45 years after its release, Hanson brother looks back on the making of 'Slap Shot'

“Slap Shot,” filmed primarily in Johnstown, premiered in theaters across the country 45 years ago, on Feb. 25, 1977. The iconic sports movie, starring Paul Newman as aging player/coach Reggie Dunlop, has delighted audiences ever since. Its raunchy, politically incorrect humor, partially nude scenes and over-the-top profanity are enough to make one wonder if it could be made today.

In a 2017 Rolling Stone article on why “Slap Shot” captures the 1970s better than any other sports movie, writer Dan Epstein also explained why the movie still holds up.

“Nowadays, it’s rightly considered a sports-movie classic, and it’s hard to find a self-respecting hockey fan who can’t rattle off a few choice lines from the Hanson Brothers — the child-like goons played by professional hockey players David Hanson, Jeff Carlson and Steve Carlson — at the slightest provocation.”

Hanson was signed to play one of the film’s fictitious Hanson brothers, who were based on three actual brawling, bespectacled brothers named Jeff, Steve and Jack Carlson. They played on the same line for the minor-league Johnstown Jets and led the Jets to the 1975 North American Hockey League championship.

However, just as shooting began, Hanson was switched from the role of Dave “Killer” Carlson when Jack was called up to the Edmonton Oilers, then of the WHA, to take part in the playoffs. Dave Hanson became Jack Hanson and Jerry Houser, an actor who had made a name for himself in the film “Summer of a’42,” was cast as Dave “Killer” Carlson.

The origins of ‘Slap Shot’

A member of the Jets named Ned Dowd had a sister named Nancy, an up-and-coming Hollywood screenwriter. When Dowd described the characters on the team and their antics to her, she came out to Johnstown to see for herself. After the season ended, she went back to Hollywood to write a movie based on the Jets, who became the Charlestown Chiefs in the film.

Universal Studios greenlighted the picture, and soon movie stars such as Al Pacino were vying with Newman for the Dunlop role. Newman was the better skater, and the producers already had their sights set on him anyway.

When the rest of the casting call went out, it proved to be much harder to find Hollywood actors who could skate. A-list actors like Nick Nolte, John Travolta and Donny Most all wanted a part in the movie, but none could skate well enough to be in it. So the plan went from finding actors who could play hockey to finding hockey players who could act. (Ned Dowd was enlisted to play a character named Ogie Ogilthorpe in the movie.)

Reciting scripted lines on-camera proved to be almost as difficult for Hanson and the Carlson Brothers to handle as hockey sticks were for the Hollywood actors.

“We went back and kind of winged it, a combination of Nancy Dowd’s scripted lines and being ourselves — we didn’t have to act like hockey players because we were hockey players — and (director) George Roy Hill loved it,” Hanson said. “Fortunately, they didn’t have a lot of lines for us to say, just one-liners, just being in the moment.”

Working with Paul Newman

Hanson said he especially loved working with Newman.

“You’d never know he was the big wig on the set. He was a regular guy. He’d come in in the morning in his loafers, blue jeans and T-shirt and drink his iced coffee — I guess that was a California thing — and he’d pull pranks,” said Hanson. “But as soon as he was in front of that camera, you’d see the true professionalism. He was totally into his character.”

Hanson managed to keep in touch with Newman from when the film wrapped up until Newman’s death in 2008.

“When my son started playing Triple-A hockey, it was pretty expensive. I wasn’t making much money, and we were literally knocking on doors looking for sponsors. He sent me a thousand-dollar check without me asking,” said Hanson. “That’s the kind of guy he was. He was just an unassuming, charitable, down-to-earth, awesome guy.”

Establishing Western Pennsylvania ties

Hanson, a St. Paul, Minn. native, had little knowledge of Western Pennsylvania when he moved to Johnstown in 1974 to begin his professional hockey career.

“I remember my first impression when we arrived in Johnstown. We were coming in during the evening, and I remember this long descent and seeing these flames shooting up (from the steel mills) and thinking, ‘Oh my God, we’re going into the pits of Hell,’ ” said Hanson.

His perception soon changed as Johnstown became a place where he won a championship, made a movie and met Sue, his wife of 45 years. She hails from Nanty-Glo, a small coal mining borough just outside of Johnstown.

It was partly to be close to her family that Hanson ended up moving to Pittsburgh, where he is now executive director of the RMU Island Sports Center.

“It’s been great. I raised my family and my children here,” he said. “We love it.”

After making “Slap Shot,” Dave Hanson eventually realized his dream of making it to the big leagues, first in the World Hockey Association and then with the Detroit Red Wings and his hometown Minnesota North Stars — for whom he scored his one and only NHL goal in the 1979-80 season.

Hanson has two daughters and a hockey-playing son, Christian, a center. Christian played college hockey for Notre Dame and in the NHL with the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Popularity of Hanson Brothers

Before the pandemic, the continued popularity of “Slap Shot” led to a tremendous demand for Dave Hanson and Steve and Jeff Carlson to make appearances throughout the country and around the world as the Hanson brothers, raising money for a variety of charitable causes.

“Just seeing the fun reactions and interactions we have with people in places like Australia, Germany, London, all over the place,” said Hanson. “We have people from golden-agers to ankle-biters. They’ve seen the movie and know exactly when they saw it, who they were with and their favorite lines. That’s been the fun part.”