By DICK WEISS: Philadelphia Daily News, Jume 19th, 1974
John Grant spent two years on the assembly line of Outboard Marina in Peterborough, Ont., constructing outboard motors and snowmobiles.
Two weeks ago, the Wings’ lanky 6-6 forward quit because of the hassle of commuting to pro box lacrosse games.
“I’m willing to take a chance on this league making it,” Grant said last night after scoring four goals during a 17- 12 victory over Montreal at the Spectrum.
At least now he can live with the red tape that accompanies having to wait in customs lines everytime he enters the country.
GRANT AND THE REST of the Wings are still functioning without work visas. “It should take close to three months before we get them,” Grant said. “That can get tough. It took us an hour and a half to get through customs in Baltimore the day we played our first’game in Landover. By the time we got to the arena it was 7:30 and then our bus broke down in the parking lot. We had to unload and carry our bags into the building. We were hardly ready to play.”
For Grant, it was another one of the terrors of playing on the road in the new National Lacrosse League. He knows only too well the way his team was dragging after a recent five-game swing.
“YOU PLAY on the road, then you get home at 4 in the morning and go to work the next day,” Grant said, “and you’re bound to get behind the 8-ball. That’s what happened to us.”
For a team that looked listless during a 16-8 loss to Rochester last Friday, the Wings showed surprising resiliency against Montreal.
Bobby Goulding back-to back goals within 10 seconds midway in the second period to break what had been an 8-8 tie, and the Wings (7-4) moved within a half game of second-place Toronto.
THE CROWD OF 11,151 was fired up when Doug Favell, the ex-Flyer goalie who now plays for the Toronto Maple Leafs, made his local debut.
“Welcome Home, Dougie Pooh” read one banner. Favell didn’t disappoint anyone. Less than a minute and half after he was inserted in the first period, Favell scored his first goal of the season.
With 10:23 to go, Favell received a pass from Zeny Lapinski and in front of the goal mouth, double pumped and then bounced a shot past goalie Dave Wedlock.
GRANT, THE sometimes spectacular scorer, carried the load. Now he just has to worry about increasing his pay check.
“I’ll be down here for two weeks,” he said. “About five of us will be conducting a clinic at Skateland in Brookhaven beginning next week.”
They are working on the future.
