up to four workers and a tractor were needed to shave, scoop, and spray the ice in a 90-minute process. Nearly seventy years later, the Zamboni has become so much more than just a machine. It's a star.

"Everyone wants to watch it, wave to it. People throw it kisses. I don't understand why."

Unlikely Roots

The Zamboni machine resurfacing the ice during a game between the Philadelphia Flyers and the Minnesota Wild on December 23, 2013. Len Redkoles Getty Images

Frank Zamboni's invention was inspired by his mechanical engineering and ice-making background. Born in 1901 to European immigrant parents, Frank grew upfixing tractors on his family's Idaho farm. While his formal education ended early, he kept tinkering with and fixing farm equipment. "While my father never got past the ninth gradein formal schooling, he always had an inquisitive mind in solving problems," Richard Zamboni says. "Whether it was electrical, mechanical, or business-related, he had the unique ability to get to the heart of issues."

When Frank was 19, his family sold the farm and moved to a small sun-drenched Southern California town about 15 miles south of Los Angeles. There, he went to electrical engineering school and started a company with his brothers called, appropriately, the Zamboni Bros. Co. In 1928, he earned his first patent for the"adjustable reactor resistance"— an electrical resistor that prevented the core from chattering while making or breaking a magnetic circuit. Zamboni, who died in 1988 at the age of 88, would be awarded 15 patents over his lifetime, including his 1974 patent for