Terry Pembroke, who played a whopping 864 games with the Komets and had his No. 5 retired by the team in 1982, died Thursday at 70 after a prolonged battle with cancer.

Pembroke, who was born in Meaford, Ontario, spent almost all of his professional hockey career with the Komets, playing with them from 1964 to 1967 and 1969 to his retirement in 1978.

Pembroke played in 784 regular-season games with the Komets, more than anyone except Guy Dupuis (945) and Eddie Long (801).

"Basically I got into hockey because the rest of my family were all outstanding athletes," Pembroke had told The Journal Gazette. "My father was a boxer and a baseball player, cousins were baseball players in Triple A. I picked the sport that none of them played and hockey was it."

Pembroke helped the Komets to Turner Cup championships in the IHL in 1965 and 1973.

While Pembroke put up solid offensive numbers – he had 66 goals and 339 points – he was known for his reliable play in the defensive zone and consistent toughness on the ice. He racked up 1,143 penalty minutes with the Komets, the sixth most in franchise history.

But he is credited with one of the more memorable goals in franchise history. In 1965, he turned and fired the puck after a faceoff deep in his own zone and it traveled about 176 feet, high in the air, before hitting Toledo goaltender Glenn Ramsay in the leg and going in.

Only Jim Burton, Lionel Repka and Guy Dupuis tallied more points as defensemen with the Komets.

Pembroke is one of 15 players and team personnel to have a number retired by the Komets.

Remarkably, Pembroke’s Komets career almost didn’t happen.

When Pembroke was 19 and a member of the New York Rangers’ organization, he was set to get called up to the NHL. But in a game with the Guelph Royals, he checked a player and flipped him before the player’s skate landed between Pembroke’s boot and shin pad, severing tendons in his right foot.

"The bottom line was that not only was I not going to be able to play hockey, they said I would never walk right again, because at the time they had no way of repairing tendons," said Pembroke, who with the help of a Hungarian doctor got an operation not readily available in North America.

However, Pembroke’s skating mechanics had to change so much he was forced to relearn how to play the game and the Rangers sent him to Fort Wayne.

"In that time, I wound up going to New York and feeling sorry for myself, partied my way out of New York City," Pembroke said. "And I actually thought I was going to Fort Worth, Texas, and when I climbed off the plane there was little Eddie Long and his crew cut, (the) playing coach. I had hair down my back, was carrying a guitar and it was the middle of a blizzard. And I went, 'Where in the hell am I?'

"And if you know anything about Long, he took one look at that guitar, my cowboy boots and the long hair and was ready to put me right back on the plane again."

Anchoring the Komets’ defense, along with Cal Purinton, Pembroke played in 80 playoff games with the Komets and appeared in a franchise-record eight all-star games.

After his playing days, Pembroke had a long and successful career training and competing with horses, and raising cattle, in Texas.

He had battled melanoma and colon cancer for years.

jcohn@jg.net