Interview With The LA Kings Jim Fox

James Charles Fox, has worn many different hats that could represent different parts of his 30 plus year hockey career, but whichever career hat he does or did wear, it always bore the crown of the Los Angeles Kings.  Born on May 16, 1960 in Coniston, Ontario, Canada, “Foxy” has been a prominent fixture of the LA Kings’ organization since 1980, where he began his career in Los Angeles on the ice as a speedy right-winger.  After having success, including during the 1984-85 season where he had more than a point a game with 30 goals, 53 assists and 83 points in 79 games, Fox was sadly forced to retire after only ten NHL seasons due to a career ending knee injury in 1990.  In that time, the Kings brought him into work within the organization that led him to become an award-winning and one of the most respected color analysts in the game of hockey today, and along with the legendary Bob Miller, he became the face and the voice of the Kings to the eyes and ears of every Kings’ fan around the world. Especially for those Kings’ fans that live far from Los Angeles, including yours truly.

Fox also has the respected distinction of being a member of a very small, yet prestigious Kings’ club, that participated or bore witness to three important but completely different eras of treasured Kings hockey. The “Triple Crown” line/ “Miracle of Manchester” era, The Wayne Gretzky era, and the modern “Golden Age” era of Kings hockey that resulted in two Stanley Cup victories in three seasons.  A club that also witnessed the Los Angeles Kings fan base grow from a small group of passionate fans that helped keep the organization afloat, to the passionate powerhouse that it is today. A player, an analyst, a family man, a wine maker and judge, a creator and host of charity events, a guest speaker, a member of the California Sports Hall of Fame, class of 2016, a member of the Southern California Sports Broadcaster’s Hall of Fame, class of 2016, the Commissioner of the LA Kings High School Hockey League and even an actor, there really isn’t anything that Jim Fox cannot do.  On a personal level for me, he is also the first ever LA Kings’ player hockey card and Panini sticker (from those classic hockey sticker books), that I ever owned in my impressionable youth, that helped pave the way for me to become a die-hard Los Angeles Kings’ fan way back in the 1980’s.  And let’s be honest, his epic and emotional on-air celebration of Alec Martinez‘ Stanley Cup winning, overtime goal in 2014 was a perfect example and representation of how exactly each and every Kings’ fan was feeling at that exact same moment.  This is a man who bleeds the black and white, silver and black and of course, the Forum gold and blue.

I was fortunate enough to have the great pleasure and honor to talk to Mr. Fox on the phone recently, so I proudly present to you, my interview with the California Sports and Southern California Sports Broadcaster Hall of Famer, the co-voice of the LA Kings and in my opinion, the man who always had the best ever hair in hockey and still does, (Jaromir Jagr who?), the one and only, Mr. Jim Fox!

Thank you Mr. Fox, for letting me interview you today on behalf of CaliSports News.

No problem.

You were drafted 10^th overall by the Los Angeles Kings in the 1980 entry draft. What were your initial thoughts and feelings in regards to being drafted by the Kings’ organization, and to playing in Southern California?

Well I think at that point, there is no real preference. The only initial thoughts you have are that you were just drafted and that’s something you were striving for, something you were working for.  Didn’t know a lot about the team as far as specifics and things of that sort.  Much like what we experience now because it was in the pacific time zone and I didn’t really get a chance to see them play that often, at least as much as you would have if they had been in the eastern time zone, but it was an honor to be drafted. It was special, it was exciting, it was something you were working for and hoping for, but as far as who and what and where, that didn’t matter initially. You just wanted to get into the NHL.

After arriving to Los Angeles, and making the main roster of the Kings, how did you find the organization and the fan base back in those early days?

