Steve Ludzik Wants To Change Hockey's Culture

From The Hockey News:

An NHL dressing room harbors a lot of secrets—some with good reason. But the environment also encourages players to remain silent on the physical and mental tolls of the game, something that Steve Ludzik wants to change.

The former Blackhawk player and Lightning coach was in Toronto Thursday for a speaking engagement, and he talked about some of the stigmas associated with hockey culture.

“You sit in a dressing room and the guys, if you have a good team, you’re a brother,” Ludzik said. “It’s not good enough to say, ‘I’m hurt.’ You get hurt some nights and you just play. That’s the mentality that you grow up with throughout your career. You’re pressured. But it’s just part of the code.”

Ludzik, 54, suffers from Parkinson’s. He attributed the disease to the many head injuries he suffered in his playing days and believes he’s not the only one that’s suffering post-retirement.

“I think you’re going to see Parkinson’s disease and neurological damage to a lot of players,” he said. It comes out later in life. Mine came out early.”

Here's the full story.

Steve Ludzik Believes Hockey Led To Parkinson's Disease

Steve Ludzik and Steve Larmer's careers will always be intertwined. The good buddies still share a laugh about it all. 

In the late 1970s Larmer and Ludzik were partners in scoring prowess with the Niagara Falls Flyers of the OHA. The two formed a lethal and explosive scoring combination, and though Larmer would continue to score in the NHL whereas Ludzik became an stellar defensive player, it was Ludzik who was the more prolific of the two in junior hockey.

The Chicago Blackhawks drafted the dynamic duo in 1980, Ludzik was drafted 28th overall and Larmer, surprisingly, slipped to 120th. The two spent a year apprenticing together in the minor leagues with AHL New Brunswick, leading the Hawks to the Calder Cup championship, before making the jump to the NHL in 1982-83.

During that rookie season, one of the most famous hockey card mistakes of all time occurred. O-Pee-Chee issued each player's rookie card, but mixed up the photos. Ludzik's rookie hockey card depicted Larmer, while Larmer's depicted Ludzik.

The constant mixing up of the two Steve's ended fairly quickly. Larmer would star on the top line with Denis Savard, constantly scoring 40 goals a year. Ludzik would come to embrace a checking role during his nine years in the NHL. Playing with the likes of Tim Higgins, he transformed himself into a grinder with good speed and good anticipation. His scoring game never did materialize. His best year was 1984-85 when he scored a paltry 11 tallies.

Following a trade to the Buffalo Sabres in September 1989, Ludzik played in just eleven more NHL games before he was relegated to the minors with the AHL Rochester Americans.

Upon retirement he became quite interested in coaching, and quickly went from Colonial League coach of the year to IHL Turner Cup champion to Tampa Bay Lightning head coach. He also established himself as a television personality.

Then his life changed forever. His doctors informed him he had Parkinson's Disease. He wondered if his life in hockey and all those bodychecks and hits to the head contributed to his fate. His doctors can't prove the connection, but they don't disagree.

“They say they can’t prove it, and they can’t not prove it,” Ludzik said. “But it’s likely this is from damage to the head.”

As a result Ludzik has become an advocate to remove hitting from the game at the youth levels under the age of 14 years old.

"Despite battling Parkinson’s, severe liver problems and Crohn’s disease, I realize that I am truly blessed," he says.

Steve Ludzik Battling Parkinson's Disease

Former NHL player and head coach and Steve Ludzik has announced he is ill with Parkinson's Disease. Barry Rozner of the Chicago Daily Herald has an excellent piece on Ludzik's story, including this snippet of speculation as to how hockey may have contributed to Ludzik's illness:

Right away, there was speculation about how Ludzik wound up with Parkinson's, which can be genetic but is almost certainly in Ludzik's case due to the scores of hits to the head he absorbed in decades of playing hockey.

“People who want to say this is from fighting are clueless,” Ludzik said. “I don't give a (bleep) what they think. I only fought (22) times in 10 years and I never got clocked. I never caught anyone good, either.

“This is from getting hit in the head. The constant banging wore me down. It's like being in bumper cars for years without stopping.

“My guess is I had about six concussions, and you never said anything because you didn't want to lose your job. You'd find out later from the guys that when you got to the bench you couldn't say your name, and then you had a headache for a week and couldn't eat anything.”

Whether the accusation that hockey may have led to Parkinson's disease is almost irrelevant. Assuming there is the medical possibility that hockey could do that is pretty scary stuff.

It is great to see Ludzik battling this scary illness with such courage and dignity. Hockey will always be a part of his life (he continues to do TV and radio and has written a book), but he plans on doing everything in his power to help as many Parkinson's sufferers as he can.

“That will be what people remember me for, not for hockey or TV or anything else.