Bob Probert passes away at 45

[Hockeytown0001 7,652]

Ya, I am sure Steve is pretty devistated...

(side note, I was searching for more info and stuff and ran accross the Hawks Book, HAWKEYtown, they are so envious of us!)

Anyway, again, RIP Probie!

Not only is that transparent as glass, but sounds plain stupid. They probably think that Probert will be remembered as a Hawk more than a Wing.

Edited July 6, 2010 by Hockeytown0001

[Jesusberg 1,256]

I copied down some tidbits of information that Tie Domi just discussed in his Off The Record. I rushed it, so some of it may not make sense, but here it goes:

Tie Domi said...

-Learned that Probert became a complete hockey player, and made others better around him. Made a lot of sacrifices.

-Probert brought respect to every team he was on.

-Doesn't wanna talk about the fighting, just Probie the husband and father.

-On Battle of the Blades he saw the mutual respect they had for one another. Said he always wanted to be like Bob. Said Probert was like a teddy bear and made everyone laugh.

-Said Probie was very humble and didn't want other making a big deal of his accomplishments.

-Spoke of a moment at a U2 concert where Probie held up his cell phone for his wife to hear the music with him.

-Said Probie was like a big kid, always liked being happy and making other happy as well.

-Said he wouldn't do Battle of the Blades until Probie confirmed he was going to as well.

-Doesn't think of the legendary fights they had because he learned about what a great person Probie was off the ice.

That's about it. It was a nice little interview that went beyond just the type of player/enforcer Probert was...

Edited July 6, 2010 by Jesusberg

[SiLkK19 67]

I can't believe it! May you RIP Probie.

[Hockeytown0001 7,652]

Those were some pretty nice things for Tie Domi to say. Respect for him just went up a little bit.

[Hockeytown_Ryan 119]

I'd suggest they go with the number 24 on the helmets. "BP" aren't exactly the most beloved initials right now.

Point taken

[puckloo39 5,686]

thank you for the nice tribute to Probie at the top of the page, Matt. I have tears in my eyes.

Hawks won't be able to approach the love and respect Wings fans have for Probie.

[Hockeytown0001 7,652]

Hawks also don't understand what Probie meant to the Wings.

[TNBT 3]

I know it has been a couple of days, but I still can't believe it. I never met him, or knew the guy personally, but from all accounts he was an absolutely wonderful human being off the ice. I feel terrible for his family and friends right now. My thoughts, as well as those of everyone else here I'm sure, are with his family and friends right now. RIP Probie.

[Hockeytown0001 7,652]

Good to have you around again

[Bring Back The Bruise Bros 1,029]

I have a little more respect for Domi after his words last night.I'm interested to hear what McSorley and Wendel Clark have to say.

[TNBT 3]

Good to have you around again

You mean me?

[vladdy16 2,154]

Good to have you around again

You mean me?

PM's, please.

[Chairman Maouth 97]

Emanuel Steward: Bob Probert could've boxed

Kronk boxing founder Emanuel Steward, who guided Hilmer Kenty, Tommy Hearns and Milton McCrory, among others, to titles, would have loved to have trained and managed former Red Wings enforcer Bob Probert, who died suddenly Monday at age 45. Steward gave Probert and fellow Bruise Brother Joey Kocur private sparring lessons during their hockey careers.

"He could have been a world champion," Steward, below, said Tuesday. "He had the coordination, reflexes and toughness. He was also extraordinarily humble and gracious.

"He was a tough guy. He was afraid of nobody, including heavyweights I trained in the gym. I taught him to tighten up his punches. Make them short and hard. Oh, my God, dead at 45. It's just too young to die."

Quick hits

• Probert's father, a former Windsor police officer, died of a heart attack at age 41.

More: http://www.freep.com/article/20100707/SPORTS18/7070322/1053/Sports/Emanuel-Steward-Bob-Probert-couldve-boxed

Edited July 7, 2010 by Chairman Maouth

[TNBT 3]

PM's, please.

No worries. Sorry mate.

[Hockeytown0001 7,652]

Emanuel Steward: Bob Probert could've boxed

Kronk boxing founder Emanuel Steward, who guided Hilmer Kenty, Tommy Hearns and Milton McCrory, among others, to titles, would have loved to have trained and managed former Red Wings enforcer Bob Probert, who died suddenly Monday at age 45. Steward gave Probert and fellow Bruise Brother Joey Kocur private sparring lessons during their hockey careers.

