always the first guys to pay.

Geno and T&A are next in line to jump in.

Tweedy put Thor's name on the longest drive on the ladies card.

This deer couldn't stop watching us play.

We had a friendly deer pay us a visit.

Tweedy tried to show him the way back to the woods.
At our 2011 golf outing, I almost hit this buck with my hoot onto the woods.  I sent this picture to Dale Boman at the Sun Times and he published as the "Buck of the Week" (Left, see the article)

I sent Dale the pictures from this year and he replied with a thank you. 

I had a Back to School Rocket Launch for Family and friends.

All of these kids had one more day of summer vacation.

After the rocket launch, I delivered the Duffer Get well card.

The Anvil's daughter Daniel took good care of Klinger at Marianjoy

Bill is home now and he will be at lunch on Tuesday at the Tilted Kilt

Join us for lunch on Tuesday at the Tilted Kilt

 

Join us at the 2016 Golf outing on August 27.

Go To the Last Duffer News

Beer League Hockey

Go to Duffer History   Duffer Nicknames

Wags Hockey

  Alphabetical Nicknames

Classic Duffer News

Go to Lake Placid News for some laughs.

http://www.lopatka.net/1982-Lake%20Placid/index.html

1996 March Hayward Trip  We saw Comet Hyakutake

December 6, 1996  Duffer news #85

December 15, 1996  Duffer news #86

December 20, 1996  Duffer news #87

Go to 10/25/96

Go to 9/6/96

January 12, 1996  Duffer news #50

 

Go to 2012 The Last MLF Game

Go to 2011 MLF Game

(Anvil's Daughter won it!)

Go to 2010 The First MLF Game

Visit The Rampage Women's Hockey Team web site at: http://www.rampagehockey.org/index.cfm

They Have 2 WODs and  on their team. Their DOD moved to Canada for Graduate School.

WOD=Wife Of a Duffer, DOD = Daughter of a Duffer

Links to Duffer Hockey Newsletters

2008-2010 Stats page

Tweedy's Wags Game

Links to 2016

Links to 2015

Links to 2014

Links to 2013

Links to 2012

Links to 2011

Links to 2010

Links to 2009

Links to 2008

Links to 2007

Links to 2006

Links to 2005

Links to 2004

Links to 2003

Links to 2002

Links to 2001

Links to 2000

Links to 1999

Links to 1994

Bar-toons

Peoria History

Nashville Game 2

Bill Gaston interview

Michelle Spillman hits and fields

      

To E-mail the Duffer News Web master, just click here! g.lopatka@comcast.net

You can e-mail History updates to Beak. 

Duffer Nicknames

Duffer road trips

website counter  

 

Opened Monday May 11, 2015

16030 S. Lincoln Highway Unit 106 (Lincoln Plaza/same strip as comics)
Plainfield, Illinois

Mike won 11 awards for his artistic creations at the Tattoo convention in Champaign.

mikeylotattoos@att.net

(Above) Mike's work of art on Joe Mazzarella III's leg.

(Above) Mike's work of art on Joe Mazzarella III's ribs.

Ann Arbor Music DVDs are ready to ship.  $10 includes shipping and handling. you can also get classic copies of:

 

You may find the following links useful:

Ben Oskroba's First professional goal for the Peoria Rivermen

Drago's Hockey Lessons

Here is a video, thanks to Perry and Paula on How to be a Hockey Player 

 

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Michelle Spillman

Michelle Spillman 10-31-10

Michelle hits a 2 run home run for Romeoville High School in a 3-0 victory against Joliet Catholic Academy.

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JC-Homerun.MOV

Michelle Spillman hit a 2 run Home run to beat Joliet Catholic on April 18, 2012. ... greg Lopatka ... Michelle Spillman and Romeoville High School. ...

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Highland Park-Homerun.MOV

Michelle Spillman hit her 4th homerun on April 21, 2012 to beat Hershey High. ... greg Lopatka ... Michelle Spillman "outdoor sports" ...

 

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Michelle3Base hit.MOV

Michelle hit a triple to help beat Highland Park High 8-5 on 4/21/2012.

 

Patrick Kane Stickhandling:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REAqCB9vfbU

Brandon Bollig Stickhandling:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3B8v_ZHA10