The Pittsburgh Penguins of the early 1990s were a great team that was larger than life and should have won more than one championship. Of the 20 players who dressed the night the Penguins won their first Stanley Cup in Minnesota on May 25, 1991, eight are already inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. The coaches and general managers of these teams are also in the Hockey Hall of Fame.
So it’s no surprise that Jaromir Jagr would one day become the ninth player from that team to have a bust displayed in Toronto.
You can’t talk about the 1990s without talking about the number 9, and you can’t talk about Pittsburgh’s 1990s culture without talking about Jagr.
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The Pittsburgh story that created the legend of Jaromir Jagr
“Back then, players were parking in this outdoor parking lot at Civic Arena,” said former Penguins teammate Rick Tocchet. “Then Jags walks out to his car and the teenagers standing there are going absolutely nuts. He’s rocking a mullet. It’s all ’90s clothing. It’s like the Beatles showed up.” was.”
Ah, the mullet. Back in the day, many players sported mullets, but few could proudly display their hair like Jagr.
For nearly his entire career in Pittsburgh, which spanned from 1990 to 2001, Jagr sported a mullet. In the United States, the mullet was an ’80s phenomenon, but Pittsburgh fashion is historically a decade behind him. So he was a Pittsburgher from the beginning, a teenager who grew up in a communist country and somehow adapted to society from the beginning.
“Part of his appeal was his whole look,” said the longtime Penguins announcer, who introduced him to Mario Lemieux in 1984 and immediately introduced him to Pittsburgh in 1990. Paul Steigerwald, who introduced it, said:
“When Jaguar showed up in Pittsburgh, he looked like a character from ‘Thor.’ He was really handsome, but he was also exotic. He was kind of a mythical, ancient creature. Especially 18 At his age, we had never seen anyone like him. People fell in love with him right away, very quickly.”
Jagr arrived in Pittsburgh in the summer of 1990, speaking little English. Like many in a similar position, he turned to his 1990s television to learn languages.
In particular, Juggle binge-watched “Married…With Children” and “Saved by the Bell.”
A few years into his career, a celebrity hockey game was held at the Civic Arena following a Penguins game. Mark-Paul Gosselaar, who played Zack Morris on “Saved by the Bell,” was also in attendance.
Jagr realized that after the Penguins game.
“I can still hear him yelling about it in the locker room,” said Pittsburgh radio host Mark Madden, who was covering the Penguins for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette at the time. “He kept yelling at Petr Nedved to hurry up and get changed so he could go to the Zach Morris hockey game. He was understandably excited. Seeing him so happy I don’t think I’ve ever been there.”
Jaguar’s excitement over his ’90s teen idol pales in comparison to the excitement Pittsburgh has for its own teen idol.
Pittsburgh teenagers tried to grow their hair as spectacularly as Jagger. Few were successful, but many tried. Teenage girls in Pittsburgh tried to date Juggle. Many were successful.
“He was the ultimate rock star,” Tocchet said. “I’ve never seen a young man fall in love with a player like him.”
When it became public knowledge that Jagger had a sweet tooth for Kit Kat bars, the penguins suddenly found themselves in trouble. Thousands of Kit Kats arrived in the mail at Civic Arena.
“Oh my god, a Kit Kat bar,” former Penguins teammate Kevin Stevens said with a laugh.
The Jaguars’ preference for them, and fan reaction to it, forced Penguins spokesperson Mike Lang to make the announcement.
“We had to broadcast that we should stop sending Kit Kat bars into the arena during games,” Lange said. “It got out of control.”
So was driving a juggle. Jagr received a huge number of speeding tickets in his first two years in Pittsburgh, although the numbers remain unclear. Details like speed limits didn’t really interest him.
The speeding tickets became so frequent that Jagr was temporarily stripped of his driver’s license during the 1992 postseason, and Lemieux was forced to provide vaporizers to and from games.
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It’s good that the Jagrs made it to the playoffs. That’s when he became a star on the ice. After leaving the ice, he had already been active as an on-ice player for several years.
These Penguins were blessed with some of the best players of all time, but perhaps the only thing more notable than their talent was the size of their personalities. Despite Lemieux’s shy personality, his teammates were cheeky and beloved in Pittsburgh. Stevens made his famous prediction when the Penguins were trailing the Bruins in the 1991 Welsh Conference Finals. Phil Burke talked about “partying on the river all summer” during the Stanley Cup, and that’s exactly what he did. Ulf Samuelsson may have been the most vocal of them all.
But there was Juggle, who probably had the biggest personality of them all.
After the Penguins won playoff series in 1991 and 1992, he simply took over interviews, snatching the microphone from reporters and cutting monologues during live broadcasts.
His comments in Chicago after the Penguins defeated the Blackhawks to win the Stanley Cup in 1992 became one of Pittsburgh legend. Lange’s call after the Penguins’ win, “Elvis just left the building,” was not heard by Juggle at that moment.
He was asked about a parade in Pittsburgh to commemorate the victory.
“I want to meet a pretty girl,” he answered. “I’m not interested in Elvis. I’m just into cute girls. Hello.”
As Jagr’s greatness grew into the mid-’90s, so did Jagr’s marketing.
Children in Pittsburgh didn’t just eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch. Rather, it had to be Jaromir Jagr peanut butter.
Jaguru was not particularly mature at the time. It didn’t have to be that way. Although the Penguins had plenty of adults, Jagger’s childish personality made him even more popular in Pittsburgh, especially among the Penguins’ growing young fan base.
Lemieux could be king, and he was. Juggle was a prince. He frequently appeared on local television stations to give weather forecasts. He did the same thing on WDVE’s morning radio show. He was the class clown, but he was smarter than everyone else in the class. He laughed and smiled and made everyone swoon.
“It was like when Pierre LaRouche showed up in Pittsburgh,” Lange said. “It was like when Paul Coffey came along. But I think it was even bigger with Jaromir. I’ve never seen people fall in love with someone like that.”
Juggle wore jean jackets, was obsessed with popular TV shows, and liked grunge music. Perhaps what made him unique was that he was very American from the beginning, even though he came from a distant land that featured a much different culture.
Even before Jagger arrived in Pittsburgh, he carried a picture of Ronald Reagan in his wallet. For him, America was the promised land.
Pittsburgh quickly became his playground and a cultural influence over few of his peers in the sports world.
“I first saw it when I took him to the mall,” Steigerwald said. “He was just like any other kid in that mall. He was just big, strong, had good hair, and was good at hockey. He was really cool. Everyone was like him. I wanted to be.”
Of course, he was the only one.
“He had the whole city wrapped around his finger,” Stevens said. “The thrill of being 18 years old. It was something to see. People wanted to be around him and wanted to be like him.”
(Photo: Al Messerschmidt/Associated Press)