Well my first year we finished 4^th overall in the entire league and had the best road record in the league. Unfortunately we lost out in one of those abbreviated first round series we used to play back then in a best of three, so we lost to the Rangers. So it was actually one of those things where my initial understanding of what was going on was that it was going to be a very difficult road and that all the [other] teams were very close together as far as competitively, in probably bigger gaps back then than there are now. But still when you get to the top 10 teams, there wasn’t much of a difference between 10 and 1.  Second year, we were able to pull off a huge upset in the playoffs, so you know, just the fact that once you get to this level, this was the best level in the world so you had to approach everything, every season with a thinking that you were going to have a chance to win. Of course it never happened for me when I was with the Kings as a player but the fans were fine.  The crowds in the regular season were not as big as you would consider at that time with a traditional hockey market, but when the playoffs came around, it was a different story.  It was completely sold out, it was crazy, it was loud, it was everything you would hope for. Regular season, maybe not what you would expect, you know as far as like that Montreal rivalry against Quebec City or Boston or something like that, but it was certainly huge here in Los Angeles once you got into the playoffs.

During your playing career, you were a very successful scorer, averaging approximately 30 goals a season and you were an excellent playmaker as well.  What style of play did you prefer, the scorer or the playmaker, and what was the secret to your scoring success at the NHL level?

Well as I look back on it now, I didn’t look on it than as I do now, I didn’t look at the specifics, which I’m sure they probably do now with all the analytics, with how they break things down, and where you’re scoring from and those type of things. It certainly was a much more wide open brand of hockey. On attack, on the rush when you reach the offensive blue line, what you’re gonna do, when you’re gonna strip the puck, when you’re going to shoot. As far as a shooter, I think I consider myself as accurate as anyone, but I had to get to that 25 foot circle down below and of course, in front of the net is a very difficult spot to get to.  But if I did get there, I would put myself up against anyone.  It was one of those things that I would work on more nowadays to figure out that my shot wasn’t hard but it was accurate, so I had to get down there low, I had to get in those areas a little bit more.  As far as the playmaking goes for scoring. On attack I think it was my job to use my quickness and speed to hopefully back some people off so that would then open up some room for others.  I did probably consider myself more of a playmaker first, than a shooter or a scorer but it depended on the situation and you had to adjust accordingly.

You mentioned that during your second season in the NHL, you and the Kings pulled off an upset in the playoffs.  That was of course the legendary “Miracle on Manchester” series in 1982, against the heavily favored and Wayne Gretzky led Edmonton Oilers.  It was a series that you were a huge contributor to, especially in the epic comeback the Kings pulled off during game 3, when you guys were down 0-5 late in that game, only to come back and win 6-5 in overtime.  In fact it was you that stripped Gretzky of the puck, to set up the tying goal with only 5 seconds left in the game, before your teammate and current colleague Daryl Evans scored the overtime winner and made NHL history.  Could you take us back to that epic comeback game and playoff series and tell us about your experience in it?

Yeah, I think you have to go back to game one first of all because I think that a lot of people just won’t believe it when they hear the final score, that it was 10-8 for the Kings in game one, in Edmonton.  So that kind of set the tone for the series. It certainly gave us belief that we would have a chance to win. I think that was instrumental. It took five games back then in that round, but I think that first game kind of set things up. Of course in that game 3, we were down 5-0 after two [periods]. I would assume the way we look on it right now would be different from how we looked upon it at the time. I remember after the second period where you were just thinking about … and you hear this quite a bit, but you were thinking about winning the period.  In a playoff series, you want to set things up for the next game.  You want to go into it all positive and those types of things. That was probably our initial thoughts.  There had been some talk, and I remember some things I’d seen, which I looked at again after the fact where you kind of go, oh you know, [the Oilers] thought they had it. They were pretty cocky. They were laughing. They were smiling, joking around, those type of things. It’s an interesting thing to talk about because I don’t know if we’ll ever see it again.  Being down 5-0 with only 20 minutes left to go, it was one of the biggest, single game comebacks, and it’s also, if I’m not mistaken, the biggest series upset as far as to the differential between regular season points. So there was a lot of things going on there. I think we look back on it a little bit differently now.  I mean it was a great moment, no question whatsoever but we only won one series and we did not win another series that year, while the Oilers went on to win 5 out of 6 [Stanley] Cups.  So if I’m not mistaken, they got to go on a lot longer. We’ll take it and we will certainly appreciate it because it was special, but we also have to understand the greatness of those Oilers’ teams as they were as good as any I had ever saw.

