Wiste was Denver hockey before NHL came to town

Fittingly, Jim Wiste’s public memorial service is Thursday at Magness Arena, the University of Denver’s 6,000-seat hockey rink, and it will take place during the Avalanche’s bye week. The arena may not be big enough to hold all of those who loved and appreciated the man, but the service definitely belongs at DU, where hockey thrived with guys such as Wiste long before the NHL came to town.

The service belongs near the Campus Lounge, the Bonnie Brae restaurant and bar Wiste owned for 40 years — where hockey pulsated until he sold it in 2016, three years after he suffered a heart attack while playing a pickup hockey game with friends at DU. My friend died Tuesday of heart and kidney failure at Porter Adventist Hospital. He was 71.

Wiste, who co-captained the Pioneers to the 1968 NCAA championship, played only 52 games in the NHL — including 29 for the Chicago Blackhawks — but he was a teammate of Blackhawks greats and fellow Saskatchewans Keith Magnuson and Cliff Koroll at DU in 1967-68 and with Chicago in 1969-70. In addition to Magnuson and Koroll, that Blackhawks team featured forwards Stan Mikita and Bobby Hull and goalie Tony Esposito; each was later inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Wiste was a “glue guy” at DU and for the Blackhawks, as well as for his 228game career in the World Hockey Association while Magnuson and Koroll starred for the Blackhawks.

Wiste was always a Blackhawk, whether he was playing for them or tied in with Magnuson and Koroll, and he later became a close friend of current Blackhawks head coach Joel Quenneville, the former Avalanche assistant coach and head coach who led Chicago to the Stanley Cup in 2010, 2013 and 2015.

NBC Sports color analyst Joe Micheletti captured what Wiste meant to the Chicago Blackhawks and to the Denver hockey community Wednesday while working the Blackhawks-rangers game in New York. Micheletti said he met with Quenneville in the morning at Madison Square Garden, and the veteran coach was deeply grieving over his friend.

Wiste also touched former DU head coach George Gwozdecky. “I considered Jim to be a friend and a trusted confidant,” said Gwozdecky, whose 19-year tenure with the program ended in 2013. “During my early years, as we attempted to revitalize our hockey alumni group, Jim was always willing to assist with making calls to other alums, encouraging them to attend home games and opening his restaurant for gatherings. During those days, Keith Magnuson was the undisputed leader of our hockey alumni who inspired the alumni and studentathletes with his energy, enthusiasm and pride for Pioneer hockey. When Keith tragically passed away in 2003, Jim stepped into his friend’s role and proudly carried the ‘leaders’ torch’ effectively for the rest of his days.

“There were very few who were as generous or had a greater sense of humor and a love for life and his friends than Jim.”

I met Jim Wiste about 20 years ago, and the Campus Lounge typically was the go-to place after working DU games. At some point we exchanged cellphone numbers, but I really never got to know the man until the 2016 NCAA Frozen Four in Tampa, Fla., when we met daily for lunch or drinks with mutual friends. We later texted and talked about the Pioneers and the Blackhawks, among other things, and that’s when I knew I had made it.

I had Jim Wiste’s trust, and I was his friend. I had become a genuine hockey writer, and I was capable of writing

about his legacy.

Mike Chambers: mchambers@denverpost.com or @mikechambers