Many other people knew Jim White better than I did. The great thing about him was that he’d never let you know that.
White, a longtime off-ice official at Denver and a college hockey afficionado, passed away Thursday after an illness.
I met White a few years back as part of the visiting media corps on a trip to Denver, but every time I came back to Magness Arena or saw him at the WCHA Final Five, he treated me like one of his oldest friends.
I remember spending a half-hour with him at the airport in Columbus, Ohio, the day after the 2005 national championship game. Much like many of the Denver followers after the back-to-back titles triumph, I don’t think he had slept a whole lot. And, if I recall correctly, he was facing a long day of trying to get back to Denver because of a line of storms rolling through the Front Range. But he was always willing to talk hockey, especially Denver and the WCHA.
It always hurts when we lose someone who loved college hockey as much as Jim did. Condolences to his family.