I think that’s what made it so special though.  It was because those Oilers were going to be so great but the underdog Kings found a way to eliminate them, and you guys did it in such epic fashion too.  Like you said, it wasn’t like winning the Stanley Cup but it was a big win, and the first one for the Kings in a very long time.  It gave every Kings’ fan something to hope for and finally something to really cheer about after so many disappointing seasons, and you were such a huge contributor to that hope.  That series will always have a special place in the hearts of many Kings’ fans.

Oh well, thank you.

It was recently announced that legendary coach Pat Quinn and LA Kings’ legend and former general manager Rogie Vachon are going to be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame later this year.  How was your experience and relationship with Pat Quinn when he was your head coach for the Kings, and with Rogie Vachon as your GM?

Pat Quinn was one of those guys, because of his physical aura, he certainly demanded respect. I think everyone was aware of his career as a player and that he was a big, tough, strong defenseman. Personally, I appreciated more than anything that Pat would do anything to win. That would mean, I wasn’t the most physical player at all but he certainly put me in certain situations to help the team and he respected each player’s assets and what they brought and if it fit to help the team win, he would do what he must and that’s what he did with the Kings specifically and I’m sure a lot of other players feel exactly the same way.

With Rogie, I grew up in Northern Ontario, late ‘60’s, early ‘70’s, so I saw Rogie when he was a Montreal Canadien as a player, and that’s when he stood out and made an impact, had a quick glove hand and all those things.  I used to emulate Rogie playing road hockey when I played goalie and you know, whenever I made a big glove hand save, I would say, “Rogie Vachon!” That’s the way it was done.

Nice.

Having a chance to be here when he was, mostly the general manager for most of my playing career with the Kings, there was a lot of instability as far as players and ownership and what’s going on, and can he keep a team together if it’s going well and it didn’t necessarily happen that way. Rogie’s hands were a little bit handcuffed there.  His hands were tied and he wasn’t able to make the maneuvers or the moves that he wanted.  Certainly both are deserving to be in the Hockey Hall of Fame.  Pat Quinn had a long, long career and Rogie, you know you just look at his numbers.  Like we talked about earlier about the pacific time zone, a lot of people didn’t watch Rogie play with the Kings.  He started in Montreal and he was the starter for one of their Stanley Cup runs.

I believe that was in 1969. 

Yep.  It was just one of those things where his numbers in Los Angeles probably … I know for many, many years there were a number of goaltenders, and no disrespect to anyone else, whose numbers were not as good as Rogie’s and yet were still in the Hall of Fame, so it was nice to see that the committee was able to think back and take a look, and every once in awhile analyze his numbers.  I know baseball has that veteran’s committee and I don’t think hockey has the same type of thing but maybe it’s something to take a look at where, you know over the years perhaps look at some of the forgotten guys out there, which is now no longer the case for Rogie, who belongs where he is right now.

One of the biggest moves that happened during Rogie’s tenure as general manager of the Kings, was the Wayne Gretzky trade to Los Angeles in 1988.  Unfortunately, you ended up missing Gretzky’s first season there in 1988-89 due to a severe injury, and only got to play with Wayne, and please correct me if I’m wrong sir, for I believe only 11 games during the following 1989-90 season, before you were forced to retire due to these injuries.  What was your experience with Wayne both on and off the ice at that time?

Well I think first of all on the ice, it happened almost overnight where the realistic factor of having a chance to win was there.  Again that doesn’t mean that you go every season thinking that you can win but I think once Wayne had joined the team on the ice, it was just automatic that you think, “Okay I have a chance to win,” and that proved to be correct when the Kings went to the finals in ’93.  We were always kind of knocking on the door previously to that and that was the immediate impact of having Wayne there on the ice.  Off the ice, and we know now, it was maybe where the biggest strides were taken in so many different ways.  Initially I remember when he was first traded here and how it affected the season tickets and how it affected the people in the office, and how we really didn’t have enough staff to take care of all the demand that was there.  Personally, I ended up in the community relations department and to be honest, before that there really wasn’t a demand for that.  There weren’t any real groups out there looking to the Kings to help them but with Wayne drawing there all of a sudden, it turned a lot of attention towards the Kings and all of a sudden they were attractive to the community and that certainly changed things.

