ST. PAUL -- To walk through the concourses at Xcel Energy Center this weekend is to be struck via all five senses by Minnesota's unceasing, unrivaled passion for hockey. The scents of popcorn and mini donuts; students, families and fans alike flocking to one of high school sports' signature events; the ambience of pep bands, crowd chants and scraping skates.
Fully appreciating the magnitude of hockey's importance in the Land of 10,000 Lakes requires examining the stories of leaders who have helped make it happen. The 75th annual Minnesota State High School League Boys State Hockey Tournament and last month's 25th annual girls tourney are just the latest examples of what the sport continues to mean here.
State of Hockey Legacy Award reprises local hockey leaders' stories
Hendrickson the latest in growing line of difference makers who have helped grow the game
By
Phil Ervin / Wild.com
That, in part, is why the Minnesota Wild introduced the State of Hockey Legacy Award nine years ago and continue to honor the state's hockey luminaries by giving it out on an annual basis.
Players. Coaches. Organizational chiefs. In the case of
2019 posthumous recipient Larry Hendrickson
, all of the above.
Each has made a profound impact on the game and its place in Minnesota heritage. And with every passing season, the list of honorees grows larger and further-ranging.
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"It's a great honor that our family feels and appreciates," said Wild assistant Darby Hendrickson, Larry's son who will accept the award along with several family members on their dad's behalf during the second intermission of Monday's home game against San Jose. "He would be humbled."
Larry Hendrickson joins a list that starts in 2010 with former St. Paul Johnson coach Lou Cotroneo and ends with Bob Naegele, Jr., the Wild's first owner who founded the franchise in 1997 and passed away late last year. It includes former North Star and 1980 "Miracle On Ice" team member Neal Broten, former North Stars and University of Minnesota coach Glen Sonmor, former North Stars General Manager Lou Nanne, former USA Hockey coach-in-chief Bob O'Connor and former U.S. national team manager Walter L. Bush, Jr.
Known as "the Godfather of St. Paul hockey," Cotroneo coached or served as an assistant at Johnson for 20 seasons, was part of seven state tournament trips and was the Wild's official VIP greeter from the club's inception till 2015.
Also a Minnesota Golden Gopher under Herb Brooks, Broten is the only player to have won the Hobey Baker award as college hockey's top play, an Olympic Gold Medal and a Stanley Cup. He's one of just two players to win an NCAA championship, an Olympic crown and an NHL title.
Before his 2015 death, Sonmor led the Gophers, World Hockey Association's Minnesota Fighting Saints and North Stars. His illustrious career included a 1981 run to the Stanley Cup Finals, and he later worked as a radio analyst for the Golden Gopher Radio Network.
Starting with a 635-game NHL career with the North Stars, Nanne remains a State of Hockey fixture thanks to his state tourney broadcast duties, frequent KFAN 100.3 FM appearances and keeping a pulse an all things Minnesota hockey. The 77-year-old built the North Stars into a contender as GM and was highly influential in selecting Herb Brooks as coach of the 1980 United States Olympic team.
The other man primarily involved in that decisions was Bush, who also co-founded the Central Hockey League, helped piece together the 1960 and 1980 U.S. gold medal teams and worked to add women's hockey to the Olympic program. Bush passed away in 2016.
The late O'Connor served as a coach at several different levels with USA Hockey and coached at Edina, Eden Prairie and Hamline University.
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Naegele's contributions
to the sport require little explaining -- just look at the BN patch on the Wild's jerseys this season -- as he's credited with bringing the NHL back Minnesota following the North Stars' 1993 departure.
And then there's Larry Hendrickson, the close friend of Herb Brooks who worked as a strength and conditioning coach for that miraculous 1980 U.S. squad as well as the University of Minnesota and the North Stars. He also coached at Richfield, Apple Valley and Benilde-St. Margaret before founding the Hendrickson Foundation in 2011.
Hendrickson's legacy is a nonprofit that seeks to grow the game of hockey in Minnesota by being inclusive to children and adults with mental and physical disabilities, paralysis or loss of limbs/amputations and military veterans with combat, or non-combat injuries.
Last names like his have become synonymous with the sport for most local hockey community members. The rest of the weekend, thousands of them will walk past the display between Sections 111 and 112 honoring each State of Hockey Legacy Award recipient.
Monday, Hendrickson's name will be added to the trophy that resides there.
"Larry dedicated his life to hockey," Wild owner Craig Leipold said, "and we are honored to recognize his commitment and passion for the sport he loved here in the State of Hockey."
