Steve Durbano

Steve Durbano
Date of birth	December 12, 1951
place of birth	Toronto , Ontario , Canada
date of death	November 16, 2002
Place of death	Yellowknife , Northwest Territories , Canada
size	185 cm
Weight	91 kg
position	defender
Shot hand	Left
Draft
NHL Amateur Draft	1971 , 1st lap, 13th position New York Rangers
Career stations
1968-1971	Toronto Marlboros
1971-1972	Omaha Knights
1972-1974	St. Louis Blues
1974-1976	Pittsburgh Penguins
1976	Kansas City Scouts
1976-1977	Colorado Rockies
1977-1988	Birmingham Bulls
1978-1979	St. Louis Blues

Harry Steven "Steve" Durbano (born December 12, 1951 in Toronto , Ontario , † November 16, 2002 in Yellowknife , Northwest Territories ) was a Canadian ice hockey player (defender) who served from 1972 to 1979 for the St. Louis Blues , Pittsburgh Penguins , Kansas City Scouts and Colorado Rockies played in the National Hockey League and the Birmingham Bulls in the World Hockey Association .

Career

After his time as a junior with the Toronto Marlboros in the OHA , he was selected in the first round of the NHL Amateur Draft in 1971 by the New York Rangers , for which he never played, however, as 13th. Also in the WHA they had tried to get him and so here the rights to him in the initial draft of the league were given to the Québec Nordiques .

Durbano could not prevail with the Rangers and played for the farm team, the Omaha Knights in the Central Hockey League . Since the St. Louis Blues were looking for body-hugging players, he was given up where he quickly gained a reputation as an extremely aggressive player. During his second season in 1973/74 , he moved to the Pittsburgh Penguins . An injury cost him the 1974/75 season and he could only play one game. But even in this game he had 10 penalty minutes. In the middle of the 1975/76 season his journey continued to the Kansas City Scouts . The team moved with him at the end of the season and from then on played in Denver under the name Colorado Rockies . Durbano was also used here more often in the farm team, the Rhode Island Reds in the AHL . A change to the WHA followed. Here he let his fists fly for the Birmingham Bulls for one season. For the 1978/79 season he returned again to the St. Louis Blues for 13 games with 103 penalty minutes.

A climax of the negative kind occurred on February 21, 1979: During a game against the New York Rangers, Durbano, who had just been in a brawl with Rangers player Nick Fotiu , indicated that he should pull his pants down, showing the audience at the Madison Square Garden its "bare bottom". Durbano immediately disappeared into the cabin and Fotiu, who had also been put off the ice because of the fight, ran after him. Both fought in the cabin corridor, there was utter chaos on the ice, as every player on the team wanted to come to the aid of his teammate and everyone pushed their way in front of and in the narrow exit tunnel towards the cabin.

statistics

	Seasons	Games	Gates	Assists	Points	Penalty minutes
NHL Regular Season	19th	220	13	60	73	1,127
NHL playoffs	15th	5	0	2	2	8th
WHA regular season	1	45	6th	4th	10	284
WHA playoffs	1	4th	0	2	2	8th

Team records

• 209 penalty minutes for the Kansas City Scouts in one season ( NHL 1975/76 )

End of career and social decline

Durbano ended his career in 1983 at the age of 32. Shortly afterwards, he was arrested for smuggling cocaine into Canada worth $ 500,000 and sentenced to seven years' imprisonment. After his release in 1990, Durbano quickly slipped again: he was arrested again, this time for shoplifting and suspected of running an illegal escort service . Durbano moved to the remote Northwestern Territories of Canada in the late 1990s, when he was almost 50, to finally find peace for himself. He died of liver cancer in his home in Yellowknife .

Web links

• Steve Durbano at hockeydb.com (English)
• Steve Durbano at legendsofhockey.net (English)
• Steve Durbano at hockeydraftcentral.com