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Tony Bukovich was an athlete in truest sense of word

Courtesy Photo Tony Bukovich is pictured with brothers, Mike and Joe, while they were members of the Portage Lake Pioneers.

PAINESDALE — He was a great hockey player, probably one of the finest in Copper Country history.

But the late Tony Bukovich could also play baseball very well. And he was a sports ambassador for the Copper Country.

The Painesdale native was said to have been the only athlete in the area who signed professional contracts in two sports.

The late Dick Loranger, who wrote sports for the Daily Mining Gazette for five decades, said Bukovich was an all-around competitor.

“Everyone know about his hockey exploits,” said Loranger in a 2001 interview. “But he also was a fine baseball player who signed a contract with the Brooklyn Dodgers.”

Growing up in Painesdale, Tony teamed up with brothers, Mike and Joe, in the Painesdale Athletic Club in 1934.

The PAC won several local and regional championships in their time there.

Playing for the Sault Ste. Marie Indians, he helped that team to a Michigan State Amateur championship by scoring two goals at the old Olympia Stadium.

He said that performance drew the attention of the Detroit Red Wings.

“They offered me a contact, so I ended up signing,”

Bukovich said in 2004. “It was a dream come true for a kid from the Copper Country.”

While working at Ford Motor Co. at the time, Bukovich played for the plant team in the Michigan-Ontario League.

The Wings called him up from their farm club in Indianapolis late in the 1945-46 season — just in time for the Stanley Cups playoffs.

During the regular season, he scored seven goals in seven games. That drew him some postseason playing time against the mighty Montreal Canadiens and their ace Maurice Richard.

“I was assigned to shadow Richard,” he recalled later. “He was so fast on the ice. No wonder his nickname was the “Rocket.”

Tony played a few games the following season, but was cut to make room on the roster for an up-and-coming rookie by the name of Gordie Howe.

“I always kidded him (Howe) about that …. that he was my replacement in Detroit,” he said.

The Dodgers signed him to a contract after he posted a 17-7 record in the Northern-Michigan-Wisconsin League with Iron River.

He later pitched with Dodgers farm teams in the Mid-Atlantic League and the Indiana-Ohio League.

Possesing a good fastball, he ended up with the Detroit Auto Club in the city league. The Auto Club squad won the World Amateur Baseball Federation in 1942 as Bukovich was named Most Valuable Player.

In four years with Auto Club, he posted a sterling 35-7 record.

He moved back to the area in 1948 and purchased a business he named, “Tony’s Sports Bar.”

Playing with the Portage Lake Pioneers for eight years, Bukovich teamed up with his two brothers to win a few more titles.

Between 1948 and 1955, he amassed 276 goals and 178 assists and led the league in scoring five times. Included was a memorable 12-2 playoff win over Marquette in which he totaled eight goals and two assists.

In baseball, he organized and played on a Houghton Copper Sox team that won five straight Upper Peninsula championships.

He retired from sports in 1955, but came back to coach the newly formed Green Bay Bobcats in 1958 fo one season. His son, Tony Jr., played for the Bobcats for a few seasons.

Former Red Wing teammates would often visit him at his bar, including Ted Lindsay, Alex Delvecchio and Howe.

“He was a regular ambassador for the area,” Loranger said. “The people flocked to his place whenever they heard there were Detroit players in town.”

Bukovich was named to the Upper Peninsula Sports Hall of Fame.

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