By TIM LEONE, The Patriot-News March 28, 2010, 6:22PM Robin Burns is a fun guy, a natural comedian, the life of the party.
That essence radiates from a locker room photo of the Hershey Bears’ 1973-74 Calder Cup celebration at Hersheypark Arena. Champagne-soaked alternate captain Burns, an impish grin beaming underneath a classic ’70s-era mustache, wears the Calder Cup like a crown.
The same man also is a visionary entrepreneur who helped pioneer one of the most seriously important hockey equipment innovations: the visor.
A decade after that Calder Cup picture was taken, Burns founded a long shot startup called ITECH in the basement of his Montreal home. It would grow into a hockey equipment giant.
“I was hoping I could make a decent living out of it,” Burns said. “Never in a million years did I imagine it would become one of the three biggest hockey companies in the world.
“I came at an era when hockey was at a boom. I came up with an inventive product that took off.”
That product was the fully clear polycarbonate visor. It provided eye protection while also preserving an acuity and vision range that metal cages couldn’t.
“I married technologies that were available at the time,” Burns said.
His Calder Cup linemates aren’t surprised that the voluble Burns, who played 190 career NHL games, became a huge off-ice success.
Left winger Burns, centerman Jim Hrycuik and right winger Steve Andrascik combined for 207 points in 1973-74.
Hrycuik: “He was just a go-getter. He always had something going. He was just one of those guys that had a lot of energy.”
Andrascik: “He had the gift of the gab. He could really talk. He was a smooth operator. He was a likable guy, too. Everybody liked Burnsie.”
In 1984, Burns gathered his family — wife Fran, daughter Tracey, sons Randy and Todd — around a table to tell them about his ITECH plan.
He garnered consensus support, although Randy questioned his sanity.
At the time, you see, Burns was president of Micron skate company and had everything to lose by leaving the position.
Reaching the top of Micron seemed like the summit of a post-playing career whose seeds were planted while Burns was a minor leaguer.
“When we were playing in Hershey, we didn’t make a whole lot of money,” Hrycuik said. “He
promoted Lange skates as a sales rep. That’s how he got started. He was selling when he was still playing.
“How many guys were pursuing that kind of career off-ice back then? Not many. He was the kind of guy who was destined to try all kinds of things.”
The visor idea literally hit Burns in the face.
In a helmet-optional era, Burns never wore eye protection as a player. He got nicked in the eye playing senior hockey in the summer of 1983.
Hockey Hall of Fame referee Red Storey saw the incident, Burns said, and suggested he wear eye protection. The original aim was to develop protection for senior players so they wouldn’t lose time on the job due to recreational hockey injuries.
Burns initially tried a cage but found it too distracting.
Polycarbonate was in its early stages at that point,” Burns said. “I’d seen polycarbonate in action in different products. I wondered if we could mold it and make it fog-proof. I did my homework and investigation and found it could be molded into a sphere. And it had to be high
ly polished so it wouldn’t have an optical distortion.”
Through trial and error and the help of engineering and design consultants, a product eventual
ly emerged that met sufficient optical, safety and durability standards.
Amid what Burns deemed cheap and visually distorted competition from European companies, ITECH’s visor took off in the equipment marketplace. Sales contacts Burns developed while with Micron, which retained him as a paid consultant during ITECH’s first three years, helped the cause.
“People ask me what makes a true entrepreneur,” Burns said. “I say you can’t be that smart. If you knew the level of the mountain you had to climb, you’d never start it. I was just too stu
pid, too stubborn, to not continue. You just keep plowing away. One thing led to another.”
The company originally was going to be called Eyetech, but a U.S. company already had registered the name. ITECH’s first marketing slogan: Clearly the Best Protection in Sight.
Burns said he poured money back into research and development and listened to innovation ideas from anybody, particularly fellow garage tinkerers.
As ITECH grew, Burns moved from his basement to a one-room office to a small
warehouse.
“We stayed under the radar of big companies,” he said. “They didn’t pay attention. It was like stick-handling down the wing with nobody watching. All of a sudden, you fire it and it’s in the net.”
The 1973-74 Bears, who featured nine rookies, were a fun-loving team known as the “Comeback Kids.”
They finished second to the Baltimore Clippers in the Southern Division during the regular season but dispatched Cincinnati and Baltimore in the first two rounds en route to beating
Providence in five games in the Calder Cup finals.
“Sometimes when you’re on a team, you’ll hear guys say you’re kind of a family,” Hrycuik said. “That was a family.”
Duane Rupp and Bears great Ralph Keller anchored the defense, with Bob Johnson and Denis Herron sharing the playoff duty in goal.
Nine players scored more than 20 goals during the regular season, the highest total in team history.
“We had a cast of characters,” Burns said. “That team there was as loose a team as you’re going to have.
“We were kind of like a pretty good party team. There’s no doubt about it. We partied hearty. But when it was time to play, we played hard.”
