Local Writer Publishes Book about Hartford Whalers

North Main Street resident Robert Muldoon is still mourning the city of Hartford’s loss of Whalers Hockey team who moved to North Carolina in 1997. His passion is so deep that he published Brass Bonanza Plays Again: How Hockey’s Strangest Goon Brought Back Mark Twain and a Dead Team—and Made a City Believe Again in January of this year.

He said it took him 9 years to write it and self-publish it through iUniverse.

 “I’ve written a book about the Hartford Whalers for whom I worked from 1984-1994. The book has real life characters like Ron Francis, Kevin Dineen, Ulf Samuelsson and Terry O'Reilly alongside a fictional goon (Tiger Burns) who goes on an epic journey from homeless under a bridge to center ice of a reunited Whaler Team with a last chance for redemption,” he explained.

Muldoon attended Andover public schools from K-8, and then went to Phillips Academy.  His mother still lives in the house where he grew up. When he graduated Bates College, he began working for Travelers Insurance in Hartford where his infatuation with the city and the hockey team began.  

While working, he fortuitously landed a part-time with the Whalers, driving new cars on the ice between periods. Instantly, Muldoon became a fan.

“It was the best job in Hartford,” he explained.

Muldoon even wrote a story, “View from the Penalty Box,” for the Sunday Hartford Courant, describing his experience.  Following that he wrote for the Goal Magazine program, about people involved with the team such as the Zamboni driver, Team dentist, security guards, Assistant General Manager and finally about some of the players.

Even when Muldoon moved back to Boston after going to journalism school in NYC, he drove the round trip to Hartford for two years to keep his car-driving gig.  Here and in New York, he experienced first hand how Hartford and the Whalers were sneered at.

“Most people considered Hartford to be nothing more than the urine stop between Boston and New York,” he explained.

When the Whalers left, he said the whole city was devastated. It was their only professional sports team, and it was emotional for the fans as well as for himself. Attending the last game, he was able to sit in the penalty box and even joined with city journalists at a bar for an "Irish Wake.”

Five years later, 2002, while Muldoon was taking a walk with his late dad and reminiscing about the past, he found himself unexpectedly choked up.  “It was then I realized how much I missed Hartford and the Whalers.”

He said, “I needed to find someone who loved them as much, and Tiger Burns the protagonist was revealed to me.”  

Although he has only sold a couple of hundred books so far, Muldoon said he has received positive reader reviews from all over the country. He recently sent copies to the Boston Globe, the Eagle Tribune and the Nashua Transcript to be reviewed.

Muldoon was thrilled to be recently interviewed by former Governor John Rowland on his radio show on Hartford’s WTIC. Even though Rowland had been indicted and served time for receiving political favors, Muldoon said he saw a surge of sales after the interview.

He is selling Brass Bonanza at Amazon, Barnes and Noble and the Andover Hockey Shop.

Since moving back to Andover, Muldoon commutes to Boston by train for his job at a software company. He admits he has become a Celtics, Patriots and Red Sox fan, but embracing the Bruins hockey team has been a little more of a struggle.