Detroit Red Wings legend Terry Sawchuk was known as a brilliant goaltender with a darkness and sadness in his heart that often left him brooding or depressed.<\/p>\n
But 58 years ago, while playing for the Los Angeles Kings, Sawchuk was feeling festive enough to buy his children a pseudo-White Christmas.<\/p>\n
Unless you live in the San Gabriel Mountains or perhaps the foothills, no one in LA dreams of a white Christmas. According to official snowfall records of Los Angeles County, the last instance a real snowfall in downtown LA was a measured two inches in 1932. Temperatures at sea level don\u2019t often dip low enough to turn rain into snow.<\/p>\n
But Sawchuk had promised his children a white Christmas and he delivered on that promise the best he could on Dec. 23, 1967.<\/p>\n
Dreaming of Crushed Ice?<\/p>\n
Sawchuk, making $40,000 per year with the Kings, cut a deal with a local company to have multiple tons of crushed ice dumped on his front lawn in the beachfront community of Hermosa Beach, California. That at created the illusion of a snowfall not far from the Pacific Ocean.<\/p>\n
The Hall of Fame goalie\u2019s reputation as a grumpy, surly athlete with too many bad days, was not in play that day. He definitely was one of the coolest dads on the block.<\/p>\n
Thirty months later, Sawchuk was dead, on May 31, 1970, at age 40, from complications (internal injuries and infection) resulting from a fight with New York Rangers teammate Ron Stewart the month before.<\/p>\n
The Red Wings retired Sawchuk\u2019s No. 1 in 1994. If you want to read more about Sawchuk\u2019s troubled life, Brian Kendall wrote a 1996 book,\u00a0 Shutout: The Legend of Terry Sawchuk.\u00a0 A second book Sawchuk: The troubles and triumphs of the World\u2019s Greatest Goalie was published in 1998 by David Dupuis, with the participation of the Sawchuk family.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
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