HISTORY OF "IN THE BOX" volume one

In The Box has been a staple in Edmonton's entertainment weekly paper, Vue Weekly since 1996. It's been a bit of an aberration in an arts-and-issues-based paper, but it seems to have its curious readership.
Only in this city, where the local Improv folks are using hockey as a backdrop for their long-standing improvised weekly "soap opera" Die-Nasty can hockey and the arts live in relative comfort.
Even the rock stars in town have a hockey league.

In The Box started in October of 2006 by former Vue Weekly editor Steve Sandor and John Turner. The pair wrote the column for several years as a duo.

Here's the column's inception, in the words of Steve himself.

OK, so Dave asked me to write a brief history lesson on ITB. Wow, John and I started back in 1996, when the Oilers' stars were guys named Joseph, Arnott and Weight, and that kid Smyth looked like he might have a future. Mironov, De Vries, Berehowsky and McGillis anchored the blue line.

Basically, we were at Vue and got press passes. We had to figure out a way to justify it. So, at our first game, the Sabres facing the Oilers, frantic to come up with something to print, we decided to not try and pretend we were anything but hacks. We would write as if we were astonished that someone would give us the space to print our two cents worth. We spent a lot of time griping about referees (we must have written a book about Steve Walkom, the anti-Oiler), bad uniforms, players we hated and John bugging me about my Toronto roots. Some classic early moments; calling Carolina bars and asking random patrons of they'd ever heard of the Hurricanes; and our "design a new uniform for the Canucks" contest.

Some way, some how, the Oilers actually LIKED the thing, because I was soon asked to write for the game program on a freelance basis. Later,it became a full contract as the editor of Zone. With that conflict, I had to leave ITB behind.

I stayed with the Oilers until the lockout messed up all the economics for us little people who depended on hockey; in Toronto, I still can't live without Oilers hockey. Thank whatever deity you'd like for Centre Ice. Heck, I even wrote a book about it (Shameless plug for "The Battle of Alberta," Heritage House, available through amazon, chapters/indigo or your favourite local book shop, like Audreys).

I wish the Oilers the best; the job wasn't a job at all.