A Goon Who Became A Hero

I was on the hunt for another image or story about the Cincinnati Stingers when the story of Willie Trognitz, pictured to the left with the IHL's Toledo Goaldiggers, fell into my lap. I had never heard of Willie Trognitz before today, and I'm not sure if anyone reading this story would have heard his name before either. Today, though, we're going to learn about just how crazy hockey was back in the 1970s and how suspensions in one league meant nothing to another. Willie Trognitz is the star of the show today, though, so let me introduce you to the man whose story seems almost too unbelievable to be real when it comes to the IHL, the WHA, and how rules meant nothing back in the brawling days of hockey in the '70s.

Born in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Raymond William Trognitz grew up loving the rough-and-tough game of hockey. His efforts with the Thunder Bay Vulcans in the Minnesota-Thunder Bay Hockey League, a four-team circuit in 1971-72, earned him some scouting from NHL teams, and he was chosen by the California Golden Seals 82nd-overall in the sixth round of the 1973 NHL Entry Draft. Trognitz would never reach the NHL, but he did spend some time in the other professional league as a member of the WHA's Cincinnati Stingers.

Trognitz's road to the Stingers was a winding path, though, as he made stops in the Southern Hockey League with the Charlotte Checkers before jumping to the IHL with the Toledo Goaldiggers, the Columbus Owls, and the Drayton/Grand Rapids Owls. In each of those IHL seasons, Trognitz posted 200+ minutes in penalties as he was a fearless competitor, earning the name "Wild Willie" Trognitz.

It's in his final game with Drayton where Trognitz gained notoriety for his pugilistic ways. In the final moments of a Port Huron-Drayton game that saw the Port Huron Flags leading 4-1, a second fight between Dayton's Rick Dorman and the Port Huron's Gary Rissling developed. As players heaed towards the skirmish, the benches cleared, and Trognitz, just freed from the penalty box, took aim at Port Huron's Archie Henderson who had grabbed Dayton's John Flesch.

Trognitz jumped Henderson from behind and rained blows down upon him, one of which reportedly broke Henderson's nose. The three players fell to the ice as Henderson had not let go of Flesch, and Port Huron's Gary McMonagle skated over to even things up by pulling Trognitz off the pile. Trognitz immediately began pummelling McMonagle until he went down on the ice. With his work done, Trognitz skated to the Drayton bench as the officials and police worked to separate the teams and send them to their respective dressing rooms.

Henderson, who had collected his gloves and stick and was being escorted off the ice by a linesman, dropped his gear, broke away from the linesman, and set his sights on Trognitz who had bloodied him earlier in the brawl. What happened next is up for debate as there are stories from both sides that differ, but Trognitz swung his stick at the oncoming Henderson and caught him on the forehead with the blade, splitting his forehead open.

Upon seeing Trognitz's work with his stick, a Port Huron fan somehow got onto the Drayton bench and slugged Trognitz in the side of the head which caused Trognitz to fall. With Henderson dazed and bleeding and Trognitz dazed on the ice, the officials were able to corral them both into their respective dressing rooms. The stick infraction, however, is the point of contention here as each team had their version of events.

As Sports Illustrated's Peter Gammons writes,

Port Huron people say Henderson stopped a few feet short of Wild Willie, put up his fists and challenged him to a fight, whereupon Trognitz took his stick and creased Henderson across the forehead.

Trognitz and the Dayton people claim that Henderson charged Trognitz, and the startled Trognitz reacted with a fly-caster's wave of his stick that happened to catch Henderson on the forehead.

Port Huron people say Trognitz hit Henderson with a full two-handed swing.

Dayton's Flesch maintains that teammate Trognitz' swing was "a kiss. If he'd swung, he'd have gotten him on the head and fractured his skull."

Whatever the case may be, Henderson needed eight stitches for his forehead, his nose reset, and some rest for a concussion as he spent the night in a Port Huron hospital. After collecting all the evidence from that night, WHA President William Beagan shocked everyone by permanently suspending Trognitz, banning him from the IHL.

In today's hockey world, this ban would mean that a player's career is likely over unless the KHL needs a warm body, but the WHA in 1977 didn't really care about suspensions or bans. Just four days after being banned by the IHL, Trognitz was flying with the Cincinnati Stingers to Edmonton, Alberta for a game against the Oilers as the Stingers were looking for someone to protect players like Rick Dudley, Robbie Ftorek, and Mark Messier.

The Stingers reached out to Trognitz's agent and made an offer: $150 a game for 10 games. Trognitz, not having many options, signed the deal on November 7, 1977 and joined the Stingers. The WHA was a little worried about Trognitz following his incident in the IHL, so they mandated a 30-day probation period for the newly-signed Stinger and made Cincinnati post a $25,000 bond in case Trognitz went crazy in a WHA game.

