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Bryan Fogarty

Blades of Glory

Blades of Glory

Troll Captain
Feb 12, 2006
18,401
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California
Talk to me about him. I know he broke Bobby Orr's OHL record for single season goals by a defenseman and the point for a defenseman in single season. He supposedly, according to one minor league official, had more God-given talent than Wayne Gretzky.

I know about his drinking problems and stuff. All things considered, is he among the greatest dissapointments in NHL history?
 
Blades of Glory said:
Talk to me about him. I know he broke Bobby Orr's OHL record for single season goals by a defenseman and the point for a defenseman in single season. He supposedly, according to one minor league official, had more God-given talent than Wayne Gretzky.

I know about his drinking problems and stuff. All things considered, is he among the greatest dissapointments in NHL history?
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I don't know how you can call someone who is so ill, that he hardly can cope with everyday life a dissapointment. For me he is just an example of how tragic life can be, not a dissapointment at all.
 
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I saw Fogarty play one time in New Haven. I wasn't really aware of how fouled up his life was, only that he was suppose to be a super talent and he was playing in New Haven. What struck me was that he seemed to always be leaning the wrong way. Felix Mantilla was a third baseman for the Mets and Casey Stengel said if Mantilla was leaning right, he knew the ball would be hit to his left. That's how Fogarty appeared. If it looked like the play would be coming out of the zone, he was leaning forward. If it was staying in, he was leaning back. Not a good attribute for a dman. Maybe that's just the way his whole life was. Bad instincts that he just couldn't overcome.
 
That bar in Kingston (the Manor) where Fogarty and his teamates drank at was where the Tragically Hip used to play before they hit it big in the late 80's.
 
Wisent said:
I don't know how you can call someone who is so ill, that he hardly can cope with everyday life a dissapointment. For me he is just an example of how tragic life can be, not a dissapointment at all.
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:handclap:

What a great post. :handclap:
 
Dennis Bonvie said:
I saw Fogarty play one time in New Haven. I wasn't really aware of how fouled up his life was, only that he was suppose to be a super talent and he was playing in New Haven. What struck me was that he seemed to always be leaning the wrong way. Felix Mantilla was a third baseman for the Mets and Casey Stengel said if Mantilla was leaning right, he knew the ball would be hit to his left. That's how Fogarty appeared. If it looked like the play would be coming out of the zone, he was leaning forward. If it was staying in, he was leaning back. Not a good attribute for a dman. Maybe that's just the way his whole life was. Bad instincts that he just couldn't overcome.
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Wow, a Felix Mantilla reference. I remember the baseball card.

During Fogarty's brief time in Mtl, we all heard the stories of Jr greatness and the problems in his life, but I can't say that I ever saw a glimpse of a great player. Great players have instincts that are as natural to them as breathing and I never saw them from him. So I guess I agree with you.

I'm not an expert on addictive disorders and whatever else he went thru in his life, but I never saw anything that made me think, 'if only'. Maybe he was past that when I saw him.
 
Supposedly that Sundin had amazing comments on this abilities while they were both in Québec. Something along the lines that he had never seen someone pass the puck like he did.

anyway, really sad.
 
Bob De Funes said:
Supposedly that Sundin had amazing comments on this abilities while they were both in Québec. Something along the lines that he had never seen someone pass the puck like he did.

anyway, really sad.
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Sundin's quote is shown near the end of the ESPN article.
 
Nalyd Psycho said:
It is a disappointment that he was unable to get the help he needed.
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He did get help, time and time again. The ESPN article talks with his admitted AA sponsor (way to stay Anonymous in press, man). I think I remember hearing he also sought help for his anxiety.

If you are willing to look, help is all around.

Getting sober is easy sometimes. Staying sober is a completely different maze. Unfortunately, Fogarty was never able to figure that one out.

(before it happens, I'd like to say I'm not diminishing the plight of the alcoholic in any way. If you believe I am, please PM me and we can discuss it there.)

Bob De Funes said:
Supposedly that Sundin had amazing comments on this abilities while they were both in Québec. Something along the lines that he had never seen someone pass the puck like he did.

anyway, really sad.
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Mats Sundin told me this: "Bryan Fogarty could skate faster, shoot harder and pass crisper drunk than the rest of us could sober."
-Max Offenberger
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mcphee said:
Wow, a Felix Mantilla reference. I remember the baseball card.

During Fogarty's brief time in Mtl, we all heard the stories of Jr greatness and the problems in his life, but I can't say that I ever saw a glimpse of a great player. Great players have instincts that are as natural to them as breathing and I never saw them from him. So I guess I agree with you.

