Warriors Unmasked: 33. In Unity There Is Strength: Life After Hockey with Larry Landon

33. In Unity There Is Strength: Life After Hockey with Larry Landon

Aug 17, 2021

Welcome back to Warriors Unmasked! You’ve heard the old saying “not all heroes wear capes,” right? If you haven’t you’ll get to hear exactly how true that saying actually is. In this episode, we sit down with the living legend himself, Larry Landon!

Throughout history books, there are stories scattered throughout about people helping out the little guy. Men and women rise up and take it on themselves to stick up for people being taken advantage of or not given a fair shot at the resources they need. In the world of professional sports and hockey, you may not consider athletes as a group of people being underserved but when you take a closer look at the average medical bills, housing costs, travel expenses, and other things the players are responsibly for you can start to easily see how you can go broke chasing your dreams. Not to mention after you hand up your skates for the last time the mental and physical tole of hockey can start to reveal itself even more.

Issues like this will soon be a thing of the past if our guest today has anything to say about it. Larry Landon former collegiate hockey player and team captain at RPI draft pick of the Montreal Canadians, a former NHL player with the Montreal Canadians and the Toronto Maple Leafs, and the current executive director of the Professional Hockey Players Association.

Hear all about Larry’s storied Hockey career, being in the Olympics playing alongside the greatest names in the sport, how he found the courage to serve 1,797 players, and everything in between.

We know this episode will leave you motivated and inspired to give back and start making a difference in the lives of those around you.

Always In Your Corner,

Chuck and Clint

More Of What’s Inside:

What playing in the Olympics was like
When two boxes came to the door
How hockey was a part of Larry’s destiny
Reliving days on the ice
Life at RPI and the first game in the NHL
Life after hockey
Fighting for the truth above all else
What made Larry passionate about union work
The power of serving others

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Episode Minute By Minute:

0:02 - What we cover today
1:53 - Conversation starts
2:44 - The journey of Larry Landon
7:54 - When Larry got his hockey scholarship
14:30 - How Larry developed his work ethic
19:40 - The starting line up at the Olympics
24:53 - What ended Larry’s hockey career
25:40 - Now the second part of Larry Landon
32:40 - Two boxes and a basement
37:29 - What gave Larry the courage to fight
44:19 - How to learn more about Larry and his work

More about Larry:

Recently signed a 5-year contract extension which will see him continue to serve as Executive Director of the PHPA through the 2024-25 season.

The 2020-121 season will mark Landon’s 39th year of involvement with the PHPA. A native of Niagara Falls, Ontario, Landon was drafted by the Montreal Canadiens while on a hockey scholarship at Renssalaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) where he was captain in both his Junior and Senior years. While Landon turned pro at the end of the 1980-81 season, it was during his first full season in the American Hockey League with the Nova Scotia Voyageurs in 1981-82, when he was elected by his teammates to serve as the team’s PHPA Player Representative. Since then, Landon has been committed to the players, as he continued to serve as a Player Representative and subsequently as a member of the PHPA Executive Committee while with the Sherbrooke Canadiens and St. Catharines Saints. While playing in the National Hockey League for Montreal and Toronto, Landon continued to assist players at the AHL level. Upon his retirement as an active player in 1985, he was hired by the PHPA as a part time staff member, and later promoted to Deputy Executive Director in 1991. In 1993, Landon was formally elected as Executive Director.

Since that time, Landon has directed the restructuring of the Association, having created an internal Benefits Department, Licensing and Marketing programs, a Career Enhancement Program (“Life After Hockey”), three (3) Health and Welfare Trusts, two (2) Severance Trusts, an AHL 401(k) plan, the digitization of all player files, and oversaw the purchase and renovation of a state-of-the-art office building in Niagara Falls, Ontario which is now the home of the PHPA.

His knowledge of hockey has been demonstrated through his involvement as lead negotiator in the successful completion of 22 Collective Bargaining Agreements resulting in marked improvement for players’ economic status, playing conditions, health benefits, and rights. Under Landon’s direction, the Association has grown in Membership from approximately 600 to 1600 Members, having directed the labor certification of the International Hockey League (IHL) in 1986, East Coast Hockey League (ECHL) in 1995, and Central Hockey League in 2008, joining them with the American Hockey League whose players have been represented by the PHPA since 1968.