"He could have been a world champion," Steward, below, said Tuesday. "He had the coordination, reflexes and toughness. He was also extraordinarily humble and gracious.

"He was a tough guy. He was afraid of nobody, including heavyweights I trained in the gym. I taught him to tighten up his punches. Make them short and hard. Oh, my God, dead at 45. It's just too young to die."

Quick hits

• Probert's father, a former Windsor police officer, died of a heart attack at age 41.

More: http://www.freep.com/article/20100707/SPORTS18/7070322/1053/Sports/Emanuel-Steward-Bob-Probert-couldve-boxed

Apparently, the Probert family has a history of heart problems.

[miller76 463]

autopsy report shows no foul play source

[Yzermania19 1]

I'd also like to hear Steve Yzerman's reaction.

From the Toronto Sun:

“We were drafted together at 18, I think I’m a month older than him” said Yzerman.

He was Devellano’s first draft pick in Detroit.

Probert was third.

“We played against each other in junior. We played together, on the same line sometimes, for years in Detroit. Once a year, twice a year, (after his career ended) you’d run into Probie and see him. It didn’t matter how long it had been between visits, it was always nice to see him.

“He was such a good-hearted person. A happy-go-lucky guy. He was nice to people, funny, nice to my kids, my wife. When he had his life in order, and he had to deal with a lot of things, he played some great hockey. I’ll always remember that.”

Full article - Probert: One Tough Story

I wonder how many of Probie's former teammates will be at the funeral Friday. Kocur, for sure - he's said Probie's like the brother he never had.

[Yzermania19 1]

Here are a couple more articles about Bob Probert -

The measure of Bob Probert's legacy as a Detroit Red Wing is not necessarily found in the record books. There are of course those entries: 163 career goals and 221 assists in 16 combined seasons with the Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Blackhawks. Even the whopping 3,300 penalty minutes in 935 career games, good for fifth place all-time, may not really define his huge impact on hockey in the Detroit area.

What does stand out is that, years after his retirement from the Hawks in 2002 and after leaving Detroit in 1994, Red Wing sweaters emblazoned with "Probert" across the back are still one of the more common sights on game nights at the Joe Louis Arena, rivalling the names and numbers of the team's current stars. Fans of the Red Wings loved the big man.

"He was a Motor City guy," said Glen Schofield, who played with, and against, Probert starting in minor hockey in Windsor from the age of eight right through the ranks of the Ontario Hockey League with the Windsor Spitfires. "He came from here, his dad was a police officer in Windsor. Bob protected [steve Yzerman], was a big brother out there to his teammates and Detroit loves that. Everyone loves a scrapper ... He spent all that time in the penalty box and still could put the puck in the net."

Link - A Sweet Brawler - There Was More to Bob Probert Than His Public Demons

Even at a time in the NHL when there was no honor among thieves, there was among enforcers.

And that is what I choose to remember now about Bob Probert.

The legendary protector of Red Wings and Blackhawks died Monday of an apparent heart attack in Ontario, Canada, after collapsing on a boat in Lake St. Clair.

Only 45, Probert was a man who played hard on the ice and harder off the ice, leaving a trail of trouble that shortened what should have been a terrific hockey career.

That's what most will remember about a guy who could have had a dream life by any standard if not for his unending fight with alcohol and cocaine, a battle he lost over and over again.

Link - Probert Much More Than a Brawler

[Hockeytown0001 7,652]

Very nice comments from Stevie.

[Namingway 146]

R.I.P. Bob Probert. You were one of a kind and will be missed by family, friends and fans. Thank you for bringing a whole dimension of excitement to the game. You will forever be a legend in my heart and also in those of everyone else that admired you. One of the true heroes of Hockeytown.

[Hockeytown0001 7,652]

R.I.P. Bob Probert. You were one of a kind and will be missed by family, friends and fans. Thank you for bringing a whole dimension of excitement to the game. You will forever be a legend in my heart and also in those of everyone else that admired you. One of the true heroes of Hockeytown.

One that deserves to not have his number worn again. I'm not saying raise 24 to the rafters, but rather a Konstantinov-like respect for the number.

[55fan 5,133]

One that deserves to not have his number worn again. I'm not saying raise 24 to the rafters, but rather a Konstantinov-like respect for the number.

I'd go for a moratorium. Just don't give it out for the time being. It's not like 1,6,7,9,10,12,16,19. But for now, it is good to remember.

