Minnesota Hockey was saddened to hear of the passing of Gerry Brown, one of our foremost leadership volunteers. His 40-plus year legacy is staggering in its depth.

Gerry started his youth hockey participation in St. Louis Park in 1969 as an assistant PeeWee B coach. He advanced to PeeWee A Head Coach, retaining that position from 1971-76, and then served as Bantam A Head Coach from 1976-84. His teams were excellent, frequently competing at the Regional level. He also got involved administratively with SLP youth hockey, and became Minnesota Hockey District 3 Director in 1977, replacing Nils “Sonny” Sundquist.

He quickly ascended to Rules Committee Chairman in 1978, and gave up his District 3 Director’s position to Ralph Goldhirsch in 1980 to become a Minnesota Hockey Vice President (South Coordinator). Gerry’s interest in coaching drew him into the Coaching Education Program, and from 1980-88 he was a Clinic Director and served on the Coaching Committee. He also got involved with the Handbook, Long-Range Planning and Nominating Committees, and chaired the Age-Change Committee.

Gerry’s Rules and Handbook contributions were significant. He drafted the original language for the “Residency” rule and “Levels of Play” rule (A-B-C-House), providing for the District Directors to make decisions in both areas.  Gerry put together the Handbook from 1993 to 2004 – the way it “looks and feels” today is very much his doing. Bob Halverson took over that tedious job in 2005, after spending seven years as Brown’s understudy – Gerry had to have confidence that his tradition of completeness and accuracy would be continued.

As a software programmer, one of Gerry’s strengths was organization – this led him to the registration area. He became a Sub-Registrar in the early 1990s, and then succeeded Bernie Moshier as the USA Hockey Registrar for Minnesota and the Dakotas.

His penchant for precision and automation was immediately noticed by USA Hockey, causing him to have a key role in setting up a nationwide registration process. He was instrumental in USA Hockey adopting the CyberSport registration system, and performed annual beta-testing of each upcoming season’s system. His leadership and contributions will be sorely missed by USA Hockey.

Tim Donahue, Head Coach of the St. Louis Park Boys’ High School Varsity team, was coached by Gerry in 1982 and considers him one of his biggest influences in hockey and one of the reasons he went into coaching. Tim related that Gerry would bring two cut-off hockey sticks to every practice and would load up everyone’s skates that needed to be sharpened. He had his own skate sharpener (which you rarely heard of back in those days) and despite his busy professional life and family obligations, would spend hours sharpening everyone’s skates free of charge.

When Tim moved on to high school he still brought his skates to Brown for sharpening. Gerry would invite him downstairs to watch and would often ask Tim how he liked them, even going so far as to ask what rink his next game was on (if it was a cold rink with hard ice, he’d put more of an edge on it – if it was softer ice, he’d go with a little less edge).

Tim stopped by Gerry’s house years later – he had taken his first coaching job and wanted some advice. “He told me that I probably knew more about the game than he ever did, mentioning how the game had evolved and that there were now better drills and better systems.  I sensed that he wished he could go back and coach me again, knowing what he learned over the years and that maybe he could have been a better coach. He was so humble – he never thought of himself as a good coach. I really wanted him to know how I felt, and told him that if I could treat kids half as well as he treated us that I would be a great coach. That comment brought a tear to his eye and I remember understanding at that moment why my father always made sure I went up to my coaches in any sport that I played and thanked them at the end of the season.”

Minnesota Hockey officially recognized Gerry several times for his many contributions. He received the Leadership Award in1983, the President’s Award in 1986, 1995 and 2006, and the prestigious Don Clark Award in 2009.

Gerry was a wonderful man, touching the lives of many in the hockey community. He was the complete hockey person – he played, he coached, he managed and he inspired. His amazing efficiency, low-profile approach and versatility will be sorely missed.