*This article is from the archives of The Minnesota Daily*



Headline: HANKS1.STO
Publish Date: 06/03/1994

Tris Wykes

Staff Reporter
In order to survive, younger siblings have to be tough, resilient and able to keep a secret.

In Casey Hankinson's case, you also have to be willing to play goalie.

For thousands of kids across the state, winter means neighborhood hockey games in which they reluctantly guard the net while projectiles whiz by their ears and over their shoulders.

Hankinson spent a share of his time being a target for his older brothers Peter and Ben. In fact, the Edina High School senior and University hockey recruit swore off the rite of netminding early on in life, due to a face-to-face meeting with a flying puck.

``We'd suit him up in net and his face would just be over the (leg) pads,'' Peter said. ``One day our friend Randy Skarda fired a shot off his forehead. It was only a sponge puck, but it was about ten degrees outside so (the puck) was pretty hard. I think that's when Casey decided he wanted to be a forward.''

The youngest Hankinson can still remember that shot by Skarda, who went on to play at the University and with the St. Louis Blues of the National Hockey League.

``It hurt like hell,'' said Casey, who was eight years old at the time. ``Pete and Ben knew I was just a little guy and they were taking it easy, but Randy took a slap shot from about 15 feet away and I was out like a light. That was the last time I played goalie with him around.''

Casey is neither little nor a target anymore. Still growing at 6-foot-1 and 175 pounds, Casey is a somewhat overshadowed part of the Gopher hockey program's seven-member 1994 recruiting class. He also intends to play baseball at the University.

Casey's family has iron-clad connections with University athletics.

His father, John, a member of the University's class of 1965, was a record-setting Gopher quarterback and the football team's Most Valuable Player his senior year.

Peter and Ben were both four-year letter winners and hockey team captains, Peter in 1989-90 and Ben in 1990-91. Bonnie, mother of the three Hankinsons, attended the University for two years and was a Gopher cheerleader before finishing school in New York.

With such strong ties to Gopher sports, Casey will be easily recognizable to the thousands of die-hard fans who follow Minnesota athletics. And, as one might expect, his physical and athletic characteristics are a mixture of those his older brothers possess.

``He's got Ben's size and demeanor off the athletic field and a lot of Peter's skills on it,'' John Hankinson said. ``He's definitely his own person, but he's had the benefit of their experience and their advice.''

Ben, who played for the NHL's New Jersey Devils and their top minor league affiliate this season, was known more for running over opponents than scooting around them. Peter, the Gophers' scoring leader and MVP during his senior season, succeeded on speed and deception, playing several seasons of minor league hockey before a shoulder injury ended his career.

Though all three brothers have taken their athletic talents to bigger venues, it was in the backyard that their basic skills were honed.

The yard featured an ice rink in the winter and a diamond named ``Brothers Field'' in the summer, and it was often full of youngsters from early morning until lights out.

``We had a multipurpose facility back there,'' said Peter, who recalls waking up late at night and seeing the yard's lights ablaze and his father flooding the rink surface while wearing rubber boots and gloves.

``I'd be out there 12 hours sometimes, but I enjoyed doing it because I enjoyed watching them skate so much,'' John said. ``They were getting their exercise and their friends would come over, and they'd come in for lunch with their skates still on.''

Bonnie has similarly fond memories, though two years ago on New Year's Day, a slap shot by Casey caromed off the rink's boards and cut her in the mouth. She needed 35 stitches.

``I had always wanted to know how to hit a slap shot and I dragged Casey out there to show me how,'' Bonnie said. ``I didn't lose any teeth but my bottom lip got chewed up.''

From the backyard, Peter and Ben went on to earn hockey scholarships to the University. Though neither was a high-profile recruit, both wound up as leaders of their teams at the end of four years.

Casey is now in a similar starting position, having failed to draw notable attention from Division I programs until his stellar performance in the Chicago Showcase postseason prep hockey series late in the winter.

``I talked with Coach Woog in the middle of the season, and when I hung up, I told my parents `Well, I don't think I'll be at Minnesota,''' Casey said. ``It was out of my control, but (the University) was the place I wanted to go most.''

The youngest Hankinson wasn't completely ignored by collegiate suitors, however. Casey made a mid-season recruiting trip to Yale and, after the Chicago Showcase series, he had official visits planned to North Dakota, Colorado College, Northeastern and Wisconsin, among others, though he hit a slight snag while filling out an application for the last school on the list.

``I took it to my mom and told her it needed to be signed but she said, `Well, I don't think I can sign that because I hate the Badgers,''' Casey said, laughing.

Fortunately for Hankinson family relations, Minnesota extended an offer soon after. Casey has verbally committed to play hockey but won't sign a scholarship tender until former Gopher and 1994 Olympic hockey team member Craig Johnson decides whether to return to the University or sign a professional contract.

Once Casey arrives on campus for good, he will face a stiff challenge in trying to suit up for two teams whose seasons overlap virtually the entire academic year.

With the hockey team paying his bills, Casey is aware that sticks and pucks must come before bats and balls. But should Hankinson be held out of hockey competition his freshman year, baseball may be the beneficiary.

``Hockey's what I'm there for right now, and that's number one, but I'd like to play baseball and I think it could happen,'' said Casey, a switch-hitting shortstop on the ball field and a center on the ice.

John said that his youngest son will need determination and needs to set priorities in order to succeed in both sports. Edina High baseball coach Jim Luther, Peter Hankinson and Casey himself all said they anticipate his having to make a choice between the teams at some point.

``I think you can (play two sports) but you have to get everything else in place first,'' John said. ``You're over there to get an education, play hockey number two and then whatever else fits in. It takes a while to adapt.''

Peter earned three letters in baseball while at Edina and played two seasons with a summer league team of Gopher varsity baseball players during his time at the University.

``I definitely would have liked to play baseball (at Minnesota) but the hockey season is so rigorous and I would have had to take batting practice on Sundays during the (hockey season),'' said Peter, for whom baseball ceased to be a viable option after he initially injured his shoulder during a college hockey game. ``Eventually you have to pick one.''

Whichever sport he chooses, Casey will have the full support of his family. Peter now lives in Edina and has season tickets to Gopher hockey, though his viewing pleasure may be undermined by nerves the next few seasons.
``I saw almost all his games this year (at Edina), and it was fun watching him get better as the season went on,'' Peter said. ``I'll probably be nervous next year. When I played I never got nervous and I never understood why anyone would, but watching Ben play on television, I know how it feels to be a parent because you have no control.''

Peter probably won't get as wound up as his mother did for the first game of his Gopher career in 1987.

``I had to spend the game in the first aid room because I hyperventilated,'' Bonnie said. ``I'm real intense and excitable and all of that cheerleader stuff comes out in me, although the third time around it's more relaxing.''

As befits a former college quarterback, John is nearly always calm when watching his sons play. Once known for coolness under pressure and wizardry with a football, John is now more likely to be approached by fans who link him to Peter's tying goal in the 1989 NCAA championship game, or a wild scuffle instigated by Ben.

``I've gone through the whole spectrum,'' John said. ``It used to be, `Didn't you play quarterback for the U?' Now nobody remembers me. It's, `Didn't your kids play here?' and that's great too.''


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