Former brawling puck star turns his life around
The annual Two Harbors Youth Hockey banquet, downstairs at the American Legion Club in Two Harbors last Tuesday night, brought together youngsters from 5 to 15, who played Minimite, Mite, A-Squirt, B-Squirt, Peewee and Bantam. Every hockey association has such post-season get-togethers, to send the kids off with a good feeling for next season.
But this one was different. This one had, as guest speaker, Bill Butters, a former tough, nasty hockey player who battled his way up from White Bear Lake to the University of Minnesota, then to pro hockey with the Minnesota Fighting Saints of the old World Hockey Association, and the Minnesota North Stars.
Butters was legendary, even in high school. One legend was that as captain of the White Bear Lake football team, Butters summoned three teammates, who had been careless about team rules, to join him outside. He lined them up against the wall, told them that if they ran, he’d catch up to them, then he proceeded to punch out each one, one at a time, while the other two waited, terrified. No more violations, and the Bears went undefeated.
Did it really happen, or is it just legend? You could ask Forrest Johnson, the editor of the Up North Newspaper Network’s Lake County Chronicle in Two Harbors, because he was a White Bear Lake freshman when Butters was a senior. Johnson got a chance to play hockey as a sophomore, the year after Butters graduated, and was given Butters’ jersey. Butters came into the locker room once, walked right up to Johnson and told him that he’d better give everything he had, just to live up to the effort that had previously gone into that jersey.
In college, Butters was captain of the Gopher hockey team. In one game against Colorado College at the old Williams Arena, the refs hustled Butters off toward the penalty box after a scrap in the corner. They left him at center ice, though, because another scrap had broken out. Standing there all alone, facing the Colorado College bench, Butters stared as all the CC players were standing on the bench, shouting taunts at him.
The newspaper story said: “Butters sized up the odds. Fifteen to one. Pretty even.” Sure enough, Butters ran full speed on his skates, directly at the CC bench, and hurtled over it onto the bench to take on the entire CC team.
Admittedly not a good fighter, he was definitely willing. Butters brawled his way to the top in pro hockey, relentlessly and without compromise. He paused to engage in assorted bits of bizarre behavior, and he earned a reputation for being pretty crazy. He also encountered the three Carlson Brothers from Virginia, and became best friends with the middle one — Jack Carlson, his teammate with the Fighting Saints and with the North Stars. Unlike the stocky Butters, Carlson was 6-3 and 215 pounds, and became “probably the best fighter who ever played pro hockey,” Butters said.
Jack Carlson was with Butters on Tuesday night at the Two Harbors Legion Club. It was interesting, because the approxmately 100 youthful hockey players weren’t even born when those two last played, although their parents knew their accomplishments well.
After every player had eaten well, and been called up front by their respective coaches, it was time for Butters to speak. He opened by saying Carlson used to jump in to back him up whenever he got in trouble on the ice. Carlson, after hockey, turned to Butters for help to get his life straightened out after his career was over.
“Jack and I have both had some problems in our lives,” Butters said. “My mom and dad divorced when I was 4. My mom went on to get married and divorced six times. I lived in 32 different houses, growing up.”
Sports was an escape for Butters. He loved baseball best, and then football, where he was fullback, linebacker, kicker, and never on the bench. “I loved the game, because I loved running people over, smashing them,” said Butters. “Then a friend said I should try hockey. I enjoyed it, right away, even though I could hardly skate. Forwards would come in, look down at the puck, and I’d blast them off their feet. All the way through high school, I could barely skate, but I could hit, and all of a sudden, the University of Minnesota offered me a scholarship.”
Butters explained how Herb Brooks taught him to skate as freshman coach at Minnesota, but he kept hitting, urged on by the roar of the crowds and the fame. When the time came, he signed a pro contract.
“Jack and I played with Gordie Howe, and in 1980, when Howe was 48 years old, he scored 101 points in the WHA,” Butters said. “I figured I’d play that long, too, but I’m 48 right now. My hockey career ended in 1980, when I was 30.”
Another ex-North Star, Tom Reid, asked Butters to come and coach as a volunteer at a Christian hockey school. “I told him I was the farthest thing from a Christian,” said Butters, “and that I didn’t know anything about God and didn’t want to. But he kept calling, and I finally agreed. I still don’t know why.”
At the camp, Butters found 222 young boys, being coached by various pros. But while Butters thought that cussing and rowdy behavior was simply a part of hockey, he found that nobody swore at the camp, and everybody seemed so straight as they gathered for little prayer sessions. He went to an evening session, and was embarrassed when a singer singled him out for an anticipated exchange of phrases from a song about his faith. “I didn’t know what to say,” recalled Butters. “All these kids were waiting to hear this big, tough hockey player respond to the song, and I didn’t know what to do. For some reason, tears started running down my face.”
