Hey Ref

Thank you, Gordy Lee

Details

Last Updated on Sunday, 27 May 2012 23:31

By Duncan Ryhorchuk

This past weekend, a long-time referee, who was a founding father of Minneapolis Hockey Officials Association, an established international hockey referee and also a National Hockey League off-ice official passed away.

Gordy Lee died of complications from a heart attack on Sunday, Oct. 23. Gordy was 79 years young.

This week by default I learned about Gordy’s accomplished hockey résumé as an official. If you grew up playing hockey in Minnesota anytime since the early 1970s to the present day, you were probably involved in a hockey game in which Gordy was a part. If you were a player you may have skated beside him, and as a spectator you may have counted down the seconds to your team’s championship with him. 

Gordy Lee did it all as a hockey official. Every responsibility on and off the ice, he did it and he did it at the highest levels.

A quick conversation with Gordy’s son, John, informed me on just some of his father’s accomplishments:

• 11 Minnesota State High School Tournaments as an on-ice official. Nine years as a WCHA on-ice official.

• 120 International hockey games officiated.

To break down Gordy’s accomplishments even further, in those 11 state tournaments, he was selected five times to referee the championship game. In fact, in the 1977 championship game between Edina and Rochester John Marshall, the coaches agreed to amend a rule to allow Gordy to work the game. At that time a rule was in place not to allow conference officials of a team in the finals to be used as an on-ice official. Gordy was the best official; hence the teams agreed he should referee the game.

On Gordy’s international résumé, he refereed the 1972 Summit Series and the 1976 Canada Cup (now called the World Cup) and also the 1976 Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria.

In the 1976 Canada Cup, Gordy was again assigned to the championship game. The highly anticipated final was between Canada and the USSR. This game had a lasting memory for Gordy due to a Lanny MacDonald slap shot that hit Gordy in the forehead and required 26 stitches to close.

Also on his international résumé, Gordy worked an 11-game exhibition series in Mexico to help that country prepare to advance to the International Ice Hockey Federation level of ice hockey.

Every Minnesota Wild or Minnesota North Star fan will be envious of Gordy’s off-ice officiating duties. Since 1968 he has been an NHL goal judge, timekeeper, penalty box attendant or satiation.

Oh, the stories I am sure he could tell from his time in the penalty box. He worked at the old Met Center for the North Stars and at the Xcel Energy Center for the Wild. He also worked for the International Hockey League’s Minnesota Moose before they were moved to Winnipeg. On Saturday, October 22, the evening before he passed away, Gordy was in charge of the game clock for the Wild game vs. the Detroit Red Wings at the Xcel Energy Center.

The hockey community has benefited greatly from what Gordy has accomplished and done in hockey, and speaking for on-ice officials, we will be forever grateful.

Gordy is survived by his wife, Donna, and children, Lisa, Susie, John and Danny.

If you have any comments on this article or any other Hey Ref articles or would like to submit a topic to read about please send an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .