Modano, Mike

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Modano, Mike

Professional hockey player

B orn June 7, 1970, in Livonia, MI; son of Mike (a construction foreman) and Karen Modano; married Willa Ford (a singer and actress), August 25, 2007.

Addresses: Contact—Dallas Stars, 2601 Avenue of the Stars, Frisco, TX 75034. E-mail—infomike modano.com. Home—Dallas, TX. Web site—http://www.mikemodano.com .

Career

B egan career with the Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, Raiders of Canada’s Western Hockey League, 1986-88; drafted by the NHL Minnesota North Stars as No. 1 pick, 1988; center for Minnesota/Dallas North Stars, 1989—.

Awards: Western Hockey League East First All-Star Team, 1989; NHL All-Rookie Team, 1990; NHL All-Star Game, 1993, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2003, 2004; Dallas North Stars MVP, 1994; United Cerebral Palsy Tom Landry Award of Excellence in Volunteerism, 1998; USA Hockey Bob Johnson Award, 2002; Dallas All Sports Association’s Children’s Medical Center/ Athlete Role Model Award, 2003; NHL Good Guy Award, Sporting News, 2004; Texas Sports Hall of Fame, 2007.

Sidelights

M ike Modano was barely 18 when the Minnesota North Stars selected him as the No. 1 pick in the 1988 National Hockey League (NHL) draft, making him the second U.S.born player ever chosen first. Considered an up-and-coming star, Modano had a puck-shooting speed of 100 mph and he had an uncanny ability to thread his way through the defense. Over the course of the next two decades, Modano remained a steady, reliable presence on the ice and in 2007 became the leading U.S.born goal-scorer of all time, besting Joe Mullen’s career record of 502 regular-season goals. Modano also holds the notoriety of being the top all-time point-producing U.S.born player. “You look at his consistency, and that says a lot about him,” teammate Stu Barnes told the Dallas Morning News’ Mike Heika. “You know what you’re going to get from him. He has maintained a really high level for a really long time.”

The youngest of three, Modano (pronounced moh-DA-noh) was born on June 7, 1970, in the Detroit suburb of Livonia, Michigan, to Mike and Karen Modano. His father worked as a construction foreman. Modano was a lively youngster so his parents introduced him to hockey, hoping he could vent his energy that way. “Hockey was just one of those things we thought could get out his aggressions,” Modano’s father told David Tarrant of the Dallas Morning News. “He was just rambunctious.” On Modano’s first outing, his parents were cautious, pushing him around the ice while he held on to the back of a chair. By the end of their next skating session, Modano had ditched the chair altogether and was skating on his own.

Soon, Modano was playing hockey in the Detroit-based Little Caesars youth program. When he could not get to the rink, Modano practiced in the basement, taking shots against his mother. She would slip on a catcher’s mask and clutch a garbage-can lid for a target, while he whacked away, sending hundreds of shots speeding in her direction. Modano dented the duct work and busted a number of basement windows. During the winter, the family flooded the back yard, forming a makeshift rink on which Modano skated both before and after school.

While Modano enjoyed hockey, he also played baseball, football, and tennis. At the age of eight, he made it to the national semifinals of the Punt, Pass, and Kick tournament after winning the event in Michigan. During his freshman year of high school, Modano lettered in tennis. By his early teens, though, he decided to focus on hockey and take his game to the next level. At 16, Modano left home, heading north to Saskatchewan, Canada, to play in the Western Hockey League (WHL), a preeminent junior ice hockey league known for grooming future NHL players. Modano was picked up by the Prince Albert Raiders. Speaking to the Detroit Free Press’ Steve Crowe, Modano’s mother recalled the move. “It was a hard decision to make, but we said, ‘This is your life. If you really want to play your hockey, it’s up to you.’ So he packed his bags and left. Hockey has been Mike’s life. It’s all he’s wanted to do since he was seven.”

When the Raiders coaches first met the lanky teen in 1986, they did not figure he would last long. “He came walking in, about 6foot1 and weighed about 145 pounds, if he had about $15 worth of quarters in his pockets. He had braces and bleached blond hair,” former coach Brad Tippett noted in a Chicago Tribune article. “We looked at each other and said he’s going to get killed.” Then Modano got on the ice. “After about three minutes, we picked up our jaws and he was given the name ‘Magic.’”

Modano became an instant celebrity in hockey-crazed Prince Albert, a small secluded town in the upper reaches of Canada. In his first season with the Raiders, Modano smacked in 30 goals and had 32 assists in 68 games, becoming the runner-up for the WHL Eastern Division rookie of the year award. During his second season, Modano scored 47 goals and had 80 assists in 65 games. Reporters from all over Canada flocked to Prince Albert to watch him play.

While in Prince Albert, Modano lived with a surrogate family— Carol and Ralph Ring—a couple who had boarded many Raiders players before. They described Modano as a typical teenager who liked to go to the movies and golf. He was also kind enough to oblige the neighborhood youth in games of street hockey. “The kids would come to the door and say, ‘Mike, would you come play with us?’ These were 10-, 12year-old kids. He’d play with them. He was real good with the kids,” Carol Ring recalled to the Dallas Morning News’ Tarrant.

