We have one goal, to interview the best
in sports to meet the biggest names
and find out what makes them tick.
And the Saint Louis athletes who moved
the needle with their compelling story.
I'm Frank Russomanno and this
is sports plus.
Morning. That point gets hammered
by Tony Twist.
I'm not fighting just to throw my
gloves around and play Patty cake.
I'm. I'm fighting because, I
mean, it's a fight. I wanna hurt the
guy seconds into the game.
I said, well, you know how I play.
So if we're gonna fight, let's get her gone.
Good evening and welcome to a
unique sports plus tonight.
They have a combined 27
goals in their NHL careers,
but there's no doubt Kelly Chase
and Tony Twist were two of the most
popular players in Blues history.
So for tonight's main event,
literally it is Kelly Chase and Tony Twist.
Men, good to be with you.
And it's the first time you guys
have been on the air together
in a long time, right? Well,
2023 years I guess. Probably for 20 years
anyway since we're on the air together.
How about popularity?
Even though Scott Young man had a
forty goal season, people in Saint
Louis don't remember Scott Young.
They all remember you,
our security guard.
Asking for autographs and pictures,
and it's still like this years later.
What does that like?
Well, it's pretty cool to be honest with you.
I get called Tony twice a day.
My answer always is he's the other guy.
Had it happen today and I had our dispensary.
The guys like hey Tony, how are you?
I said he's the other guy who I
mean and he gets all rattled.
But no it's it's we're pretty.
I feel pretty fortunate
that we that we got to.
Be not very good players but pretty
effective at what we did and still be
treated as well as we are in Saint Louis
right after there was a it's a testament
what we've done over the course of
we've obviously done great things in the
Community and over the course of time.
You know we appreciate that if this is a
town you really got to do some terrible
things as a sports athlete not to be admired.
If you're staying here you really got
you really got to dump on somebody.
So if you if you just participate with
enthusiasm the fans are incredible.
Alright let's do a little.
This is your life.
I want to go back to Saskatoon.
The blades, you're 17, you're 16.
You see each other,
I think for the first time.
How about first impression
when you run into Kelly Chase?
What was that like?
We were at the bar at Esmeraldas.
Well, actually where we were,
you know, we were sixteen though.
Yeah, well, you were gonna be legal
drinking age is 18. OK. OK.
So we were we were illegal for that time.
First impressions.
You know what, I was still getting
my my feet wet going from junior,
the junior Tier 2 to junior tier one.
So there you are.
At the end of the day, I you know,
there was the impressions were
made after when he got to meet
everybody. Yeah,
it was one of those things too,
where you seen this guy and
we had known about Tony.
They traded formulas with Seattle
and and I just I remember seeing
them and going while we got another
guy on our team that we know is is
is in the character in the realm of
of what we believe in as far as a
team and we were supposed to be in 8th
place and we ended up I think we went
like third second and 1st the three
years we were there and and they they
they told us our team was more like
a work release program than it was
and let me capitalize on that so the
rookie party I had the opportunity to be
treated as the rookie has the hazing went.
And Chaser got the opportunity to go
stamp into the stamp in the general
manager's office because the day after I
had my eye is completely black because
I ended up in a fight so and my hands
were all tore up and he had to go to
the GM's office to sell me and you know,
to give reasons of why that happened.
It wasn't his. God was I
said that a lot as we. Then
on to Peoria.
We play together and you have
one of the most unique seasons
in professional hockey history.
Twenty goals and 400 penalty minutes.
Remember that. You
know, I remember going to tell you how
I remember it, Bobby Plager told me.
Don't whine because you're down here.
Lots of good players.
You're down here and you're going
to play with David Bruce and and
Nelson Emerson and Emerson won
Rookie of the Year and Bruce won MVP.
So it was pretty simple.
You chipped the puck to Nelson, met
them down at the other. There
was a sequence at one point.
Where a guy ran at Nelson Emerson.
I dropped my gloves one after the guy,
but I had time to put my gloves back
on because the guy wouldn't fight me
and then tap the puck in at the side
of the neck cause he made a pass.
So yeah that was a lot of fun.
That team was great and you know we
just had matter of fact Twister had a
big play and we you talked about that.
There was a winning streak of 18 games
which was the record for years until
Coop shattered at the Norfolk Admirals.
But. We were down in a game by like
four goals and the streak was gonna end
and we weren't gonna get the record.
And he he was playing.
They had moved him to left wing from defense.
