Kerry Ketter

At the end of the 20th century, many media outlets were debating the greatest athletes of all time.

The Vancouver Province newspaper however took a different angle however - they ranked the 50 worst athletes of all time.

For the record, British ski jumper and Calgary fan favorite Eddie the Eagle was named the worst athlete of the century. The list was made up primarily of basketball and baseball players, but named two hockey players - Morris Mott and Kerry Ketter.

Neither desevered to be there. Mott, a terrific skater and penalty killer, represented Canada in 3 World Championships and 1 Olympics where he helped the nation win a bronze medal before playing a minor role with the NHL's California Golden Seals.

Ketter, on the other hand, was just another nameless, faceless skater, who was probably as good
or as bad as hundreds of others who had a cup of coffee at the NHL. So why did they pick Ketter out of all these players to be named as the worst of all time?

The article said little of Ketter's career, but only mentioned that he "was the first expansion pick of hockey's first, obviously misguided try in the deep south, playing for the Atlanta Flames." In reality Ketter was actually picked in the 15th round of the expansion draft, so the article is far from accurate. The poorly written article also emphasized Ketter's full name - Kerry Kenneth Ketter - as if his initials were some sort of controversial political message in the deep US south.

Ketter was a big, immobile defensive defenseman. Born in Prince George BC, Ketter played his junior hockey in Edmonton. Originally a prospect of the Detroit Red Wings, Ketter spent some time in the low minor leagues of the Montreal organization before being claimed by Atlanta in 1972. Ketter spent half of one season with the Flames - scoring just 2 assists in 41 games. He wwas claimed by the expansion Kansas City Scouts a couple of years later, but was soon cut. He toiled in the minor leagues until resurfacing in Edmonton with the WHA Oilers in 1975.

The Oilers traded the replaceable defenseman to the New England Whalers in February, 1976. However Ketter didn't want to leave Edmonton, and refused to go to Hartford. He was suspended by the league for failing to report. Ketter opted to retire at this point of his career.