Joanna Meet's Stephen Cobeagle the Eagle

Yep, that there is none other than Stephen Cobeagle the Eagle standing right next to my wife. Last night, Joanna and I headed up to the Dow Events Center in Saginaw Michigan to watch the Ontario Hockey League's Saginaw Spirit take on the Oshawa Generals. The OHL is a junior league consisting of 20 teams made up of players from the age of 15 to the age of 20. This wasn't just any hockey match that we were headed to see - this was an extravaganza, and not just because it was Joanna's Birthday, although we did have fun pretending that it was all for her birthday celebration.

Unknown to us at the time, next week is the beginning of the OHL All Star Classic. Apparently this is quite a big event in the OHL, as last night's game began with a bang as the Saginaw High School marching band preformed outside of the arena as a fantastic arrangement of fireworks burst into the night sky behind them.The arena was crowded by hundreds of Spirit Fans come to cheer their team on. The Spirit are currently positioned in second place on the OHL Western Division.

Truth be told, we didn't really care much about watching the hockey game. The real reason Joanna and I had come to Saginaw had to do with Stephen Colbert. Fans of Comedy Central's The Colbert Report might remember on his January 16th show, Colbert revealed he had a bone to pick with the Generals, because in an earlier game, the Generals had tossed teddy bears on to the ice as part of their annual Teddy Bear Toss. Colbert felt that this was a personal attack against him, as any true fan would be able to tell you that Colbert suffers from a life long fear of bears. He did not suggest that we toss copies of GM's Annual report (the Generals take the name of their sponsor, General Motors) the on ice, rather Colbert informed us that a link on his website would take us right to the report, and that "CTRL-P is print". Joanna bought tickets the very next day, and I printed out to copies of the report to bring with us. I even made Joanna a "I love Colbert" tee-shirt.

We were a bit concerned when we first arrived, for a voice on the over-head PA system warned the crowd that anyone caught in the act of throwing anything on to the ice would be escorted out of the building. Our fears were soon proved to be all for naught, for not very long into the first period, the Saginaw Spirit scored against the Oshawa Generals and we saw the first copy of the GM Report sail through the air and land on the ice. Several more people threw their reports down to the floor and I'm proud to say that, once we saw no one was getting arrested, we joined in. All in all, somewhere between a dozen and twenty copies lay strewn about on the ice.

We didn't stay around much longer than that. There was no need to-we didn't come for the game, we came for the GM Report tossing-we came for Stephen Colbert. It did, however, matter to us who won, so we listened to the rest of the game on the drive home. Colbert appeared on the big screen TV above the ice just before the team skated on the ice. It was a replay of a segment from the previous night's show. On it, Stephen announced that he and Oshawa's Mayor John Gray had entered into a challenge. If the Generals were to win the game, Colbert would be required to wear the opposing General's jersey for one entire broadcast. Colbert was quick to point out that it was he who would choose the show and told us he might even pick a re-run. If the Spirit were to win, Mayor Gray would declare March 20th Stephen Colbert Day. Gray had first suggested that the new holiday take place on the birthday of Colbert, but Colbert upped the ante by demanding the day take place on Gray's birthday instead. In one of the greatest moments of Junior League hockey, fans of the Colbert Report celebrated around the Nation as the Spirit ended the game as victors, the final score 5 to 4, thus insuring that Stephen Colbert Day is now an official holiday, at least in one Ontario city.

For more photos from the game, click here.