Stan Fischler's books and the Islanders: The latest chapter in a long story
Stan Fischler at his home office in Israel. Credit: Ariel Fischler
Stan Fischler always has had books. Lots of books.
He writes them. He reads them. He collects them. He gives them away. For all his decades of work on television, books are central to his brand.
Now they are part of another tale in his long journey as a hockey journalist.
Fischler, who turns 93 on Monday, has donated about 80 of them to the Islanders, who since 2022 have hosted a display of his memorabilia on “The Stan Fischler Press Level” at UBS Arena.
The tale of how it came about is complicated, but the net result is what matters, and given his age, Fischler thinks more than ever about his legacy.
“That’s why I’m giving this whole megillah of books,” he told Newsday recently from his home in northern Israel, using a Hebrew/Yiddish term for a long, involved story.
'Unraveling of a mystery'
To make a megillah short, when Fischler moved to Israel in 2018, where he lives adjacent to his son Simon’s family, he took with him the hundreds of books that he had in his upper Manhattan apartment.
Complications ensued. “The whole thing is the unraveling of a mystery,” he said.
What he did not realize initially was a mistake by the movers that caused about a quarter of the books to miss the trip.
Several months ago, a friend named John Fayolle told Fischler he needed room in his Manhattan apartment for visitors and that Fischler’s books had to go.
“I said, ‘What the hell are you talking about? What books?’” Fischler said.
Turned out an apartment-mate of Fischler in Manhattan, looking for a home for the left-behind books, contacted Fayolle, who agreed to store them.
When Fayolle could not keep them anymore, Solon Mihas, a college student who works with Fischler, took them temporarily into his Woodbury home.
Mihas itemized the collection, which included a copy of the 1938 book “Hockey” by Red Dutton, a book Fischler first read in 1940 at the Tompkins Square Library.
Fischler offered the books to a friend, Joseph Rossi, a retired Babylon schoolteacher who is a hockey fan and author. Rossi suggested he give them to the Islanders instead.
So Fischler contacted Cliff Gault, a sales executive with the Islanders, and the team agreed to take the books.
The Islanders then contacted David Kolb, a longtime associate of Fischler, to make the arrangements. The books are expected to arrive at UBS on Tuesday.
“Instead of me getting a birthday gift, I’m giving my birthday gift to the Islanders for all the nachas they’ve given me,” Fischler said, using a Yiddish term for pride and joy.
A new chapter
From left, Stan Fischler, Jon Ledecky, Bill Daly and Denis Potvin gather for the naming ceremony for the top floor of the UBS Arena as the Stan Fischler Press Level on Oct. 26, 2022. Credit: Getty Images/Bruce Bennett
Kolb, who oversees Islanders coverage for The Hockey News, played a central role in the original curation of the Fischler exhibit at UBS.
“What the Islanders did with that case was above and beyond what I ever expected they would ever do for Stan,” he said. “It’s amazing . . . Knowing that he has that place in the UBS Arena, it warms his heart forever.”
Kolb said plans have not been finalized for how to display the books, but it could be in the form of a new case near the current memorabilia.
“It’s making these books available for viewing, or even for use of media,” Kolb said. “Who knows what this will evolve into?”
Said Fischler, “My hope is that it's available to the public or to writers who want to look something up.”
Fischler still is looking things up himself. He writes regularly about the Rangers for The Hockey News, does historical pieces for NHL.com and writes a feature called “Maven’s Memories” for the Islanders’ website.
“It’s keeping me alive, and I'm not kidding,” he said.
Fischler said with modern technology it is easy to watch the NHL from his home in the Golan Heights. He even can see his 16-year-old granddaughter, Avigail, play for Culver Academies’ U16 team in Indiana.
Avigail grew up playing at a rink in Metula, near the border with Lebanon, that was destroyed in recent fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.
Fischler said his family was “very, very lucky” not to have been evacuated during the fighting, but nearby areas were hit hard.
In July, Fischler will be inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, which is based in Israel, in a class that includes former Knick Amar’e Stoudemire.
By then, many of his books will have a new home in Elmont, providing more for future generations of fans and journalists to remember Fischler by.
“When you’re 92 like me, every day is a mitzvah,” he said. “When I wake up and my eyes are open, I look at the ceiling and say, ‘Wow, that’s good. Got to make the best of this day.' ”
Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.
