Bob Gassoff

Bob Gassoff was a tough as nails defender with the St. Louis Blues in the 1970s, as popular a player as there was in the Gateway City those days. He was maturing from a tough guy and roughian into a dependable defenseman, not totally unlike Shane O'Brien this season with Anaheim then Tampa Bay.

Unfortunately for Gassoff, it all came to tragic end on Memorial Day weekend, 1977. The Blues team gathered for a post-season party at Garry Unger’s farm near Gray Summit, Missouri. Gassoff was riding one of the farm's motorcycles and collided with a vehicle on a road near the far. Not wearing a helmet, Gassoff died instantly.

Just as tragic, Gassoff was survived by wife Diane, who was 7 months pregnant.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch recently caught up with Bob Gassoff Jr. Bobby, as he is known, is no stranger in St. Louis. He served as the team's stick boy, went on to star at the University of Michigan and signed on with the Blues farm team. Nowadays, as it turns out, he's a Navy SEAL serving in a classified location in the Middle East.

Most accounts suggest Bobby is a chip off the old block, which means Bob Gassoff Jr. might just be the toughest S.O.B. in the Middle East these days.