Stan Mikita
During one of their practices, Black Hawks forward Stan Mikita bent his stick by accident in the rink’s doorway. He subsequently found his shots were unpredictable and wild, which made it harder for goalies to block his shots, so he began bending his stick on purpose and so did his teammate Bobby Hull. Their modified “banana blades” allowed them to do slap shots from a very far spot since the erratic movement could cause the puck to zoom past goaltenders. This was really dangerous as the use of helmets wasn’t widespread at the time, and ironically, Mikita was among the first to begin wearing one full-time. Afterward, more experimentation occurred and deeper curves were added to their equipment, so the NHL decided in 1970 to put a limit on the curvature (half an inch) to prevent things from getting way out of hand.
Stan Mikita
Ron Meyer
It seems like common sense to limit the kind of equipment which can be used in sports to have a level playing field, but Patriots coach Ron Meyer had something else in mind when he decided to use a snowplow to gain an advantage over the opposing team, the Miami Dolphins. The night before the game, the field froze over, so the snowplow was on hand. A scoreless affair due to the frosty and abysmal conditions on the field, no one thought it was strange when the snowplow returned to the field once more, but rather than clearing off the markers, the vehicle just plowed the part of the field where Meyer’s team were going to kick a field goal. The turf was suddenly playable, and John Smith took advantage of the moment and scored the game’s only points. Understandably livid, Dolphins head coach Don Schula complained to the league commissioner, so the NFL later introduced a specific rule stating snowplows cannot be used during a game.
Ron Meyer
