Blognut loves Donuts. But since I spent a good portion of my childhood in Buffalo, New York, Blognut also loves hockey. Which is why the Stanley Cup playoffs – highlighted by the President’s Trophy winning Buffalo Sabres!!!! – have occupied much of my time recently and resulted in a severe lack of Blognut posts. But tonight as I watch the New Jersey Devils defeat the Ottawa Senators in double OT, I realize the glaring connection between the NHL, the Buffalo Sabres, the New Jersey Devils, and Donuts, which until now, I’ve over-looked: that being Jim Schoenfeld.

Jim played for the Sabres for 11 years in the 70s and 80s before serving as head coach for a handful of teams (including the Sabres and Devils) and becoming a master mattress dealer on low-budget City Mattress commercials (which I remember dancing to as a child). But Schoenfeld’s crowning achievement came during the 1988 Stanley Cup Playoffs. After Jim’s New Jersey Devils suffered an embarrassing 6-1 loss against the Boston Bruins, he took out his frustrations on referee Don Koharski, screaming at the official to, “Go have another Donut, you fat pig!”

Schoenfeld ended up getting suspended, but his team managed to land a court order preventing his suspension. Koharski and his striped colleagues boycotted the decision and the NHL was forced to use temporary replacement officials for a while.

The incident was later parodied in Wayne’s World. The movie portrayed a rotund police man named Officer Koharski who hung out at the fictional Stan Mikita’s Doughnut Shop – no doubt a play on the Canadian Donut chain Tim Horton’s, thought up by hockey-loving Canuck Mike Myers (both Stan and Tim were renowned old-time hockey players).

Now I know Jim Schoenfeld used the word “Donut” as an insult, implying that such a feast is fit for an overweight and incompetent hockey referee. And while I don’t appreciate his lack of respect for my favorite of all foods, the incident is an important and memorable piece of both Donut and hockey history and must be chronicled. And if Koharski did in fact go “have another Donut,” then good for him. I would’ve been right there with him.

Lastly, how could I write a post about Jim Schoenfeld without mentioning that in 1971 he recorded a folk-rock album called” Schony”, which, despite not mentioning Donuts, does have a track called, “Barbeque in Heaven,” and a maybe-he-should-stick-with-hockey cover of “All Along the Watchtower.” Take a listen.

This will be the first post in a two-part series discussing culturally significant donut chains from years past – an idea inspired by our recent acquisition of two vintage, donut-themed coffee mugs. The first installment will focus on the rise and fall of one of the greatest donut empires in American history – Mister Donut.

Primed by years of experience running Industrial Luncheon Services, a Boston-based company providing lunch and snacks to local factory workers, William Rosenberg founded the Open Kettle donut shop in 1948. Two years later he changed the name of his Quincy, Massachusetts-based store to Dunkin Donuts.

In 1955, after much Donut-Success, Rosenberg signed his first DD franchise contract – a move not supported by his partner/brother-in-law Harry Winokur. Rosenberg ended up buying Winokur out, and, as you know, went on to build the most successful Donut-Retailer in history. Not long after the family feud, in what was most likely a jealous bid in response to his brother-in-law’s success, Winokur founded his own donut chain, Mister Donut. Apparently his aversion to franchising was fleeting, since over the next 15 years Mister Donut became the second largest donut franchise in America, second to you-know-who. In 1970 Winokur sold his life’s work to the Minnesota-based food giant International Multifoods.

By the 1980’s MD had over 550 stores in the US and Canada and was still enjoying their second place position – but not for long. In 1990, the English corporate giant Allied-Lyons plc purchased Dunkin Donuts from Rosenberg for a reported £196 million. In some sort of beautiful, corporate, familial-closure, immediately after becoming a subsidiary of Allied-Lyons, DD exercised even more capitalist greed and put in a bid to acquire Mister Donut from International Multifoods. Mister Donut stores were then offered the option of taking on a Dunkin-Identity if they wished, which a majority did given the wider recognition of the DD brand.

Today, Mister Donut survives mostly in Asia, with a heavy presence in Japan, Taiwan, and the Philippines (the Japanese company Duskin Co. Ltd. acquired franchising rights to MD in 1983). With the exception of a handful of stores in Ontario, North America has become completely Dunkinized.

Blognut would like to raise our coffee mug in honor of the legendary Mister Donut.