FRONT AND CENTER

Bob Apter was a pass-first, shoot-second hockey center when his adult league team needed him to be a shoot-often skater in a game decades ago.

So, he acquiesced, pummeling the puck past a goaltender seven times. The score stood Apter 7, Opposing Team 3 when Apter, a true-to-his-word guy, exited the rink in the middle of the game and changed into his civvies. He had a first date with a woman named Cindy. They hit it off that night.

His hockey team?

It hit rock bottom without its sensational center, blowing that four-goal lead and losing 8-7.

But Bob and Cindy would each net a spouse in 1994, when they said “I do” to each other. They raised five children, or exactly five-sixths of a starting hockey lineup. Their names: Robert, Ryan, Rachael, Randy, and Russell. Sing it: We ‘R’ family. Bob’s second family is a considerably larger bunch, one that owns enough hockey equipment to pack the insides of a pair of airplane hangars. It’s the Northern Illinois Hockey League (NIHL), for which Apter has served as volunteer president since around 2016.

The NIHL boasts more than 50 youth travel hockey organizations and more than 300 teams, with the mission of “providing a competitive and enjoyable hockey experience for players throughout Illinois and surrounding states.”

North Shore- and near-North Shore-based travel hockey orgs in the NIHL, which turned 54 years old last fall, include those in Winnetka, Wilmette (Jr. Trevians), Deerfield (Falcons), Glenview (Stars), Vernon Hills (Ice Dogs), Northbrook (Bluehawks), and Skokie/Evanston (Mammoth).

“I could skate before I could walk, and I loved hockey right away,” says the 56-yearold Apter, whose father, John, claims Bob was named after Chicago Blackhawks great Bobby Hull, and whose mother, Sherry, insists her son was named after her grandfather. “I still love hockey, especially at the youth level. I’m still in touch with three, maybe four, dozen of my former youth hockey teammates.

“It has always been important to NIHL leadership that male and female players, no matter their level, get to experience maximum enjoyment combined with balanced, competitive hockey,” the Orland Park native adds.

The NIHL is the largest youth hockey league in Illinois and the second largest in the U.S. What also separates it from other Land of Lincoln hockey leagues is its partnership with the Chicago Blackhawks. The NIHL stages several of its year-ending tournament finals in February at United Center (UC), home of the Blackhawks.

Six NIHL championships—three Premier Select (ages 10-14), two College Junior Prep, and the Girls’ Division (16- 19)—will be held at UC on February 18. Several other NIHL squads will square off for titles at Inwood Ice Arena in Joliet on February 16-18 and February 23-25. An NIHL College Junior Prep team is scheduled to face a Wounded Warriors contingent at Inwood Ice Arena on February 25.

“Seeing NIHL kids’ reactions after games on championship weekend is one of the rewards of being affiliated with the league,” says Apter, a past NIHL vice president. “There’s nothing quite like hearing, several times, ‘That was the best experience ever.’ A grandmother of a player once told me, ‘Your league put on such a great show. I’d never seen my grandson as happy as he was on that weekend.’”

Buffalo Sabres center Tage Thompson, 26, stands a towering 6-feet, 6-inches— sans skates. Back in his youth hockey days, anybody who stood 5-foot-11 or taller was a skyscraper in shoes to his eyes. Thompson was an NIHL PeeWee Elite champion in 2009.

“I can’t express enough how essential fun and confidence are for any young hockey player,” Thompson says in a statement on NIHL’s website, nihl.info. “These aspects played a significant role in developing my game. The competitiveness that the NIHL provides sets it apart from other leagues. There’s no overwhelming pressure to excel, (and the NIHL) gives you an opportunity to play the game you love alongside friends and competitors.”

Apter’s father coached men’s hockey and taught mathematics at Moraine Valley Community College in Palos Hills. Bobby Apter tagged along with Daddy Apter at games and practices and started hanging out with MVCC hockey players at the age of 4 or 5. He would become fluent in hockey-speak in no time. At 10, he debuted as a … skating instructor. Some two years later, he taught the skill to a boy named Alexi Giannoulias, the same Alexi Giannoulias who raised his right hand on January 9, 2023, as he was sworn in as Illinois’ 38th Secretary of State.

Apter attended Andrew High School in Tinley Park, where he slapped shots for the school’s club hockey team and smacked tee shots for the Thunderbolts’ golf program. He then majored in finance and “minored” in hockey at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. Apter once paced the league in scoring and helped ITT capture the league championship in his junior season.

He worked as a runner for Shepard International at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange before clerking the soybean pit at the Chicago Board Options Exchange and continuing his career in finance with the Chicago-based options trading firm O’Connor & Associates (later acquired by Swiss Bank Corporation). The longtime Chicago White Sox fan— Apter’s all-time favorite Sox player is Oscar Gamble, and he once caught a ceremonial first pitch from former Sox hurler Chris Sale—now wears two caps (CEO and CFO) for AMG Structures, LLC, a manufacturer based in Elkhart, Indiana.

“We have found that the most effective way to do business is simple: do the best you can every day and treat everyone the way you would like to be treated,” AMG’s website notes. “When business becomes a team effort, everyone wins.”

Simply replace “business” with “hockey” and it would read like the crux of an NIHL team’s mission.

“I’ve loved hockey all my life and I enjoy volunteering my time and energy for the NIHL,” Apter says. “And what I’m doing in my position of leadership is for the right reasons.

“The league’s primary goal,” he adds, “is to keep growing the players’ love for hockey.”

For more information about the Northern Illinois Hockey League, visit nihl.info.