Morning Wrap: Calgary Hitmen and The Biggest Teddy Bear Toss Ever

((ht: cbssports.com))

This is too cool not to post.

If you've ever been to a minor league hockey game during the holiday season, you may have seen a promotional event many teams undertake.

The Teddy Bear Toss.

And it's pretty cool. The home team scores a goal and thousands of Teddy Bears rain down on the ice.

Mind you all the bears are collected and donated to a local charity for kids, so it's a great cause.

The Calgary Hitmen of the Western Hockey League take the toss to new levels. They are your record holder for most Teddy Bears. By a large margin.

Check out the video from Sunday's game, the 20th time the Hitmen have undertaken this promotion.

According to the team, 25,214 stuffed animals rained down on the Scotiabank Saddledome ice after a goal by Radel Fazeelev. And yes, it took a few minutes to clean things up afterwards.

Linda Cohn And Her Twisted Wrister

((HT: NHL/Blackhawks TV))

Linda Cohn is a tremendous ambassador for the sport of hockey...

She's a mandatory follow on twitter and podcasting...

So, listen closely...

Last night, the Rangers fan goes to United Center for the Blackhawks-Rangers game and is asked to participate in their "Shoot The Puck" festivities...

Of course, the goalie nailed it...

Here's the highlights...


Not bad stick handling skills for a goaltender...

Don Tollefson Under Investigation For Charity Fraud

((HT: NBC Philadelphia))

Anyone in the northeast knows Don Tollefson as a sportscaster that worked in Philadelphia and had some national cups of coffee with the "sly" network as well as some national radio sideline stuff...

Now, Tollefson has apparently run afoul of folks in Pennsylvania and New Jersey after allegedly telling them that, for a charity donation, they'll get tickets to sporting events.

Guess what...???

The money went to the donation and the tickets never came...

Police in both states are investigating and Tollefson, through his lawyers, is saying that he is seeking treatment for something...

LuAnn Cahn has the early reports...


FOSG Wendy Saltzman is investigating for ABC6, but we can't embed their stuff anymore...

The Eagles have come out with a statement of their own:

"We were originally alerted on the Thursday before the Denver game by a distressed fan who contacted us. Our immediate concern was for those fans who were affected by this situation as they were just trying to cheer on their team. Since then, we have spoken with Don Tollefson and have expressed our concerns about this situation. To be clear, the Philadelphia Eagles do not have any affiliation with Mr. Tollefson and he was not authorized to use our trademarked logo in this or any promotion. He did not seek or obtain our approval for any facet of this promotion and we are troubled that he would portray that we were part of this in any way.”

The Times-Herald newspaper's Dave Clark caught up with Tollefson:

In a telephone interview Friday, Tollefson said he had never approached anyone with the idea the trips were sponsored by the Eagles. He said his only affiliation with the Eagles is that he was an in-stadium broadcaster for the team from the 2009 to the 2012 season, but he did not partner with the Eagles when selling the tickets.

He denied accusations made by some that he has been avoiding calls and is taking money for himself.

He said that he canceled all of the trips because the airfare was not the same as it had been in the past, and he wanted better travel accommodations for those who had bought the ticket packages.

“The trips weren’t held up to the standard they had been before,” Tollefson said. “I made a personal decision not to do them this year.”

Tollefson said he has been running similar trips for the past 15 years.

The HQ doesn't think this is over by a long shot... and it won't be good by the time it's done...

Big Frank Does Sports... Unconventionally...

((HT: The Coastal Source))

The "Big Guy," Friend of OSG Frank Sulkowski was part of a charity event the other night...

And dressed the part for Savannah AMBUCS...

So, since the winning bid for his outfit was substantial, Frank decided to go ahead and take the next step...
Since, it probably would have taken too long to get back in anchor clothes after the event was over...

Here's the sportscast...
Watch at your own peril...