KOROLL o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2003-12-17 published
Life was good for
MAGNUSON
By Eric DUHATSCHEK,
With a report from Allan
MAKI Wednesday,
December 17, 2003 - Page S1
It was one of those "catching up with" features newspapers run
every so often. Last January, the Chicago Sun-Times profiled
Keith MAGNUSON, one of the most popular players ever to pull
on a Chicago Blackhawks sweater.
To the thousands who used to pack the old Chicago Stadium,
MAGNUSON's
ever-lasting appeal came from a rough-and-tumble playing style
that produced a cracked cheekbone, three knee injuries requiring
surgery, a torn Achilles' tendon, two broken ankles, a dislocated
elbow, three broken jaws, a broken vertebra, a broken wrist,
a dislocated shoulder, three missing teeth and more than 400
stitches.
MAGNUSON, after reflecting on his career, his hobbies and all
the aches and pains that resulted from a 10-year National Hockey
League career, observed: "Otherwise, I feel great. Cindy [his
wife] and I are real proud of our kids."
"Life is good,"
MAGNUSON concluded.
Life for
MAGNUSON ended at the age of 56 in a fatal automobile
accident on Monday afternoon as he was returning home from a
funeral for National Hockey League alumni association chairman
Keith McCREARY, who died last week of cancer.
MAGNUSON was the
passenger in a car driven by former National Hockey League player
Rob RAMAGE, the vice-chairman of the alumni association.
MAGNUSON played 589 National Hockey League games for the Blackhawks,
and on his retirement in October of 1979, he joined the team's
coaching staff, as an assistant to Eddie
JOHNSTON.
JOHNSTON,
now the Pittsburgh Penguins' assistant general manager, remembered
MAGNUSON yesterday as "the ultimate competitor. I mean, when
Keith MAGNUSON put on the skates on, you didn't just get 100
per cent, you got 110 per cent every night. He just played with
so much passion, it was unreal."
The
Blackhawks made it to the Stanley Cup final twice in
MAGNUSON's
career, in 1971 and 1973, losing both times to the Montreal Canadiens.
It was the heyday of hockey in Chicago. The Blackhawks had Dennis
and Bobby HULL, the legendary Stan
MIKITA and Tony
ESPOSITO,
a future Hall Of Fame member, in goal.
MAGNUSON's job was to
protect ESPOSITO, and he did it with a passion that
JOHNSTON
said was contagious in the Blackhawks' dressing room.
"What he always did very, very well was set the tone early in
the game. He let the opposition know that when you dropped the
puck in the game, "This was what you were going to see, guys,
for 60 minutes.' "
MAGNUSON, who most recently was the director of sales for Coca-Cola
Enterprises, grew up in Saskatoon as an all-round athlete. He
was a boyhood chum of former National Hockey League coach Dave
KING.
The two attended Churchill elementary school and used to
play 1-on-1 hockey:
KING as a forward and
MAGNUSON as a defenceman.
Eventually,
MAGNUSON and four other teenagers from Saskatoon
earned scholarships at the University of Denver and helped the
Pioneers win two National Collegiate Athletic Association championships.
MAGNUSON and Tim
GOULD played every sport together and were also
teamed as defence partners.
"We never missed a shift," said
GOULD, whose wife, a nurse in
Calgary, woke him early yesterday to inform him of
MAGNUSON's
death. "He was the greatest guy and a good friend."
GOULD said he and
MAGNUSON used to dream up ways to get
MAGNUSON
to hockey, football and baseball games on Sunday.
MAGNUSON's parents were Baptists and considered the Sabbath a
day of rest. It became
GOULD's job to sneak into the
MAGNUSON
home while they were at church and take Keith's equipment to
the rink or the diamond.
"Of course, if we scored a goal or a run, our names would be
mentioned in the newspaper the next day,"
GOULD said. "But we
thought we were keeping it secret."
GOULD said
MAGNUSON was best known among his Friends for having
a poor memory. Once in Saskatoon,
MAGNUSON drove his dad's car
to the rink for a Blades game, only to drive home with a teammate,
the two of them completely immersed in the game they had just
played.
The next morning,
MAGNUSON's father asked where the car was.
"Keith had to run back to the rink to get it," said Dale
ZEMAN,
another of
MAGNUSON's former junior and college teammates. "There
was also the night Keith and I went bowling when we were freshmen
at Denver. We came out and couldn't find the car. It had rolled
backwards three blocks because Keith forgot to put it in park."
GOULD said: "He was awful forgetful. We're having a reunion in
June [for Denver University hockey] and we had a card printed
up, and Keith's quote on it was: 'I'm going to be there -- and
Cliff [KOROLL] is going to remind me.' The memories, that's what
get you through this."
MAGNUSON is survived by his wife, his daughter, Molly, and his
son, Kevin, a former University of Michigan defenceman who had
a tryout with the Blackhawks. Recently, after a short playing
career in the East Coast Hockey League, Kevin had gone back to
school for his law degree,
JOHNSTON said.
"To have something like this happen, this close to the holidays,
the timing couldn't be worse. It's never good, but geez, here
he is, going up there for a funeral for Keith
McCREARY and then
to have something like this happen.
"God, it's awful," he said. "We'll miss him. He was such a big
part of the community in Chicago, an icon. Everybody knew Keith
MAGNUSON.
It's an awful tragedy."
San Jose Sharks general manager Doug
WILSON, another of
MAGNUSON's
close Friends, was badly shaken by his former teammate's death.
WILSON said he thought of
MAGNUSON as something of a father figure.
"Keith has had a profound influence on my life." Really, all
I can say is, all my thoughts and prayers are with Cindy and
the kids right now."
Jim DEMARIA, the Blackhawks executive director of communications,
worked closely with
MAGNUSON in his role as the founder and president
of the Chicago alumni association.
"Any time you needed something, you could call Maggy,"
DEMARIA
said. "He was the first guy in line to help any kind of charity
you had. I mean, he was just that kind of person. And when the
team wasn't doing real well, he was down in the room, talking
to the coaches, telling the players, 'keep your chin up, keep
working, things will turn around.' He was a real positive guy."
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