Bob Goodenow, a labor lawyer who took over the weak National Hockey League players’ union in 1992 and gave it newfound muscle in collective bargaining negotiations with a commissioner so determined to control costs that he canceled of the 2004-5 season, died on Saturday at his home in Plymouth, Mich. He was 72.
His wife, Wendy, said the cause was a heart attack.
Mr. Goodenow’s most important task when he became the executive director of the union was to persuade club owners to take it seriously.
For more than 30 years, the N.H.L. Players Association had been run as a fief by Alan Eagleson, who was known for his cozy relationships with the league’s president, John Ziegler, and powerful team owners. In 1998, years after leaving the union, Mr. Eagleson would plead guilty in United States and Canadian courts to fraudulent schemes including using union funds for himself.
Bruce Dowbiggin, a Canadian sports journalist, compared Mr. Goodenow to Marvin Miller, the baseball union’s revolutionary leader. “Bob created a collective consciousness among players,” Mr. Dowbiggin said in an interview, “and gave them some backbone that they hadn’t had before.”
A few months after Mr. Goodenow took over from Mr. Eagleson — and just before the 1992 playoffs were to begin — the union went on strike.
“Strike? The N.H.L. Players Association?” Sports Illustrated asked sardonically. “Isn’t this the historically apathetic, just-happy-to-be-here bunch that has never filed an antitrust suit, much less gone on strike, in its 25-year existence?”
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The post Bob Goodenow, Chief of Hockey Players’ Union, Dies at 72 appeared first on New York Times.
