HANCOCK – Michigan Tech hockey coaching legend John MacInnes once said that Bruce Riutta was the finest defenseman he ever coached.

The late Hancock native was one of the first defensemen at Tech to gain All-American honors, gaining that distinction in 1966 and 1967.

MacInnes said the thing that set Riutta apart was his focus on defense.

“He (Riutta) was a stay-at-home type of defenseman,” the late Tech skipper once noted. “You knew he was always going to be back there.”

Riutta’s statistics at MTU clearly indicate that. He accounted for six goals and 20 assists in his three-year career. But he worked hard to attain all-WCHA and All-American laurels.

In an interview in 2006, Riutta said playing on the same team with such Tech greats as Tony Esposito, Rick Yeo and Gary Milroy made his job easier.

“Our goaltending was so good. You knew either Tony (Esposito) or Rick Best was the last line the other team had to beat,” he said.

While Esposito would become arguably Michigan Tech’s most famous alumnus after a Hall of Fame career in the National Hockey League, the rest of that particular team would have their moments.

And Riutta was one of them.

He was a member of the 1968 U.S. Olympic team that competed in Grenoble, France. He said it was one of his greatest thrills in hockey.

“Having the chance to play for your country in an Olympics is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” he said. “I really enjoyed it.”

The Hancock native first attracted attention in 1960 when he was a member of the Dollar Bay V.F.W. team that won the national Bantam championship in Colorado Springs, Col.

“We had a pretty good team,” Riutta recalled. “Guys like Mike Coppo (Michigan State), Tom Gorman (MTU) and myself went on to play in college.”

Earl Gorman was the coach of the V.F.W. team which defeated a team from Boston in the title game.

He also competed for the U.S. National team between 1969-1971. One of his teammates in the 1970 World Games was Herb Brooks, who would later coach at the University of Minnesota and lead the U.S. Olympic squad to the 1980 “Miracle On Ice.”

Riutta would play for the Green Bay Bobcats between 1968 and 1975, and made his home in Green Bay until his death in 2012.

He was largely responsible for starting high school in Ashwaubenon. Wis. and also coached there.

Riutta came from a hockey family. His father, Emil, played for the Michigan College of Mines (MTU) in the 1930s. His son, Barry, also played at Tech in the 1970s.

Riutta was inducted into the Michigan Tech Hall of Fame and the U.P. Hall of Fame.