Paul Newman in Slap Shot (1977)
Vitals
Paul Newman as Reggie Dunlop, renegade hockey coach and player
Southwestern Pennsylvania, Winter 1977
Film: Slap Shot
Release Date: February 25, 1977
Director: George Roy Hill
Costume Designer: Tom Bronson
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Today would have been the 100th birthday of screen icon Paul Newman, born January 26, 1925. Across his prolific career that spanned six decades and yielded a competitive Oscar win among his ten nominations, Newman frequently cited the 1977 sports comedy Slap Shot as the most fun of his career. Though Pauline Kael described Newman giving “the performance of his life—to date” in her contemporary review for The New Yorker, her otherwise mixed review represents the film’s generally lukewarm reception at the time before it grew to its more widely appreciated cult status today.
Slap Shot re-teamed Newman with director George Roy Hill after their successful collaborations with Newman’s co-star Robert Redford in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) and The Sting (1973). Newman stars in Slap Shot as Reggie Dunlop, coach of the fictional Charlestown Chiefs—a scrappy minor-league hockey team in a struggling small town in southwestern Pennsylvania’s steel country.
Behind the scenes and on the ice, George Roy Hill keeps warm in a Pendleton Cowichan-knit zip-up cardigan, the sweater later immortalized by Jeff Bridges as “The Dude” in The Big Lebowski.
Nancy Dowd’s screenplay was inspired by her younger brother Ned’s experiences playing for the Johnstown Jets. Thus, the movie was filmed through the summer of 1976 in and around Johnstown, Pennsylvania, standing in for the fictional Charlestown but keeping much of the city’s history like a legendary flood in his history (represented by the statue of Morley’s Dog that was relocated for the film) and the importance of steelmaking on the local economy.
Realizing that likelihood of an upcoming mill closure in the town could jeopardize the already unpopular team’s prospects, Reggie schemes to draw attendance by emphasizing the sport’s violence, perhaps inspired by the three reckless Hanson brothers who had just been signed onto the team. While Reggie initially bemoans that “they’re too dumb to play with themselves!”, he eventually comes to appreciate the trio’s maverick playing style that aligns with his new vision for the Chiefs. Indeed, the team’s newfound propensity for fighting increases ticket sales, subsequently boosting morale and the team’s performance, ultimately landing them in the playoffs.
What’d He Wear?
Reggie Dunlop’s wardrobe is precisely what you might expect of a ’70s hotshot, with plenty of leather, printed polyester, and plaid jackets and slacks. Though he cycles through this wardrobe over the course of the Chiefs’ season, arguably the most prominent item from his closet is his dramatic fur-collared leather coat.
Made from a dark-brown leather, the knee-length coat has a belted sash that pulls through button-down belt loops to be tied in the front. In addition to this belt, the coat has a 4×2-button double-breasted front with the buttons all covered in leather to match the coat. Slanted hand pockets are set-in just below the waist line. The dramatic collar that gives the coat its unique edge is likely raccoon fur, which aligns with Sammy D. Vintage reporting that “raccoon trapping for outdoor garment use reached an all time high in the ’70s when 5.2 million raccoons were caught in the hunting season of 1976-1977.” (Reggie’s fur collar is evidently also removable, but we’ll discuss that later.)
A single-pointed western yoke extends down each side of the chest, with a double-pointed yoke on the upper back above the inverted box-pleat in the center and a long single vent that extends up to the belt. The shoulders feature ornamental epaulets, either a holdout from a trench coat’s military-informed details or a signifier of the safari influence on contemporary menswear through the 1970s. The set-in sleeves are left plain at the cuffs, which are reinforced with diamond-pointed yokes.
The dissonance between Reggie’s brash outerwear and Ned’s more practical puffer vest foreshadows how the two friends ultimately clash over Reggie embracing more theatrical hockey.
