A Legacy Of Stripes

Being a hockey official is often described as a thankless job. When officials make calls, they're criticized by the offending team for what they feel was hardly an indiscretion, let alone a minor penalty. When they let teams play, they're criticized for allowing too many infractions to go uncalled by both benches. No matter what officials do, they're often the target for a player's or a team's ire despite them ensuring that the game is played without a fullscale riot breaking out. One of those long-time officials was the late Mick McGeough, seen above, and there's now another McGeough carrying on his legacy.

For those that aren't aware, longtime NHL official Mick McGeough passed away on November 23, 2018. Mick worked 1083 regular-season games from 1987-2008 before retiring at the end of the 2008 season. He also refereed 63 Stanley Cup Playoff games, and was one of the last officials to step on the ice without a helmet after being allowed to continue without a bucket when the NHL instituted the rule for officials. McGeough was certainly one of the officials everyone "loved to hate", but he was an exceptional official at all levels of the game where he worked.

One expects a parent's job may influence his or her child's choices for jobs as well, and Mick McGeough's officiating presence rubbed off on his son, Luke, who is working his way through the officiating ranks in Saskatchewan. It's clear that Luke also knows of his dad's influence on the game in Saskatchewan and around the world because Luke does something that not many people are able to do to honour their parents: he wears his uniform to work in memory of his dad!

Luke worked the Yorkton Terriers game Friday evening where he donned his dad's old referee sweater, and he went to work in calling the game between the visiting La Ronge Ice Wolves and the Terriers. Luke and his referee partner, Jeff Bahrey, were busy last night as they called 14 infractions for 50 PIMs combined in the 6-2 Yorkton victory!

Luke McGeough has worn his dad's referee sweater every year on or around the same day his dad passed away in honour of his memory, and I'm proud that Luke is following his own officiating dreams thanks to his dad. He wore his dad's sweater in 2020 for a game between the Estevan Bruins and the Weyburn Red Wings, and wore it for the first time in 2019 during a Midget AAA game in Regina to honour his dad.

Luke's memory of his dad in 2018 after his passing shows what a great guy Mick was when it came to "looking out for his teammates".

"I just hope he'd be proud of me," Luke told Greg Harder of the Regina Leader Post in December 2018, a few weeks after his dad passed away. "My wife was like, 'He'll be proud of the way you reffed either way.' I said, 'That wasn’t really Mick's thing.' He was a ref but he'd be way more proud of me being a good dad — he just loved the grandkids — and a good husband and a good person in general.

"Mick could care less if I was an awful official as long as I'm doing right by everyone else."

It honestly sounds like Mick McGeough brought up Luke and his siblings the right way if doing right by other people was more important than the work he does while wearing the stripes. Life is bigger than one 60-minute block of time where hockey is played, and I feel confident in saying that Mick's priorities were in the right order when it comes to his kids learning to be good people. Those are life lessons that will be used daily, and it seems like Luke has already made them part of his life.

"It's kind of special putting it on right, knowing that dad wore it, get a little sense of pride putting it on," Luke told CTV News in 2020. "I'm pretty proud of all his accomplishments."

I think Mick would be pretty proud of Luke's efforts to be a great person because honouring his dad in this way and sharing it with the teams and players with whom Mick McGeough would have had contact is a pretty special thing to do on behalf of his dad and the memory of his dad's legacy in Saskatchewan hockey. That speaks volumes about the lessons he passed on to his kids about doing right by everyone else, and I'd say Luke's on his way to being a great role model for his own kids.

Your dad was a legend, Luke, and you're writing your own legend now! Keep up the great work both on the ice in your own career, and off the ice in being a great husband, father, and person while bringing the hockey community together through the memory of your dad!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!