Meet the Press: Doyle Woody talks anxiety in Alaska, life in the Twitterverse

Photo courtesy of Doyle Woody

If only 19th century Congressman J. Proctor Knott — remembered for his sarcastic Duluth, Minn., tourism plug — had a crystal ball at his disposal.

In fairness, the town in question and its potential were little-known at the time. But if only Knott could have envisaged the existence of the WCHA. After all, among its travel destinations, the conference would include Minnesota-Duluth and a program from a much more far-flung U.S. location yet to come called Alaska.

And if only Knott could have foreseen the life and career path of a WCHA beat writer from that eventual state named Doyle Woody.

Maybe then Kentucky’s 4th District ambassador to the House would have held his tongue in 1871, rather than ramble over the “Untold Delights of Duluth.” For more than a century later, Woody would discover the hidden merits of frequenting Duluth’s Pioneer Bar, then proceed to coax a special local as to the untold (but serious) amusements of Alaska.

Woody has been covering Alaska-Anchorage hockey for the Alaska Dispatch News (nee Anchorage Daily News) for the better part of the program’s 37 years as a Division I institution. For more than half of that tenure, this meant following the Seawolves on the majority of their excursions to the Lower 48.

Amidst one of UAA’s two-night road bouts with the UMD Bulldogs, Woody sought his standard postgame reward a half-mile up from the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center. That is, a few cold ones with his counterparts from the Duluth News Tribune.

That was when Bulldog women’s scribe Christa Lawler invited him to join her and a friend.

“The friend turned out to be Sarah Henning, an arts-and-entertainment writer for the News Tribune,” Woody told Pucks and Recreation.

“Long story short, Sarah and I soon after began a long-distance relationship of a year and a half — that wasn’t too difficult, because I traveled to the Upper Midwest often to cover hockey, plus I racked a lot of airline miles — before I somehow suckered her into quitting her job, packing her life and moving to Alaska.

“We eventually married, so my long con apparently is working. It was a pretty good weekend in Duluth for Alaska types — think the Seawolves earned three points (in the series), and I met my love.”

And that is the centerpiece of the fulfillment a career in college hockey reportage has yielded to Woody. Whether they have changed from long-distance dating to a hometown marriage or from chatting with fellow reporters at the watering hole to over the web, numerous relationships have gratifyingly lasted.

Odds are those perks will persist, even if the program that parented them does not.

Consternation over cuts

An East Anchorage native whose professional bio jokes that “He’s been covering hockey since the Ice Age,” Woody had one of his more thankless reporting responsibilities this past summer.

With the aftershocks of a rocky state economy reaching the public university system, both the Seawolves and instate rival Alaska Nanooks are on notice. Hockey is the crux of both athletic programs, and is thus a likely casualty amidst vast budget cuts across many departments.

“UAA fans here are understandably anxious and apprehensive about the fate of the Seawolves hockey program,” Woody said. “They know, worst-case scenario, that if the program is killed, it isn’t coming back.”

A mid-August report detailed three potential courses of action. One option would entail merging the UAA hockey program with its counterpart at the university’s flagship Fairbanks school. The other two would have the Division I sport evaporate from the state altogether.

The university’s Strategic Pathways committee is expected to announce its verdict in November. In the meantime, the Seawolves are scrambling to salvage any potential for a picture better than the present best-case scenario.

How that affects the air at Sullivan Arena for UAA’s four October home dates shall be seen. But as Woody articulated, the sudden discontinuation of the program-hosted Kendall Hockey Classic is the least of the stressors.

“UAA hockey supporters are on edge,” he said. “They don't know if the program will get gassed or simply endure budget cuts. Hey, it's tough all over in Alaska with the stagnant price of oil and a huge state budget crisis that hits the entire University of Alaska system, not just athletics.”

High-profile hockey content is not all lost on Woody’s beat. He still has the ECHL’s Alaska Aces to chronicle, and he keeps a keen eye on the state’s products in the NHL. Amidst the angst over the college program late last month, he penned a protracted narrative on Scott Gomez as the Anchorage native ended his 16-season, 1,079-game career.

But the Seawolves were there first, and that counts for something.

“Covering UAA has been a big part of my career,” Woody said. “(It) has allowed me to meet a slew of very good reporters and writers, many of whose work I admired, and so I tried to steal some of their better attributes — if you're not stealing something from talented colleagues, you're not trying.”

New age, same penman, same passion

Deep into the Internet-centric, new-media era, business trips to the contiguous states are deader than broadsheets. In turn, Woody does not hear the voices of his press-box peers nearly as often as he once did.

In some ways, convenience does not equal contentment for him.

“About the only downside of technology is that it’s so easy to find information that I no longer have to make the countless phone calls I made back in the ’80s and early ’90s,” Woody said. “But that also means I don't talk to as many hockey folks and strengthen connections. Plus, by not traveling, I miss out on a lot of postgame, at-the-bar sessions on the road.

“I learned a lot about hockey, and reporting and writing, in those sessions, which also taught me how to travel on three hours of bad sleep and a bit of a headache.” 

Today, like Sarah before him, Woody has planted his feet more consistently in the Last Frontier. And the tradeoff of sacrificing visits to other venues for a clearer head extends to the blessings of Twitter. With that, the beat writers’ fraternity he once fostered in person is preserved from afar while information travels with the speed of a breakout pass.

“The Internet and Twitter help maintain a connection to college hockey, thankfully, as does live streaming,” he said. “Remember, I’m so old I recall when we had to get WCHA stats through a fax-back. You literally dialed a fax number, punched in some access code and waited for the fax to spit out the updated weekly stats.”

With current technology, there also remains ample space for casual discussion and shameless tourism plugs. Earlier this month, Woody gave a stick-tap to the Grand Forks Herald’s Brad Schlossman for the latter’s endorsement of Anchorage establishments.

And then there is the new venue for creativity, which Woody maximizes through his handle, @JaromirBlagr.

The play on the name of the NHL’s most seasoned active player inadvertently reaffirms his Alan Shemper-esque habit of joking about his maturity. Although, he admits he accepted the alias at the suggestion of a friend.

“Wish I could take credit for the Twitter handle,” he said, “but I'm not remotely that clever. That came from my friend Josh Nova, a Fairbanks boy and former co-worker who loves puns, and came up with that one in a heartbeat.

“It has also earned Sarah the nickname Mrs. Blagr among some readers. So, yeah, my bride is living the dream up here.”

Oh, the now-not-so-untold enjoyments of East Anchorage.