BIRTHPLACE: Fort Frances, Ontario

BORN: July 14, 1944

TEAMS/ASSOCIATIONS: University of Minnesota Duluth, Minnesota Fighting Saints, Waterloo Black Hawks, Grand Rapids Bruins, U.S. Men's National Team

A Minnesota high school state champion with the International Falls Broncos, Keith "Huffer" Christiansen went on to become a four-year letterwinner at the University of Minnesota Duluth (1963-67), leading the program into the NCAA Division I ranks. 

Christiansen owns UMD records for career points (196), career assists (121) and points in a season (62 in a mere 28 games in 1966-67). Christiansen was named the Western Collegiate Hockey Association’s Player of the Year (1966-67) and was the first athlete to have his jersey retired by the university in 1988. He was inducted into the UMD Athletic Hall of Fame in 1991 and named one of the WCHA’s 50 best players from its first 50 years in 2002.

In the Bulldogs' inaugural game at the Duluth Arena on Nov. 19, 1966, he totaled six assists in an 8-1 victory over the University of Minnesota. The six assists and six points still stand as UMD single-game records.

After playing at UMD, Christiansen played two seasons in the United States Hockey League, winning a league championship with the Waterloo Black Hawks in 1968 and finishing as the league’s third-leading scorer. One season later, he made his debut with the U.S. Men’s National Team, competing at the 1969 IIHF Men’s World Championship in Stockholm, Sweden. He went on to skate with the U.S. in two more IIHF Men’s World Championship tournaments before winning a silver medal as a captain of the U.S. Olympic Men’s Ice Hockey Team at the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo, Japan.

Christiansen also played two seasons of professional hockey in the World Hockey Association with the Minnesota Fighting Saints before closing his professional playing career with Switzerland's Geneve-Servette in 1974-75.