The Hanson Bros. characters from iconic hockey movie "Slap Shot" are some of the most memorable figures in the sport's history. And this exclusive 2006 THN interview with the three men behind the Hansons showed that there was never any shortage of colorful moments, no matter which town hockey's Harlem Globetrotters were in.

The hockey world isn’t always serious, and that’s a good thing. 

Indeed, in this cover story from our special collector’s edition magazine from September 1, 2006 – titled “The Lighter Side of Hockey – we spotlighted arguably the funniest hockey trio of all time: the Hanson Brothers of Slap Shot movie fame.

(And once again, this is our regular reminder: for complete access to this issue and THN’s exclusive 76-year Archive, you can subscribe to the magazine.)

The Hanson Bros. aren’t all brothers – although two of them (Jeff and Steve Carlson) are siblings. But their legendary comic cadence and skill at bringing color to a game that’s often intentionally colorless is what earned them their legacy as hockey’s version of the Harlem Globetrotters – a unit that went from town to town, year after year, with the sole goal of making people happy. And there have been many different generations of hockey fans who love them with all their heart.

“We thought the popularity of the movie would decrease over the years, not increase,” said third “Hanson” Dave Hanson. “It has crossed generations now. We go from the golden years to the ankle-biters.”

Those ankle-biters didn’t need to be in their teens to appreciate the movie’s cultural impact, even if they surprised the Hanson Bros. by cursing the way the trio cursed in Slap Shot.

“We were in Chicago doing an appearance,” Jeff Carlson said. “And this six-year-old boy comes up to Dave at the podium and says, ‘I’ll straighten you out, ya little p----!’

“Dave is stunned; he asks the kid, ‘What did you just say?’ And the little kid says again, ‘I’ll straighten you out, ya little p----!’ That’s not even one of our lines! And the kid’s father was just killing himself laughing.”

Steve Carlson and Dave Hanson enjoyed time in the NHL, while Jeff Carlson also had a solid pro career as a player. The three men lived in different cities when this story was written, but they came together regularly to delight fans across the hockey world. And even NHLers were diehard fans of their routine.

“We’re in Buffalo, Sabres are playing the Kings,” Dave Hanson said. “(Wayne) Gretzky’s hurt, so we’re talking to him and (Sabres coach) Teddy Nolan comes walking up. ‘Hey Hans,’ he says, ‘can you give our guys a pregame speech?’ I say, ‘You’re kidding me.’ He says, ‘No, I gotta get ‘em fired up.’

“So we’re in there and we’ve got Rob Ray, and Brad May, and (Pat) Lafontaine and we get ’em all down on their knees and we go through the whole routine and they’re just howlin.’ They actually went out and won that night. Teddy said, ‘That’s the best pre-game speech I’ve ever heard in my life. You guys got ’em all fired up.’ ”

Now in their late sixties and early seventies, the Hanson Bros. acted again in the sequels to Slap Shot. And while they weren’t their characters away from movie sets and special appearances, the Hansons knew how to handle overzealous fans who were looking for a show. They often got one, although it didn’t reflect positively on them once they crossed the line of good humor. 

Take, for instance, a Hanson appearance in Boston on St. Patrick’s Day. Spoiler alert – it didn’t go well for the fan who dared to test their collective mettle.

“We were working for Budweiser,” Dave said of the incident. “Started at eight in the morning, didn’t finish until two that night. The Boston police special forces were on motorcycle, escorting us through the city. The entire day was unbelievable, incredible.

“So it’s toward the end of the evening and we’re shaking hands and taking photographs in the last bar. Then some guy jumps on Jeff’s back. Of course, the guy’s just fartin’ around. Well, Jeff’s probably the biggest of the three of us; Jeff grabs this guy by the throat, pins him against the wall, and suddenly there’s six special forces cops ready to take the guy down. And this guy is s----ing bricks. Finally, Jeff realized it was OK, but you had all these cops in flak jackets ready to get him.”

“The undercover security guard was standing right next to me,” Steve added. “I said to him, ‘Do you want to jump in?’ He says, ‘Nah, I think Jeff’s got everything under control.’ ”

THE HANSONS’ FAMILY VALUES

Sept. 1, 2006

By Adam Proteau

Picture this: It’s August, 2005, and you’re a customs employee at the U.S.-Canada border in Sarnia, Ont. A long-haired, bespectacled man gets out of a 14-foot U-Haul truck and walks toward you. He looks familiar, but you can’t connect a name to the face.

