World's oldest hockey player remembered as valiant Minnesota legend

After Mark Sertich sustained a serious leg injury at the age of 98, his friends and fellow hockey players figured they'd seen the last of him on the ice.

When he showed up at the rink ready to skate, they could hardly be surprised given the long, colorful history of tenacity, toughness and determination of the world's oldest hockey player. Sertich died on Aug. 24 at the age of 99 in Duluth, Minnesota, leaving behind stories that may sound like tall tales to some but just added to the loveable legend that many people knew well.
"Right to the end he was a tough guy," said Dane Youngblom, who played hockey with Sertich for 30 years. "He took everything and decided I'll just find a way around it."
Youngblom, a retired captain for the Duluth Fire Department, had been playing morning pickup games with his fellow firefighters for exercise when Sertich, who lived near the rink, stopped in and asked if he could join them to get some extra ice time. They said yes, thinking he was probably in his 50s, not his 70s, because he was in good shape and didn't lack for skill.
"He was always a competitive player and even back then when he was 70, he was more competitive," Youngblom said. "Like he'd actually whack you with a stick once in a while."
Pete Stauber, a U.S. Representative from Minnesota's 8th congressional district who played in the Detroit Red Wings organization before he became a politician, also got to know Sertich on the ice. He met Sertich at the rink in the early 1980s when he was high school and continued playing with him during summer pickup games for years.
"Even though he was older, we always wanted to make sure he scored," Stauber said. "So if he was sitting parked in front of the net, no matter what it was, if Mark Sertich was in front of the net, you gave him the puck so he could score. That made his day. And you never checked him. Mark Sertich could pretty much whatever he wanted on that ice."

The more fellow hockey players played alongside him, the more they got to know him, including his refusal to use even an aspirin as he recovered from injuries or illnesses, no matter how severe. When he got that leg injury last year, they weren't sure he'd ever walk again given the muscle had detached from the bone, but back he came in no time at all, ready to get on that ice again.
"He got himself through so many injuries where everybody else said, 'That's it, no more hockey,' and a month later he was back out on the rink," Cynthia Flood, one of Sertich's seven children, told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.
And even as he lived independently, still driving and riding his stationary bike, his hockey community became his friend circle and support system over countless postgame cups of coffee.
Youngblom and the other firefighters helped around the house when he needed it, took him to get hearing aids that he refused to wear, and organized getting Guinness World Records to certify his status as the world's oldest hockey player. Once he did it the first time, he was determined to break his own record every year.
When he was up for it, Sertich told them stories about his time serving in the U.S. Army in World War II and helping to liberate the Mauthausen Concentration Camp in Austria.
"He took Polaroid pictures of the camps and it was hard to get him to do it but every once in a while he would tell us about it and take them out," Youngblom said. "And even this many years later, 75 years later, it would still choke him up when he would talk about it. It was very emotional for him but he was also very proud that he had a part in it."
When the coronavirus pandemic meant he couldn't have a typical birthday party to celebrate his 99th, Youngblom called on his fire department, paramedic and police connections to surprise Sertich with a siren-filled drive-by bash.
"We weren't doing him a favor by hanging out with him," Youngblom said. "He was doing us a favor and he was just a really good friend even though most of us were young enough to be his kids."
Given all he'd been through in his life, even receiving a cancer diagnosis just a few weeks ago wasn't enough to dampen his optimism. He suffered a stroke shortly after that and spoke with friends and family that came to be by his side in his final days.
"For me, that's an example of how one should live his or her life," Stauber said. "Country, community, passion for the hockey, passion for his family and his wife and, boy, if we could take Mark Sertich's life and even do half as good, this world would be so much better."