RIP
I met him last year @ work. Nice guy with a troubled past...
Posted: 5:31 p.m. July 5, 2010 | Updated: 6:46 p.m. today
Former Red Wing Bob Probert dead at 45
By HELENE ST. JAMES
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
Former Detroit Red Wing Bob Probert has died.
experiencing chest pains, said Windsor Regional Hospital spokeswoman
Gisele Sullens.
He collapsed on the boat and his father-in-law, Dan Parkinson,
administered CPR, Sullens said. Windsor EMS transported him to the
hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
The news of Probert’s passing today was especially sad for senior vice president Jimmy Devellano, who drafted Probert in 1983.
“It’s very sad, very, very sad,” Devellano said. “He was a
pretty popular player in Detroit in the '80s and certainly one tough
guy with a lot of ability. But unfortunately we never got 100% out of
him because of his off-ice problems.”
Probert was 45, and leaves behind a wife and four children.
In his heyday in the late '80s, Probert was known around the NHL
as one of its top heavyweight fighters, and together with Joe Kocur,
they were known as the “Bruise Brothers.”
What made Probert so special, though, was what else he could
do: Skate, shoot, score – in ‘87-88, he had 398 penalty minutes, but
was also third on the team with 62 points.
After being selected by the Wings in the third round in the
same draft that netted Steve Yzerman, Probert played for Detroit from
1985-86 to ’93-94, when the team cut ties with him after numerous
problems because of his drinking. Probert’s career hit a low in 1989
when he was arrested for cocaine possession while crossing the
Detroit-Windsor border, resulting in his being sent to federal prison.
In July 1994, he was in a motorcycle crash in West Bloomfield,
and police determined he had both alcohol and trace amounts of cocaine
in his system. That led the Wings to decide against offering a new
contract to one of their most popular players.
“We did everything,” Devellano said. “I don’t think there was a
player I ever worked harder on, tried harder on to get his off ice life
turned around.”
Contact HELENE ST. JAMES: 313-222-2295 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 313-222-2295 end_of_the_skype_highlighting or [email protected]. Staff writer Zlati Meyer contributed to this report.
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