How did three young minor league hockey players from the North Midwest become film heroes, and eventually, cult figures?

The boys heard rumors about Slap Shot, a movie written by Nancy Dowd, sister of Johnstown Jet Ned Dowd, in the 1975-76 hockey season. They were subsequently asked by George Roy Hill and Nancy Dowd to do a reading test with Paul Newman. They got the final word in March of 1976 that they were going to be in the movie. The "Hanson Brothers," along with a few other Johnstown Jets, would be practically playing themselves with a script based loosely on the antics of the North American Hockey League and its players.

After the movie was finished, Dave Hanson, Steve Carlson and Jeff Carlson could have went to Hollywood to pursue acting careers (Universal offered a contract), but to these three the movie was a summer job and hockey was life.