The 6-foot, 195-pound Burns scored a team-high 10 playoff goals.
“Tough-nosed winger, hard, played a very honest game at both ends of the ice,” Bears president-GM Doug Yingst said. “Very aggressive. Fast skater. Tremendous disposition and
character, which led to the success of that team.”
First-year head coach Chuck Hamilton, who succeeded legendary Frank Mathers, kept the Burns-Hrycuik-Andrascik line together all season.
“Our styles all suited each other,” Hrycuik said. “We weren’t real flashy but always seemed to get the job done.
“Burnsie was just a good guy. A good family man. He was one of our team comedians. He was always stirring the pot.”
Burns scored three game-winning goals in the playoffs, including one with one second left for a 1-0 victory against Cincinnati in Game 3 of the first round.
Before the finals, Burns said, he boldly approached Providence head coach John Muckler and congratulated him for finishing second.
“I don’t think we were a team that was supposed to win,” Burns said. “Each series we got better and better.
“The night we won the Cup, I was custodian of the Cup. I remember sleeping with the Cup. After we won the Cup, I had to leave town five days later. I don’t think my liver could have taken any more.”
Burns lauded the late Mathers, who remained as president-GM, as “one of the finest people I’ve been involved with in hockey.”
Hershey also is special to Burns because his son Todd was born there in 1972 and was given life-saving treatment at Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center as a newborn.
“Hershey’s always near and dear to my heart because of the medical center,” Burns said. “It was touch and go there for a while.”
Burns said he keeps a picture of the 1973-74 team hanging at his house. And he still wears his Hershey Calder Cup ring.
“Hershey was one of the greatest places I played in,” he said. “The people, the fans, the fan club.
“Hershey provided me with a more spectacular love of the game.”
In the NHL, Burns, whose cousin is former NHL head coach Pat Burns, played for the Pittsburgh Penguins and Kansas City Scouts.
As a junior, Burns played for the Montreal Junior Canadiens from 1964 to ’67 under head coach Scotty Bowman and Montreal Canadiens GM Sam Pollack. Those teams featured play
ers who’d follow phenomenal on-ice achievement with phenomenal off-ice achievement.
Jacques Lemaire won the Stanley Cup as head coach of the New Jersey Devils. Serge Savard became Montreal’s GM. Craig Patrick, assistant coach of the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team, led Pittsburgh to Stanley Cups as GM. Larry Pleau became head coach of the Hartford Whalers and GM of the St. Louis Blues.
“They groomed their players and their style of play,” Burns said. “Not only on ice, the discipline off ice was necessary.
“I just think that we were very well-schooled. It proved it by all these guys going on to bigger and better things. The common denominator in a lot of these guys is they brought the same work ethic off ice that was on ice.”
Including Burns. His final two pro seasons were with Kansas City from 1974 to ’76.
“I knew my hockey career was going to come to a halt when they asked me how my skiing was,” Burns joked. “I got into the business world and never looked back.”
ITECH, with a product line that eventually branched into helmets, goalie gear and baseball masks, grew to 300 employees and sold equipment in 35 countries. Burns deflects most of the credit to his employees.
“I was a good captain to a very good ship,” Burns said. “The crew made it. We were a team. By far, I was not the best player. We won the Calder Cup as a team in Hershey. I had a great team at ITECH.”
In 2004, Burns, now 63 and semi-retired, sold ITECH, which merged with San Diego-based Mission Hockey. In September 2009, Mission-ITECH was sold to Bauer Hockey.
Burns served on the Mission-ITECH board for four years. He has no involvement now that Bauer has taken over.
“People ask, ‘Are you sorry that you sold it?’¤” Burns said. “Never. I can do more for my
family and friends and charities with money in my pocket.”
Burns created a prostate cancer charity. He has sponsored Hershey Junior Bears Quebec teams with gloves, travel bags and helmets and shields.
Burns does regret the plant closings and layoffs that have ensued since Bauer’s takeover. Preservation of jobs was a deal provision when he sold ITECH.
“The hardest part is when they closed the two facilities in Montreal and Plattsburgh, N.Y.,” Burns said. “When I saw all those people lose their jobs, I really felt bad. Some of those people had been with me 15, 18 years.”
Burns, a grandfather of nine, has had a knee replacement and can no longer play senior hockey. He is involved in real estate development and started a maple syrup company. “Life is constant change,” he said. “Life isn’t a dress rehearsal.”
Andrascik chuckled when told about the maple syrup company.
“That’s Burnsie,” he said. “You never know what he’s going to get into.
“He was a smart guy at business. But he never changed. He never let it go to his head.”
aps Film
gift of the gab, metal cages, natural comedian, one of those guys
GIZMODO TEAMTip Your Editors:
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. ? Isaiah Powers, Jeremy Casper and Stuart Bury were just excited their Kansas City college offered an animation program. They never really expected theyd come to Hollywood to meet with their filmmaking idols, much less to do it as Student Academy Award winners.
