Father David Bauer

Father David Bauer has been described as an inspirational coach, a caring educator, a master motivator and a dreamer. Bauer was devoted to the concept that education and hockey could mix. He viewed hockey as a means to develop a better person. In 1953 after his ordination as a priest, Bauer returned to his alma mater St. Michael’s College as a teacher and became coach of the school’s junior team. During the 1960s he helped lead the team to a Memorial Cup, and helped introduce such future hockey stars as Dave Keon of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Gerry Cheevers of the Boston Bruins. In 1962, Bauer took a position at the St. Mark’s College and the University of British Columbia, where he came up with the idea to establish a national team of top amateurs from across Canada. The idea was presented to the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association (CAHA) and by the end of 1962, Bauer’s idea was accepted. Bauer made up his team of several top amateur players who became UBC students, and in 1964 they participated in the Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria. Bauer was later coach and general manager for Canada in the 1968 Olympics, and general manager in the 1965, 1966, 1967 and 1969 world championships. He managed the 1980 Canadian Olympic team as well. Among Bauer’s many awards and honours are, winning the Olympic bronze in 1968 as general manager, World Championship bronze in 1964, 1966 and 1967 as general manager, the Memorial Cup in 1944 as a player and in 1961 as a trainer (coach), being elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame as a Builder in 1989, and the IIHF Hall of Fame in 1997, both posthumously.