Bill "Goldie" Goldthorpe

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Bill "Goldie" Goldthorpe (b. June 20, 1953 in Hornepayne, Ontario) was a professional ice hockey left winger who played for 16 minor league teams between 1973 to 1984, playing exhibition games with the Toronto Maple Leafs and Pittsburgh Penguins. Goldthorpe grew up in Thunder Bay, Ontario, is widely regarded as one of the most infamous hockey enforcers to have ever played the game, a man once dubbed the "wildest, meanest, most unpredictable player in hockey"^[1], earning an amazing 1,132 penalty minutes in 194 professional games. He was the inspiration for the character Ogie Ogilthorpe in the 1977 film Slap Shot. On January 1, 2008 during the 1st intermission of the NHL's Winter Classic outdoor game in Buffalo, NBC showed a 1 minute and 15 second piece on the movie Slapshot and the Ogilthorpe, Bill Goldthorpe connection to Bob Costas. Costas once did radio play-by-play for the Syracuse Blazers (NAHL) in 1973-74, a team that Bill Goldthorpe played on. Goldthorpe is currently a foreman at a construction company in Canada, having held that position in San Diego for several years.