First a Jamaican bobsled team; now an Olympic ice hockey team?
Ya, mon.
The Jamaica Olympic Ice Hockey Team, a nonprofit organization based in Colorado, received the endorsement of the Jamaica Olympic Association on Tuesday to back the Caribbean island’s efforts to assemble a squad of hockey players of Jamaican descent who play all over the world. The goal is to send a team to the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, in 2014.
Les Franklin, founder of the Denver-based Shaka Franklin Foundation, a youth suicide prevention organization, was instrumental in forming the Colorado contingency that presented the plan to Jamaican officials.
Other key organizers are Devon Harris from the bobsled team and Willie O’Ree, the first black player in NHL history.
While planning the trip, Franklin called his pal Sam Kaufman, owner of Kaufman’s Big & Tall shop in Englewood, to ask him to get on board.
“I told him, I think we should dress you guys to go knock their socks off when you meet with the Jamaican Olympic committee,” Kaufman said. “My idea was to dress them in a manner that would show seriousness as well as patriotism for Jamaica.”
Kaufman called upon his clothing vendors to acquire bright green blazers embroidered with the words “Jamaican Olympic Committee” on the breast pocket, white shirts and pants and yellow ties.
“Right away (Jamaican officials) saw the seriousness of the group,” Kaufman said. “They loved the presentation, and the group is moving forward.”
Kaufman also will help Frank lin fundraise for the hockey team, which will not receive financial assistance from the cash-strapped island.
When Jamaica famously formed an Olympic bobsled team for the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, the world was enamored with the island nation competing in a winter sport.
So enamored that the team’s trials inspired the feature film “Cool Runnings” in 1993.
Kaufman said plans are in the works to record the ice hockey team’s journey for a reality show or a documentary film.
Tickled.
Howl at the Moon, a Tennessee-based dueling-pianos chain, will take over the SingSing space near Coors Field, a spokesman confirmed Thursday.
“We’ve always had Denver circled on our map as a great spot for a Howl at the Moon, and now with no current dueling-piano bar in the LoDo area, we thought this would be our best opportunity to expand,” said Michael Yates, Howl at the Moon’s national marketing director.
“I will be announcing more details in the next few weeks regarding the opening,” he said.
SingSing officials told me Wednesday that the 14-year-old club would shut down at the close of business New Year’s Eve.
CraftWorks, the company that resulted from the merger of SingSing owner Rock Bottom Restaurants and Gordon Biersch, is selling the entertainment venue to focus on its restaurant business.
EAVESDROPPING
A man talking to a woman about hair at Elway’s Cherry Creek:
“I’m not going gray; I’m gone.”
Penny Parker’s column appears Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday. Call her at 303-954-5224 or e-mail pparker@denverpost.com.
