Former Huskie coach leads Home Ice fundraising drive
Dave King was more than happy to assume a leadership role in the drive to build a new hockey facility on the University of Saskatchewan campus.
“It was easy to say yes,” says King, a former Huskie player and coach who has gone on to coach numerous teams in the NHL and KHL.
“I played Huskie hockey back in the ’60s, my goodness. And, of course, I had the honour of coaching that team.”
King is retracing his roots and skating down memory lane.
More importantly, the Home Ice capital fundraising campaign — where he’s taken that leadership role — addresses an ongoing issue for both the city of Saskatoon and U of S hockey programs.
“Every time I look back at the Huskie hockey pictures, I see such terrific people, such high achievers,” says King. “It really does conjure up a lot of terrific memories. I enjoyed my time as a player, and as a coach, in Saskatchewan, so it was easy to say yes.”
Not only is there a shortage of ice in Saskatoon, Rutherford Rink — currently without ice on campus — is 87 years old and inadequate in so many respects.
“It’s long overdue,” says King, adding that the building is not only needed for a growing women’s program and for the men’s team to remain competitive and attract recruits, but also for Campus Rec hockey, Saskatoon minor hockey and other groups.
“It’s like a lot of our facilities on campus — they’re on campus but they’re really shared with the community,” King says. “This is the same type of approach to this facility. It’s going to be great. It’s going to be located by the Field House, which is a good location with lots of parking. It’s going to give the city another much-needed ice facility for youth hockey.
“And our intramural program is the largest intramural hockey program in North America. There’s a lot of kids that go to school that like to play intramural hockey if they get the chance.”
The project’s target is $35 million for a twin-pad facility. King estimates that nearly $28 million has been raised so far.
He says a public campaign will soon be announced, but first, the committee wanted to show people they’ve done their homework.
“Now we need a little bit of support from the community,” King said. “When people see where we are — and we’re going to announce some things pretty soon — I think people will see that we’ve done a lot of work already. We’re not just standing in the corner, asking for money. We’re on our own with a lot of our alumni, working hard. We’ve been able to get quite a bit done.”
Saddled up against the Field House and facing College Drive and Preston Avenue, a new twin-rink will include a main rink with seating starting around 1,700 and expandable to about 2,200, says King.
“Everyone can talk about wishing it was bigger — I wish it was bigger, too — but when you start going bigger, your costs go up more than incrementally,” he adds. “So it’s going to offer the city another facility they can use for smaller events. A lot of events can’t come to Saskatoon because we don’t have an intermediate-sized building.
“We’ve got the great, big and beautiful SaskTel building, but a lot of things like Western Canadian bantam championships or midget AAA (Telus Cup) or women’s national tournaments (CIS or Esso Cup) can’t come because that building is too big.”
The main rink could also house concerts and other social events.
King says the goal is to get construction started later this fall so they’d be on target for a new arena for the 2017-18 season.
“That’s kind of apple-pie-inthe-sky,” he admits. “That’s kind of what we’re hoping to get to. Right now, that’s our real focus, to try and get to a point where we could maybe do that.” As for old Rutherford? “When I played in the 1960s, that was an old building,” stresses King. “It was old. It’s been renovated, I know. It’s a fabulous old building. We’re all going to miss Rutherford. It was terrific. I cherish the great memories I had in that building, but we’ve got to step up now and get a new facility for our campus. It can be used for a lot of things beyond hockey, too. It’s not just a hockey facility. It’s pretty exciting.”