BIRTHPLACE: St. Paul, Minn.

BORN: April 25, 1920

DIED: April 16, 1991

TEAMS/ASSOCIATIONS: Springfield (AHL), Buffalo (AHL), New York Rangers (NHL), St. Paul (USHL)

Bob Dill is one of those relatively rare athletes who successfully combined a two sport professional career in both hockey and baseball.  After graduating from St. Paul’s Cretin High School, Dill went on to play the ice sport in Florida’s little known Tropical Ice Hockey League and then moved into the Eastern Amateur League with Baltimore, where he remained for his nine years.  Dill then turned pro with Springfield, of the American Hockey League, and played there and at Buffalo for three more years.

(On the baseball side of things Dill played the outfield for both Minneapolis and Indianapolis in the American Association and later served as a minor league manager.)

In January of 1944, the New York Rangers gave up four players to Buffalo to get the fighting Irishman, and he played there through the end of the 1945 season.  A nephew of Mike Gibbons, a former Minnesota boxing legend, Dill, too, was a notorious brawler.  Returning to his native Minnesota, Dill played five outstanding seasons with the St. Paul Saints of the United States Hockey League.  In both 1947 and 1950 he was a first team all-star, while in 1949 he anchored the defense as the Saints won the league playoff championship.  Always an offensive-minded defenseman, Dill enjoyed his finest goal scoring season in 1949, when he scored 15 goals. 

Retiring after the 1950 season, Dill went on to later work with the NHL’s Minnesota North Stars as a scout.