By David T. Shaw, 1992
An extract from David’s segment in the 1992 Flyers Cup Tournament Program
Some people are greatly devoted to their hobbies, but anyone familiar with A.J. Ruth knows that his favorite pastime is somewhat of an obsession. Numbers. Specifically, hockey numbers. Need to know the three Inter-County League players who scored goals just 6 seconds into a game?
Ever wonder which team in the league was held to not getting a single shot on goal? How about the club that scored six short-handed goals in a period? With a scratch of his head and a push of a few buttons on his IBM computer, A.J. Ruth would tell you it was Downingtown’s Joel Allison, Conestoga’s Rob Strawley, Radnor’s Drew Talone, Methacton, and West Chester East, respectively. If you wanted, you’d also get the dates and the opponents. If you pushed him, maybe even the weather. “Yep, got it right here,” Ruth would say. Since the mid-1970s, A.J. Ruth has been a regular in area ice rinks, one who is always willing to talk hockey. Ruth, if you haven’t found him yet, is the short, stocky man with the gray flattop and thick glasses, the West Chester University team jacket with the patches and exchange pins from around the world, the ever-present clipboard in hand. Come game time, you can find him in the scoring box, doing what he loves most: keeping statistics. “I simply enjoy it and I’m a statistician at heart,” Ruth says. “I’ve always been intrigued by numbers, ever since high school.” Ruth takes his hobby very seriously. Few high school leagues in the country if any are fortunate enough to receive the type of statistics Ruth provides on a weekly basis for the Inter-County Scholastic Hockey League and the Eastern High School Hockey League. And it should be noted that he provides these services on a volunteer basis. Ruth delves far beyond the customary wins, losses, and ties, and well past the leading
scorers and top goalkeepers. With an A.J. Ruth stat-sheet, each of the 28 teams gets some highly specialized statistics, ranging from the exceptional, like shots percentage, power-play goals for and against, hat tricks, and one-goal games, to the rather unique, like penalty shots and penalty shot goals, open net goals, and playmakers. In all, he provides statistics in 33 categories. “He’s kind of the first person I’ve ever seen do that to such an extent,” West Chester Henderson coach Bob Friday said. “He’s got stuff for everything you’d ever want to know and everything you’d never want to know. “But no question about it, they’re thorough and complete, and to say that’s nice to have would be an understatement.” West Chester East coach Nick Russo is one who knows first-hand the benefits of having Ruth around. As a former assistant coach at West Chester University, Russo said the statistics he supplied were a key ingredient to that team’s success. “There’s nobody better at what they do,” Russo said. “If there was anything you wanted to know stat-wise during a game, you didn’t have to wait a minute for it. Many games were won for us because of A.J.” Being thorough with numbers is something Ruth can’t seem to help. When he was promoted to the position of cost analyst with Bell of Pennsylvania in 1966, he began working with nothing but statistics. As if that weren’t enough, he spent his lunch breaks and other spare time on the company’s computers compiling personal data. To this day, Ruth can tell you the number of vacation days he had during his 39 years with the company, the sick days he took, and, among a horde of other things, the number of pay raises he got. Always finding data to compile and analyze, he also punched in his utility bills, then began tracing his family genealogy and previous property owners back to the days of William Penn.
So when his son, Mark, began playing for Haverford High in the early 1970s, how could Ruth welcome the team’s request to keep its statistics? What followed was the Inter-County League asking Ruth in 1976 to begin compiling statistics for its 36 teams. When some of those clubs broke off to form the Eastern League in 1981, he then had two leagues to take care of.
Retiring from Bell of Pennsylvania in 1985, one of the first things Ruth did was buy his own computer. And with more free time on his hands, he offered his help to other area hockey teams. Currently, Ruth is in his sixth year serving as a statistician and assistant coach at West Chester University, and this year will be his seventh in compiling stats for the Flyers Cup championship. This past season, he also began providing statistics for the five-team Eastern Collegiate Hockey Association, of which W.C.U. is a member, a league that is next year looking to expand. And lately, there’s been a rumor that the other two high school hockey leagues, the Lower Bucks County and Suburban, also wouldn’t mind Ruth’s services in the future. While the work may at times be taxing for the 68-year-old Ruth (he spends almost 20 hours a week compiling hockey statistics), over the years technology has made it a bit easier. A nice addition to his 200-year-old log house in Pottstown was a top-of-the-line FAX machine, purchased for him last October by the three leagues. Ruth no longer has to wait for scoresheets to come in the mail, nor does he have to worry about mailing his statistics out. Now, everything is conveniently done. over the phone. “Some scoresheets I wouldn’t get for months,” he said. “And that was really the most frustrating thing for me.”
Ruth, whose wife Phyllis has happily put up with his various hobbies for 35 years, doesn’t plan on stepping away from hockey in the near future. But when he does finally decide to call it quits, he’s taken steps to ensure that his work with the high school leagues won’t be forgotten. “I’ve got it all tied up in boxes in the cellar,” he said. “Every game sheet, every stat sheet, everything from 1976 on, and even some stuff before that which was passed on to me. “I’m thinking one day I’m going to want to quit, and I’ll just say to someone, “You take it. Here it is.” Really I enjoy it, though, and I think people appreciate it. So as long as my health is okay, and my wife’s health is okay, I’m gonna keep doing it.”