On the ice, you get a little bit more respect from a lot of different angles, from the media and how they look at your team and how they write about your team.  Even with the officiating and things of that sort where now there was just a respect factor.  It changed the way people looked at your team and there was a lot more respect for the players.  Then you go to the expansion teams that have come in since then and another personal example for me, when I did end up retiring, the Kings were broadcasting radio and the TV on the simulcast and when Wayne joined, they kind of looked at things and said, “You know if we set these things up, we probably could create another revenue stream, which would be very beneficial to everyone.” So when they did that, they needed someone to do the color analyst job and I had just retired so the timing was right there, so there was certainly a lot of effects on the ice for the team, and off the ice for the team and for me to experience it first hand, it was certainly life changing. That’s the best way to describe it for me.  It certainly affected my life, my family’s life and everyone else’s life because it made the Kings that much more attractive and into a brand that everyone wanted to be a part of.

Speaking of when you retired as a player, how was the transition from being a 24/7 professional hockey player to all of a sudden, a professional 24/7 hockey analyst and color commentator for the Kings?

It was a difficult transition for me.  I was working in the community relations department at the same time I was in the analyst job, and just all of the technical elements that were needed to be learned, like you would in any other job was tough.  I was in the situation that I had to learn on the job and that created a very difficult situation for me, maybe not for other people but for me it was difficult to the point where sometimes at the end of the game, I didn’t even know what the score was because I was just so lost and I didn’t know what I was supposed to be doing, or how it was supposed to be done?  How fast things were coming at you technically and having people talking in your ear while you’re talking, there was so many different things going on, but I was fortunate that the Kings and with currently on Fox Sports, they decided to stick with me and I’m sure there was a time where they had a lot of doubts, but they did stick with me and it was something that I was able to get better at and learn and now get to the point where, you know 27 years later you’re a lot more comfortable with what you’re doing and with that comfort comes confidence and that’s one of the biggest things.  To be able to explain something and cover a game and analyze it, you have to be confident.  I think that’s just the whole growing experience.  It was very difficult for me as it took at least a minimum of 3 to 5 years before I began to feel much more comfortable.

And here we are 27 years later and counting, and you have become an award-winning color commentator, even named by Sports Illustrated in 2006 as “Hockey’s Best Analyst!”  I know as a Kings’ fan, and I’m sure most Kings’ fans would agree with me that you do quite an amazing job that is both informative and entertaining on each and every game broadcast and we are very grateful for that. 

Thank you.

For most of your broadcasting career, if not all of it, you have been partnered with the great, Hall of Famer Bob Miller.  First of all, how is Bob feeling these days after his quadruple heart bypass surgery last February?

Bob is doing quite well actually.  I see him occasionally here during the summer, he’s been back and forth and doing a lot of travelling, which of course is a good sign.  Of course you know initially after the quadruple bypass, you know you have to do the things that the doctors are talking about, like cardio rehab and those types of things, but I think it seems like he is back to normal.  He really did not have an incident where it was like a heart attack or anything like that.  He was just undergoing what you would call normal tests I guess, and then they found some different markers in his blood that led to some different tests, and some follow-up tests, and finally they found the situation where he had to have the bypass.  So that was a fortunate thing for Bob.  Because they actually looked at his heart and found that there was no damage to the muscle, and again that there was no previous major incident with it so I think Bob will probably, well certainly we hope that he will come out of this better than he was before, because he was leading an active life before when he had all these blockages and now the blockages are repaired and gone and hopefully that will make him feel that much more better.

Absolutely.  What are your favorite memories of working with Bob, or even just being around, learning and becoming friends with Bob Miller?

