THUNDER BAY – Jason Mallon isn’t sure what life without hockey on a day-to-day basis will be like.
He’s about to find out.
The long-time executive director of the Lakehead Thunderwolves men’s hockey team on Thursday announced he was stepping down from a role he’s held since the start of the 2005-06 campaign to following in his father Jack’s footsteps in the real estate game at Royal LePage Lannon Realty.
Mallon, 48, has been involved with the game for most of his life, playing for the Thunder Bay Flyers for two seasons before landing at Ohio’s Miami University for a four-year stint. Mallon spent a single season in the ECHL, before returning home to play for current Lakehead athletic director Tom Warden in 1996-97 with the Thunder Bay Thunder Cats of the Colonial Hockey League.
“If you know my family, my dad, my sister and my brother-in-law have been involved with real estate for a long time. I have properties myself and it’s just always been a passion. It was a very hard decision, but it was something I wanted to step into and get involved with,” Mallon said.
“Real estate was something that always kind of interested me and I just felt it was time to kind of make that move and try something new in my life.”
It’s not going to be easy leave the hockey life behind, however.
“When I came on we won the Queen’s Cup championship and I wanted to win another Queen’s Cup championship. We lost in the final that one year. That’s probably the toughest thing. I went from playing it too, with my background at Play it Again Sports, to selling it, to then coming back here. It’s always been a part of my life,” Mallon said.
“I coach my daughters with the Queen’s program, and I’ll continue to do that. But it’s hard.”
Among his achievements, Mallon was a driving force behind the effort to bring the CIS men’s hockey championship to Fort William Gardens in 2009 and 2010.
He said he’ll miss being around the dressing room and in the Thunderwolves war room and all the different people involved with the team.
“I’m going to miss going to the rink and cheering for those guys as my full-time job, but I’ll still continue to do it as a fan. It’s not easy.”
Mallon said the Thunderwolves organization will likely begin looking in the near future for a replacement to take over his duties.