A bit shaken, Butters attended another group session, and at the end of it, all the youngsters and Butters were asked to stand and hold hands for random prayers. Butters said he noted how many 11-year-olds there would be before he would be forced to offer a prayer, and he was terrified.
“But then, a calming came over me,” Butters said. “I think it was the Holy Spirit. I started listening to what these 11-year-olds were saying. One prayed that I’d find a job, another that I might find peace…They all were praying for me.”
Butters was moved to tears, and he went home after the camp and had a memorable session with his wife, Debbie. “I confessed everything I had ever done, and told her if she wanted to leave me, I’d understand,” said Butters. “But she stayed, and we just celebrated our 25th anniversary.”
The changeover in Butters’ life is complete. He now blends coaching White Bear Lake High School and speaking for Hockey Ministries. The young players may get wide-eyed at the talk of his rough and tumble antics in hockey, but the change in his life underscores his point.
“I got 244 stitches in my face when I played,” he said. “My nose was broken five times, and I lost five teeth. My shoulder has been operated on two times, and I have trauma-induced epilepsy because of all the blows to the head I’ve taken in hockey, and I have to take medication every day for the rest of my life to control the seizures.
“But the Lord has changed my life. Hockey is a wonderful, beautiful, fun, aggressive game, and you can play it to the fullest. But you don’t have to swear, fight, drink, chase around and do the things I did. That’s the message. Celebrate your hockey season because you had fun, you learned and improved and did some things you didn’t know you could do. And next year, you can do more.
“And thanks to all you parents for your participation in your kid’s life.”
This was not heavy-duty preaching, and it was not some pro jock, posing on television to praise the lord for helping him score a touchdown, or win a game. This was a good and humble man — an exceptional coach — who figures he owes something to his new-found faith as well as to the game he loves, and to youthful players who might follow a different path at a more formative time. After all, it was a group of 11-year-old hockey players who made him realize there was another way to live.
Elk River shifted out of 7AA hockey logjam
There will be a new hockey champion in Section 7AA next season. That certainty evolved from the Minnesota State High School League’s decision to move Elk River out of 7AA and into 4AA, its natural geographic location.
“You’re kidding!” said Duluth East coach Mike Randolph, when informed Thursday of the move. “You just made my day. It’s great news. Actually, they don’t belong in 7AA, and Tony Sarsland [Elks coach] knows it and said it over and over.
“In fact, it was unfortunate for Elk River last year, because they were good enough to make it to state but we played what was probably our best game of the season and beat ’em 7-1 in the 7AA final. That gave us the boost to go on and win the state.”
This year, however, East lost to Elk River in the 7AA semifinal, then the Elks went on and beat Hibbing in a spectacular 2-1, triple-overtime final in Hibbing, to make it to the state tournament. It was the first time in tournament history that no team from the actual Section 7 geographic area reached the tournament since it was one class or Class AA.
“In a way, after they beat us, I’d like to have the chance to beat them,” said Hibbing coach Mark DeCenzo. “But that’s just the stubborn side of me.
“Elk River is not a northern team, and I hate to see a representative from the northern region not be from the north. This year it was particularly frustrating, because our sixth seed in 7AA would have been a good representative at the state tournament, but none of our teams made it.”
Randolph agreed. “At our banquet, I said that I thought Section 7AA was deeper than the state tournament this year,” Randolph said.
East, Hibbing, Greenway of Coleraine, Cloquet and Grand Rapids were all left behind when Elk River won the sectional, and Sarsland came right out at the time and said it wasn’t right. “The teams from Duluth and the Iron Range deserve to be in the tournament because they are the reason the tournament has reached the level it’s at,” Sarsland said.
The high school league initially left Elk River in 7AA at its Wednesday meeting, but acted later to move the Elks as an amendment. To assure 7AA has eight Class AA teams, Brainerd was shifted into 7AA. “At least Brainerd is a northern team,” said DeCenzo.
In 4AA, Elk River will become the immediate favorite next season, while playing against natural rivals Anoka, Blaine, Champlin Park, Coon Rapids, Maple Grove, Osseo and Park Center, and the section also includes Armstrong and Cooper from the Robbinsdale school district — two teams that give the section 10 schools, and two teams which would more logically be in Section 6AA, perhaps.
Several years ago, the league moved Elk River into Section 8AA, as its eighth team, and the Elks had some top-five rated teams that ran into powerful Moorhead teams and lost in classic sectional showdowns. Ironically, Section 4AA did not have a strong representative during those years, when Elk River undoubtedly would have been an annual state tournament entry.