“Do you know where I’m supposed to go?” he says. When you examine his paperwork, you see he’s in possession of several Hanson Brothers bobblehead dolls. One thousand, six hundred and twenty of them, to be exact.

“Have you seen Slap Shot?” the transporter asks you. Of course you have. You love Slap Shot, not simply for the fact it’s one of the best sports movies ever made, but also because the Canadian government passed a law in 1987 requiring all of its citizens to know each line by heart.

Then it hits you: you’re talking to Steve Carlson, who plays Steve “I’m tryin’ to listen to the (expletive) song!” Hanson. One of the world-famous Hanson Brothers.

Holy Johnstown Chiefs!

“True story,” Carlson says. “I had to go into a customs building because I didn’t have my manifest filled out. I already knew where I was supposed to go, but I asked the guy anyway and played the Hanson Brothers card on him.

“Let’s just say that helped me a little bit that day. I don’t play the Hanson card very often, but I’d had a long, frustrating day, so I had to do it.”

Who can blame him? After all, after more than a decade criss-crossing North America as one of pro sports’ greatest entertainment acts, the Hanson Brothers deserve a little cross-border slack every so often.

Hockey’s horrible-looking Harlem Globetrotters is what they are: part comedy trio, part retro reminder of the way the game was played when you could wrassle with a menace like Ogie Oglethorpe, offer him a soda afterwards, kick the crap out of a vending machine or two, then head off to a place where they air Speed Racer. And they keep chugging along, shunned by the NHL yet wholly embraced by millions of hockey fans, including those who weren’t born when the film was released in 1977.

Luckily for them, Steve Carlson, his brother Jeff Carlson and Dave Hanson plan to keep audiences laughing as long as they can. What they can’t believe, still, is how beloved their characters remain.

“We thought the popularity of the movie would decrease over the years, not increase,” Dave Hanson says. “It has crossed generations now. We go from the golden years to the ankle-biters.”

And everybody who watches Slap Shot seems to remember almost every minute detail about it.

“We had a trivia contest in Colorado and we were trying to come up with questions for the audience,” Dave says. “The whole group is getting all the answers right. So one guy says he’s got a trivia question for us, and we’re like, ‘Oh, we were in the movie, so we know just about everything.’

“The guy says, ‘What time was on the clock when Steve hit the organist in the head with a shot?’ He knew the answer. We didn’t.”

Children aren’t immune from Slap Shot fever, either.

“We were in Chicago doing an appearance,” Jeff Carlson says. “And this six-year-old boy comes up to Dave at the podium and says, ‘I’ll straighten you out, ya little p----!’

“Dave is stunned; he asks the kid, ‘What did you just say?’ And the little kid says again, ‘I’ll straighten you out, ya little p----!’ That’s not even one of our lines! And the kid’s father was just killing himself laughing.”

Chalk up another customer satisfied by the Hansons, who receive hundreds of appearance requests each year. They’ve had inquiries from fans in Australia and Japan, and have their first trip to Switzerland and Germany planned for November.

Seems they’re worth much more than a used puck bag. They’re folk heroes now, just as Paul Newman’s Reg Dunlop character suggested to the coppers anxious to arrest them.

“Before the lockout, we had 385 requests and we did 35-40 of them,” Steve says. “We’re not tired of it at all. The travel isn’t my favorite part of the job, but once I’m there, I’m excited. And we don’t need a lot to make us happy. Give me a room where there’s a TV, shower, remote control and a bed. That’s all I need.”

They also don’t need to live near each other to succeed. Steve, whose 14-year playing career included a stint with the Los Angeles Kings, manages the trio’s business from his home in Wisconsin. Jeff is an electrician in Muskegon, Mich. Dave is the general manager of the Robert Morris University Island Sports Center in Pittsburgh. And when you consider how much time they spend on the road together, it’s no surprise to find out they value their time alone.

“Jeff and I don’t talk to each other until I see him at an appearance,” Dave says. “That’s not by choice; we’re just off in separate cities, doing our own thing. Stevie, I talk to more often, but that’s because he runs the business for us. But when we were the spokesmen for Bud Ice, gosh, we were working four to five days out of the week. Sometimes we were on the road for like, two weeks straight, and that’s a lot.

“It’s nice to have a break from your wife for a while, but not with those two guys.”