There’s a lot of different things that have happened over the years.  I think one thing that I certainly grew to respect Bob for was how he approached a milestone game for a player or a team.  It didn’t have to be the Kings, it could have been a visiting team, where he was prepared for or did extra work on it, where he wanted to learn more of the background, or make sure all the numbers were all correct when he knew when someone was coming up to a milestone.  Gretzky’s milestone games, where Gretzky was in that situation where he was going to have whether a points record, or a goal record, or it could be a single season record, or all the career records he broke when he was with the Kings.  The preparation that Bob put into that, to make sure that he was aware during the games of when Gretzky was on the ice, more specifically to make sure he didn’t miss anything.  I think it’s important, and certainly in Los Angeles where Bob and I are fortunate with the ownership, that they don’t guide you in certain situations like other organizations do, and that’s up to them but you know, Bob again puts in a lot, if not as much effort and respect into the opposition and to what they’re doing as much as with what the Kings are doing.  I think in the long run that creates a situation that when the Kings are having success like they had in the last little while, it’s genuine.  It’s not trumped-up, it’s not made up, it’s not overblown. It is honest and when you get a chance to have that opportunity to deal with that success, it makes it that much better because you are able to call a game as fairly and honest as possible.

Speaking of that success that the Kings have recently had, along with Bob Miller, Nick Nickson and Daryl Evans, you got to call the Stanley Cup winning game, and of course that entire Stanley Cup run in 2012 that led to the Kings’ first ever Stanley Cup win in franchise history.  As a former Kings’ player, as the long time color analyst of the Kings and as someone who has lived in or around Los Angeles for so many years, can you tell us about your experience through that Cup run and what it meant to you personally?

Well I think it was, and I used the phrase earlier and I’ll say it again in a different context but it certainly was life changing.  For so many years as an organization, you see different teams come in and around, and you see the changes and the different coaches and general managers, ownership, and the back and forth, and when it finally does come together, you realize how really difficult it is and how many things really do have to come together.  How people have to work as one unit, and looking at that from afar as an announcer, one thing that stood out for me was how the players, the coaches, the management felt that it was one of those situations where no one cared about who got the credit.  I think that is the bottom line factor to that.  How they all just pulled together and didn’t care who scored the goals, didn’t care who had this or that at the end of the night.  They cared about picking up the win, and that was something I honestly did not have a chance at the NHL level to experience. I wish I could have been a part of a team like that in the NHL. Unfortunately it didn’t happen like that, but it was great to experience and it was a lesson for everyone that you can get a team into that situation.  You have to develop the situation where no one cares who gets the credit, and if you can get that then you have a chance at winning, and that was what we were able to experience.  I’m looking at it from a far but I was certainly able to recognize it and understand how important it is.

How about your thoughts and experience when the Kings won the Stanley Cup for a second time in 2014? Especially in the epic, never say die fashion and the way that they accomplished that, where it seemed the Kings always had to come back from a major obstacle or deficit throughout that entire Cup run?

Yeah, as an observer or as someone following the team, that was completely different from 2012.  First of all, I felt the anxiety and nerves were a hundred percent more intense in the 2014 run than it was in 2012.  When you’re going through it the first time, your experiences are all positive, every win is a bonus. You’re just thinking about getting to the next game and then all of a sudden you win it.  In 2014, I had already been through that experience and it was just a little bit more nerve-wracking. You now know what it feels like to win it all and you want to get back there so badly that you start hoping for things that maybe the first time around, you don’t hope for, you just do. And again that was another strength in that team, to be able to put all that aside and make sure they have the mentality to, where they’re thinking about the next win.  Maybe one of the things you were alluding to was the way it was done?  There was a lot of character shown, maybe more than ever.  I would argue to anyone that it was the most difficult road to the Stanley Cup than any other team had taken.

It most definitely was. 

Of course, beating San Jose in the first round, beating Anaheim, Chicago, the Rangers and with beating San Jose while being down 0-3, and having to come back from that and have all three rounds, all be won in game 7 on the road, so with all of those things at the time, it was something where to try to take on the mentality that the player’s have and you take it one game at a time.  I think it’s more difficult to do when you’re an observer versus someone who is directly involved, but it was two great experiences but yet two completely different experiences.

The Kings have not had as much success in the last two seasons as they previously did, after not making the playoffs in 2015 in defense of the Cup and disappointingly bowing out to the Sharks in 5 games this past season, what do you think the Kings need to do to regroup, in order to get back up on top of that NHL mountain?

Well first of all, I will say and look at a factor which is not talked about, because sometimes it is hard to talk about it, but because the decision that was made was the correct decision, but perhaps it was something that was unforeseeable, and it was something that happened and proves in the last 3 years how difficult it is, and that is the loss of Slava Voynov.  Now again, I agree with the decision that the NHL made, I’m talking about the on-ice issues here, not the off-ice issues.

