Organist from 'Slapshot' gets first shot at real life hockey job with Kraken

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Brennen Beaudin
January 1, 2022 (1:02 PM)

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Rod Masters is one of hockey's most famous organ players that's never actually worked during a real game.The 66-year-old was the foil for Paul Newman's character in the classic hockey movie, Slapshot, and now, he is finally getting the chance to play in a real game.

Masters will be the new in-house organist for the Seattle Kraken.

«I can't believe it,» Masters said. «I don't think I'm going to believe it until the first night it's over with.»

In 45 years since the movie's release in 1977, Masters has not made any extra cash off his appearance alongside Newman and the Hanson Brothers. In fact, Masters has only gone to just a handful of hockey games, and got the movie gig through some luck. He had been living in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, where the movie was shot, and was playing at a local hotel. Newman's brother, a drummer, had sat in on one of the sessions and told Masters that the movie was in need of an organist. He tried out for the role and that was it.

«I didn't think hockey was the way for me to go,» he said. «I never dreamed that I'd actually get a job playing the organ for a hockey team. So, I never applied for it.»

It's funny that being in a movie nearly 50-years-ago will be landing him a full time gig in a professional hockey team's arena, but it will be awesome to see Masters in his office yet again.

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