I'm not an expert on addictive disorders and whatever else he went thru in his life, but I never saw anything that made me think, 'if only'. Maybe he was past that when I saw him.
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Believe me. I know this stuff. I was on the way to become a really good mathematical psychologist (first year in, already my prof ASKED me to be his assistant). And all of a sudden (with no real reason really) I developed an anxiety disorder and a depression. I kicked my studies and tried something else (after 2 years of pause), I was really good again and then the same thing came back again. During the worst parts I didn't even have the strength to pick up the phone. I wanted to, but I just couldn't. It can do something to you, really.
 
I remember reading in a book, The Game of Our Lives?? That besides his terrible drinking problem, he simply had no passion for the game, and never really had any interest in it, although I might be thinking of someone else?
 
Adam91 said:
I remember reading in a book, The Game of Our Lives?? That besides his terrible drinking problem, he simply had no passion for the game, and never really had any interest in it, although I might be thinking of someone else?
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From what I've read, Fogarty loved playing hockey, but was shy about the limelight.
 
Phil Parent said:
That article is truly heartbreaking to read.
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Make sure to also read the article Adelson: Kindred spirits on the same site, by the same writer. You should be able to find a link to it on the upper right side of the page on the article that has already been linked to, under the headline Also See. That article is about Fogarty and John Kordic.
 
Wisent said:
Believe me. I know this stuff. I was on the way to become a really good mathematical psychologist (first year in, already my prof ASKED me to be his assistant). And all of a sudden (with no real reason really) I developed an anxiety disorder and a depression. I kicked my studies and tried something else (after 2 years of pause), I was really good again and then the same thing came back again. During the worst parts I didn't even have the strength to pick up the phone. I wanted to, but I just couldn't. It can do something to you, really.
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I know exactly what you mean and yeah, it's very real. I'm close to someone in a similar situation and it can be paralyzing, and like you say, it can ruin some real potential. I hope things are going well and if so, whatever you're doing, keep doing it.
 
Adam91 said:
I remember reading in a book, The Game of Our Lives?? That besides his terrible drinking problem, he simply had no passion for the game, and never really had any interest in it, although I might be thinking of someone else?
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Probably not The Game of Our Lives, as that was written in 1981.... The Best Game You Can Name by Dave Bidini perhaps? I haven't read it in a while, but I know Bidini wrote a song about Fogarty, I've heard him play it a couple times. He mentioned that wrestling was what Fogarty was really into, hockey was sorta secondary.
 
I used to have a picture of Bryan Fogarty that I cut out of a magazine hanging on the basement wall next to where my brother and I used to shoot pucks for hours. It had him holding a hockeystick that was in flames at the blade. I thought it was the coolest picture. I remember reading about his unreal season and followed his career pretty closely. The strange part, at least for me, was that after college, in 1994-95, I moved with a buddy to Myrtle Beach and worked at a hotel on the beach called the Swamp Fox. A few years after I left to go back to New York, the Hotel got bought out and changed it's name to compass cove. It's funny to me that I had probably walked in and out of that room dozens of times. The twelfth floor IIRC, was the penthouses. I worked security there and if one of the penthouses was empty, that's where we'd go hang out. Small world. Every time I hear about Fogarty, it makes me sad.
 
mcphee said:
I know exactly what you mean and yeah, it's very real. I'm close to someone in a similar situation and it can be paralyzing, and like you say, it can ruin some real potential. I hope things are going well and if so, whatever you're doing, keep doing it.
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I've been through a 2 or 3 months of a similar situation. And, well, in those 2 or 3 there months, there was one thing I was able to do well : ... drink. That was probably the best thing that could have happened to me in retrospect, but those were really PAINFUL months.
 
MXD said:
I've been through a 2 or 3 months of a similar situation. And, well, in those 2 or 3 there months, there was one thing I was able to do well : ... drink. That was probably the best thing that could have happened to me in retrospect, but those were really PAINFUL months.
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With breaks it is now nearly 10 years for me. And I take every help I get, still it is not done. I can cope now (still takes lots of effort every day), but a life that most would consider normal is out of the question as of now. I draw comics now with no to medium success (my academic career is gone completely), but at least I have fun again. It's all in your head, sure, but what else is there excet the head? It changes your life, and still I consider myself to be more lucky than Fogarty. To overcome the extreme crisis it mostly just a thing of luck, it has little to do with will. There is no doubt in my mind that Fogarty didn't choose his life. Who would choose depression. It just boggles my mind how someone can say this is a disappointment. Training hard every day is no comparison to depression mixed with an anxiety disorder. Luckily for me, the worst days are over (I hope).
 
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