Of course.

The off-ice issues were handled and they were handled legally and they were handled by the team and the league and I have no problem with that.  What I am talking about is taking the number 2 defenseman off any single team in the league, and that defenseman is now gone for nothing.  You can’t replace it, you didn’t trade him, there was no draft picks, there was nothing.  And I think that is a huge factor in the Kings trying to get back, especially this year where if you look at any perceived weaknesses or thin spots on the Kings, it was probably back on the blue line.  Having said that, then of course it’s the ability to maneuver within the salary cap.  And I think we’ve seen that with a lot of teams, Chicago has done it better than anyone, but with the Kings winning two in three years, plus of course that third year when they went all the way to the Western final, the players need to be rewarded for that.  The compensation goes up and then all of a sudden you find yourself in a situation where you’re trying to put a team together that does not fit under the cap.  So those are the two obstacles, and now it’s up to the Kings under the circumstances to get better from within.  And I think a lot of teams understand that to be the case nowadays with the salary cap.  You have to have your players from within the system from the minor leagues, like we saw with Pittsburgh.  If I’m not mistaken, they brought up five players from their minor league system at some point during the playoffs to help the team win.  That has to be done almost automatically with every team.  The maneuvering is going to be that much more difficult because you won’t be able to do it because of the cap, and you’ve got to find ways to get better.  You’ve got to develop those players and the Kings are finding themselves in that situation right now.  Trades are gonna get you somewhere I guess every once in a while, especially around the trade deadline where you add that piece that you needed and were missing all season long, and now you are able to acquire it, probably by sacrificing the future and the Kings have done that a couple of times.  Certainly, it worked a couple of times with Jeff Carter and Marian Gaborik, and a couple of times where it hasn’t worked in the last few years.  Bottom line, where it stands right now, the Kings will have their core, and a modern-day NHL team is what you’re seeing now with the Kings where you have 7 to 8 players as your core and that’s it.  You’re going to have to fill in the other remaining spots, like how Pittsburgh looked at it this year, where it was about balance and depth, where everyone was chipping in.  I’m making the assumption that the Kings are looking for that formula, or a similar formula to get back to the top.

A lot of people may not know this, but you are constantly giving back to the Los Angeles and surrounding communities through various charities and events, and had a very large hand in helping create the Kings Care Foundation, as well as the Kings’ annual charity golf tournament and the very popular, annual Tip-A-King event.  Can you tell us about the initial creations of these important charity events that have helped so many different people for so many years now?

Well again, I think there was a lot of complicated situations that had to take place but the bottom line factor again was Wayne Gretzky. It goes back to his acquisition and how now the community was looking at the team. Before Wayne, we didn’t have any annual events going on.  We didn’t even have an annual golf tournament, which seemed kind of standard for most teams and their charity wings. We did not even have that.  It was something that Wayne brought aboard, and I was injured at the time, so I worked up in the office with the team’s community relations, and it was all brought upon by simply supply and demand.  All of a sudden there was a demand for it because Wayne was with us, so they needed someone to take care of that and I was the guy.  I remember in my playing days during practice one day, we were in the locker room just talking about things and wondering, “Why don’t we even have a charity golf tournament?” Those things weren’t looked at as being important at the time.  So then Wayne comes and it grows, and grows, and grows to the point that we now had a full time department that takes care of it every day.  This year the Kings Care Foundation donated $2 million to the local community, and it has become something that is a huge part of the Kings and it’s something from the owner Mr. Anschutz, all the way down to the players, believe to be a very important thing that we do here.  The number one goal for a team is to win games, but you understand that you are a part of a community, and the Kings Care Foundation allows us the opportunity to give something back to the community.  It’s something we can take part in every day.

You also produce your own brand of wine, and I hope I get this pronunciation right, “Patine Cellars?”

Patiné Cellars.

Ugh, I was going to say that to! I have failed you Mr. Fox!

You have to add an accent aigu at the end.

I knew I should have paid more attention in French class!  I apologize!

No problem.

