Goldie Goldthorpe

Who is Goldie Goldthorpe?

Bill "Goldie" Harpo Goldthorpe is a retired professional ice hockey player who served as the inspiration for Ogie Ogilthorpe in the 1977 film Slap Shot.

Goldthorpe, a left winger who grew up in Thunder Bay, Ontario, is widely regarded as one of the most infamous hockey enforcers to have ever played the game, a man once dubbed the "wildest, meanest, most unpredictable player in hockey." In his chequered eleven-year career, Goldthorpe played for no fewer than ten minor league teams and four World Hockey Association squads; he also suited up for exhibition games with the Toronto Maple Leafs and Pittsburgh Penguins, but never played in a regular-season NHL game. Along the way, Goldthorpe racked up an amazing 1,132 penalty minutes in just 194 professional games.

On January 1, 2008 during the first intermission of the NHL's Winter Classic outdoor game in Buffalo, NBC showed a short piece on the movie Slap Shot and Goldthorpe's connection to Bob Costas: Costas once did radio play-by-play for the 1973-74 Syracuse Blazers, Goldie's team at the time.

Goldthorpe is currently a foreman at a construction company in San Diego, a position he has held for several years.