- John D'Amico
John David D'Amico (
September 21 ,1937 -May 29 ,2005 ) was aNational Hockey League (NHL) linesman and later supervisor of officials.A native of
Toronto ,Ontario , D'Amico's NHL career started as a referee onOctober 12 ,1964 , when he was 27 years old. He would only referee 19 games before becoming a linesman.He retired in 1987 as the last
Original Six official. D'Amico's career included 1,689 regular season games and 247Stanley Cup playoff games.After retirement, he became a supervisor of officials for the NHL, a position he held until his death at age 67 after a long battle with
leukemia and bone cancer.D'Amico was also inducted into the
Hockey Hall of Fame in 1993.His health problems started in September 2002 when he suffered a heart attack and underwent bypass surgery. Tests following surgery indicated blood abnormalities and a diagnosis of
aplastic anemia , which resulted ingallstone problems.Just before his death, D'Amico made news headlines across Canada when he spoke out about the poor quality of the country's
health care system.D'Amico is survived by wife Dorothy, sons Angelo, Jeff and Anthony, and daughter Tina. Like his father, Angelo is an NHL linesman.
He was renowned during his career for his immense physical strength. This was especially evident when he was required to break up fights on the ice.
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