By Chad Smith
Bill Butters is a walking contradiction in terms. He was once one of the toughest guys to ever play professional hockey, a sport populated by some of the roughest people on the planet. Butters is also one of the most passionate people for Jesus Christ that you’ll ever meet. He’s just one example of the life-changing power of God’s only Son.
Butters is a Minnesota-based staff member of Hockey Ministries International. As the name implies, the 40-year old group ministers to hockey players of all ages, both in the United States and throughout the world. They teach hockey players about Jesus Christ and living for him in the modern age through a series of HMI Hockey Camps.
Before Bill became a passionate follower of Jesus Christ, he spent a lot of years playing hockey at many different levels. The St. Paul, Minnesota native played for the University of Minnesota from 1971-1973. He played more than 200 games in the World Hockey Association with teams like the Minnesota Fighting Saints, Houston Aeros, Edmonton Oilers, and the New England Whalers. Butters played 72 games for the Minnesota North Stars in the National Hockey League before retiring as a player in 1980.
Butters wasn’t the most popular player on the ice, no matter where he played. He was once described as “hard-hitting and mayhem” while on the ice. He was once described as “rancid” by fans of the Wisconsin Badgers during his college days. Unfortunately, he was equally hard-hitting off the ice and it affected those closest to him. Speaking during a recent Hockey Ministries International fundraising breakfast in St. Paul, Butters told a crowd of 300 people that his life began to change when one close friend hit him with words he needed to hear.
“Who would have thought back in the day that a guy like me would ever be able to talk about Jesus, especially in a holy way,” Butters told the crowd. “I hated Christians, just like Saul before he became the Apostle Paul. I had a friend who knew me as a pro hockey player, knew my wife, knew my children and had enough courage to lose his friendship with me. His name is Steve.
“One day, we were driving to go play golf with a bunch of buddies,” Butters recalled. “Steve said ‘Butts, I don’t want to be your friend anymore. The man you’ve turned into, your language, the way you treat your wife and family, is despicable. I just don’t want to be your friend anymore.’”
Butters said his first thought was “this guy is a friend?” That moment took place in the summer of 1979. Butters said that was the start of God making a call on his life. His friend Steve had enough courage to confront the sin in his life. “I hated him for that,” Butters said.
Another of Butters’ friends, Tom Reid, invited Bill to be a volunteer coach at a hockey camp. At that time, Bill said he was “a young stud, at least in my own mind, playing for the North Stars.” That camp invitation came shortly after a rough moment in Bill’s life that took place in the office of then-Minnesota North Stars GM Lou Nanne.
“My friend, Lou Nanne, was the General Manager and had just told me how awful of a player I was,” Butters remembered. “Glen Sonmoor was the coach and he loved me. However, Glen also had a glass eye. I remember being in the room with those two when the North Stars weren’t too good. Lou said to me ‘Butts, you’re just not too good.’
“Glenn said ‘Louie, how can you say that? Butts is a great guy. He’s good in the locker room and tells jokes,’” Butters said with a smile. “Lou responded with ‘but Glenn, he’s awful! What you have to do is look at Bill with your real eye.’”
It was at that low point, Tom Reid extended the invite to the camp and Butters simply said: “it changed my life.” Bill remembers thinking he was there to teach kids. A group of 12-year-old boys led him in prayer and told him about Jesus.
“They told me how tough Jesus is,” Butters recalled. “The kids said He was the toughest man who ever lived. Those boys told me He loved me and that He would forgive my sins if I would just accept Him into my heart. Those 12-year-old boys led me to Christ.”
Butters said the next thing he remembered was sitting with his wife and telling her the good news that he’d just become a follower of Jesus Christ. However, what followed Bill’s pronouncement of his new faith was a tough pill to swallow.
“Then came the very bad news,” Butters said. “I explained the sin in my life, the infidelity, the lying, the cheating. It broke her heart. After a couple of hours, she looked at me and said the very same words that Jesus said to me two nights earlier; ‘I forgive you. Let’s rebuild our marriage on our faith in Christ.’
“So, I was confronted by a friend, invited by another friend, led by a group of boys, and then forgiven by my best friend,” he recalled. “Then, I had another friend named Gary Roloffs, a pilot from Northwest Airlines who didn’t know me from Adam, that was a Christ follower. He asked if he could meet with me for a cup of coffee.”
They first met in 1980 and have continued to meet once every week since then, all the way up to the present day. Bill said Roloffs has taught him to read Scripture, how to pray, how to memorize Scripture, and how to “think a little bit better.” So, Butter said he had a friend mentor him in the faith, while another friend taught him how to “love my wife and be a dad.”
After that, Butters, who referred to himself as one of the “most despicable men in hockey” was invited to join a ministry and tell others about the love of Jesus Christ. Don Liesemer, President of Hockey Ministries International, is the one who brought Butters aboard.
“Then, there’s Herb Brooks,” Butters said. “What can I say about Herbie other than he was everything to me, including a coach, a friend, a mentor. He was someone who believed in me long before many other people did. One of the most memorable things he said to me was ‘Billy, you’re a character. Someday, I hope you have character.’ There is a difference.
“Later, when I was struggling in ministry and couldn’t raise any money, I went to Herb, who was scouting for Pittsburgh back then. I asked Herb to see if he could use his influence to get me a job in hockey. Herbie said to me ‘Billy, I think God has you right where He wants you. You stay in that ministry.’ As rough as some people thought Herb Brooks was, he was a tenderhearted man. I truly believe he loved me and wanted only the best for me.”
As he gets older, Butters said the two words he fears most are “I forgot. I forgot about my friendships, I forgot the boys who led me to Christ, I forgot about some of you. That’s never gonna happen. I’m going to try hard not to forget the important things.
“Jesus knew the same things way back then,” he added. “I forget my glasses, or even my (false) tooth half the time when I walk out the door. I forget a lot of things, but Jesus doesn’t forget me. He said, ‘remember me.’ But before you can remember someone, you have to know them first.
“When Jesus began His ministry, He didn’t say join a Bible Study, join a church, memorize Scripture, or do this and do that,” Butters said. “He simply said ‘Come, follow Me.’ His disciples left what they were doing to follow Him, then got to know Him. Then, before He died on the cross, He said ‘remember me.’ So, my question for you is do you know Jesus? Are you following Him?
Butters closed out his remarks to the crowd at the St. Paul Hotel by saying that society is telling people to not follow Jesus. “Hockey Ministries International is telling people around the world that ‘If you know Jesus, you will know peace.’ Do you know Him?”
Here’s Bill’s speech at the fundraiser: