Remembering Rob Guinn

NORTH RICHLAND HILLS, Texas — Two things that are constantly on my mind most days are my children and hockey. That probably has a lot to do with why this morning, out of the blue, I was thinking about the loss of Rob Guinn in the summer of 2008.
 
I don’t know why the events of that summer came to mind today and I

thought later about how we shouldn’t need a particular anniversary to mark the passing of those who have left us. We also shouldn’t need a particular reason to remember. Nonetheless, when I was looking up his age for this article, I saw that today would have been Rob’s 34^th birthday.
 
Guinn was just 32 years old on the night of July 12^th, 2008 when he got into his car to go home after a college class. He already had a degree in Sociology but had decided he wanted to go into nursing after his hockey career was over. On the way back home to his wife and five month old daughter, his car was hit by another vehicle that failed to stop at an intersection and in an instant, Rob was gone.
 
Selected by the Edmonton Oilers in the eighth round (#185 overall) of the 1994 NHL Entry Draft, Guinn played for eight seasons in the WPHL, ECHL, UHL and CHL; his final season with the Bloomington Prairie Thunder (IHL). Known as a steady and consistent defenseman, he had tallied 264 points (44 G, 220 A) and 627 penalty minutes in 564 games played during his professional career.
 
His best season was in 2006-07 with the Central Hockey League’s New Mexico Scorpions. Guinn put up 56 points (7 G, 49 A) with 90 penalty minutes, starting in all 64 regular season contests. He played in 18 games in the post-season, tallying 15 points (4 G, 11 A) and 30 penalty minutes as the Scorpions battled their way to the Southern Conference Finals, where they fell to the Laredo Bucks, four games to one.
 
It’s an understatement to say that he made a tremendous impression on his teammates, coaches and fans, wherever he played, not to mention the personal relationships he developed on and off the ice.
 
My youngest daughter turned two on Saturday and I think of Rob’s daughter Olivia, who would be just about the same age now. All the joy and pride that I have every day is something Rob had taken from him. It makes me sad that Olivia will never know her daddy. All she will have is photographs and memories from the people who knew him best.
 
I think of Rob’s wife Brooke, and the loss she has suffered. She and Rob would have celebrated their second anniversary on September 16^th, just two months after his passing.
 
There were other tragedies in the minor professional hockey world that summer. You may have received the e-mail updates from Kara Borsheim, who gave us the progress on her husband Les, paralyzed in a motorcycle accident that June. You may have followed the online diary of Bethany Baird, who kept us up to date on the progress of her husband Jason, who was horribly burned while working for a landscaping company just five days after Guinn’s death.
 
Brooke didn’t have the opportunity to share like Bethany and Kara. What she does have is the time that she and Rob had together and beautiful Olivia, the life they created.
 
If it’s in your heart to do so, please make a donation to a fund set up to provide for Olivia Guinn’s future education.
 
Send your check, made out to the Rob Guinn Memorial Fund, to Leighton Legal Group, 802 N. Clinton Street, Suite 1, Bloomington, Illinois 61701.
 
If you’re a fan, go out and cheer on your team the way a player like Rob would have liked to hear. If you’re a player, play your next game the way a teammate like Rob would liked to have played and if you’re a husband and a father, hug your wife and child the way a man like Rob would have liked to, just one more time.
 
Contact the author at robert.keith@prohockeynews.com