by Jim Mandelaro, Staff Writer, Democrat and Chronicle December 21, 2014
The mall walkers know.
Most of them are in their 60s and 70s now. They bring their photos,
autograph books and pens to their morning exercise regimen. And the object of
their affection — the general manager of the Mall at Greece Ridge — willingly
obliges.
To them, Jim Hofford isn't a mall star. He's an all-star.
"The mall walkers love him," says Melanie Fazio, the mall's
marketing director. "They all know who he is. They're former season ticket
holders who all come up and shake his hand."
Hofford laughs.
"They have very good memories," the Fairport resident says.
In another life, Hofford was a mud-in-your-eye, take-one-for-the-team,
gritty defenseman for the Rochester Americans. He played parts or all of six
seasons for the minor-league hockey team from 1984-90 and was captain of the
1987 Calder Cup champions. He was named to the Amerks' 50th-anniversary team
and was inducted into the team's Hall of Fame in 1998.
"My job was to hit and play miserable," he once said.
Hofford, 50, laughs at that quote now.
"My role was to be a stay-at-home defenseman and be hard to play
against," he says. "The only thing I cared about was that the guys I
played against respected me. They knew what I brought."
What he didn't bring was goals. The Canadian native scored only 10 in 319
regular-season games with the Amerks, and none in 18 National Hockey League
games. But his impact could never be measured in a box score.
"You never knew how valuable 'Hof' was until he wasn't in the
lineup," his longtime coach, John Van Boxmeer, once said.
Amerks legend Jody Gage seconds that emotion.
"Hof was our captain, and not only did he lead on the ice, he led off
the ice," Gage says. "He was the ultimate team player. He fought for
his teammates and kept things simple.
"You hated to play against him, but you loved when he was on your
team."
Hofford, the Buffalo Sabres' sixth-round pick in 1983, says he never cared
about scoring.
"I just wanted to do my job," he says.
As the mall workers and all longtime Amerks fans know, Hofford did score a
crucial goal in the first round of the 1986-87 playoffs. And it came in a most
unlikely fashion.
The Amerks were playing the rival Hershey Bears, and the first two games
were moved to Buffalo's Memorial Auditorium — "The Aud" — because
Rochester's War Memorial was previously booked for the Shrine Circus.
Hofford was injured and in street clothes for Game 2. But with no game
officials on the ice (a common occurrence at the time), a pregame brawl broke
out between the teams. Players on both sides received suspensions, and Amerks
tough-guy Andy Ristau suffered a concussion. Hofford was an emergency addition
to the roster and switched from his casual sweater to his Amerks sweater. It
all paid off when he scored the game-winning goal in overtime — a rarer sight
than a hockey player with a full set of teeth.
"I didn't even see it go in the net," he says with a laugh.
"A blind squirrel finds a nut. I knew the goal was ahead of me and I just
shot. I was pretty excited."
The Amerks went on to win Calder Cup championship, cementing Hofford's place
in team lore.
"I can always say I scored in the Aud," he says, smiling.
"Just not in the NHL."
Gage, a man with a record 351 goals for Rochester, calls Hofford's goal
"one of the biggest in Amerks history."
Hofford played 17 NHL games with the Sabres and one with the Los Angeles
Kings. "A cup of coffee," he says. "But I got to live my
dream." He made his own impact — literally, delivering crushing checks on
Montreal's Bobby Smith and Washington's Michal Pivonka that then-Sabres coach
Scotty Bowman called two of the best he had ever seen.
Hofford was claimed off waivers by the Kings in October 1988, played one
game with The Great One, Wayne Gretzky, and then was reclaimed by the Sabres.
"Just a weird time," he says. "But hey, I got to play with
Gretzky."
Hofford retired after suffering a serious knee injury in preseason camp with
the Amerks in 1990. He had formed strong relationships in Rochester and decided
to stay.
"I miss the players and the competing," he says. "I love to
compete."
He goes to Amerks games occasionally, but it took a long time for him to
show up at the arena as a fan.
"I left because I was injured, basically," he said. "I wanted
to continue to play."
He was only 26 when he retired. He started going to school part-time at SUNY
Geneseo while working as an assistant to hockey coach Paul Duffy. He fueled
airplanes — "a great job until it got cold," he says. It was during
that job that he met Jim Wilmot, executive vice president at Wilmorite Property
Management. Wilmot suggested the former hockey player get his college degree.
Hofford landed a job at Xerox in Webster, disassembling toner cartridges,
and then went back to school full time and graduated from St. John Fisher
College in 1994. He went back to Wilmot to ask for a job and was given one — as
lead housekeeper on the second shift at Irondequoit Mall.
"A lot of custodial duties and patrolling the mall," he says.
In the small-world department, his boss was former Amerks teammate Clint
Fehr, who was the mall's facilities manager.
Hofford shifted to Wilmorite's main office on Scottsville Road before taking
over as GM of The Mall at Greece Ridge in 1998. He describes his job as
"mayor of the mall, basically." He oversees about 50 people
(including 30 security guards) and 140 stores spread out over 1.5 million
square feet, making The Mall at Greece Ridge the largest in Rochester.
"I have a lot of good people working for me," he says. "We're
like our own little city."
Hofford arrives early and leaves late, but he isn't complaining.
"I've been lucky," he says. "I loved coming to the rink, and
I love coming to the mall."
As if those duties weren't enough, he has been head varsity hockey coach at
Aquinas Institute since 2009.
"I haven't sent anyone to the NHL, but we've had a lot of successes —
just not on the scoreboard," he says. "I've seen a lot of guys grow
up and mature, and I count that as a success."
Hofford has three children: Son Alex is a senior at the State University of
New York at Albany; son Mac is a fourth-year medical student at the University
of Rochester; and daughter Isabel is a sophomore at Fairport High, a lacrosse
star who plans to play at Hofstra University.
One of Hofford's great thrills since taking over the mall came in July 2003.
That's when Greece native Brian Gionta brought the revered Stanley Cup — often
described as the greatest trophy in team sports — to the mall. Gionta, now with
the Sabres, was then a second-year winger for the NHL champion New Jersey
Devils.
Hundreds took photos and posed with the Cup that day, among them the Amerks
legend who has played hockey since he was 5 and grew up idolizing the Toronto
Maple Leafs.
Hofford smiles at the memory — and the irony.
"It's funny," he says. "It took me being a mall manager to
raise the Stanley Cup."
The Hofford file
Age: 50.
Roots: Grew up in Sudbury, Ont., northwest of Toronto.
Hockey pro: Played six seasons with the Rochester Americans in the
1980s and was captain of the 1987 Calder Cup champions. Named to the Amerks'
50th-anniversary team and inducted into the Amerks Hall of Fame in 1998.
Current role: General manager of The Mall at Greece Ridge since 1998.
Oversees around 50 employees and 140 stores.