If you need Hounds facts, Chris is the one to talk to

You’ve probably heard of Soo Greyhounds ‘superfan’ Chris Sierzputowski.

He has boxes and boxes of Hounds articles and memorabilia from the 70’s to the current season that he enjoys sharing with his followers on Twitter.

“Some people call it an obsession, but I call it ‘fandemonium’,” Sierzputowski said, “on 33 plus nights of the year I know where I’m going to be.”

He's been a season ticket holder for about 36 years and said, “I’ve gotten to see a lot of good hockey.”

He has been following the Greyhounds since they were a part of the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League, and used to go to games for fifty cents. 

Sierzputowski currently sits on the committee that is working on the Hounds portion of the Sault Ste. Marie Museum, providing stats and records from previous years. He is able to recall facts from the Hounds inception into the OHL to the present, and is able to list many facts right off the top of his head.

“I spend a lot of time correlating, and making sure my records are accurate,” he said.

He has contributed facts from his archives to local authors, and the Soo Greyhounds organization. Including the posters in the northern lower level of the GFL Memorial Gardens, that use facts that were provided by Sierzputowski.

“I’m not unique, I’m unique in the way I do things, but I’m sure that there’s others out there who are just as obsessed,” he said.

Sierzputowski knows that there isn’t many Hounds records on the internet, and is proud that he can supply them.

“It brings in the current fans, who are internet savvy and they go ‘Oh i didn’t know that’ and now you can bring the past and tie it to the future or the current Greyhounds,” Sierzputowski said.

One of his favourite parts about his hobby is being able to tell younger Hounds fans about records from the mid-80’s all the way to the current season.

Although he’s not just a junior hockey fan, Sierzputowski has been a “long-suffering Leafs fan” and has almost the same amount of Leafs jerseys as Hounds jerseys.

The perfect hockey night for Sierzputowski is having the Hounds game going on the radio, the Leafs game on TV, and his IPad on his lap so he can keep up with Twitter.

When his son was in midget hockey Sierzputowski built a hockey rink in his backyard. Not only did his son’s friends use the rink, but the Hounds used his rink for backyard hockey until 2014.

This rink is how Sierzputowski got his fan base famous goalie mask. He needed to buy a mask so he could play goal for his son’s teams.

After using a cheaper goalie mask for a while, he asked a friend to paint the mask. Since it was so cheap, he wouldn’t paint the original mask, so the following Christmas his wife gave him “the best Christmas present ever.”

It was the mask that is well known to fellow Hounds fans. It’s a one of a kind.

The fully functional goal light was mounted onto the mask with the help of one of his co-workers.

During the playoffs Sierzputowski brings his goalie mask and flag on the road. During a game in Saginaw last year, Sierzputowski was featured on the big screen at the game.

Saginaw fans chirped him as he walked down the street after the game (especially since the Hounds won that night).

“I remember this kid coming up to me and he goes ‘awe nice mask’ and he goes to give me knucks and pulls back right away,” Sierzputowski laughed.

As much as most fans enjoy Sierzputowski’s playoff spirit, he has had his issues with some fans who don’t quite appreciate it. They say it interferes with their ability to sit and watch the game.

Sierzputowski says, “I respect that that’s how you do things, but at the same time you have to respect how I do it.”

When he was asked what his favourite hockey memory was, he had a hard time narrowing it down to one.

The first one he mentioned was when the 1993 Hounds won the Memorial Cup,

“To have been in that building, the old Memorial Gardens, it was unbelievable, especially with the history that led up to that team,” Sierzputowski said, “the city was scrambling to be the host of the Memorial Cup.”

Another one of Sierzputowski’s favourite hockey memories, is from 1985. During the season when the Hounds went undefeated at home, he and his wife taped a big roll of newsprint on the concrete walls of the old Memorial Gardens and painted the numbers 1-33.

At this time the Hounds played on Friday and Sundays, so every Saturday during the Hounds practice, Sierzputowski would go into the arena to cross off the past nights win.

“I’d walk into the arena and Terry Crisp was the coach, and he could not get the players attention. The players would see me coming and would start to make a rhythmic sound on the ice with their sticks. I’d pull up to the thing and I’d dip into that red paint and make a great big ‘X’ on the win from the previous night and they would go nuts!” he recalled.. 

Sierzputowski has loved the game since he was a kid, and is looking forward to the events of the upcoming season.

“That's really what hockey is all about, what am i gonna see tonight?’

You can follow Sierzputowski on Twitter here.