‘Just an old guy playing hockey,’ but Palatine man is an award winner
John Koufis seemed almost embarrassed by the major honor.
On May 29 USA Hockey announced that among its 2024 annual awards, the Palatine man, a founder of the Chicago Sharks hockey team, was the organization’s Adult Player of the Year.
Koufis felt “uncomfortable” speaking about it.
“Hockey is such a ‘we’ thing instead of a ‘me’ thing,” he said. “I’m certainly proud of it, but I’m not much of a showoff with this stuff.”
Turning 59 on June 28, he’s been playing hockey nearly 50 years, since he started playing at 10 at the Skatium Ice Arena in Skokie. Koufis attended the since-closed Forest View High School in Arlington Heights.
Over April 11-12 in Tampa, Florida, Koufis and the Sharks won the 50+ Tier I national championship, one of seven times Koufis’ teams have won the title along with eight second-place finishes. His first national title came in 1998 in the 18-over bracket.
Before this season the Sharks had lost in the finals three of the last five seasons.
“We finally got over the hump,” Koufis said.
In a barroom decision between buddies, the Sharks formed the same year the San Jose Sharks came into the National Hockey League in 1991. The men liked the name, the logo and the teal-and-black color scheme of the pro team, and they adopted them. The Chicago Sharks play in the Orbit Ice Arena in Palatine.
“I couldn’t have done this team all of these years, because we’re 34 years into it, without help from my dear friend, Mike Vasilevich. The core of the team came together in 1994 and he and I have been together ever since,” said Koufis, married with three children.
Koufis’ impact in hockey goes beyond playing for, managing and recruiting players for the Sharks.
A dual citizen with Greece, he’s played in five International Ice Hockey Federation Division III Men’s World Championships and two other championship qualifiers, winning a silver medal in 2010.
After Team Greece had been dormant more than a decade, the program asked Koufis to be the general manager for a national team that competed this year at the IIHF Development Cup in Slovakia.
He’s also the majority owner, CEO and governor of the Johnstown (Pennsylvania) Tomahawks of the North American Hockey League. The Tomahawks play in 1st Summit Arena at Cambria County War Memorial, a main filming location for the classic hockey film, “Slap Shot.”
“It's as hockey town as hockey town gets,” Koufis said.
Chief financial officer for General Kinematics Vibrating Equipment at its global headquarters in Crystal Lake, Koufis was speaking from Essen, Germany, where he was attending a branch business unit meeting.
He was going to fly straight to Denver for the June 7 USA Hockey ceremony. His wife would be waiting with a fresh suit Koufis could wear to receive the award that “knocked his socks off” when he got the call in May.
“It’s a nice honor to be recognized for doing something that you love and you’d be doing anyway for no awards or recognition. It’s a passion,” Koufis said.
In an interview with USA Hockey, he said he was, “just an old guy playing hockey.” He’s not hanging up the skates any time soon.
“When you do anything with a group of lifetime friends it’s fantastic,” Koufis said. “Many of us have been together 30 years, and to keep doing it and having fun with it, it is as much of a family as my family. USA Hockey has a 75-over division, so we’re going to keep at it for some time.”