William Howard Keenan III (born April 15, 1986 in
New York, New York
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Uni ...
) is an American author, screenwriter, and former professional ice hockey player who last played for IF Sundsvall of HockeyAllsvenskan. As of February 2019, he has served as chief operating officer of
Graydon Carter
Edward Graydon Carter, CM (born July 14, 1949) is a Canadian journalist who served as the editor of '' Vanity Fair'' from 1992 until 2017. He also co-founded, with Kurt Andersen and Tom Phillips, the satirical monthly magazine ''Spy'' in 1986. ...
's ''
Air Mail
Airmail (or air mail) is a mail transport service branded and sold on the basis of at least one leg of its journey being by air. Airmail items typically arrive more quickly than surface mail, and usually cost more to send. Airmail may be the ...
''.
Early career
Keenan played for the
New York Apple Core
The New York Apple Core are a Tier III Junior A ice hockey team from Brewster, New York, playing in the Eastern Hockey League. The team plays home games at the Brewster Ice Arena. The Apple Core organization is based out of Long Beach, New York, ...
of the
Eastern Junior Hockey League
The Eastern Junior Hockey League (EJHL) was a USA Hockey-sanctioned Tier III Junior A ice hockey league. Founded in 1993 by Dan Esdale, the EJHL had fourteen teams from across the Northeastern United States. The EJHL champion then competed for th ...
from 2003-2005. He was voted an EJHL All Star during the 2004-05 season along with his former Apple Core teammate and current NHL defenseman
Matt Gilroy
Matthew J. Gilroy (born July 20, 1984) is an American former professional ice hockey defenseman who last played for the SC Rapperswil-Jona Lakers of the National League (NL). Gilroy played in National Hockey League (NHL) with the New York Rangers, ...
. Keenan was originally drafted by the Hull Olympiques of the
QMJHL
The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (french: Ligue de hockey junior majeur du Québec; abbreviated ''QMJHL'' in English, ''LHJMQ'' in French) is one of the three major junior ice hockey leagues that constitute the Canadian Hockey League. The l ...
but opted to forego major junior hockey and pursue the NCAA route. On December 4, 2004 he committed to play his collegiate hockey at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
. He was ranked #207 among North American skaters in the 2005 NHL Central Scouting Bureau rankings.
College career
Keenan made his collegiate debut on November 5, 2005 against
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...
at
Baker Rink
Hobey Baker Memorial Rink is a 2,092-seat hockey arena in Princeton, New Jersey. It is home to the Princeton University Tigers men's and women's ice hockey teams as well as the venue for club and intramural hockey teams, intramural broomball, fi ...
. He scored his first collegiate goal against
St. Lawrence University on November 4, 2006 against Alex Petizian at the Bright Arena. Keenan was hampered by numerous injuries in college. He was a college roommate of professional
soccer
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...
player
Mike Fucito
Michael Fucito (born March 29, 1986) is a retired American soccer player.
Career
High School and College
Fucito played for the Brooks School in North Andover, Massachusetts for three years where he was senior Captain. He played forward/strike ...
.
Professional career
After a short stint playing for the Turnhout White Caps of the Belgian first division, Keenan signed with
EHC Neuwied of the German
Oberliga for the remainder of the 2009-10 season. He tallied 15 goals and 14 assists in 14 games played.
Keenan began the pre-season playing with
Kiekko-Laser
Kiekko-Laser were a Finnish ice hockey club from Oulu, Finland. They played in the country's second-tier league, Mestis, after winning a qualification round against RoKi in 2010.
On December 5, 2011 however, the club announced its bankruptcy an ...
in the Finnish
Mestis
Mestis (from fi, Mestaruussarja, meaning 'Championship series') is the second-highest men's ice hockey league in Finland. The league was established by the Finnish Ice Hockey Association in 2000 to replace the I-divisioona ('First Division'). ...
. On September 11, 2010, he signed a contract with
Lindlövens IF of the
Swedish Division 1. He went on to record 8 goals and 2 assists in 32 games.
