Bill MacFarland: Where are they now?

Where Are They Now? Bill MacFarland, Seattle Totems
'Packy' earned law degree while playing hockey

By DAN RALEY
P-I REPORTER

Pro hockey players at first eyed Bill MacFarland with suspicion. Some of them spent their entire careers enforcing the law in cold environments. MacFarland studied it.

Who was this guy with a stick in one hand and legal brief in the other? If they hit him, would he sue for damages?

They soon discovered this Seattle Americans and Totems player was one of them, someone who could put the puck in the net regularly, as well as fend for himself when play got rough. He simply had a cerebral side, too.

This unlikely combination of ice arena and courtroom acumen made him the most erudite hockey man to come through the Northwest. He had his hands, gloved or ungloved, into everything.

He played parts of 10 seasons for Seattle teams, and was named 1962 Western Hockey League Most Valuable Player. He was consistently among the scoring leaders, topping the league in goals in '62.

He was coach and general manager of the Totems for four years, collecting WHL championships during the first two.

He became WHL president for three seasons.

Much later he helped put together a bid that surely would have landed Seattle an NHL expansion franchise in 1992 had business partner Bill Ackerley not pulled out of the deal during the league meetings.

"He double-crossed us," MacFarland says now, shaking his head at what could have been. "He admitted it."

MacFarland was nicknamed "Packy" after knocking out another skater during a fight in Vancouver. A teammate told a gullible Canadian reporter that MacFarland was the welterweight fighter of that name from Chicago. Had the newsman checked, he would have discovered the Packy on skates was not the real-life black boxer. The tag stuck.

A Toronto native and Michigan alumnus, MacFarland played for two NCAA championship hockey teams and was drafted by the Detroit Red Wings. He attended a couple of training camps and played in NHL exhibition games but couldn't make a roster.

He asked to join Seattle's minor league team, rather than be sent to Edmonton, in order to attend the University of Washington law school.

"It was either 30-below or be a Husky," McFarland said. "I knew the University of Washington had a good academic reputation."

Midway through his Seattle hockey career, he passed the Washington bar exam, but continued to play. People weren't exactly sure why.

During the 1963 WHL playoffs in San Francisco, MacFarland was shoved through a gate that came open and hit his head against a parked Zamboni. Attempting to retaliate, he next had his lip split in two places. Seeking medical treatment, he had a doctor take one look at him and ask, "Didn't I read somewhere that you passed the bar exam? Why are you doing this?"


MacFarland today
Five years later, he retired after scoring 324 goals in 688 career games for Seattle teams, with a dislocated knee and six broken teeth among his battle scars. Simultaneously, he next coached the Totems and worked for the eight-man law firm of team owner Vince Abbey before concentrating more on legal matters.

"I got bored with coaching," MacFarland said. "The farther I got away from the ice surface, the less enjoyable it was."

After his stint as WHL president, he joined the upstart World Hockey Association, first as co-owner of the Phoenix Roadrunners and then as league president and legal counsel. His later efforts to land an NHL general manager post were discouraged because of his association with the rival league. He parted ways with pro hockey when the two pro leagues merged. He briefly owned Arena Football League and indoor soccer league franchises in Las Vegas.

McFarland, 74, today lives in Scottsdale, Ariz., with his second wife, Sandy, and has four grown children, three of whom live in Seattle. He plays a little golf and takes month-long European vacations.

His job?

He's a lawyer, of course.

For 17 years, he's worked for Sterling International, which finds high-level executives for multinational Asian businesses. His company has offices in Tokyo, Beijing and Shanghai. He visits the region two or three times per year.

His business associates probably would consider his former life interesting -- if they only knew.

"I don't tell them," McFarland said.

That way, they don't have to wonder if the gloves are coming off in the midst of some deal.