The guiding light
Hockey pioneer Clare Drake taught some of the greatest minds in hockey — now he’s getting his Hall due
Ask anyone in Canadian hockey circles about Clare Drake going in the Hall of Fame and they’re sure to reply “about time.”
As the nation’s lesserknown Drake, he has no triple platinum albums, but provided words and deeds that had a profound effect with students of the hockey and those who strive to follow his teaching path.
Drake won six Canadian University championships with the Alberta Golden Bears and 17 Canada West conference championships, but it’s his influence on so many coaches that has finally been recognized. Many of those he impacted are now considered the greatest minds in the game.
All have been lobbying for the 89-year-old, publicityshy Drake to get his due in the Hockey Hall of Fame. It started with the Order of Hockey in Canada a few years ago, an honour his friends and admirers strongly influenced. Many letters of nomination were filed from names such as Ken Hitchcock, Mike Babcock and Dave King.
The ever-humble Drake told Postmedia’s Cam Cole he would have been just as happy re-reading those tributes than being honoured in Monday’s ceremony. He is unable to travel and will be represented by his grandson.
“I got something like 32 really wonderful letters from guys in the hockey world,” Drake recalled. “As Dolly (his wife) said, ‘Those are just as good as any induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame.’ They were so nicely done, and had a lot of feeling to them. All those guys are very generous to me. We were kind of lucky, I think, to grow up together as coaches in Canada West, with (Calgary’s) George Kingston and (Saskatchewan’s) King, Barry Trotz in Manitoba ... and we had a good sharing culture.”
Hitchcock, the Dallas Stars coach, had a long list of Drake’s contributions: “He put pressure forecheck into the PK, pressure in the zone, lanes and stick positioning and angles, which 90% of the NHL teams use today. His influence is as big or bigger than any instructor has ever had in our sport.”
Hitchcock asked Drake for some special teams advice when he took over the Dallas Stars in the late 1990s. The Stars won the Cup in ’99.
Drake could be likened to Roger Neilson of the Leafs, brilliant at anything to do with hockey, but quite likely to drive right past his own house on the way home in a forgetful fog. But coaches at the pro and amateur level only cared about the 200by-85 foot classroom.
“I’m just a little-known disciple of his,” Dave Adolph of the University of Saskatchewan Huskies told Postmedia. “But look at all the NHL people who are big disciples; how Hitchcock talks about him all the time. Then go to King (a former Olympic coach), Billy Moores (an assistant with the Bears, who took over for Drake and is now with the Edmonton Oilers in player development) or Ian Herbers (Edmonton’s assistant coach). He’s one in a million and I’m glad he’s going in.”
Adolph was a student athlete when first introduced to Drake.
“I went to St. Paul, Alta., to a hockey school we collaborated on. I had never seen one operated like it with such progression and a skills’ development plan at the high end. The kids were never standing around for a moment. It was the model in the day and still is. The game we see on TV most nights is coach Drake’s game. His strategies are now referred to as systems.”
Drake’s pro experience as head coach was one truncated season with the 1975-76 Oilers of the World Hockey Association, a few years before Wayne Gretzky.
“I have no idea why he didn’t go further in the pros,” Adolph said. “I can only say he was not a mean guy, not a screamer, and maybe that’s what people wanted him to be more like.
“He made us all students of the game. He explained the intricate details in a way everyone could understand. That might have been his biggest strength. And people such as Herbers and Moores will say that if he had a new idea, he couldn’t wait to tell you about it and then go and try it. He was so selfless in that regard.”
King added: “The rink was a laboratory, and he came up with all these amazing ideas, all these visions and then he’d go to coaching clinics and just give it to you. I think he knew he taught it better than anyone else. When you affect coaching, you affect the top of the pyramid all the way down. He was so far ahead of his time.”
Drake later served as assistant coach of the Winnipeg Jets and co-coached Team Canada 1980 with the University of Toronto’s Tom Watt, whose Blues met the Bears in the CIAU final on occasion.
“When Clare retired from Alberta as the winningest college hockey coach ever, his picture should have been on the cover of Time magazine,” Watt said in a testimonial to Drake’s nomination for the Hall was back in 2011. “Had this been done in the U.S., it would have been.”
Drake said “consistency” was his most cherished accomplishment.
“That’s a tribute to the players and assistant coaches that worked with me. I felt I just hooked on for the ride, really.”