[Rock]

Zamboni a revolutionary
development for hockey
By Randy Schultz | NHL.com Correspondent
Sept. 2, 2006

http://www.nhl.com/f...boni090206.html

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"Frank J. Zamboni, of Paramount, Calif., invented the Zamboni Ice Rink Resurfacer, a machine that has identified the name "Zamboni" with ice rinks worldwide. The first Zamboni became a reality in 1949 and has become as much a part of hockey as the referee's whistle. Before the start of each period, the Zamboni is driven up and down the ice, needing just 10 minutes to remove loose snow and lay down a coating of water over the entire surface. Frank J. Zamboni's contributions to ice skating will be remembered each time a Zamboni machine makes a trip round the ice rink."

That, in a nutshell, is how the Upper Deck Company summarized the history of the Zamboni ice resurfacing machine on the trading card they issued several years ago featuring the late Frank J. Zamboni.

The Zamboni has been honored with its own song I Wanna Drive the Zamboni, performed by the Gear Daddies on the CD titled, Billy's Live Bait. It's the heartbreaking tale of an envious youngster whose hopes of driving the famed vehicle are dashed.

And that's crushing since driving the Zamboni, the NHL's official ice resurfacer, is probably the most prestigious position a person can have in hockey -- outside of being a player, of course.

But driving a Zamboni isn't all that it is cracked up to be. Even the son of the famous Zamboni inventor has felt the pressure of driving his ice resurfacing machine in front of a large crowd of people. It happened at the Great Western Forum, the former home of the Los Angeles Kings, between periods of a game.

"Now, I have driven many Zambonis, but never in front of a full house like that," Richard Zamboni recalled. "All I remember is that when I got out on the ice, I felt like every person in the building was looking at me, waiting for me to make a mistake. I had to make sure that I didn't miss an inch of space on that ice surface. It was something."

When the late Frank Zamboni invented his ice resurfacing machine over a half-century ago, he never realized what a mechanical celebrity it would become for ice hockey fans around the world.

"My dad and his brothers got into the ice manufacturing business right here in Paramount (in Southern California)," Richard recalled. "They had an ice house and made ice for the local farmers. Then in 1939 they decided to build the Iceland Skating Rink. Back in those days the ice in the rink would be resurfaced with a tractor pulling a planer and a group of three or four people doing manual labor. The ice shavings from the planer were removed, then a large hose was brought out and the ice would be washed. Then the dirty water was taken off, by hand, with large rubber squeegees. A final spray of water was put on which would produce the final ice surface.

"All of this would take an hour and a half to do. That was a little too long to suit my father."

Zamboni realized that he needed to make a good sheet of ice in a shorter period of time. For seven years Zamboni worked to develop his ice resurfacing machine, and, in 1949, the elder Zamboni came up with the machine he was looking for, one that was able to produce a good sheet of ice consistently.

It didn't take long for word of the Zamboni invention to spread. Olympic skating champion Sonja Henie, while practicing her ice show at the rink in Paramount, requested that Zamboni build her a similar machine that could be used on her tour across North America and Europe.

The machine built for Henie became the best promotional tool for Zamboni. Following the ice show tour, Zamboni ended up with orders for 16 new machines.

"All machines were built on four-wheel drive jeeps," Richard said. "And all were Zamboni originals. They were all made by hand and each one was different."

In 1954, Zamboni decided to incorporate. But coming up with a company name wasn't as easy as it appeared.

"He (Zamboni) tried to use the Paramount Engineering Company," Richard said, "but that was already being used. So he went to his second choice, which was using his own last name. So the Frank J. Zamboni Company, Inc. was born. Little did anybody at the time realize just how famous the name would become."

When the 1960 Winter Olympics came to California's Squaw Valley, six Zamboni resurfacers became the first machines of their type to be used in Olympic competitions. By the time the ?60 Olympics concluded and the success of the machine had been witnessed by the rest of the world, orders for the ice resurfacer were being taken from Japan, Australia and Western Europe.

Since that time the Zamboni has been modified several times, but its concept remains the same. Small machines have been developed for studio-sized rinks; non-dumping machines for indoor rinks that lack room for dumping snow have been made; and tractor-pulled machines and equipment designed for speed skating ovals have been manufactured. The company has also expanded its engineering department. Thanks to those efforts the Zamboni company has developed electrically operated machines.

"We now have new machines that have been developed that have bigger batteries and are more efficient," said Richard. "As time goes on they will become state of the art when it comes to owning a Zamboni."

That still isn't bad for a company with just two small plants, one in Paramount and the other in Brantford, Ontario. Fewer than 100 people are employed between the two plants, which have produced more than 8,000 Zambonies for use in 33 countries around the world.

Zamboni and his invention has been recognized in many ways through the years besides on hockey cards and in song. The late Charles Schulz used the Zamboni in his Peanuts comic strip; Zamboni fan clubs have been formed; race horses have been named after Zamboni.

The Zamboni company itself has even gotten into the act, marketing its name on everything from t-shirts, hats and golf shirts to toy versions of the actual machine.

Possibly the greatest honor the elder Zamboni ever received came shortly before his death in 1988. Frank J. Zamboni received an honorary Doctor of Engineering degree from Clarkson College in upper New York State.

"It's quite an honor to get an honorary doctorate degree," Richard said. "And it's not bad being given to a man, like my father, who never made it past the ninth grade in school."

Since his death, the legend of Frank J. Zamboni lives on in his machines.

"Our objective will always remain the same; to provide a unit that is dependable and will make an attractive sheet of ice in a short period of time," Richard said. "That's the way my father always wanted it and that's the way I'll carry on.

"Each machine is special to us. It doesn't matter who it is going to. We still take special care with each machine that goes out. No matter what the size may be. That's just the way we do our work. It's been successful to this point. So why change anything?"