Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, February 13, 1995 TAG: 9502140075
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: FROM ASSOCIATED PRESS REPORTS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
``As athletes, we tend to think of ourselves as invincible,'' Goldsworthy said. ``We fight through the tough times and we begin to think we can handle anything that comes our way. This is different. This isn't a broken arm.''
Goldsworthy, 50, told the newspaper his health problems stemmed from drinking and promiscuity. The story suggested he contracted AIDS through unsafe heterosexual sex.
The Pioneer Press said Goldsworthy learned of his condition in November while in a hospital in Memphis, Tenn., where blood clots that moved from his leg to his lungs set him on a monthlong fight with pneumonia.
``I was taken to the hospital on Friday, and when the doctor came into my room on Monday I expected him to talk to me about blood clots and how we were going to take care of that problem,'' Goldsworthy told the Pioneer Press from his apartment in Edina. ``I felt awful, but I found out I could feel worse. Instead of talking about blood clots, he told me I had the HIV virus, that I had AIDS.
``I said, `Whoa! You've got the wrong guy. You've got to be kidding. There must be a mistake.' There was no mistake.''
Goldsworthy was the coach of the San Antonio Iguanas of the Central Hockey League when he was hospitalized Nov.11, but he said he had been feeling ill since September. Barely into his hospital stay, the newspaper said, the Texas team fired Goldsworthy.
Jim Goodman, the Iguanas' general manager, did not immediately return telephone calls to his home Sunday.
``He was absolutely shocked when I told him what we'd found. He was blown away,'' Dr. Emmel Golden, the Memphis physician who broke the news to Goldsworthy, told the Pioneer Press. ``I'm convinced he had no idea.''
Goldsworthy and his wife, June, have been divorced for nearly 15 years. They have two children: Tammy, 26, and Sean, 23. The newspaper said Goldsworthy has been involved in a relationship for years but has never remarried. It said all of the people closest to him have tested negative for the HIV virus.
``There was a period of three to five years after my divorce when I was really into the bottle and I wasn't careful about my sexual relationships,'' Goldsworthy said. ``And there were a few times when I was a scout for San Jose, after I started to drink again, that I wasn't as careful about sex as I should have been.''
Goldsworthy played for the Stars from 1967 until 1977, during a 14-year NHL playing career that began with the Boston Bruins in 1964 and ended with the New York Rangers in 1978.
by CNB