Ken Yackel, a member of the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame who played in the Olympics and the National Hockey League, has died at the age of 61.
Yackel, who also was a three-sport star at the University of Minnesota, died Friday after an 18-month bout with cancer.
”He has to go down with the all-time great athletes our state ever produced,” said Herb Brooks, who coached the gold-medal winning 1980 U.S. Olympic team. ”He was sort of a giant among all athletes. Beneath an extremely competitive nature, he was also a really warm and caring person.”
Yackel, who was born in West St. Paul, played football and was an all-Big 10 baseball player at Minnesota in the early 1950s. But he excelled at hockey. He was an All-American defenseman for the Gophers` 1953-54 hockey team and twice led the Gophers to the NCAA semifinals. He also played on the 1952 U.S. Olympic team.
When he played for the Boston Bruins in 1958-59, he was one of only two America-born players in the NHL.
He also coached the 1965 U.S. National team and was interim hockey coach at the University of Minnesota for much of the 1971-72 season. In 1986, his accomplishments earned him a place in the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame.
