HANCOCK – He’s remembered as one of the toughest hockey players ever to appear on a Copper Country ice rink.

Yet, the late Ernest “Ike” Klingbeil carved out a reputation as an effective two-way player in a long career that spanned more than three decades.

The late Frank “Puppy” Gresnick, a standout defenseman for the Calumet-Laurium Chevrolets, remembered Klingbeil as “one tough cookie.”

“He (Klingbeil) didn’t shy away from contact, that’s for sure,” Gresnick said in a 1996 interview. “But he was a good all-around hockey player.”

The Klingbeil name is a familiar one in the Upper Peninsula Sports Hall of Fame. Both Ike Klingbeil and his grandson, Chuck, were selected for the honor.

Bob Erkkila of Calumet, a voting member of the U.P. Hall of Fame, said the having two family members in the hall isn’t all that rare.

“But having two members – separated by a generation – go on to play at the college and professional level, that is rare,” Erkkila noted. “It’s quite a distinction.”

That distinction carried different routes for the Klingbeils.

For Ike, that meant going from Hancock High School, where he played football (there was no varsity hockey back then) for the Bulldogs.

He then proceeded to play hockey at the University of Michigan in the 1932-33 season – 16 years before the Wolverines entered the NCAA.

After spending three years toiling for Detroit area teams in the old Michigan-Ontario Hockey League, Klingbeil was signed by the Chicago Black Hawks late in the 1936-37 season. He was one of just five Americans on the roster.

After accounting for a goal and two assists in five games in Chicago, the 5-foot-10, 195-pound Klingbeil and the other Americans weren’t called back the following season when team owner Frederic McLaughlin got into a spat with the NHL.

McLaughlin wanted to add five more Americans and put out a team of U.S. players the next season. League owners vetoed the idea, saying there would be a “lack of competition” from an American squad.

Klingbeil returned to the area and starred for the Portage Lake Elks, who won the Gibson Cup in the 1938-39 campaign. His teammates that season included such standouts as Bernie Ruelle and “Gumps’ Juntunen.

After serving in the military during World War II, Ike returned to the area and resumed playing hockey.

He helped Portage Lake to a Northern Wisconsin-Michigan Hockey League title in the 1948-49 season, often playing the entire game.

PL also captured the Gibson Cup that season as the late Bukovich brothers, Tony, Joe and Mike, gave Klingbeil a lot of help.

The Calumet-Laurium Radars were defeated in the 1949 cup action. Johnny Whittaker, Reuben Parske and Gresnick were the key players for the northend team.

Chuck Klingbeil, whose father Charlie was a fine football and basketball player at Hancock High, has had a more documented story.

While he was a football and hockey standout at Houghton High School and a four-year starter on the Northern Michigan University football team, Klingbeil went undrafted after his collegiate career.

He ended up playing for Saskatchewan of the Canadian Football League and was chosen as the Defensive MVP when the Roughriders won the Grey Cup in 1989.

He played another season for the Roughriders before being noticed by the Miami Dolphins, who signed him in 1991.

Klingbeil, a 6-1, 295-pound nose tackle, started for the Dolphins between 1991-95. His best season came in 1995 when he recorded 68 tackles.

Perhaps his biggest moment came when he recovered a fumble by Green Bay quarterback Don Majkowski in the end zone in 1993 for the winning points in coach Don Shula’s 300th career victory.

Chuck was a volunteer defensive line and strength coach for Michigan Tech’s football team the last few years.

Ike was inducted into the U.P. Hall of Fame in 2000, while Chuck entered the hall in 2002.