Trognitz knew his value when it came to why he was brought to Cincinnati, and here's where the story takes a weird turn. Stingers head coach Jacques Demers never asked Trognitz to fight as part of his role with the Stingers, so Trognitz never tangled with anyone in his time with the Stingers during his ten-game stint. He was used more as intimidation and as a policeman - someone who would keep the other team's tough guys in line instead of having them pick on Cincinnati's skilled players. During his ten-game tryout, he was scratched a couple of times as he played in just seven of Cincinnati's ten games over the next three weeks. However, the Stingers liked what they saw, and reportedly offered Trognitz another 10-game, $150-per-game deal to remain with the club despite what the newspapers reported.

According to reports, Trognitz declined the 10-game offer from the Stingers, stating, "What's $150? I got guys making $150,000 hiding behind my back." With that, the Stingers officially released him, as stated above image, as it seems that Trognitz wanted a better pay day than $1500 for ten games.

If you've already gone out to search Willie Trognitz on a site like HockeyDB.com, you'll find that he played 29 games for the Stingers in 1977-78 which is significantly more than the seven I mentioned.

It turns out that the Stingers came to their senses when it came to having Trognitz patrolling the ice because they reached out to him on January 15, 1978 with a prorated contract for the remainder of the '77-78 season! Trognitz, who had held out for a better-paying contract, signed the deal and finished the season in Cincinnati where, unfortunately, the Stingers missed the playoffs by two points. You wonder if, had they kept Trognitz through those 25 games between November 29 and January 14, they would have made the playoffs considering how the Stingers went 9-14-2 over that period.

It seems we'll never know, but Willie Trognitz, who was banned from the IHL on October 29, 1977, got himself a professional hockey contract in the WHA by January 1978. That's not a bad step up from the $10,000 he was likely making in the IHL considering how the WHA threw money around, and you have to give him a little credit for recognizing that the job he was doing in protecting his teammates was worth more than $150 per game.

Whatever amount of money he earned with the Stingers for the remainder of the season was the last money paid to him at the highest professional levels of hockey. The following season saw Trognitz in the Pacific Hockey League with the Tucson Rattlers followed by a season with the Central Hockey League's Fort Worth Texans. While his 203 PIMs with Fort Worth was a return to "Wild Willie" as a player, it may ultimately have done him in when it came to his career length.

As documented by Gammons in his SI article, "Trognitz has five broken knuckles, three broken noses and a broken jaw to show for his bouts. And his knuckles are so swollen they have to be heavily taped in order for him to put on his gloves." I can't imagine his hands holding up to more fights with all that damage, and fights in the CHL were far more common thanks to the nature of the league.

At this point, you might be asking where the "hero" part of the story begins because Trognitz hasn't really done anything heroic through his hockey career besides facing off with guys like Semenko, Clackson, and Durbano.

With his last games in the books, Trognitz returned home to Thunder Bay where he began working for the Canadian Coast Guard. It was a good posting for Trognitz in terms of being in his hometown, but his fearless approach in the face of danger would come to good use on October 30, 1996!

Working about the Canadian Coast Guard Cutter Westfort, Trognitz and the crew were part of a rescue mission in helping two men from a disabled American cruise ship named "Grampa Woo" on Lake Superior, Ontario! The ship had been damaged when it was ripped from its mooring and sent adrift by gale-force winds, forcing the Canadian Coast Guard into action. The Westfort and a tugboat, the Glenada, risked the 120km/hr winds and four-meter waves to rescue the two men aboard the cruise ship.

I can proudly say that the two men were rescued from that harrowing ordeal, and the crews of the Westfort and Glenada were honoured by the Canadian Governor General for their heroism as Willy Trognitz was awarded the Governor General's Medal of Bravery! Honestly, how many people on this planet can say they were banned from playing hockey in a professional league while sporting a Canadian Medal of Bravery? My guess is there's only one person who can: Raymond William Trognitz!

"That was the most intense rescue that I've been on," he told Jeff Labine of TBNewsWatch.com in 2011. "I honestly thought that would be my last day. We all did. We were almost rolling over and we were on our side many times. The boat was literally on its side."

Willie Trognitz is now part of a Joan Skelton book, Rescue from Grampa Woo, as she documented the act of bravery in saving the men from the Grampa Woo. In knowing all this, I think I owe a big congratulations to Mr. Trognitz for everything he's done in his hockey career and in this second career which is even more amazing than the hockey story!

I love great stories with a hockey element like this, and I hope you did as well. As stated off the top, Raymond William Trognitz isn't a name with which you're likely familiar, but I hope telling his story here today gives you a little bit of appreciation for a guy who defended his teammates and literally saved lives. While those two things aren't exactly congruent in their happenings, they are related thanks to Canadian Coast Guard crewman and former hockey player Willie Trognitz!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!