The hard work has paid off for them, if not in outright riches, then certainly in wonderful encounters with fans, celebrities and NHLers alike. Here’s Dave, recounting a memorable trip to upstate New York:

“We’re in Buffalo, Sabres are playing the Kings. (Wayne) Gretzky’s hurt, so we’re talking to him and Teddy Nolan comes walking up. ‘Hey Hans,’ he says, ‘can you give our guys a pregame speech?’ I say, ‘You’re kidding me.’ He says, ‘No, I gotta get ‘em fired up.’

“So we’re in there and we’ve got Rob Ray, and Brad May, and (Pat) Lafontaine and we get ’em all down on their knees and we go through the whole routine and they’re just howlin.’ They actually went out and won that night.

“Teddy said, ‘That’s the best pre-game speech I’ve ever heard in my life. You guys got ’em all fired up.’ ”

Then there was the time in Indianapolis.

“We did a show in Indianapolis and Dave couldn’t make it, so the radio station had a contest to determine who would be the third Hanson Brother,” Jeff says. “We’re in on it, but we don’t know who they’ve picked until we’re right there in the dressing room.

“In comes the guy who won the contest – he’s an African-American. This guy was so hyped. We dressed him up and got the foil on him, gave him the glasses, everything. He could barely skate, he falls during the Zamboni skate, and the crowd is just going nuts over the whole show. No matter what we do, people expect that it’s part of the whole act.”

And let’s not forget the Hansons’ run-in with a famous Blues Brother in St. Louis.

“Walking down the bowels of the Kiel Center, we hear, from all the way down the other end of the hallway, ‘Holy s---, it’s the (expletive) Hanson Brothers!’ ” Dave says. “We turn around and there’s this huge guy running towards us. As he gets closer, we realize that it’s John Goodman. He comes up, grabs all three of us and he just keeps saying, ‘I can’t believe I’m with the (expletive) Hanson Brothers!’ over and over again. He was hilarious.”

Finally, there’s the infamous “St. Patrick’s Day in Boston” incident.

“We were working for Budweiser,” Dave says. “Started at eight in the morning, didn’t finish until two that night. The Boston police special forces were on motorcycle, escorting us through the city. The entire day was unbelievable, incredible.

“So it’s toward the end of the evening and we’re shaking hands and taking photographs in the last bar. Then some guy jumps on Jeff’s back. Of course, the guy’s just fartin’ around. Well, Jeff’s probably the biggest of the three of us; Jeff grabs this guy by the throat, pins him against the wall, and suddenly there’s six special forces cops ready to take the guy down. And this guy is s----ing bricks. Finally, Jeff realized it was OK, but you had all these cops in flak jackets ready to get him.”

“The undercover security guard was standing right next to me,” Steve says. “I said to him, ‘Do you want to jump in?’ He says, ‘Nah, I think Jeff’s got everything under control.’

“Jeff’s a big boy and a naturally strong man. I kind of felt sorry for the young guy. He was just a kid who was loaded and didn’t know what he was doing.”

Shame then, that with such a proven fan base behind them, the Hanson Brothers can’t get so much as a whiff of attention from the NHL, a league that clearly needs as many fans as it can get.

“I don’t have to convince you or anybody else in hockey circles about us,” Dave says. “There are a lot of people out there who don’t know anything about the NHL, but who know who the Hansons are. The casual fans. I thought that’s who the NHL was trying to get at, so why not utilize us?

Violence is never the focus when the Hansons take the ice, yet Gary Bettman’s league has taken every effort to distance itself from an act it obviously doesn’t understand. And, typical of its propensity to say “No” before trying to figure out a way to say “Yes,” Bettman’s league doesn’t think twice about shooting down a relationship with entertainers who adore its product.

“That’s the sad thing about it – we believe in the NHL,” Steve says. “We love the NHL. And all the interviews we do, the only time fighting is mentioned is when the interviewer brings it up. We don’t promote fighting. We promote in-your-face hockey and if a fight breaks out, so be it. That’s the game. And it’s sad there’s one guy at the top who doesn’t like the way we represent the game. It’s wrong, because we love and respect this game so much.”

Adds Dave: “I think they have the wrong impression of what the Hansons are. We’re colorful, we’re about slapstick and there’s nobody that has more fun with the game than we do.

Maybe one day the NHL will wise up. Maybe its marketers will realize what an untapped mine of good times and goodwill they’re missing out on. Until then, the Hanson Brothers will keep fighting the good fight, against mundane arena experiences…and against vending machines that take their (expletive) quarters.

“You can change the game’s rules all you want, but you have to have something other than the game that will entertain the fans,” Steve says. “Who can do that better than us?”

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