[Hockeytown0001 7,652]

I'd go for a moratorium. Just don't give it out for the time being. It's not like 1,6,7,9,10,12,16,19. But for now, it is good to remember.

This is true. Also, an appropriate tribute would be to have a statue similar to the Howe, Lindsay, and Delvecchio statues at the Joe.

[Hockeytown0001 7,652]

Another nice article on Probie.

DETROIT -- It is a geographical quirk that Detroit, Mich., USA, is located north -- not south -- of Windsor, Ontario, Canada. But this was appropriate in the upside-down world of Bob Probert, the hockey ruffian who died between the shore lines of those two nations on Monday at age 45.

Probert suffered chest pains while boating on Lake St. Clair and could not be revived on the Canadian side, his family and local authorities said. The lake, part of the international border, links to the Detroit River that flows alongside Joe Louis Arena, where Probert became a peculiar sort of star and a symbol of an era for the Red Wings.

Probert was a local boy who made good and did bad things and always seemed adrift, never on firm ground. He grew up in Windsor, the troubled son of a troubled cop, and achieved stardom by policing the National Hockey League ice of the Motor City with his fists. No player of his generation punched better than Probert and few carried more demons away from the rink, including alcohol abuse. Perhaps Probert's most famous transgression was his arrest for trying to smuggle about half an ounce of cocaine across the border in his undershorts.

It happened not far from Joe Louis, the rink, and just down the street from the 8,000-pound Fist monument that honors the boxer Louis. I remember covering Probert's bust for the Detroit Free Press on a snowy March day in 1989. After his booking, Probert came down the steps of the U.S. federal courthouse wearing an open overcoat and a bemused expression. He never feared doing time in the penalty box. Probert then said a few noncommittal words to us and was whisked away. He spent three months in federal prison and 3,300 minutes in penalty boxes in an NHL career that ended with Chicago in 2002.

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After leaving the Red Wings in 1994, it always seemed as if another disturbing Probert story was just a news cycle away. There were occasional and troubling reports of Probert in bar fights and of Probert in a motorcycle crash and of Probert violating probation and of Probert in a battle with police involving stun guns and tasers in a neighborhood known for drugs. The circumstances of his death Monday seemed almost counterintuitive: Probert was with his four children and his wife's parents at the end of a long weekend that honors Canada Day on July 1 and Independence Day on July 4.

As a Red Wing, Probert was a cult figure for a franchise just beginning to build a hockey powerhouse after two decades of mismanagement. Fans nicknamed Probert and Joey Kocur "The Bruise Brothers;'' they were a tag-team act in a sport that sanctions fights as a quasi-legal side show. To games at Joe Louis Arena, fans wore T-shirts that showed a red cross and the words: "Give Blood, Fight Probie.'' Before the Internet and YouTube, Probert's fight tapes were prized among traders of bootleg videos, suitable for bachelor parties or fraternity houses. Perhaps the most memorable can be found through Internet search engines as "Hockey Fight: Probert vs Domi Rematch.''

It was his second bout with Tie Domi of the New York Rangers, staged in December of 1992 at Madison Square Garden, that old boxing mecca. The video shows Probert throwing about 45 punches in about 45 seconds, most of them right hands and many of them landing. The replay right afterward shows Steve Yzerman --then the Wings captain, now the general manager of Tampa Bay -- mocking Domi by pretending to put on the heavyweight championship belt that Domi had claimed in a prior battle. In the big scheme of hockey's vigilante justice, Probert was there to protect the superstar Yzerman; and Yzerman was honoring his teammate and his role.

One of the Big Myths in sports spread by the media is that "hockey goons are really the nicest guys in sports.'' A few may indeed be friendly, but the role often attracts large, violent young men from disturbed homes who channel their aggression into a sub-genre of a sport for personal profit and public amusement. When they are used up, like all athletes, they are cast aside.

At least Probert's life did not end like that of the enforcer John Kordic, who died after a fight with police in Quebec City. Compared to that, Probert's demise was almost mercifully mundane. As was the case after the death of Mark (The Bird) Fidrych of the Detroit Tigers in 2009, Probert's passing will bring the blur of nostalgia and sentimentality in the region. Fans in Detroit and Windsor will mourn Probert and their stories of him will flow like tears from eyes or blood from a cut or water of a river current moving away, so swift and strong and soon gone.

[hellsson 8]

Not sure if anyone posted this link. If so sorry.

TSN Probert Funeral

Edited July 9, 2010 by hellsson