On August 13, 2011 Keenan reportedly signed a one-year contract with Kramfors-Alliansen of
Hockeyettan
Hockeyettan is the third tier of ice hockey in Sweden. As of the 2015–16 Hockeyettan season, 2015–16 season, the league consists of 46 teams divided geographically into four groups. Hockeyettan operates a system of promotion and relegation w ...
. It was also rumored he had agreed on a contract with
HC Vita Hästen
HC Vita Hästen is a Swedish hockey club, based in Norrköping, which was founded following the bankruptcy of a previous club called IK Vita Hästen. The team plays in HockeyAllsvenskan, the second tier of the Swedish ice hockey system, as of t ...
. On October 19, 2011 in a game against
Östersunds IK
Östersunds IK is a Swedish ice hockey club from Östersund. The club was founded in 1965 and has played 21 seasons in Sweden's second-tier hockey league. In 2003, the club transferred its A-team to Jämtland Hockey and played three years under t ...
, Keenan delivered a check to current
Frölunda HC
Frölunda Hockey Club, previously known as the Frölunda Indians, is a Swedish professional ice hockey club based in Gothenburg. They currently play in the highest Swedish league, the Swedish Hockey League (SHL), formerly the Elitserien, where th ...
defenseman
Emil Djuse. Keenan was suspended five games for an illegal check to the head. Playing alongside former
HockeyAllsvenskan
HockeyAllsvenskan (previously Allsvenskan and SuperAllsvenskan) is a professional ice hockey sports league, league, and the second-highest league in the Sweden, Swedish ice hockey system (after the Swedish Hockey League, SHL). Since the 2009–10 ...
forward Johan Chang, Keenan produced 22 goals, 28 assists for 50 points while racking up 117 penalty minutes in 32 games while Chang piled up 28 goals and 37 assists for 65 points in 40 games. Keenan finished second among North Americans in league scoring behind
Andrew Fournier. Teammate and fellow American Dean Moore finished first among defenseman in scoring. Keenan also finished second among North Americans in penalty minutes. Following the season, Kramfors-Alliansen transferred both Keenan and Moore's rights to IF Sundsvall of
HockeyAllsvenskan
HockeyAllsvenskan (previously Allsvenskan and SuperAllsvenskan) is a professional ice hockey sports league, league, and the second-highest league in the Sweden, Swedish ice hockey system (after the Swedish Hockey League, SHL). Since the 2009–10 ...
before signing forward
Mike Danton
Michael Sage Danton (''né'' Jefferson, October 21, 1980) is a Canadian-Polish former professional ice hockey player who last played for Rivière-du-Loup 3L in the LNAH.
Danton played for the New Jersey Devils and St. Louis Blues of the Nationa ...
to a one-year contract.
Career statistics
Writing
Keenan's first book, ''
Odd Man Rush: A Harvard Kid's Hockey Odyssey from Central Park to Somewhere in Sweden—with Stops along the Way,'' was published by
Skyhorse Publishing
Skyhorse Publishing, Inc. is an American independent book publishing company founded in 2006 and headquartered in New York City, with a satellite office in Brattleboro, Vermont.
History
The current president and publisher is founder Tony Lyo ...
in January 2016. ''
Vanity Fair'' published an excerpt from the book in December 2015 calling it "an uproarious new memoir." ''
The Boston Globe
''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...
'' reviewed the book, saying "''Odd Man Rush'' is a unique item on the bookshelf...Keenan understands the culture
f hockeyand captures it well." ''
The Buffalo News
''The Buffalo News'' is the daily newspaper of the Buffalo–Niagara Falls metropolitan area, located in downtown Buffalo, New York. It recently sold its headquarters to Uniland Development Corp. It was for decades the only paper fully owned by W ...
'' called it "''
Ball Four
''Ball Four'' is a book written by former Major League Baseball pitcher Jim Bouton (1939-2019) in 1970. The book is a diary of Bouton's 1969 season, spent with the Seattle Pilots and then the Houston Astros following a late-season trade. In ...