Reggie debuts the coat over a baby-blue turtleneck and plaid trousers that he wears when he and fellow player Ned Braden (Michael Ontkean) are being interviewed on the air by local sports radio personality Jim Carr (Andrew Duncan). The soft, lightweight jersey-knit cloth suggests cotton or a synthetic blend, and it is styled with a full roll-neck and set-in sleeves that Reggie rolls back once over his wrists. His flat-front trousers are a black-and-white glen plaid, framed by a wide-scaled red windowpane overcheck. These trousers have slanted front pockets and plain-hemmed bottoms that break over his black leather boots.
Reggie’s complement of jewelry includes a ring on each hand and a gold-plated LED watch that he initially wears à la Gianni Agnelli, strapped over his shirt cuff with a matching three-piece link bracelet. Hamilton had launched LED-display digital watches earlier in the decade with the Pulsar that prominently appeared on screen when Roger Moore wore it for his debut as James Bond in Live and Let Die. Reggie wears the brand’s next evolution of the Pulsar, the Hamilton QED Frontier. Produced through the mid-1970s, these QED (“Quartz Electronic Digital”) watches were finished in either brushed steel or gold plating and feature a dot-display LED module. This trendy timepiece better suits Reggie than watches like the tastefully functional Rolex Daytona that Newman famously wore in real life.
Despite his estrangement from his wife Francine (Jennifer Warren), Reggie continues wearing his gold wedding band on his left ring finger. On the other hand, he wears a flashier gold filigreed ring with a square-set coral-red stone.
Reggie fidgets with his ring while he and Ned talk to Jim Carr on the air. Note his LED watch strapped over his turtleneck’s left cuff.
For the team’s first road game with the Hanson brothers on the roster, Reggie wears the coat over an orange lightweight polyester shirt with an all-over print of narrow brown, yellow, and tan stripes arranged in triangular streaks. The shirt follows a typical design for the era with its long-pointed collar as well as a front placket and two-button mitred cuffs. The shirt’s sheer fabric clearly shows the outline of his usual white cotton V-neck short-sleeved undershirt beneath it.
Until it’s time to undress and pull on his hockey gear, Reggie wears the shirt tucked into tan pinwale corduroy flat-front trousers. Held up by a tan leather belt pulled through the loops around the waist, these trousers have two patch pockets over the front of the hips (similar to Navy-issued dungarees) with a small white branded patch sewn over the top of the right-hand pocket. The seat features a single-pointed seam rather than back pockets, and the plain-hemmed bottoms are gently flared. Rather than his usual leather boots, Reggie wears navy-blue Adidas sneakers with white laces, white rubber outsoles, and the brand’s signature triple stripes—also white—along each side.
Back in Charlestown, where he catches up with Ned’s increasingly frustrated wife Lily (Lindsay Crouse), Reggie again wears the coat with a turtleneck and plaid slacks. This time, it’s a slightly thicker brick-red turtleneck with a ribbed roll-neck. He also wears a large medallion with a black-stenciled pattern against a white ground, suspended from a thin gold chain over the outside of his turtleneck.
Reggie’s trousers appear to be checked in a black, white, and blue plaid, though they’re mostly covered by his fastened coat through the duration of his screen time. The plain-hemmed bottoms fall over the tops of his black leather ankle boots, which have the dramatically raised soles and heels associated with then unfortunately trendy “platform shoes”.
We follow the Chiefs on the road during their unprecedented winning streak. This means plenty of time hopping on and off the team bus, where Reggie and his fellow players pass the time with plenty of beer and card games. During one of these sequences, he wears an orange velour polo shirt with blue denim jeans and—upon stepping off the bus—his fur-collared leather coat. The long-sleeved shirt has a long, shapely collar, a three-button placket at the top, and elasticized cuffs.
As their season continues, another scene features Reggie getting back on the bus after making a call to his ex-wife that another man answers. He takes off his coat and settles in for another long night of gambling and guzzling beers, wearing a garish silky rayon sport shirt with his same blue jeans.
Amidst the thin multi-colored stripes of alternating thickness, the ivory shirt has an intermittent multi-colored floral print over the shoulders, sleeves, and across the hem line. The shirt otherwise follows the fashionable trends of the ’70s with its long collar, front placket, and tightly buttoned cuffs that cause the sleeves to blouson above the wrists.
