Gil Stein (ice hockey)

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Gilbert Stein (b. 1928) is a former National Hockey League executive, serving as vice-president and legal counsel for nearly 15 years before becoming president in 1992. He served in that role for a year and left the league in disgrace after being found to have manipulated his own election to the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Contents 1 Early career 2 Joins the NHL 3 Hall of fame scandal 4 References

[edit] Early career

From Philadelphia, Stein attended Temple University and received a law degree from Boston University in 1952. He worked for the City of Philadelphia in several roles, including deputy district attorney, executive director of the Philadelphia Housing Authority, and regional director of the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board. Stein then joined the law firm of Blank Rome Comisky & McCauley in Philadelphia. While there, he acted on behalf of the Philadelphia Flyers, which hired him as executive vice-president and chief operating officer in 1976. He was also the first president of the Flyers' minor league affiliate, the Maine Mariners.

[edit] Joins the NHL

A year later, Stein left the Flyers to join the NHL, where he served as vice-president and general counsel for 15 years. On June 22, 1992, Stein was announced as the new president of the league and formally took the position on October 1, succeeding John Ziegler. Stein's appointment was to be on an interim basis only — the league had hired an executive search firm to help find a new commissioner at the same time that Stein's appointment was announced — but he campaigned to keep the position as the league's top executive and greatly expanded the visibility of the president's office during his term.

One of his first actions after becoming president was to oust long-serving vice-president Brian O'Neill and take over responsibility for league discipline, which O'Neill had previously overseen. Stein implemented a policy of suspending players on non-game days. He also encouraged players to play without their helmets. He supported the use of NHL players at the 1994 Winter Olympics, but ran into opposition on the issue from team owners.

Before the end of 1992, NHL governors had selected Gary Bettman to become the league's first commissioner, starting on February 1, 1993. Stein had been a finalist for the job, but bowed out when it became clear that most team owners supported Bettman. When Stein's term ended on July 1, 1993, the remaining duties of the president were given to the commissioner. Stein then served as advisor to the commissioner for three months, before leaving the league in September.

[edit] Hall of fame scandal

In March 1993, it was announced that Stein had been elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame. It caused an uproar in the media, and within days NHL commissioner Bettman ordered an investigation into the induction process. In August 1993, the NHL counsel appointed by Bettman issued a report finding that Stein had "improperly manipulated the process of nomination and election to the Hall to assure his election ... misusing and abusing the governance process of the Hall of Fame and the perquisites of his office." The issues were these:

• the majority of the Hall's board were NHL appointees, and Stein had the rules changed so that builders could be elected with a simple majority of votes from the board instead of the traditional 75 percent,

• two weeks before the Hall of Fame's annual meeting, Stein replaced several members of the board,

• a quarter of the board then consisted of NHL employees who worked under Stein,

• secret ballots were replaced with a show of hands so everyone would know who voted for and against all the nominees,

• Stein also blocked the election of O'Neill.

Stein withdrew his nomination and has not been inducted. Mr. O'Neill was inducted the following year.

Mr. Stein would tell his side of the story in his 1997 book, Power Play: An Inside Look at the Big Business of the National Hockey League (Birch Lane Press):

• other members can be elected by simple majority,
• board members were changed to represent different groups,
• show of hands votes were common at HOF board meetings,
• Bruce McNall had nominated him on his own, not at his own request,
• it was Mr. O'Neill and Scotty Morrison who had tried to engineer their own election to the Hall of Fame, as they were Hall of Fame board members and that he had only gotten involved to stop them,
• other NHL presidents had been inducted into the Hall while still serving,
• he was going to withdraw his nomination anyway.

He did admit:

• to becoming obsessed with his own election to the Hockey Hall of Fame,^[1]
• to encouraging and assisting NHL chairman Bruce McNall with his nomination,^[1]
• not following requests from Bettman and others that he withdraw his nomination,^[2],
• and to feeling that he deserved the honor, despite having served as NHL president for only a few months.^[3] He had served as an NHL counsel for over 10 years.

He also wrote that the NHL counsel appointed by Mr. Bettman was out to get him and "had used every opportunity to paint me in the worst possible light."^[4]

As of 2006, Stein is an adjunct faculty member of Villanova University's School of Law.

[edit] References

Preceded by John Ziegler

National Hockey League President 1992–1993

Succeeded by Gary Bettman (title changed to NHL Commissioner)