Tale of the tee: Dominion Hockey Sticks

Dominion operated from an alley garage in Hummelstown.

There’s a quote attributed to the legendary Gordie Howe that, “Everybody who is anybody in hockey has played in Hershey.”

Never mind that among the more than 2,400 professional games (regular and post-season) Howe played, none of them was in Hershey.

Of course, you don’t have to take Howe’s word for Hershey being a hockey town. The Hershey Bears are entering their 88th season in the American Hockey League, having won a record 13 Calder Cup championships and routinely finishing among the attendance leaders.

Many great players have skated at the Ice Palace, Hershey Arena/Hersheypark Arena, and Giant Center, for and against the home-town team.

But Hershey’s puck pantheon isn’t limited to those who achieved on-ice prowess. Consider the case of Dom Dadiego, who reached hockey’s pinnacle without ever lacing up a pair of ice skates.

‘Hockey is a growing thing’

In the early 1970s, Dadiego accomplished something few people have before or since: make hockey sticks in the United States, specifically just outside of Hershey.

Operating from an alley garage on the southwest corner of Hummelstown’s square, under the name Dominion Manufacturing Corp., Dadiego supplied sticks to members of the Bears players and other professional players.

More than a half-century later, we honor Dadiego’s achievement with our Dominion Hockey Sticks Tee.

We first shared Dominion’s story in 2000, which you can read here. Five years later, we have confirmed more of the Dadiego/Dominion story, although not why it played out in the Hershey area in the first place.

Dom Dadiego, front, with Hershey Bears players

Michel Harvey, middle, and Bud DeBrody. (Patriot-News, Feb. 1, 1970)

That not insignificant detail is inexplicably left out of a February 1970 story in the Harrisburg Patriot-News. Nor does the story identify the municipality where Dominion operated, much less a specific address.

We know from a search of the Pennsylvania Department of State’s website that Dominion incorporated in March 1969 with a business address of the rear of 9 W. Main St., Hummelstown, which neighbors Hershey.

The story provided more biographical details about Dadiego, from his youth spent on Long Island, N.Y., watching the New York Rangers in the early 1940s to being a salesman for 15 years “for one of the larger stick manufacturers.”

“I only played on roller skates,” Dadiego said, “but I know hockey is a growing thing and with the dealing I had with the players I thought I could put up my own place.”

Given his contact with players as a salesman, Dadiego said, he decided “I could set up my own company and give them more of a personal touch. This is what is lacking with the bigger companies.”

Personal touch

A photo (above) accompanying the story showed Dadiego, who was 43 at the time, with Bears players Bud DeBrody and Michel Harvey, each wearing team jackets, racks of sticks behind them.

“The advantage I have over the larger recognized companies is quality control,” Dadiego said. “When I was a salesman, I’d (drop) the sticks off and there would be mistakes in the curve or the weight. I couldn’t do anything about it.

“Now when a dozen sticks go out to a player I know they’re right … same curve, same shaft. They get the personal touch. The players help design their own patterns and know they’ll be getting what they want.”

Another Bear, Roger DeJordy, said of Dominion sticks: “I like them quite a bit. They’re easier to get and you always get what you ask for. I think they hold up better than the others.”

The article inartfully described a couple of Dadiego’s production innovations.

“He sprinkles grit in the lacquer to keep the heel of the stick working on a type of laminated shaft and also alterations on the blade to aid in controlling the puck.”

Dominion supplied sticks to players of all ages, from amateurs to, according to the story, more than 100 professional players in Hershey, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Springfield, Mass., Providence, R.I.

Hershey Bears Hall of Famer Gil Gilbert with a Dominion stick.

Some of those players, including former Bears Wayne Rivers and Willie Marshall, played for the AHL’s Baltimore Clippers. Rod Kline, who told me he worked for Dominion for a short time, remembered delivering sticks to the Clippers just before a game.

“I parked my car in the Civic Center and carried the sticks into the locker room where the players were already getting dressed,” Kline said. “Goalie Andy Brown chirped me about being late with the sticks.”

Brown would make history in 1974, becoming the last goalie in the National Hockey League to play without a mask.

But it was another Baltimore goalie, Gary Kurt, who I spotted brandishing a Dominion stick while dressed for the NHL’s California Golden Seals during the 1971-72 season. The photo below is the first proof I’ve come across of Dominion being used in an NHL game.

Gary Kurt using a Dominion stick in a

1971-72 National Hockey League game.

For a couple of seasons, Dominion advertised in the Bears game program, identifying itself as a “locally operated enterprise” with a Hershey post office box.

Dominion endured at least through the 1972-73 season, with three skaters sitting in the front row of the Bears team photo that year clutching Dominion sticks in their gloved hands.

In Howe’s hands

Gordie Howe may never have played in Hershey, and he probably never played with a Dominion stick but he got his massive mitts on one.

It was in September 1973, presumably in Houston, Texas, when Howe ended a two-year retirement to announce that he would be signing with the Houston Aeros of the new World Hockey Association.

As part of an interview, he posed for a photo in which he was flanked by his sons Marty and Mark, who also would join the Aeros. The photo, which can be viewed on the Getty Images website, is titled, “Gordon Howe Holds Stick With Sons.”

While his sons look into the camera, Gordie gives a furtive glance to his right. Perhaps he’s gazing toward his wife, Colleen, a pioneering sports agent who would have been keenly aware that the stick at hand was not made by her husband’s preferred supplier, Northland in Minnesota.

Gordie’s hands are strategically placed over most of the brand name, which is spelled out in capital letters.

But the stripes on the shaft and the N just beyond Gordie’s left pinky betray the fact that he’s holding a Dominion stick.