And I think you're playing with
Ricky Peon maybe.
And
how in the Frick? Do you remember this
stuff? No, no, seriously, what happened?
What happened was he wanted to
think I have brain injuries.
So scared of him.
They just let him go in and get the puck.
He made a centering pass.
We win, we win the game in overtime 76.
How do you remember that?
I just remember it.
Would laugh so hard,
wouldn't you?
Watch the tape now.
And it's on
that dream season that
Bobby Plager I put together.
The funniest thing about it is
he literally, he put. He dumped
it in the corner.
Two guys could get there
before him and they were both.
It was just like the parting of the sea.
Now he can have it.
They figured he wasn't going to do
anything with it. And he did.
I don't know. You remember everything.
I don't have the freak. You do it. We're
almost late for a break, buddy.
Ask you gotta ask you.
You fought Berube 3 times.
You fought him four times.
Give me 20 seconds on what
that was like fighting
baruba. It was a great opportunity.
First time we fought was in Philly,
next time was in Saint Louis.
They was. I mean,
chief was the guy from Philly.
Think about the the old time,
the old time, broad streets.
He was he was holding that role.
It was awesome.
I fought him a junior and the first time
I fought him I I whacked him pretty
good in the back of the legs and said
we're going to go with the face off.
He didn't even flinch.
He turned and looked at me and said,
you think you're ready?
Well, you were ready one Saturday
night when you guys fought.
We'll take a break. We're gonna come
back and talk about the famous
fight between Kelly Chase
and Tony Twist right after this.
Twist with their right.
Less than a minute into the hockey game,
comes and shakes and it's everybody
back up boys and let them get to it.
Goes down, gets up with hammers and down.
Was just too much for Stoyanoff.
We continue our Cardinal
Buick GMC conversation with
Tony Twist and Kelly Chase.
Best single fight a lot of
people can never forget.
You and Rob Ray.
Rob Ray was a bad man and you took
care of him that night in 1995.
We have video.
What do you think
it was a well, here's the story real
quick and Reader's Digest. Pizzas there.
The the code, the equipment coach the
day before he fought Francois Leroux and
and I all through my career with Quebec.
Razor wouldn't fight me.
So pizza comes in with practice.
Where he goes, he's ready for you
and I go wait for what? To fight.
You fight LaRue last night, he's in the game.
So I bet you 20 bucks and knock him out.
He goes. You're on.
We line up that we're not.
We line up and Razor wants to
fight me the first time ever.
And he ends up with one of those.
And in the penalty box he
looks over and he goes.
Twister, can I still ride on your ride?
I go, absolutely.
He sneezes, his face falls and he looks over.
He goes, is it bad? I go. Ohh.
You gotta get out of here.
Next whistle.
His face fell and then after the game,
pizza comes running in, he goes Twister.
You can't say anything to anybody.
We made this, but here's your 20 bucks.
I said keep it, don't fire me.
And I said never say anything.
11 years later on a sports show in
Toronto and Razor and I talked about it.
Wow.
Let's fight for you.
A lot of people think is
Francois Leroux 66250.
You're 6 feet,
190 and you took care of him.
We got video of
that. Well, that was a little
different spiel. And it was more.
There's a joke in the league
called the Race for Chase.
Because nobody really
wanted to fight with Tony.
And he felt pretty good about himself
this night because Twister wasn't playing.
Mark Crawford had sent him out to
fight and I was obviously nervous.
You got a guy that big and it was an ESPN
game and I I actually I got the better.
And this is when people I love when people
2 feet taller than you. This the
people say to me you've never hit
a guy when he was down.
I'm like, damn right I would.
And I did that. Yeah,
I clocked him pretty good.
He never played another game
in the NHL, to be honest
with you. That right. But
you can hear if
you. The volume on on that
fight on YouTube or whatever,
you can hear Mark Crawford,
who is the coach at the time,
yelling at me, try him, try him.
And then yelling. That's
how beating, that's beating at
the start of the fight and at
the end of the fight when I'm
turned looking at their bench yap
and I'm yapping at him because I
could hear him at the face off.
I mean, it was right by their bench.
And I'm thinking, my Crawford's doing this.
Hey, I watched him play.
He has no business telling me to
fight because he was a chicken.
You know what? That's awesome.
All right? The fight between you.
You March 9th, 1996.
How do you remember it?
He was running around with Hartford
and Mike Keenan put you on the ice.
