THE PUCK CHASERS -  BARRY STEVENSON (Glasgow Dynamos)

Ice Hockey Herald No  xx Article

It takes guts to play a game like ice hockey. To skate around at up ,to thirty miles an hour knowing that at any second you can be dumped on the ice or against the boards, crash full tilt into an opponent, or get cut by a stick or a skate blade. Like every hockey player throughout the world, Barry Stevenson has that kind of guts. But Barry also has another kind of guts -a very special kind. To explain, lets go back to 1965, the year that Dynamos were formed, and the year Barry started playing hockey. There are a few -a veryfew- boys who have a natural ability for the game. Barry was not one of these; his assets were his speed on skates, and a grim determination to succeed. In those early years success looked far away. While contemporaries like Tommy Taylor and Alan Lavety adapted quickly, and became leading lights in the side, Barry struggled to co-ordinate his skating speed with the basic elements of stickhandling and shooting. He had many critics, both inside and outside the Dynamo camp. He'll never make it, was the general verdict, and some of the more unkind souls laughed and made fun of his efforts. But there's an old saying about "he who laughs last". Barry.is the one doing the laughing nowadays, and that is where that special kind of guts has paid off -the guts that are needed -to persevere in the face of ridicule, with the odds all against you. Barry stuck in. He never missed a practice for three years, and slowly but surely he improved, until now he is rated among the top half-dozen left wingers in the country.

This season he has arrived, and has contributed much to Dynamos' success. The pay-off for all the hard slogging came a fortnight ago in the first leg of the 'Icy Smith' Cup Final at MUrrayfield, when the name of Barry Stevenson  went in alongside the three star's top rating in the hardest game of the season, earned by an outstanding performance, and three brilliant goals.

Off the ice, Barry is co-partner ~with his father in a joiners and shop fitters business, but his main interest in life is cars. He is a first rate mechanic, loves driving as much as he loves tinkering with engines, and changes his own car often; his present model is a Mini- Cooper'S'. He lives aoout half a mile fromCrossmyloof, and he and his wife Mary have one daughter, two-year-old Mandy, with an addition to the family expected this year. He lists ice-cream as his favourite food, and for relaxation likes nothing better than a 'good going party!'.

Back to hockey, .and although Barry would like to get into the British team, his main ambition is "to go through each game without getting any penalties." -.asked him who he found the hardest defenceman to get past, and with a laugh,he replied "all of them". No doubts, though, about the best goalminder he's played against -Willie Clark. And as a final question, I put the same poser I'd given Kenny Matthews recently -what it's like having your elder brother as coach. Barry expressed similar sentiments to Kenny, but condensed it to one word -"rotten!". Rotten or not, Robert has played a notable part in the development of his younger brother.