'' meets hockey." ''
The New York Post
The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com.
It was established ...
'' called it "a bawdy, often comical chronicle of hockey and survival in far-flung places...the international version of the movie ''
Slap Shot
''Slap Shot'' is a 1977 American sports film directed by George Roy Hill, written by Nancy Dowd and starring Paul Newman and Michael Ontkean. It depicts a minor league ice hockey team that resorts to violent play to gain popularity in a declin ...
.''"
SB Nation
''SB Nation'' (an abbreviation for their full name ''SportsBlogs Nation'') is a sports blogging network owned by Vox Media. It was co-founded by Tyler Bleszinski, Markos Moulitsas, and Jerome Armstrong in 2005. The blog from which the network ...
reviewed it, stating "Make no mistake. This is a funny book, but Keenan also has a gift for writing from a place of vulnerability...That being said, you will still find yourself smirking your way through most of Keenan's story."
Academy Award-nominated producer
Howard Baldwin
Howard Lapsley Baldwin[Rose Weld Baldwin obituary](_blank)
ccgfuneralhome.com; acce ...
acquired the film rights to
Odd Man Rush
This is a list of common terms used in the sport of ice hockey along with the definitions of these terms.
0-9
A
B
C
...
, and the project was reported to be in production in February 2019. ''
The Athletic
''The Athletic'' is a subscription-based sports website that provides national and local coverage in 47 North American cities as well as the United Kingdom. ''The Athletic'' also covers national stories from top professional and college sports ...
'' reported the film was in post-production in August 2019 with
Creative Artists Agency
Creative Artists Agency LLC (CAA) is an American talent and sports agency based in Los Angeles, California. It is regarded as an influential company in the talent agency business and manages numerous clients. In March 2016, CAA had 1,800 emplo ...
representing the movie's distribution rights.
Post Hill Press
Post Hill Press, distributed by Simon & Schuster, is a small United States print and e-book publishing house that focuses on publishing "conservative politics" and Christian titles. The company was founded in 2013, and has offices in New York City ...
published his second book, ''Discussion Materials: Tales of a Rookie Wall Street Investment Banker''.
His writing has been featured in ''Vanity Fair'', ''
The Huffington Post
''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...
'', ''
Sports Illustrated
''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twic ...
'', and
Yahoo! Sports
Yahoo! Sports is a sports news website launched by Yahoo! on December 8, 1997. It receives a majority of its information from STATS, Inc. It employs numerous writers, and has team pages for teams in almost every North American major sport. Bef ...
. He is also a frequent contributor to
Stan Fischler
Stan Fischler (born March 31, 1932) is a historian of hockey and the New York City Subway, as well as a broadcaster, author, and professor.
During his career, Fischler was best known for covering the New York Islanders, New Jersey Devils and New ...
's ''The Fischler Report''.
His resignation email from Deutsche Bank went viral and was published by ''Dealbreaker''.
Filmography
Film
Personal
Keenan was born and raised in Manhattan's Upper East Side. He is an alum of
St. Bernard's School and
Collegiate School. Keenan graduated from
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
in 2009 and received his
MBA
A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...
from
Columbia Business School
Columbia Business School (CBS) is the business school of Columbia University, a Private university, private research university in New York City. Established in 1916, Columbia Business School is one of six Ivy League business schools and is one ...
in 2016. Upon completion of his MBA, he took a job as an investment banker at
Deutsche Bank
Deutsche Bank AG (), sometimes referred to simply as Deutsche, is a German multinational investment bank and financial services company headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, and dual-listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the New York Sto ...
.
References
External links
*
*
Bill Keenan Fights
{{DEFAULTSORT:Keenan, Bill
1986 births
American men's ice hockey right wingers
American male non-fiction writers
American memoirists
Harvard Crimson men's ice hockey players
Ice hockey players from New York (state)
Living people
St. Bernard's School alumni
Columbia Business School alumni