On Tuesday, September 9th, Bob Suter became the first player from the 1980 American Olympic hockey team to shuffle off the mortal coil.
He was only 57.
After winning the medal, he made a brief run at the NHL but never made the cut in the bigs. Interestingly, he declined to sign with the LA Kings; instead he sat out a year to become a free agent, then signed with the North Stars, but he spent the season in the minors and then retired from pro hockey.
He moved back to his home town of Madison, WI and opened up a sporting goods store (Suter's Gold Medal Sports), where he sold me a hockey jersey in 1987. I didn't know who he was. Okay, to be honest, I didn't really give a hoot about the US Olympic team, having been raised in a country that takes its hockey a little more seriously than folks do down around these parts. Yeah, even these parts. (Truth is, I still don't really give a hoot about the "Miracle", and uh, let's just say, I was pretty content with the results of this year's Olympic hockey tournaments.)
Suter got involved in coaching youth hockey, including the Madison Capitols AAA program, and was one of the movers/shakers/owners behind construction of the Capitol Ice rink in Middleton. Two of the players he coached during his career are now NHL superstars -- Phil Kessel and Ryan Suter, Bob's son. (He was also the brother of Gary Suter, who had a long career in the NHL, winning the Stanley Cup with the Calgary Flames.)
People don't seem to be able to say enough nice things about him.