You know what? It's a it's
a great piece of the fans,
but really it's just business as usual.
For us. It was, you know,
Chaser had a job to do that night.
I had a job to do night that night.
And we both did the job,
and I promise you this,
we went out for beers and drinks
and food and Harry's that night.
We never talked about it.
Jerry Clinton was more worried
about it than we were. He was.
You get out here and you guys
shake hands and I'm like Jerry
you don't have to worry about us.
He's living in my house so rents going
up $2000 and I don't worry
about it but but twister
it actually hurt Mark Jansen earlier
and I've been in Hartford. I came back
and and I just.
I said to him I said he said something.
Well you better stop.
I was running around at Murray Baron
because he had run at Jansen and it
wasn't my intention to fight with
my friend obviously but I but then
when he come over he said Keenan's
you know bark and I said would
you just want to get it over with.
And he he goes are you serious?
And then he gave me a little
shot and I said let's just go and
get it over with and I ended up
having to go and get my finger.
They didn't do a very good job of
fixing fixed and and came back in the
game and then that we went out and
had a couple of beer that night and I
left the rent the same I I loved his kids.
So Pavel Demitra
said when he played with you 2,
that was the easiest part of his
hockey career because nobody
touched him and he could skate.
How about the impact when you guys
were at your zenith about what
you did for players like Dimitra?
We gave everybody a a great wide
birth to play with. Both of us had.
We had both ends of the spectrum covered,
meaning if there's somebody
in there for me to go after,
somebody who was in between,
it looks kind of, you know,
it doesn't look right.
Jason is always taking care of that.
Somebody steps out.
Out of out of class I've got then
Jason was fighting guys that were
three and four times the size
and doing freaking well at it.
So there was two of us that could do
the business on both ends and it was
intimidating Al McGinnis and said
that money rather have a pair of us
as grocery sticks sitting between
the the defense and the and the and
the forwards as a as a cut out then
then then extra man because they
gave everybody a second to play.
You know what's funny about that?
It's one of the prouder things
that I've heard and you hear
Brett say it all the time about.
I never would have been the
same player if I didn't have.
Those guys, but one, Pavel said it,
he had moved on and played for
a team that didn't have that
and noticed the difference.
And listen it right now in the league,
it's a commodity.
I mean, because all it's all hugs
and kisses now and it's and I'm
not knocking the league because
there's an evolution of it.
I'm really not.
But you see the zegras kid in
in Minnesota are in Anaheim.
Everyone in the league wants him
to get slapped in the mouth,
including probably his GM, who I played with.
They've had enough of them.
It's got a big mouth and you're
allowed to go around and acting like
an *** and you get away with it.
We would have straightened guys like that.
Because Michael Clark played in
Anaheim and he he pushed on the back
Al Mckinnis's legs one time and hurt him.
We set up shop at the Red Line
that threatened that kid the entire
warm up and then he was so scared
and then we ended up having a
fight with him after and I said
we're not done in Twister.
Went over the bench and said
you're you're getting me next.
This kid just wanted out of the game.
I mean I don't know how bad we
beat Anaheim that night but it was
like and no one ran it Al Mcinnis
but the whole league knew not
to do that after that it wasn't
like you know his presence alone.
There's one thing you could say.
Whatever you want when you go
out and and and and
activate it. It made a huge impact.
It's a commodity now.
You get a tough guy in a
in a game right now that can play
a little bit everybody want you
tell me nobody wants the Wilson
kid and watching
the whole league wants him.
A tough guy that complain right?
You can pretend to hate
him. You all want him.
He's a game changer. We gotta break.
When we come back we're going to
find out what these two guys are
doing with their lives right now.
Sports Plus continues right after this.
Huck is never enters Mr.
Twist. Mine. It's out there
somewhere. Someone told him
now intercepting. Moving in along
Chase scorers. Kelly Chase,
we continue with our spotlight story.
A night at the fight. She likes
seeing that goal. Didn't you
between believe me, I remember them all.
All right. What are you guys
doing with your lives now?
You're an interesting.
Business right now,
and it's a huge weekend for
that business. It is a huge weekend.
Yeah, I got into the medical marijuana
business about seven years ago.
I had previously had the brain lesion
and I had been to the Mayo Clinic and
I'd also seen some testing done with
both CBD and THC on everybody from kids
with epilepsy to military with PTSD.
And and I was there, interestingly enough,
when there was talking to a military guy that
had found a strain for medical marijuana.
