80 year old goalies makes two final saves off Blackhawks legends before finally retiring

Ron Fedor of Mount Prospect, Illinois is finally hanging up the goalie pads for good.

The 80 year old lifelong hockey fan has been watching and playing the sport since he first joined Chicago's South Side men's league back in the 1950s. Now, he's finally done for good... but he didn't pack it in until he had one final showdown against Chicago Blackhawks legends Mush Marsh and Patrick Kane.

Kane, as we all know, is famous for scoring the Blackhawks' overtime Stanley Cup winning goal back in 2010. Mush accomplished the same feat way, way back in 1934 scoring the Blackhawks' overtime Stanley Cup winning goal against the Detroit Red Wings. To Hell with them though... Fedor shut 'em down easily.

"Kane took it easy on me because I was 80 years old," Fedor says. "The day it happened, I was tired and weak, so I really couldn't move."

Here's Kaner taking a shot on the old goalie pre-COVID 19 pandemic.

Check it out:

How cool is that?!

While Fedor has hung in to the ripe age of 80, he admits that injuries have taken their toll and he just can't play the way he'd like to anymore.

"I got wrapped around a goal post and broke some vessels in my arm and shoulder," Fedor says. He healed, but he also has had a couple of heart attacks, and his teammates didn't think it was safe for him to return to action.

His team "dropped him on waivers", Fedor jokes.

Fedor has been playing hockey since 1947, back when he used to use burlap sacks stuffed with rags for his goalie pads. "I was interested in playing goalie from the beginning because I wasn't that good of a skater," Fedor says. "I filled two burlap potato bags with rags and tied them around my legs, and those were my pads."

Fedor got good quickly and worked his way through the men's league ranks, he even managed to get himself a stint with the Navy during his service from 1951-55. "I wanted to try out for the Eastern League," he says, recalling an established high-quality, semipro league. "But I couldn't find work."

Fedor returned to Chicago and has spent the past 60 years playing goalie in local leagues as much as possible. With his final saves on Marsh and Kaner now though, he's finally ready to retire.

For the full story from the Daily Herald, click below: