Gary Allan "Gubbio" Gambucci (born September 22, 1946 in

Hibbing, Minnesota Hibbing is a city in Saint Louis County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 16,214 at the 2020 census. The city was built on mining the rich iron ore of the Mesabi Iron Range and still relies on that industrial activity today. At th ...

) is an American retired

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

who played in 51 games in the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

with the

Minnesota North Stars The Minnesota North Stars were a professional ice hockey team in the National Hockey League (NHL) for 26 seasons, from 1967 to 1993. The North Stars played their home games at the Met Center in Bloomington, Minnesota, and the team's colors for ...

and 112 games for the

Minnesota Fighting Saints The Minnesota Fighting Saints was the name of two professional ice hockey teams based in Saint Paul, Minnesota, that played in the World Hockey Association. The first team was one of the WHA's original twelve franchises, playing from 1972 to 19 ...

of the

World Hockey Association The World Hockey Association (french: Association mondiale de hockey) was a professional ice hockey major league that operated in North America from 1972 to 1979. It was the first major league to compete with the National Hockey League (NHL) ...

between 1971 and 1976. Internationally Gambucci played for the American national team at four

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

Playing career

Before turning professional, Gambucci excelled as a scorer for the United States national team at the

1969 This year is notable for Apollo 11's first landing on the moon. Events January * January 4 – The Government of Spain hands over Ifni to Morocco. * January 5 **Ariana Afghan Airlines Flight 701 crashes into a house on its approach to ...

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli intensity of X (''Extrem ...

and 1971 1971 World Championships as well as the University of Minnesota hockey team. Gambucci was signed as a free agent by the

Montreal Canadiens The Montreal CanadiensEven in English, the French spelling is always used instead of ''Canadians''. The French spelling of ''Montréal'' is also sometimes used in the English media. (french: link=no, Les Canadiens de Montréal), officially ...

in the spring of 1971 after scoring seven goals in ten games for Team USA at the 1971 world championships in

Bern german: Berner(in)french: Bernois(e) it, bernese , neighboring_municipalities = Bremgarten bei Bern, Frauenkappelen, Ittigen, Kirchlindach, Köniz, Mühleberg, Muri bei Bern, Neuenegg, Ostermundigen, Wohlen bei Bern, Zollikofen , website ...

(he was also elected to the tournament all star team at the world championship "Pool B" qualifying tournament in 1970). The Canadiens immediately traded him and

Bob Paradise Robert Harvey "Bob" Paradise (born April 22, 1944) is an American former professional ice hockey defenseman who appeared in a total of 368 National Hockey League (NHL) regular season games between 1971 and 1979. Internationally, Paradise played f ...

to the North Stars for cash. However, Gambucci failed to become a regular in Minnesota and left the NHL for the

of the rival

following the 1973–74 season. Gambucci retired from professional hockey in 1976 after playing 112 WHA regular season games for the Fighting Saints as well as representing the United States at the 1976 World Championships in

Katowice Katowice ( , , ; szl, Katowicy; german: Kattowitz, yi, קאַטעוויץ, Kattevitz) is the capital city of the Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland and the central city of the Upper Silesian metropolitan area. It is the 11th most popul ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

International

Awards and honors

References

External links

* 1946 births Living people AHCA Division I men's ice hockey All-Americans American men's ice hockey centers Cleveland Barons (1937–1973) players Ice hockey players from Minnesota Jacksonville Barons players Johnstown Jets players Minnesota Fighting Saints players Minnesota Golden Gophers men's ice hockey players Minnesota North Stars players Portland Buckaroos players Sportspeople from Hibbing, Minnesota Ice hockey people from St. Louis County, Minnesota Undrafted National Hockey League players United States Hockey Hall of Fame inductees {{US-icehockey-centre-stub