They make CBD and THC that had the guys
not remembering their nightmares and the
spouse was telling me how important it was.
And so we have a facility in Vienna,
MO that makes with cultivation facility.
We have a manufacturing out there and
then we have a dispensary in Chesterfield
called Hippos and one in Springfield,
one down in Columbia.
So it's an interesting business,
but with all of our athletes that we see
that have gone through that whole post,
Oxycontin, Vicodin,
you see so many guys suffering
from stuff that.
It was a great alternative and it was
something I wanted to look into and.
And again I I never did drugs at
all when I played and never once.
There were two reasons.
One I I well you weren't supposed to and
if you got caught you were in trouble
and they would kick me out of the league.
And secondly I'd like him and I
knew what my my threshold was
and I just never ever did it.
And then it became something where I
just learned more and more about and
and found you know some reasons that
it became healthy for for people.
And the other thing is too with
the governance,
you know it's tested all the time.
Every plants labeled.
I know there's a lot of people that aren't.
Get in there.
But if you if you have an
alternative and you and.
And it's and it's tested and and
the compliance is that we have to
go through now it makes I'm a heck
of a lot more comfortable than if
somebody's trying to buy something
on the street and who knows what
they're putting in
it. Yours is different though.
You guys have the same recipe getting
it from the same spot consistent.
So you're always going to have it in stock.
That's what's different than than what
then when I was doing my girlfriend has
engages in that and in the same can't
sleep and the consistency of the product
that's what we ended up going there.
You go see chase over there because it's
always in stock because you're doing
it. What does keep you consistent?
Yeah. We got about 30 seconds left.
Tell our listening audience what
you're doing with your life.
I gotta windshield repair and replacement
company doing fleet management and
that's I got my son working for me.
Christian does a heck of a job.
He's taking off a big load
for myself and we're, we're,
we're doing we're doing great.
And I got a couple other employees
and Cisco and Cody and they're and
myself and we're we're knocking it out.
It's been fun,
guys. Honored to have you.
And thanks so much. Really appreciate
great being here with him, man.
It's great being here with you,
Frank, cause you've been around
for the whole ride. Yeah,
Frank, you haven't aged at all.
No, I'm feel very old. Guys. We appreciate
wrestle with you in a minute. See how tough
we wanted to stand up and pretend
like you're gonna fight one more
time? No, no, no. Well,
you're gonna you're gonna get a
standing up on camera. Yeah, yeah,
that's gonna that's gonna take.
Everybody's gonna hold. We are. We're not
gonna do that standing up on camera.
Come on now,
we'll take a break. We'll be right back.
Hey, we have another local college
basketball team doing well.
The Washington New Bears roasted Emory today.
Here's some great passing and almost
elegant dunk. Not a slam dunk,
but an elegant 1 by Drake Kinz Vader.
Later, it's going to be the grad student
Charlie Jacob with the nice Runner
Bears win 60 to 59 and move into sole.
Possession of first place in the conference.
Of course. The NFL's new skills
competition at the Pro Bowl game
came down to the last event.
Peyton Manning and the AFC needing A2 point
conversion to tie up the three day contest.
But the pass falls incomplete, 58,000.
Watch today as the NFC wins at
3533 next week at this time it's
going to be the Super Bowl.
Everybody will be watching the two
groups of people on the screen right now.
They've arrived in Phoenix. They.
Kansas City Chiefs who are on the
left side of your screen will scare
off against the Eagles in Super
Bowl 57100 billion are expected
to watch time now for the well,
first health frankly speaking.
So tonight we were honored to have
Kelly Chase and Tony Twist in studio
and even though it looks like the Blues
are not going to make the postseason
and it will be a rebuild situation,
it reminded me of just how blessed.
We have been to have so many good
people playing hockey in our town.
I've always said that hockey players are
the best people I've ever met in sports.
I hate to generalize,
but part of the reason is I think
it's because so many of them are from
small Canadian farm towns that they
really appreciate what they have.
Kelly and Tony are living examples of that.
Many of these guys have come to Saint
Louis and never leave Saint Louis and
are willing to help out of charity at
all times so we won't be hoisting.
That cup soon.
But the Blues have given us a lot of
winning and more and more importantly,
given us a lot of great people.
So that's our show for tonight
for our producer, Andy Mueller.
I'm Frank cusumano.
We'll see you tomorrow night at 5/6 and 10.
We are signing off for now,
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