Just as ironically, last year, when Moorhead had one of its weakest teams in a decade, Roseau moved up from A to AA, which meant Elk River could be moved back out of Section 8 and into 4AA. But with Duluth Denfeld moving from AA to A, Section 7 was left with seven schools, so the high school league made Elk River the state’s vagabond, and sent them from 8AA to 7AA.
This year, while the Elks were a powerful enough team to be seeded No. 1 in 7AA, the luck of the draw meant they had to play East in Duluth and Hibbing in Hibbing — hardly fair treatment for a top seed.
East will play Elk River next season in a December game at the DECC, but, as Randolph said, the Elks finally and fairly are now back where they belong.
Gretzky departure leaves NHL to its own defenses
As an eager hockey reporter, I covered the Minnesota North Stars of the NHL and the Minnesota Fighting Saints of the World Hockey Association back in October of 1978. So at the start of the season I accompanied the North Stars to Chicago for a Sunday night game at Chicago Stadium — which had that phenomenal old pipe organ, and the horn from a Great Lakes freighter that would blow the lid off the place every time the Blackhawks scored.
The North Stars were scheduled to fly into Toronto the next day, to prepare for a Tuesday night game against the Maple Leafs. Instead of going with the team to Toronto, Lou Nanne, — who had moved from North Stars player to general manager by then — and I rented a car and drove to Indianapolis. The old WHA was trying to hang on in those days, a last gasp before an inevitable merger of its strongest franchises, and on that Monday night in October of 1978, the Indianapolis Racers were at home in Market Square Arena to play the Edmonton Oilers.
The attraction for me was one of the most amazing stories in professional sports history. The Indianapolis Racers had angered the entire NHL by going into Canada’s junior ranks and stealing away a kid who was only 17 years old. His name was Wayne Gretzky, and he was something special, everybody said. But seeing would be believing, because the thought of picking any high school junior, and inserting him into a major league roster in any sport, was bizarre.
Lou Nanne’s reason for going was because “Sweet Lou from the Soo” was already well into his alter-ego career as a lifetime public relations man for everybody who ever came from Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, and Gretzky had scored 70 goals and added 112 assists for 182 points in 64 games the previous season for the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds junior team of the Ontario Hockey League.
The mainstream NHL media avoided the WHA in those days, so I had no trouble setting up an exclusive interview with Gretzky. He was shy, but warmly personable as he explained how he was living with a family, and between road trips he was attending high school in the daytime, and playing pro hockey at night. Gretzky was relaxed and poised, and humble and unassuming — traits he carried always during his throughout his storied 20-year career. But this is about the 21st season, which seems to have been forgotten by historians.
At the game, I sat in the seats at the end of Market Square Arena rather than the press box to focus in and see what was so great about this skinny teenager. He could keep the puck on his stickblade like a yo-yo on a string, and even then he could tantalize grizzled pros by luring them to come after the puck, then pull it away and pass to the area they had vacated.
At one point, Gretzky skated toward the goal where I was sitting but the puck was blocked away and wound up behind the net. Gretzky pounced on it and fired it off the back of the goaltender’s leg and into the net for a goal. Later in that game, Gretzky scored a more conventional goal, too.
It was a couple games into the season, but I wasn’t aware until after the game that those were the first two goals the kid had scored. It seems like that game was just a couple of years ago, instead of 21 years ago. Just like it seems incomprehensible that Gretzky, who will always look like he’s 25, has decided to retire from the game at age 38.
Gretzky scored three goals along with three assists in eight games with the Racers, then he was traded by the soon-to-be-extinct Racers to Edmonton, where he went through the remaining 72 games by scoring 43-61 — 104. Hard-core NHLers said the WHA was lousy, and nobody could score like that in the NHL. As it turned out, that was the final year of the WHA, and Edmonton was one of the surviving franchises that was accepted into the NHL one year later. So in 1979-80, Gretzky scored 51-86 — 137 in the NHL.
The rest, as they say, is history. Gretzky had so many stupendous seasons, that recounting the stats simply becomes meaningless. True, the ’81-82 year was something special, because Gretzky had 92 goals (still a record), including 50 in the first 39 games, and added 120 assists for a record 212 points. That year, he set another NHL record by winning the league scoring title by a 65-point margin.
He jacked his record up to 215 points in 1985-86, with 52 goals and a record 163 assists. But the points are only numbers compared to how he played the game. People marvel at how Gretzky goes behind the goal and torments defense by making plays from there. True enough, he used the net as a built-in “pick,” waiting for a defenseman to come after him one way, then escaping on the other side to trap a defender and assure himself of an open pass-receiver. It turns out, Gretzky also is legendary for scoring from behind the net.
