Hockey Hall of Fame chairman has 'coolest job' in world

TORONTO -- This is when Lanny McDonald might be happiest.

Ten, maybe 15 times a year, McDonald will preside over a special event as chairman of the Hockey Hall of Fame, either at the Toronto shrine or elsewhere in the city.
And when his night's work is done, the 65-year-old from Hanna, Alberta, will quietly find his way to the Esso Great Hall, the stately room where the Stanley Cup and other historic trophies are displayed among the plaques celebrating every member of the Hall of Fame enshrined since 1945.
"Yes, I do have a pass card," McDonald joked Friday of his security clearance, the Great Hall overflowing with media interviewing the six members of the Class of 2018 following the annual ring presentation ceremony.
"I'll just come into this room and walk around and reflect on some of the names. I think I have the coolest job in the world. If you love the game and the history of it, it's so cool to be chairman of the Hockey Hall of Fame."
On stage to McDonald's left, holding court with reporters, were NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, elected this year in the Builders category, and Martin Brodeur, the winningest goalie in League history.
Scattered around the Great Hall, hip deep in microphones and notebooks, were players Jayna Hefford, Martin St. Louis and Alexander Yakushev, as was Builder Willie O'Ree, the trailblazer who broke hockey's color barrier and for decades has championed hockey diversity,
Behind Brodeur's left calf was McDonald's Class of 1992 plaque. It is at the extreme bottom right of six rows at the front of the room, each row featuring nine individuals -- "the luck of the draw," McDonald chuckled about his ankle-high placement.
"There's this guy over on the far side holding up the far corner, a picture of him, he used to have red hair and a bushy mustache," he said with a grin. "It's pretty cool to see that plaque over there. But seeing the Stanley Cup in this room, especially late at night, especially when people are starting to leave an event, when the lights are starting to go down… it's one of the coolest things. I can close my eyes when I get back home and picture it exactly the way I just left it."
McDonald is in awe of having been elected to the Hall of Fame, in the same class with contemporaries Bob Gainey and Marcel Dionne, mid-1930s to mid-1950s star Woody Dumart, and Builders Frank Mathers, Keith Allen and Bob Johnson.

"I believe Bill Hay, the chairman of the Hall, called in 1992 to tell me, but I'm so old I can't remember back that far," he said. "I actually thought it was one of my buddies pulling a prank on me. And then you realize, 'Oh my gosh, this is happening.'
"I played with Bob Gainey. We were drafted at the same time (McDonald No. 4 by the Toronto Maple Leafs, Gainey No. 8 by the Montreal Canadiens, each in the 1973 NHL Draft) and I played 16 years against him. He and I and Marcel retired together, and we all played together in 1976 (representing Canada in the Canada Cup tournament). It was very fitting that the three of us as players would have all gone in together."
But as dazzled as he is being an Honored Member of the Hall, McDonald is star-struck almost to the point of being a groupie when he presides over Hall events with the likes of the legendary Red Kelly and Ted Lindsay, as he did here in June when the shrine marked the 75th anniversary of its founding and 25th year at its current address.
"The party was supposed to be from 6 to 11 p.m., for just Hall of Famers and their wives or significant others," McDonald recalled. "We extended the bar until 1 o'clock. Maybe 10 or 12 players were left at midnight, and Red and Ted, a month before their 91st and 93rd birthdays, were still there."
McDonald says that he feels like Santa Claus -- "and my whiskers are white," he jokes of his iconic mustache -- when he places a call every June to those who have been elected to the Hall of Fame.
"They're all so richly deserving of the honor," he said. "Every year we think, 'This is the best class ever,' but you look at the six individuals up there today and they're all so deserving. You've got four players and two Builders who have done phenomenal work in and around the game. And the way they have represented themselves both on and off the ice? I couldn't be prouder."