Longtime hockey supporter honored at Stumptown Ice Den

For decades on any given day Ken Sebrowsky was likely to be at the Stumptown Ice Den.

Sebrowsky was a longtime supporter of the local ice rink, an advocate for hockey programs in Whitefish and a mentor to many on the ice. On April 1 Sebrowsky skated in his last game with his Over 60 crew and on April 16 he died at the age of 73. To honor his commitment to the sport his friends recently gathered to retire his jersey in the rafters at the Stumptown Ice Den.

The rink’s general manager Greg Harms and worker Mike Lenz used a scissor lift to raise the jersey that Sebrowsky wore often several feet in the air above the ice that Sebrowsky loved as a large group of his friends cheered from below.

“After talking with the players, that was the consensus that Ken was deserving of being hoisted to the rafters,” Harms said. “Ken was an institution here for 30-plus years… He was just the guy that was always involved — we loved having Ken around here.”

Sebrowsky was born in Detroit, Michigan, and in his early adult years decided to enlist in the Vietnam War, according to his obituary in the Daily Inter Lake. Later he found a job as a seasonal worker in Glacier National Park as a backcountry carpenter and by the time he retired after 36 years he had become the building maintenance supervisor in the west side. Sebrowsky married his wife Peggy in 1981 and became the stepfather to Cheryl and Stephanie Towner.

Sebrowsky was passionate about playing and watching hockey and was one of the main volunteers committed to bringing a four-seasons ice rink to Whitefish. He helped build the Whitefish Adult Hockey Association and organized many adult hockey league teams that traveled all over the western United States and Canada playing in tournaments. In 2018 he was inducted into the Whitefish Adult Hockey Association Hall of Fame.

“He helped lay the foundation (of the rink) originally built outdoors and was skating here before it was even refrigerated; just involved in every aspect of the hockey community for so long,” Harms noted. “He also was the guy that spearheaded the over 60 skate about three to four years ago. He organized that and rallied all the players every week.”

Sebrowsky’s friend of more than 40 years Ray Brown recalls many memories traveling together to adult hockey tournaments. Brown says at first Sebrowsky helped organize the “Over 30” team, then it was the “Over 50” team and so on. Brown met Sebrowsky in 1979 while playing hockey and says he remembers him offering advice that helped him skate better for years to come.

“He’s a good guy, he was one of those guys that was real passionate,” Brown said. “He was never one not to try if he saw something he felt like might help you, he would be very diplomatic.”

Brown also fondly remembers the time, money and heart that Sebrowsky put into the building of both the outdoor rink and the eventual Stumptown Ice Den. Sebrowsky was a committed volunteer when citizens came together to install a refrigeration system in the old Mountain Trails Ice Rink that was outdoors. Then years later he stepped up again when the community decided to cover the outdoor rink; and he was a strong advocate for raising money to build what is now the Stumptown Ice Den, the only facility in Montana that has ice available all months out of the year.

The progression of having an ice pond to having a fully indoor ice rink was driven by dedicated volunteers, and Sebrowsky was always at the front of the line to help according to those that knew him.

On the Whitefish Adult Hockey Association’s Facebook group a chain of memorial posts flooded the page following Sebrowsky’s death as numerous hockey friends wrote the fond memories they had with him.

In that, Henry Roberts wrote, “He was always helpful, happy and would help anyone learn what they needed to better themselves at the game.”

“He was without a doubt one of the absolute legends of hockey in the Flathead Valley,” he added.