But to me the most memorable part of Gretzky’s game was to rush across the blue line while everybody in an opposing jersey sprinted to get back and defend their goal. Gretzky then would do a quick, tight, outside curl, waiting to let the defenders pick up the first winger coming in, while he’d always find a trailer, who was always wide open, and feather a pass to him in perfect shooting position’
His magical ability to sense where everybody on the rink was at all times enhanced his ability to lay soft passes to open ice that could only be anticipated, and therefore caught, by alert teammates.
Opponents, even thugs, never took runs at Gretzky. It almost was an unwritten rule that nobody wanted to be reviled for injuring the league’s treasure, but just as important was the certainty that if you ran at Gretzky, he would get the puck to someone you should have been covering.
Gretzky led Edmonton to four Stanley Cups in nine years before financial problems caused the Oilers to trade the franchise to the Los Angeles Kings. He was there for seven-plus years, got the Kings to a Stanley Cup final, and it was while wearing his No. 99 jersey with the Kings that Minnesota fans got to see him in the North Stars final season. Gretzky finished the 1995-96 season with the St. Louis Blues, then was off to Broadway, where he spent the last three years.
His numbers faded. Gretzky, now 38, scored only 9 goals and 53 assists this season, but the Rangers were dismal, missing the playoffs, which is no small achievement in the NHL. Nine goals. When you think about it, he has scored more goals than that in the playoffs alone in six different seasons.
I have my own theory on why and how Gretzky’s point tallies have faded. The obvious thing is that the Rangers don’t have a perfect winger, like Jari Kurri, who complemented Gretzky by anticipating and finishing off those magnificent no-look passes both at Edmonton and Los Angeles.
But back then, when Gretzky was changing the way the NHL would perceive excellence, there was a reason that Kurri, who was from Finland, could anticipate Gretzky’s brilliance. There were no Russian players in the NHL in those days. But if you saw those old Soviet teams, you realized that players like Valeri Kharlamov, or Alexander Maltsev, played with the same creative flair of Gretzky years before him.
In recent years, the arrival of outstanding Russian players, like Sergei Fedorov or Igor Larionov, or Pavel Bure, plus Czech superstars like Jaromir Jagr, have followed Gretzky’s lead. Almost every team has a Russian or two, and if you noticed, when Gretzky zoomed up the rink, crossed the blue line, then did that patented little outside curl to pass to the trailing winger, that pass suddenly started being anticipated and intercepted by those European players.
It didn’t mean Gretzky, the Great One, was any less great. It just means that he taught the world too well, and it took the NHL a little longer to figure it out.
It would be wonderful if we could assume that Gretzky has changed the NHL forever. In truth, he has. But not in the way we might like. Instead of other franchises trying to play like Gretzky, they all have spent so much time trying to corner the elusive No. 99 that almost all of them now stress defense. Nobody can get open, everyone is checked to submission, and freedom to make plays is at an all-time premium in the NHL.
Jagr won the NHL scoring title with 127 points this season. That’s fantastic. Those 127 points also are a mere 36 fewer than the ASSISTS Gretzky earned 13 years ago. So maybe the new NHL style is good. Along with retiring Gretzky’s No. 99 for life, the NHL’s current style seems certain to also be retiring his records.
Funny thing about the NHL, it still hasn’t forgiven the WHA. Gretzky’s career goals are listed as 894, but that’s just NHL goals. They don’t count the 43 more he scored for Edmonton back in 1978-79, or the three he scored for the Indianapolis Racers. They would run his total to 940. And, great as are the memories of those subsequent 938 goals, I’ll always cherish the memory of the first two.
UMD women’s hockey team has international flair
UMD women’s hockey coach Shannon Miller isn’t ready to announce her first team’s roster yet, but with more players close to committing, the team has taken on a distinct international flavor.
Duluth Dynamite teammates Tresa Lamphier and Leah Wrazidlo are the top Up North recruits, and prospects from this past season’s UMD club team include defensemen Jessica Smith and Angella Harvieux, and forward Jessi Flink.
Otherwise, prospects include goaltender Amanda Tapp, defensemen Pamela Pachal and Nevada Russell, and forwards Michelle McAteer and Joanne Eustache, all from Canada; goaltender Amanda Tapp of Switzerland; forward Maria Roth of Sweden; and defenseman Breana Berry from Wayzata, and forward Alexa Gollinger of St. Paul Academy.
