In 2010, Blake Geoffrion was named the best player in college hockey, the first player from the University of Wisconsin hockey team to receive the Hobey Baker Award. Blake was a rising scion of hockey royalty, descendant of legendary Canadian players Howie Morenz and Bernie “Boom Boom” Geoffrion, and he would soon be the first fourth-generation player to reach the NHL. His professional career promised to cement his family’s storied legacy on ice. But in 2012, while playing for the Montreal Canadiens’ minor league team beneath Morenz and Boom Boom’s retired numbers, Geoffrion suffered a life-threatening injury that ended his career.
With sure-footed and swift-moving prose, Sam Jefferies tells Geoffrion’s story against the backdrop of modern North American hockey. Thorough research and scores of interviews fuel this tale of soaring success and terrible tragedy, offering insight not only into one man’s athletic journey but also into the rise of American hockey on the national and international stage. Geoffrion’s brief career, marked by tribulation and triumph, illustrates the subtle but omnipresent currents of American media, sports labor, and the interplay between college and professional sports. It tells the story of what was, what is, and what may yet be for the fastest game on earth.
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgments
- Foreword by John Buccigross
- Prologue: One Night in Montreal
- Chapter 1: Williamson County
- Chapter 2: USA Hockey
- Chapter 3: Finding Wisconsin
- Chapter 4: Chasing the Hobey
- Chapter 5: The Pros, and the End
- Epilogue
- Index
Sam Jefferies, a University of Wisconsin–Madison alumnus, is a freelance writer and communications professional in Seattle. His work has appeared in Sports Business Journal, Sporting Classics Magazine, the Seattle Times, Newsweek, and elsewhere.
“A wonderful book about the fastest, meanest, greatest sport in the world and a man who lived it to the core.”—Rich Cohen, New York Times bestselling author of Pee Wees: Confessions of a Hockey Parent
“Jefferies captures Blake’s essence both on and off the ice, providing glimpses of a sport’s transformative journey and of a family-rooted individual, wonderful teammate, determined athlete, and passionate competitor. Although Blake has many more chapters to live, this book encapsulates his story, highlighting his passion, his sacrifice, and how he found strength in overcoming adversity.”—Hilary Knight, Olympic Medal-winning American ice hockey forward
