It’s one of the beautifully unique aspects of hockey. The toughest players on the ice are inevitably the nicest ones off it.
Nobody was tougher than Keith Magnuson during his 10 years patrolling the blue line for the Blackhawks at the Stadium. Look the wrong way at one of his teammates and you would have to answer to No. 3.
That toughness stayed on the ice, however. Off the ice, out of uniform, there was nobody nicer.
“It was always, `What can I do for you, how can I help you?'” Hawks assistant coach Denis Savard said of Magnuson. “He was always positive, always happy. There’s not too many human beings made that way.”
Magnuson was killed Monday in a three-car accident outside of Toronto. He was attending a funeral for former NHL player Keith McCreary with friend and former player Rob Ramage. Magnuson was 56.
According to police reports, the car carrying Ramage and Magnuson crossed into the oncoming lane and struck two vehicles.
Magnuson was pronounced dead at the scene. Ramage, the driver, suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
Tuesday, Ramage was charged with impaired driving causing death, which carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment, police said.
Later Tuesday, a charge of dangerous driving causing death was added.
Police said they were awaiting results from blood tests before deciding whether to upgrade the charges to drunken driving.
“It’s kind of ironic that he was there for someone else’s funeral,” Hawks assistant general manager Dale Tallon said.
Tallon, Magnuson’s defense partner and friend for the last 30 years, general manager Bob Pulford and Hawks President Bill Wirtz told Magnuson’s wife, Cindy, of the accident late Monday evening.
The news was stunning to former teammates and friends. Magnuson, who lived in Lake Forest, still was involved with the Hawks through their alumni association. Savard said he last saw him a month ago when Magnuson stopped by the locker room before a game.
“This is just devastating,” said teammate and Hall of Fame center Stan Mikita in a team statement. “Even the opposition liked Maggie. They showed just how much they liked him when they elected him president of the NHL Alumni Association. When Maggie did something, he did it full-bore. He was a true Blackhawk.”
Before leaving for Toronto last Sunday, Magnuson took part in a charity event to raise money for an ice rink in Zion.
“He skated with the kids and signed autographs,” said Bob Neal, a friend of Magnuson’s who organized the event. “He was just marvelous, I get chills just thinking about it. He just loved those kids. I told him he missed his calling, he should have been working with kids every day.”
That was just one of many charity events to which Magnuson gave his time.
“I never heard him say no to anybody,” Tallon said. “He was just so generous with his time, almost to a fault. He was there for everybody all the time, it was incredible.”
As fate would have it, Magnuson and Tallon were in the same Toronto hotel Sunday evening. Tallon was there after scouting some junior games outside of Toronto. He had gone to bed when Magnuson checked in and called Tallon and asked him to meet him down in the lobby for a little while.
“I said I had to get up to catch a flight,” Tallon said. “Regrettably I never went down to see him.”
As much as Mikita, Tony Esposito and Bobby Hull, Keith Magnuson symbolized the glory days of the Hawks.
“He was a Hawk,” former goaltender and current New York Rangers color analyst John Davidson said. “It’s interesting today when you think of certain people. Mike Ditka was a Chicago Bear, Keith Magnuson was a Hawk. That says a lot about him.”
Magnuson played his entire 10-year NHL career on West Madison Street. He wasn’t the best skater. He didn’t have the best shot and he wasn’t the best athlete. But there wasn’t a team in the league that wouldn’t want him sitting on its bench.
“He epitomized what heart and soul was all about,” former Hawk and current ESPN analyst Darren Pang said. “He overachieved to the max, he gave everything he had to the good of the team.”
Months after retiring in 1980, Magnuson became the Hawks head coach. In his first season behind the bench, he mentored a wondrously talented French-Canadian kid who barely could speak English.
“He gave me an opportunity to play,” Savard said of his first NHL coach in 1980. “He has touched a lot of people. I don’t know if there was anybody that was liked as much as he was among hockey people.”
Magnuson, who was a vice president of chain sales for Coca-Cola, always will be known as the fearless defender who would drop his gloves to protect a teammate. More often than not, Magnuson took on guys much bigger than himself.
“He was fearless,” Davidson said. “I respected how hard he battled every night.”
Davidson said his most vivid memories of playing in the Stadium were right before the game, when the teams would appear from the basement.
“Tony [Esposito] would lead them and quickly get out of the way because there was this mad man coming up behind him,” Davidson said of Magnuson. “He just wanted to skate 100 m.p.h. around the ice like a lunatic.”
Like the era in which he played, Magnuson was a special kind of player the likes of which may not be seen again.
“When we talk about improving the league, he’s the kind of player we desperately seek to put our arms around,” Pang said. “The fighting was a part of it. But it’s what he would do for the guy next door and the guy sitting beside him and his teammates that made him a better player than he was.”
Visitation will be from 3 to 9 p.m. Friday at Wenban’s Funeral Home, 320 E. Vine St., Lake Forest. There will be a memorial service at 1:30 p.m. Saturday at First Presbyterian Church of Lake Forest, 700 Sheridan Rd.
Magnuson is survived by his wife and children Kevin and Molly.
“He made an impact on me and a lot of people,” Savard said. “I can’t believe it, just can’t believe it. It’s tough for everybody.”
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The Magnuson file
Born: April 27, 1947.
Home: Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
Position: Defenseman.
Uniform number: 3.
Height/weight: 6-0, 185.
College: Played at University of Denver and won back-to-back national championships in 1968-69.
NHL career: Debuted in the 1969-70 season. . . . Was Blackhawks captain from 1976-80. . . . Ranks 25th in team history with 589 games played. . . . Was a two-time All-Star selection. . . . In 2001 was voted to the Hawks 75th anniversary team.
NHL playoffs: Played in 68 games with 3 goals, 9 assists and 164 penalty minutes.
Coaching career: Led the Hawks in 1980-81 season and 31-33-16. He was 21-28-10 in the 1981-82 season before being replaced by Orval Tessier.
Personal: Wife Cynthia; son Kevin, daughter Molly.
By the numbers
Season GP G A Pts PIM
1969-70 76 0 24 24 213
1970-71 76 3 20 23 291
1971-72 74 2 19 21 201
1972-73 77 0 19 19 140
1973-74 57 2 11 13 105
1974-75 48 2 12 14 117
1975-76 48 1 6 7 99
1976-77 37 1 6 7 86
1977-78 67 2 4 6 145
1978-79 26 1 4 5 41
1979-80 3 0 0 0 4
10 years 589 14 125 139 1442
Source: Blackhawks
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