The Redwood Empire Ice Arena in Santa Rosa, better known as Snoopy’s Home Ice, has been a gathering spot for generations of locals.
Built in 1969 by Charles M. Schulz, creator of the “Peanuts” comic strip, the rink was a place for him to bring a slice of his Minnesota hometown to his new home in Sonoma County.
Schulz was, of course, very famous, and his ice rink gave him a way to “just be one of the guys,” according to longtime friend Phil LeBrun. In 1971, Schulz began inviting people to the rink on Tuesday nights to play hockey.
Over 50 years later, and nearly 25 years since Schulz’s death at the age of 77 in 2000, the hockey nights are still going strong.
The weekly game is now called “Sparky’s Skate,” Sparky being Schulz’s longtime nickname.
The club, which meets from around 6 to 7:30 p.m., now consists of 33 members who are anywhere from their early 40s to late 80s. And nearly all of them have some connection to Schulz, whether through family or just being fans of the cartoonist.
LeBrun, 67, is the unofficial ringleader of the group. He has spent most of his life in Sonoma County, and is one of the players who considered Schulz a friend.
“(Schulz) was very competitive, but he was fair … (He was) very humble, very thoughtful,” said LeBrun on a Tuesday evening in March. “He was just a great guy all the way around.”
The cartoonist’s presence is always with them.
Every year on the Tuesday closest to the anniversary of his Feb. 12 death, the group takes time out on the ice to remember him.
And every year, when LeBrun asks players to raise their hand if they knew Schulz, “quite a few” hands go up, he said.
“I get choked up because he was my friend, he was a friend to a lot of the guys here. You see his picture everywhere, you see things here that remind you of him,” LeBrun said.
Photos of Schulz, his family and friends surround the ice rink, which the Schulz family still owns. There is also his hockey jersey and plenty of “Peanuts” references.
“Somebody asked me, ‘Do you think there’s a presence of him here?’ For me, most definitely. Everywhere I look,” said LeBrun.
Schulz even influences the kind of game that members play. The group makes sure that everyone gets a chance to be on the ice, and that the games are clean, with no roughhousing or unsavory language, just like Schulz would keep them.
Warren Smith, 78, is another member of the skate group who knew Schulz personally. When asked if it ever gets…
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