W. Godfrey Wood (born 1941, in

Brookline, Massachusetts Brookline is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, in the United States, and part of the Greater Boston, Boston metropolitan area. Brookline borders six of Boston's neighborhoods: Brighton, Boston, Brighton, A ...

) is an American entrepreneur and sports executive. The son of

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * ...

champion

Sidney Wood Sidney Burr Wood Jr. (November 1, 1911 – January 10, 2009) was an American tennis player who won the 1931 Wimbledon singles title. Wood was ranked in the world's Top 10 five times between 1931 and 1938, and was ranked World No. 6 in 1931 and ...

, Wood studied at

Milton Academy Milton Academy (also known as Milton) is a highly selective, coeducational, independent preparatory, boarding and day school in Milton, Massachusetts consisting of a grade 9–12 Upper School and a grade K–8 Lower School. Boarding is offered ...

and later

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 ...

, where he graduated in 1963 and played for the Crimson hockey team. Wood started the

Hartford Whalers The Hartford Whalers were a professional ice hockey team based for most of its existence in Hartford, Connecticut. The club played in the World Hockey Association (WHA) from 1972 until 1979, and in the National Hockey League (NHL) from 1979 to ...

and the

Portland Pirates The Portland Pirates were a minor league professional ice hockey team in the American Hockey League (AHL). Their home arena was the Cross Insurance Arena in downtown Portland, Maine. The franchise was previously known as the Baltimore Skipjacks fr ...

hockey teams.

Businesses

Wood built his career as a real estate broker for Boston-based firm Land-Vest, and owns six restaurants in southern Maine. He served for 15 years as president and CEO of the Portland Regional Chamber of Commerce.

Hockey career

Wood still holds the collegiate season record for lowest goals against average (1.27 GAA, in 1962), as a goalie for Harvard's hockey team. His save percentage of .945 ranks second in all-time NCAA standings (only .001 behind .946). He was the last player cut from the United States team that would play the

1964 Winter Olympics The 1964 Winter Olympics, officially known as the IX Olympic Winter Games (german: IX. Olympische Winterspiele) and commonly known as Innsbruck 1964 ( bar, Innschbruck 1964, label=Austro-Bavarian), was a winter multi-sport event which was celebr ...

. In 1971, Wood was one of the founding partners of a

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) ...

franchise based in

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

, along with

Howard Baldwin Howard Lapsley BaldwinRose Weld Baldwin obituary
ccgfuneralhome.com; acce ...

, John Colburn, and William Barnes. Originally known as New England Whalers upon its inception in 1972, the franchise would later be renamed

when joining 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 ...

in 1979. Wood was part of a group that bid for the NHL's

Boston Bruins The Boston Bruins are a professional ice hockey team based in Boston. The Bruins compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference. The team has been in existence since 1924, making t ...

in 1985, and in 1990 served as front man for future

Boston Red Sox The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Founded in as one of the American League's eight ...

owner

John W. Henry John William Henry II (born September 13, 1949) is an American businessman and investor and the founder of John W. Henry & Company, an investment management firm. He is the principal owner of Liverpool Football Club, the Boston Red Sox, ''The B ...

’s unsuccessful Miami expansion bid in the NHL (where the league instead awarded a franchise to Tampa). Wood owned the

Nashville Knights Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and t ...

of the

East Coast Hockey League The ECHL (formerly the East Coast Hockey League) is a mid-level professional ice hockey league based in Shrewsbury, New Jersey, with teams scattered across the United States and Canada. It is a tier below the American Hockey League (AHL). The E ...

for several years in the early 1990s. In 1993 he partnered with Tom Ebright, owner 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 ...

’s

Baltimore Skipjacks The Baltimore Skipjacks were a minor league professional ice hockey team from Baltimore, Maryland, United States. The Skipjacks originated in 1979, and played as the Baltimore Clippers in the Eastern Hockey League for two seasons. The team was ...

, to move that franchise to

Portland, Maine Portland is the largest city in the U.S. state of Maine and the seat of Cumberland County. Portland's population was 68,408 in April 2020. The Greater Portland metropolitan area is home to over half a million people, the 104th-largest metropol ...

’s

Cumberland County Civic Center Cross Insurance Arena (formerly Cumberland County Civic Center) is a multi-purpose arena located in Portland, Maine. Built in 1977, at a cost of US$8 million, it is the home arena for the Maine Mariners (ECHL), Maine Mariners of the ECHL. There a ...

, and served for three years as general manager to the

. In 1995, Wood created the

Roller Hockey International Roller Hockey International was a professional inline hockey league that operated in North America from 1993 to 1999. It was the first major professional league for inline hockey. History League president Dennis Murphy had been involved in the ...

New England Stingers The New England Stingers were a professional roller hockey team based in Portland, Maine, United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental Un ...

, who lasted only one season. He was president of Penguins Attractions, a sports merchandising and holding company in

Falmouth, Massachusetts Falmouth ( ) is a town in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 32,517 at the 2020 census, making Falmouth the second-largest municipality on Cape Cod after Barnstable. The terminal for the Steamship Authority ferri ...

that was affiliated with the

Pittsburgh Penguins The Pittsburgh Penguins (colloquially known as the Pens) are a professional ice hockey team based in Pittsburgh. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division of the Eastern Conference, and have playe ...

Family

Wood's father Sidney won the

1931 Wimbledon Championships The 1931 Wimbledon Championships took place on the outdoor grass courts at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London, United Kingdom. The tournament was held from Monday 22 June until Saturday 4 July 1931. It was the 51st ...

, and was later president of a gold mine concern in New York, while his stepfather retired as president of the National Association of Independent Schools in Boston. He has been married three times: to Kate Pillsbury (whose family then owned the

Pillsbury Company The Pillsbury Company is a Minneapolis, Minnesota-based company that was one of the world's largest producers of cereal, grain and other foodstuffs until it was bought by General Mills in 2001. General Mills brands consist of Annie's, Betty Croc ...

), with whom he had daughter Whitney and divorced in 1974; to Deborah Chapin Gray (d. 2005) mother of his children Sidney and Amanda; and since 2008 to Karen Rajotte, publisher of th
Portland Phoenix

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wood, W. Godfrey 1941 births Businesspeople from Maine Businesspeople from Massachusetts Living people Hartford Whalers executives Harvard Crimson men's ice hockey players Harvard University alumni Ice hockey people from Massachusetts Sportspeople from Brookline, Massachusetts Milton Academy alumni American chief executives Ice hockey players from Massachusetts