Todd Eugene Okerlund (born September 6, 1964) is an American former professional
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 ...
right winger
A midfielder is an outfield position in association football.
Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...
.
Okerlund was drafted 168th overall by the
New York Islanders
The New York Islanders (colloquially known as the Isles) are a professional ice hockey team based in Elmont, New York. The Islanders compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference ( ...
in the
1982 NHL Entry Draft
The 1982 NHL Entry Draft was the 20th NHL Entry Draft. It was held at the Montreal Forum in Montreal, Quebec. The National Hockey League (NHL) teams selected 252 players eligible for entry into professional ranks, in the reverse order of the 1981 ...
and then spent four seasons playing for the
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...
. However, his pro career was cut short due to a chronic knee injury. He played one professional season, playing 13 games for the
Springfield Indians
The Springfield Indians were a minor professional ice hockey franchise, originally based in West Springfield, Massachusetts and later Springfield, Massachusetts. The Indians were founding members of the American Hockey League. They were in existen ...
of the
American Hockey League
The American Hockey League (AHL) is a professional ice hockey league based in the United States and Canada that serves as the primary Minor league#Ice hockey, developmental league for the National Hockey League (NHL). Since the 2010–11 AHL se ...
and 4 games for the New York Islanders and also played on the
1988
File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...
United States Olympic ice hockey team before retiring.
As of 2012, Okerlund lived in the
Minneapolis–Saint Paul
Minneapolis–Saint Paul is a metropolitan area in the Upper Midwestern United States centered around the confluence of the Mississippi, Minnesota and St. Croix rivers in the U.S. state of Minnesota. It is commonly known as the Twin Cities ...
,
Minnesota
Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...
area and worked in advertising.
Personal life
Okerlund is the son of
"Mean" Gene Okerlund, a longtime pro wrestling announcer for the
AWA
Awa (or variants) may refer to:
People
* Awa (given name), notable people named Awa or Hawa
* Awá (Brazil), an indigenous people of Brazil
* Awa-Kwaiker, an indigenous people of Colombia and Ecuador
Languages
* Awa language (China) or Wa (Va) ...
, WWF (now
WWE
World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., d/b/a as WWE, is an American professional wrestling promotion. A global integrated media and entertainment company, WWE has also branched out into other fields, including film, American football, and vario ...
) and
WCW
World Championship Wrestling, Inc. (WCW) was an American professional wrestling promotion founded by Ted Turner in 1988, after Turner Broadcasting System, through a subsidiary named Universal Wrestling Corporation, purchased the assets of Nationa ...
.
Okerlund ran the
professional wrestling
Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring o ...
media company Classic Wrestling from 2000 to 2018, packaging vintage wrestling footage into shows that aired on both
pay per view
Pay-per-view (PPV) is a type of pay television or webcast service that enables a viewer to pay to watch individual events via private telecast.
Events can be purchased through a multichannel television platform using their electronic program guid ...
and online streaming services.
Career statistics
Regular season and playoffs
International
References
External links
*
1964 births
Living people
American men's ice hockey right wingers
Ice hockey players from Minnesota
Ice hockey players at the 1988 Winter Olympics
Minnesota Golden Gophers men's ice hockey players
New York Islanders draft picks
New York Islanders players
Olympic ice hockey players of the United States
People from Burnsville, Minnesota
Springfield Indians players
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