Your brand of wine is called “Patiné Cellars,” (pah-tee-nay) and you have served as a wine tasting judge for many years at the Long Beach Grand Cru and the LA County fair, amongst other events.  How did your interest and career in the wine business start?

It just started with being a resident of the Los Angeles area, and California is certainly considered a world-class winery region, so I just happened to get involved mostly from the local restaurants and attending them and trying and learning about wine, talking to the servers about wine and then getting into a situation where I decided I wanted to do more, so I took classes on the fundamentals of wine tasting and how you make wine.  I continued those classes when my wife and I travelled around the world, usually to different wine regions.  I don’t want to say it happened all of a sudden, but we got to the point in the situation where we asked how serious do we want to get? And we decided we wanted to get serious, so we decided on what to develop, and what we wanted to make, to make Pinot Noir, and we make it from California and named it “Patiné” which is basically French for, “To have skated.”

Nice!

So we had kind of plan behind the name, because in wine you’re always looking for balance between the components that make up a great bottle of wine, and if there’s one word that comes to the forefront that relates to playing for a hockey player, it’s balance and then power.  In hockey, there is more of a strength issue and more of a power issue and we feel it fit the style of wine that we were making.  So it all came together.  Mike Smith, he is a renowned winemaker and he does the actual making of the wine, we consult with him and we work on it every day.  My wife Susie and I have a partner in Dean Nucich, who is actually from Vancouver but we met him here in Los Angeles, and now we make what we consider a world-class Single Vineyard Designate Pinot Noir from California.  We have only Pinot Noir, but we source our grapes from three different vineyards, and we only have three different wines, but they are three quality and three world-class wines.

That is very cool.  You were also in the 1999 hockey film, “Mystery, Alaska” which starred Russell Crowe.  How was the movie making experience and did you ever have any ambition or interest in becoming an actor?

I never did. I never had any interest at all, but the whole experience was kind of eye-opening to getting into the specifics on how things are done.  When I came to LA, during my second, third and fourth year, I was based in Culver City because that is where we practiced, so I lived there.  The shoot was actually in Culver City in a studio here and my segment, which was with Mike Myers, and you know we had a green screen which appears that we were overlooking an ice rink in Alaska somewhere, and of course that wasn’t the case, but all those little things that came together, having to go in for your wardrobe and get measured and all that, and then you’re on set and they send you your lines and all those things.  Catering was one thing I noticed, Hollywood actors around the movie business do not go hungry!  They have everything taken care of that way.  So that was just something that you learn, it’s big time.  It is big time.  Everyone has their role just like on a hockey team or a lot of businesses, where all those working parts and working pieces have to come together and work.  That’s something that stood out too.  I only met Mike Myers, as I was never on set with Russell Crowe, so it was just Mike Myers and myself but that in itself was great too.

Final question sir and it’s a big one, are you ready?

Yeah.

With Luc Robitaille in the Jean-Claude Van Damme action film, “Sudden Death,” Bob Miller in the first two “Mighty Duck” films, and you of course in, “Mystery, Alaska,” in your analytical opinion and with your experience, if all three of you decided to continue your Hollywood careers, which one of you three would win the Oscar for Best Actor first?  Give us the scoop Foxy!  Who brings home that award first? The public must know!

Well, I think the ability to do the scene with Mike Myers without laughing, was one of the biggest feats in the history of Hollywood, so I definitely would have to put myself right there at the top.

Well I can’t argue with any of that logic!  The Oscar is yours sir!  

 

On behalf of CaliSports News and for myself, as a long time LA Kings’ fan, thank you so much Mr. Fox for doing this interview, and for your time.

My pleasure, thank you.

*Special thanks to Jim Fox, Mario Hicks, Ryan Cowley, Theresa Walsh Duarte, Jeremiah Brown, Brian Consolazio, Kyle Reed and RAIDER KEV for their help with this article. You can make a difference by making a donation to the Kings Care Foundation here at this link, and you can check out, learn all about and purchase Mr. Fox’s “Patiné Cellars” Pinot Noir wine, here at this link.  I know I will.

Stay with us at Calisportsnews.com as we will keep you up-to-date on all things Los Angeles Kings and the rest of the LA sports teams! All Cali, All the time!

 

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