Johnny ‘Zamboni’ retires after 48 years at Ted Reeve Arena

His name is John Guthenberg, but everybody in East Toronto knows him as Johnny Zamboni.

Since 1978 he has been a fixture at Ted Reeve Arena, and he’s been driving the Zamboni at the Main Street and Gerrard Street East rink for decades.

However, when this hockey season gets going in the fall, Johnny won’t be behind the wheel of the Zamboni – he’ll be at home enjoying his retirement.

“I was probably 16 when I started working here — for 48 years — since 1978 and I’m 65 now,” he said in an interview earlier this summer with Beach Metro Community News at the arena.

Johnny said that even before he got that first job as a teenager at Ted Reeve back in the 1970s, he was already well known at the rink.

“I was here hanging around the rink when I was a kid, and I got to know the staff and then I got a job here,” he said. “I played hockey here as a kid and grew up on Kimberley behind the fire hall.”

Johnny, who has five sisters and two brothers, grew up close to the arena and it has always been a part of his life.

He said the Ted Reeve Arena manager who hired him when was a teenager was Max Morrison. While the arena is affiliated with the City of Toronto, it is run by the Ted Reeve Board of Management and Johnny is an employee of the arena not the city.

“I was a maintenance guy when I was first hired and then later got to drive the Zamboni,” he said.

He said along with driving the Zamboni, his responsibilities at Ted Reeve have included being the refrigeration operator for the ice- making equipment, maintenance on the Zambonis including oil changes and some repairs as needed.

While many people are fascinated by watching the Zamboni and its driver as the machine clears and floods the ice surface (there is even a song called I Wanna Drive the Zamboni), Johnny said learning to drive it was not an overly complicated process.

“They did training with me on the ice with it and that’s how I learned,” he said.

However, he said there are people in the stands who watch closely how the Zamboni is being driven, and they’d let him know if they weren’t happy with his driving and flooding of the ice.

“Everybody always says they want to drive the Zamboni right? Some guys will yell at me ‘Hey, Johnny you missed a spot’ and I’ll say ‘Yeah, and you missed a spot combing your hair.’”

Johnny said the key to successful Zamboni driving is to not go too fast.

“Pretty much anyone can do it as long as you have good studs on the tires. Keep it at a certain speed and then turn before you hit the boards,” he said. “It’s not difficult to drive one. I’m more concerned about the water and the ice blade on it when I’m doing the ice.”

Over the years, Johnny said Zambonis have become more technical machines but the basic concept is straightforward. He said one of the biggest changes he’s seen over the years is they have gone from being powered by gas to being electric. “There’s no difference on the controls, just different engines.”

While most of Johnny’s Ted Reeve memories are sports related, he’s also seen his share of actors, wrestlers and rock stars at the arena over the years as it has been a popular filming location. Back in the 1980s the movie Youngblood, with Rob Lowe, was filmed at Ted Reeve. Also, George Thorogood & The Destroyers performed a concert at the rink in 1982.

Johnny said his decades working at Ted Reeve have been a “fun job” and while he won’t be at the wheel of the Zamboni he will still be involved with local sports, and will continue to drop into the arena as he always has.

His involvement in local sports includes his job as equipment manager for the Toronto Beaches Junior A Lacrosse team. He also works with other sports teams including the Newmarket Hurricanes hockey team.

“I have no big retirement plans, and I do like to do the hockey and lacrosse. I’ll be going up to Newmarket to deal with their jerseys. I still have lots of things to do,” he said.