Dave King honoured by University of Saskatchewan Huskies

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Dave King — who spearheaded the Hustlin’ Huskies slogan and skating dog motif — had never had a chance to attend an Off The Leash Luncheon.

Until this week, that is.

King, who guided the University of Saskatchewan Huskies men’s hockey program to its one and only Canadian university hockey championship back in 1983, was honoured as this year’s “Award of Recognition” winner at the 15th annual event Thursday.

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“First one,” said King. “I’ve never been available. I’ve always been coaching or in Europe or wherever. This is the first time so I’m really glad to be here. It blows me away how big it is. My gosh, it’s just unbelievable, and the technology out there is amazing.”

Following his playing and coaching days with the Huskies, King went on to coach Canada’s national team and at the National Hockey League level with the Calgary Flames, Montreal Canadiens, Columbus Blue Jackets and Phoenix Coyotes as well as internationally in Japan, Germany, Russia and Sweden.

Yet, his hockey roots have always been firmly planted in Saskatoon and Saskatchewan.

“It’s a good honour and I think about it all the time — my first inclination is that I was part of a group of people that made their imprint on the (U of S) hockey program,” said King, who spends his summers at Waskesiu in Saskatchewan and winters down in Arizona with wife of 53 years, Linda.

“Ron Robison, Bill Seyour, Brent McEwen, Glen Hawker, guys like that. These are the guys who were part of our group that got things kind of off the ground because, when we came in way back, things were bleak. It didn’t look like it was much of a program and it had dropped off since I had played there, but these people got together and we put together a pretty good program.”

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King, who was born in North Battleford in 1947, graduated from Saskatoon’s Walter Murray Collegiate in 1966. He played hockey for the Saskatoon Junior B Macs in the North Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League for two years while enrolled at University of Saskatchewan. He played centre for Huskies, accumulating 25 goals and 44 assists for 69 points in 54 regular season games over his three-year career from 1968-71.

He earned a Physcal Education degree in 1971 and a Bachelor of Education degree in 1972. He went on to serve as an assistant coach with the Dogs while beginning a high school teaching career from 1972-77. During that time, he also coached in the NSJHL with the Quakers and with the Junior Hockey League’s Saskatoon Olympics.

He was named head coach for the Western Canada Hockey League’s Billings Bighorns from 1977-79, taking his team to the WHL final in 1977-78 and being named WCHL Coach of the Year.

King — nicknamed “Kinger” — returned to Huskies as head coach from 1979 to 1983, leading the Green and White to Canada West titles in 1981, 1982 and 1983. In the 1982-83 season, he guided his charges to the Canadian Interuniversity Athletic Association (CIAU) national championship.

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King was named Canada West Coach of the Year in 1980, 1981 and 1982 and CIAU Coach of the Year in 1980.

HUSTLIN’ HUSKIES ERA WAS BORN

It was under his tutelage that the “Hustlin’ Huskie identity was established and iconic skating dog logo was first introduced.

“I always felt you can evaluate a program in athletics by the results — obviously that’s easy — but, with the Huskie hockey program, there’s a measure that people sometimes miss and that’s the alumni attachment to it, like the interest and the willingness to follow the team and work for the team,” offered King, whose son Scott is an associate coach for the Western Hockey League’s Moose Jaw Warriors. “So our alumni is amazing and this Off The Leash is 15 years now of raising funds for our program and I think the alumni is really important because that’s how we’re going to sustain success. Really the genius behind that was Ron Robison because when Ron came with me to Saskatchewan, he said, ‘the funding with the university is not what it should be so let’s get the alumni’ and we did, so it was a good move.”

In 1982, King coached the Canadian World Junior team to its first World Junior Championship, and in 1983, King led them to a bronze medal in Leningrad, Soviet Union. In that same year, the Saskatchewan native became the general manager and head coach of the national/Olympic team. During this time, his charges finished fourth at the 1984 and 1988 Winter Olympics. The team also captured the gold medal at the Izvestia Tournament in Moscow in 1987, becoming the first Canadian team to defeat the Soviet Union since 1972. His international experience as head man for Team Canada entries also included earning silver medals at the International ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) Men’s World Championships in 1989 and 1991. In 1992, the Olympic team captured the silver medal at the Winter Olympics in Albertville, France.

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In the NHL, he served as bench boss with the Flames from 1992-95, leading his charges to Pacific Division titles in both 1992-93 and 1993-94. From 1995 until 1998, he worked with the Japanese Olympic team as well as served as assistant coach for Montreal Canadiens from 1997-2000. He took on the head coaching duties with the expansion Columbus Blue Jackets in 2000 where he stayed until 2003. He has also served as assistant and development coach with Phoenix Coyotes (2009-2014).

While coaching the Russian team Metallurg Magnitogorsk, his team won the gold medal at the 2005 Spengler Cup in Davos, Switzerland. As well, with Team Canada he won gold medals at the 2016 and 2017 Spengler Cups and a silver medal at the International Ice Hockey federation (IIHF) World Championship at Paris in 2017.

NUMEROUS AWARDS, HONOURS

His numerous awards and honours include the Order of Canada (1992), University of Saskatchewan Huskie Athletics Wall of Fame (1994), Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame (1995), International Ice Hockey Hall of Fame (2001), Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame and Museum (2006), University of Saskatchewan’s 100 Alumni of Influence (2007), Order of Hockey in Canada (2013), Saskatchewan Hockey Hall of Fame (2015), Honorary Doctor of Laws Degree, University of Saskatchewan (2018), Alberta Sports Hall of Fame (2018), Saskatoon Sports Hall of Fame (2019) and Alberta Hockey Hall of Fame (2024).

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In recent years, King was involved with Home Ice Campaign that helped raise money for what is now Merlis Belsher Place. He was called upon to assist with the selection of a head coach when Dave Adolph retired.

He is proud of the Huskies’ long-awaited hockey facility, which serves both the men’s and women’s programs but also Saskatoon minor hockey and the Saskatoon AAA Contacts and AAA Stars.

“Merlis Belsher Place is an amazing building and everybody in Saskatoon owes a great deal of gratitude to Merlis. It’s a great facility for us, the Huskie hockey team, but it’s an even greater facility for the community — its usage is amazing. It’s a beautiful facility and so well maintained that it looks brand new every time I go inside, I say to myself, ‘It looks like it hasn’t even been used. It looks brand-new.’”

“Honestly, it’s a great university. When I look at the University of Saskatchewan, when you get to my age you kind of get to look back a bit, you can get great education there, unbelievable practical, important research going on at our university. They’ve got a great athletic program, great facilities. It’s really become one of the top 10 universities in Canada.”

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Each year as part of the annual Off the Leash Luncheon,” alumni and supporters of Huskie men’s hockey pay tribute to an individual who has made “contributions over a period of years to the betterment of Huskie men’s hockey and/or its alumni. These contributions may be in the form of dedicated time and talents, development of community support, financial support, or other recognizable assistance to the team and its alumni.”

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