The coat’s final appearance is ahead of the culminating Charlestown vs. Syracuse game, though Reggie appears to have detached the fur collar—in response to the warming spring weather—to reveal the coat’s broad cran necker lapels. He layers the coat over a beige, blue, olive, and cream tartan blazer with two brass shank buttons, beige slacks, and a brown silky rayon sport shirt with a rainbow-striped print crossing from the right shoulder down to the left hip.
Note that the rest of the coat’s details are exactly the same, save for the removed fur collar—revealing the wide cran necker-style collar made from the same leather as the rest of the jacket.
What to Imbibe
The unofficial beers of the Charlestown Chiefs appear to be Schmidt’s and Stroh’s, two popular brands during the 1970s.
There were actually two different Schmidt breweries operating at the time: the Philadelphia-based Christian Schmidt Brewing Company founded in 1860 and the St. Paul-based Jacob Schmidt Brewing Company founded in 1855. Appropriate to their Pennsylvanian locale, the Chiefs always drink the former—evident by the “Schmidt’s of Philadelphia” labels on the cans.
The largest brewery in Philadelphia history, Schmidt’s expanded its product line through the ’70s and was producing nearly four million barrels per year by the end of the decade. Unfortunately, waning popularity and its then-president’s shady criminal connections pushed Schmidt’s into financial trouble, and it ended operations in 1987—marking the first time since the city’s founding more than 300 years earlier that Philadelphia had no functioning brewery.
The Car
Given the motorsports enthusiast that Paul Newman was in real life, it’s no surprise that Reggie Dunlop drives a cool car—specifically a “Baja gold” 1970 Pontiac GTO hardtop with a brown vinyl roof. According to IMDB, the GTO was loaned to the production by the Johnstown Jets’ real-life defenseman Guido Tenesi, who plays the laconic ladies’ man Billy Charlebois on screen.
The ’70 GTO falls into the model’s second generation, considered to be from 1968 through 1972. The 1970 model year offered a standard 400 cubic-inch “big block” V8 engine as well as the new High Output 455 V8, though Youtuber CarStarz shares that Newman’s screen-driven GTO was powered by the standard 400 V8 with a rated output around 350 horsepower—mated to a four-speed Muncie manual transmission.
“It effectively conveyed the character’s persona as a once-promising figure whose best days might be behind him,” CarStarz contextualizes. “By the mid-1970s, the GTO—once the pinnacle of Pontiac’s muscle car lineup—was no longer viewed as fresh or cutting-edge. Much like Reggie himself, who was stuck coaching a struggling minor-league hockey team in a fading Pennsylvania mill town, the GTO still had enough street cred to suggest that Dunlop had once enjoyed a taste of success or flair, yet it also looked worn and lived-in, symbolizing how both he and the car had seen better times.”
You can read more about the screen-used GTO here.
How to Get the Look
Paul Newman in Slap Shot (1977)
It takes a brash confidence to pull together the signature elements of Reggie’s off-ice style: a long leather coat with a fur collar, a rotation of turtlenecks, boldly checked trousers, and platform boots.
- Dark-brown leather knee-length coat with raccoon fur-covered collar, 4×2-button double-breasted front western-pointed yokes, sash belt through button-down belt loops, slanted side pockets, inverted box-pleated back with long single vent
- Baby-blue jersey-knit cotton turtleneck
- Black, white, and red plaid flat-front trousers with slanted front pockets and plain-hemmed bottoms
- Black leather ankle boots
- Gold filigreed ring with coral-red square-set stone
- Gold wedding band
- Gold-plated Hamilton QED Frontier LED digital watch
Do Yourself a Favor and…
Check out the movie.
The Quote
It’s their rink, it’s their ice, and it’s their fuckin’ town. But tonight we got our fans with us! They spent their own dough to get here, and they came here to see us! All right, let’s show ’em what we got, guys! Get out there on the ice and let ’em know you’re there. Get that fuckin’ stick in their side. Let ’em know you’re there! Get that lumber in his teeth. Let ’em know you’re there!
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