Former Hockey Star Dying Of Aids

Bill Goldsworthy, one of the original Minnesota North Stars, is dying of AIDS, the Saint Paul Pioneer Press reported Sunday.

“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 report said Goldsworthy learned of his condition in November while in a Memphis, Tenn., hospital, 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 last week. “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.”