Henry Boucha, an enduring high school hockey legend since leading Warroad to the championship game of the 1969 Minnesota state tournament, was in the Twin Cities when he died Monday at age 72.
Boucha recently moved back to Warroad, the hockey-mad small town 7 miles south of the Canadian border, but was in the Twin Cities to see a doctor at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center when he collapsed, his daughter Tara confirmed.
She said her father had battled heart trouble for several years and had fluid drained biweekly.
Funeral arrangements are pending.
Warroad's 1969 state title game against Edina drew 15,066 to Met Center, then the largest crowd to watch a high school hockey game in Minnesota. Warroad lost 5-4 in overtime after Boucha suffered a punctured eardrum while being checked into the boards, forcing him to leave the game in the second period.
Boucha, an Ojibwe who championed causes on behalf of Native Americans, also played in the NHL, World Hockey Association and on the U.S. Olympic team, winning a silver medal in 1972.