As the 1988 NHL amateur entry draft approached, scouts zeroed in on Modano, and he was selected by the Minnesota North Stars as the No. 1 pick. He reported to training camp in the fall of 1988, but left shortly thereafter because he could not come to a contact agreement. During the lockout, Modano returned to Prince Albert to play for the Raiders and finally reached a deal with the North Stars in January. League rules, however, prevented Modano from joining the team until he completed the season with the Raiders. Modano finally joined the North Stars on the ice during the 1989 spring playoffs.

During his first game of his first full season (on October 5, 1989), Modano scored a goal on his first shot. Over the course of that season, Modano tallied 29 goals and 46 assists, finishing second in rookie of the year voting. He also scored his first hat trick that season, in March of 1990. A hat trick occurs when a player scores three goals in one game. Modano helped the team to the Stanley Cup Finals in 1991, notching 20 points in the playoffs, though the team lost to the Pittsburgh Penguins.

At the start of the 1993-94 season, the North Stars relocated to Dallas and in an effort to drum up support for the new sports franchise in town, the North Stars made Modano its poster boy, touting him as the good-boy celebrity next door. The move had a positive effect on Modano, and that first year in Dallas he scored a career-best 50 goals and was voted the team’s MVP. With his curly blond locks, the 6foot3inch, 205pound Modano became an instant, much-celebrated public figure in Dallas. When he left the arena, he often found women had slipped their business cards under the wipers of his BMW. Roses appeared in his locker. His No. 9 jersey remains the franchise’s bestseller.

Just as Modano seemed to be coming into his own, a lockout shortened the 1994-95 season. In 1995-96, Modano scored a career-high four goals in one game during a February outing against the Edmonton Oilers; his 500th career NHL point followed in March. A coaching change in 1996 further invigo-rated Modano, and he ended the 1996-97 season leading the Stars with the most goals and assists, scoring 35 and 48, respectively. In 1996, Modano was a member of the inaugural U.S. World Cup Champion Team that upset Canada.

In 1999, the Stars made it to the Stanley Cup Finals, where they faced off against the Buffalo Sabres. During triple overtime in Game 6, Modano, playing with a broken wrist, got control of the puck, protected it, and passed it off to Brett Hull for the title-winning goal. He calls that assist one of the highlights of his career. “Having that moment when we were on the ice scoring that goal and being next to each other seeing it go in, that’s a vision in my mind that I will never forget,” Modano told Stephen Hawkins in an article for the Chicago Tribune. In the Stars’ 2-1 Finals victory, Modano had both assists. During the Finals, Modano led all players with seven goals scored.

Modano kept up the steady work, remaining a consistent player over the next few years. In 2002-03, Modano nabbed 57 assists, the most since relocating to Dallas, and finished with 85 points, the third-highest point total of his career. In 2003-04, his 15th season with the Stars, Modano scored his 1,100th NHL point, becoming the third U.S.born player to reach that milestone. On March 17, 2007, Modano scored his 503rd regular-season goal, breaking Joe Mullen’s career record of 502 regular-season goals, making Modano the top U.S.born goal-scorer of all time. He was the 39th player to reach the 500 mark.

Despite his steady play, Modano has never put up megastar numbers—he has never led the league in points or goals scored in a season. Instead, his longevity and steadiness have combined to give him an honorable career. Speaking to the Dallas Morning News’ Heika, former teammate Hull played down the numbers: “He’s one of the greatest players I’ve ever played with, and I don’t think his numbers tell the whole story. He has played in a system for most of his career where he’s been asked to sacrifice scoring to play team defense. There’s no telling what kind of numbers he could have put up in a different system.” Though Modano is a forward, he has been asked to focus on defense, making him more than just a scoring machine. Modano is more adept than most forwards at preventing the opposition from scoring.

Over the course of his career, Modano has played on his share of star-studded teams. As of 2007, he had been selected for the NHL All-Star team six times. Modano also played for Team USA at the 1998, 2002, and 2006 Olympics. At the 2002 games in Salt Lake City, Modano helped Team USA to the gold medal game, where they lost in a grueling match to Canada, earning silver. At the Torino, Italy, games in 2006, Modano was chosen team captain.

Besides hockey, Modano focuses on charity work. In 2000, he established the Mike Modano Foundation, which works to combat child abuse and neglect. He was also instrumental in getting the Dallas-based Mike Modano Infant and Toddler Cottage opened in 2003. The facility is used on an emergency basis to house children who have been taken into protective custody. From 1998 to 2001, Modano supported United Cerebral Palsy by donating $100 per point he scored to the charity. When Modano is not busy with his charity work or playing hockey, he spends time with his wife, actress and pop singer Willa Ford. The two met on a setup by a mutual friend and dated about four years before marrying on August 25, 2007. Ford is best known for competing on ABC-TV’s Dancing with the Stars in 2006.

As the 2007-08 season began, all eyes focused on Modano as he neared Phil Housley’s career-points record of 1,232. Housley, who retired in 2003, held the record for most career points by a U.S.born player. Modano made history on November 7, 2007, when he scored his 1,233rd career point, surpassing Housley’s record. As the 2007-08 season continued, fans stayed behind Modano, wondering just how high he would drive the record. Modano averages just less than one point per game, and it is unclear how many more seasons he will have to add to that record. At 37, Modano could be nearing retirement. Though his contract expires in 2010, Modano has noted that he has more trouble getting ready for each upcoming season.As Modano told USAToday’s Kevin Allen, “It’s year-to-year at this point.”