Gala honours storied coach
Drake changed people’s lives on and off the ice
Clare Drake never had to consult a scoreboard or the standings to see how he was doing.
Instead, he just looked into his players’ beating hearts and inner souls.
“Building character trumps winning,” said Drake, who, when he retired from the University of Alberta in 1989, held the North American record for wins (697, with a winning percentage of just under .700) by an amateur hockey coach at any level.
“It’s amazing what can be accomplished when nobody cares who gets the credit and everyone is pulling on the same rope in the same direction,” he said.
“Winning is a high priority, but winning is just a validation of what you have decided to do in terms of strategies and techniques and conditioning.”
Drake will be the guest of honour Saturday at the U of A’s third annual Golden Bears dinner.
“The one thing I am most proud of, and what was most rewarding, is the number of players I coached that turned out really well,” he said. “I coached a lot of good people, good citizens and good contributors to the community.
“It’s what the guys do after they leave your team that’s most important. I didn’t need record books to tell me that.”
Reporter Cam Cole, who is now a columnist with the Vancouver Sun, once wrote in the Journal that he watched the transformation of many athletes Drake coached.
“Clare Drake changed people’s lives. I have seen it happen; seen wayward rookies who became better human beings because of the experience of playing on Drake’s teams.
“I’ve seen goons go straight and slackers develop good work habits and hundreds of kids learn all about discipline and team play and character.”
Ken Hitchcock, coach of the St. Louis Blues, couldn’t agree more.
“Clare had a real belief that if you put great quality into the team it would take care of the rest,” Hitchcock said. “It isn’t all about the wins he had; they don’t measure his career. It was more about all the people’s lives he touched.”
Barry Trotz, coach of the Washington Capitals, played and coached against Drake during his time with the U of Manitoba Bisons in the early 1980s.
“Drake’s Bears were always hard to play against,” Trotz said. “He put pressure — whether it was five men forechecking or on the penalty kill — back into the game. They would chase you down and pressure you until you just gave up.
“Clare might have had as much impact on the development of hockey people — and just people in general — than any other coach in the history of the game.”
Asked if there was any advice he would give to a coach at any level, Drake said: “The most important thing is to really respect the players you are working with. You have to treat them all equally.”
Dr. Randy Gregg, a twotime Canadian Interuniversity Sport champion and a five-time Stanley Cup winner, said Drake did just that. And he did it without the yelling and screaming you see from a lot of coaches.
“He got the utmost respect from his players without ever raising his voice,” Gregg said.
Because of what Drake believed and how he got his players to buy into those beliefs, winning followed just about everywhere he went — especially at the U of A. In 28 seasons with the Golden Bears, he won 17 Canada West conference championships and six CIAU national titles.
“I had a lot of good players,” said Drake, 86, humble as ever and deflecting, as usual, all the praise. “If there’s a recipe for success that would be it.”
Always around sports
Often referred to as legendary, Drake dismisses the word in a hurry. “It just means I’m old.” Born in Yorkton, Sask., Drake followed in the tracks left by his father’s cleats and running shoes.
“My father, C.J., was a teacher and a coach — mostly for girls softball teams for about 40 years in Yorkton — and I was a sports nut,” Drake said. “I played a lot of sports: baseball, hockey, basketball and a little track and field. So I was always around sports. I was always intrigued by coaching.”
From Yorkton, Drake, who played two years of junior hockey with the Regina Pats and Medicine Hat Tigers, went to UBC, where he played two seasons with the Thunderbirds while earning his bachelor of physical education degree.
Drake then arrived at U of A, finishing off his bachelor of education degree and suiting up for the Bears. After playing and coaching a pro team in Duesseldorf, Germany, Drake coached and taught at Strathcona Composite High School. At the same time, in 1955-56, he was the Bears’ interim coach, taking over from Don Smith, who was on sabbatical. The Bears were Canada West champions that season.
Drake returned to the Bears as head coach in 1958, beginning a reign that was unparalleled. One season, 1967-68, Drake coached not only the Bears to a CIAU hockey championship, but in an unprecedented achievement, also led the football team to a national title.
A member of the sports halls of fame of Edmonton, Alberta and Canada, Drake is also the recipient of the Alberta Order of Excellence, the Gordon Juckes Award from Hockey Canada, and the Geoff Gowan Award from the Canadian Coaching Association.
If all that isn’t enough, Drake received an Alberta centennial medal in 2005, was named to the Order of Canada in 2013, served as co-coach of Canada’s 1980 Olympic hockey team and coached gold-medal teams at the 1981 Winter Universiade and the 1984 Spengler Cup.
The U of A arena was renamed in his honour in 1990.
An outstanding award
There is one award still missing from Drake’s mammoth and distinguished portfolio — the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Thirty-three testimonials from people like former Detroit Red Wings head coach Mike Babcock, Dave Dryden, Dave King, Glenn Anderson, Kevin Lowe and Gregg were recently submitted to get Drake into the Hall of Fame’s builders category.
“The players who have been on Coach Drake’s teams will, to a man, describe how his influence has changed them and moulded them into becoming solid community citizens, respectful parents and contributors to the betterment of our community,” Gregg wrote in his testimonial. “His legacy is not simply the numerous national championships that he coached, but rather the wider scope of individuals he touched with his unending passion to the sport and his community.”
“I look at those letters of reference and respect from different people and believe that those are my Hall of Fame recognition,” said Drake, who has been married to his high school sweetheart, Dolly, for 63 years and has two children, Jami and Debbie.
“Not being in that Hall of Fame doesn’t bother me at all,” said Drake, whose resume also includes coaching the Edmonton Oilers in the WHA, two years as an assistant coach with the Winnipeg Jets and parts of other seasons consulting with the San Jose Sharks, Dallas Stars, Vancouver Canucks, Calgary Flames and the Oilers.
“I’ve been generously applauded for a lot of things — maybe too much.”
“Not being in the Hall of Fame may not bother Clare, but it bothers a lot of other people,” Hitchcock said. “I just wish some people would wake up and get him into the Hall of Fame, a place where he truly deserves to be.”