Miller said that some other top prospects are set, pending finalizing of scholarship papers, but wouldn’t comment on the list of prospects. She said she still intends to conduct open tryouts in the fall before the team’s inaugural season.
UMD FOOTBALL COACHING
LIST NEARING FINAL STAGE
The UMD football coaching selection committee met again Tuesday with the intention of paring down the list of candidates from 16, in hopes of having a half-dozen finalists by next week. Vince Repesh and Jim Malosky Jr., the two assistants under just-retired Jim Malosky and the co-coaches of last falls Bulldogs, both remain in the field of candidates. And both are assured of being retained as assistant coaches if another candidate is chosen.
Among the rumored front-running candidates is Randy Hedberg, the offensive coordinator at the University of North Dakota, and several head coaches from the Wisconsin State University Conference, have reportedly applied, including Bob Nielson of Eau Claire, John Miech of Stevens Point, and Ed Meierkort of Stout. Lloyd Danzeisen of Fergus Falls Community College is rumored to be another candidate.
“We’re sort of in a vacuum right now, but the last 16 candidates give us a good cross-section of different perspectives,” said Jonathan Conant, chairman of the search committee.
Laaksonen, Bottems lead Minnesota to title
So far, the concept of not taking any scholarship hockey players to the Chicago Showcase high school hockey all-star tournament seems to be working just fine for Minnesota. Bolstered by the goaltending of Cloquet’s Adam Laaksonen, and two goals from Hibbing’s O.J. Bottoms, Minnesota whipped Pittsburgh 6-2 in Sunday’s championship game to complete a clean sweep of the nationwide tournament in Chicago.
Minnesota won all three games in its four-team preliminary bracket, then beat the Missouri all-stars in the quarterfinals, Buffalo, N.Y., in the semifinals, and Pittsburgh in the title match. It was the third consecutive Chicago Showcase championship for Minnesota.
“We were as good as we’ve ever been,” said Ted Brill of Grand Rapids, the organizer and co-coach with Dave Hendrickson of Virginia. “I didn’t notice any letoff of the other teams, but we had a good group. Everybody we had knew we all had to work together, and we had all ‘We’ and no ‘Me’ on the team.”
After competing well in the tournament for several years with the top players chosen from the annual post-season Maroon and Gold all-star series, it was Brill’s idea to select the team but to exclude those players who already had Division I scholarship commitments. The plan was to give maximum exposure to some very good players that had so far been overlooked, and even though Minnesota is the only team in the nationwide tournament to exclude its top players, this was its third straight championship.
“Everyone involved with Minnesota hockey can be very proud of the way these kids performed,” said Brill. “We had outstanding goaltending, our defense dominated play in our own end, and our forwards were flying everywhere. Our lines were balanced, and we rotated straight through.”
In fact, Brill added, he told goalies Laaksonen and Adam Berkhuel from Stillwater to split up the games anyway they chose, and they agreed to split each game, alternating which one started. Brill said he also told each line to rotate who sat out penalty kills, and everything went smoothly.
With all players selected from the recent Great Eight statewide tournament, Minnesota opened the tournament last week with a rousing 11-4 victory over Buffalo, then beat Northern New England 10-2, before completing its preliminary-round sweep with a 5-0 victory over Wisconsin. Critics could suggest that Minnesota had the easier bracket, with traditional co-favorites Massachusetts and Michigan both in another bracket, but the playoff round suggested Minnesota’s bracket was the toughest.
Up North players made major impacts on Minnesota’s success. When Minnesota beat Missouri 7-3 in the quarterfinals, Roseau’s Mike Klema scored two goals. In the semifinal 10-5 romp over Buffalo, Roseville’s Brett Hammond and Hill-Murray’s Dan Miller scored twice each.
Pittsburgh eliminated Michigan 5-4 in the other semifinal, but in the title game, Bottoms scored for a 1-0 lead, but Pittsburgh came back to gain a 2-2 tie after one period. Hill-Murray linemates Dan Miller and Matt Koalska scored for a 4-2 second-period lead, as Laaksonen allowed only one goal in the first half of the game. Minnesota put it away in the third period, clinching the victory when Bottoms scored into an open net at the finish.
About the Author
John Gilbert is a lifetime Minnesotan and career journalist, specializing in cars and sports during and since spending 30 years at the Minneapolis Tribune, now the Star Tribune. More recently, he has continued translating the high-tech world of autos and sharing his passionate insights as a freelance writer/photographer/broadcaster. A member of the prestigious North American Car and Truck of the Year jury since 1993. John can be heard Monday-Friday from 9-11am on 610 KDAL(www.kdal610.com) on the "John Gilbert Show," and writes a column in the Duluth Reader.
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