Walking tall into the hall
Costello to take a bow for thousands of hockey volunteers 19- year tenure with CAHA filled with accomplishments
When Murray Costello accepts his induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame tonight, he’ll thank his family and the thousands of minor hockey volunteers in Canada who made all of it possible.
Costello, 71, is to be inducted in the builders’ category. He will be joined by former Boston Bruins star Cam Neely and the late Russian star Valeri Kharlamov in the players’ category.
Costello will be warmly welcomed into the institution that he courageously stood up to and turned his back on 12 years ago.
It was the spring of 1993 and Gil Stein, who had been president of the NHL for one year, had basically orchestrated his own induction into the hall, right down to having Bruce McNall sign a recommendation letter he had written.
Just two weeks before, Stein had overhauled the board, of which Costello was a member, and the board changed the voting rules to favour Stein, who was inducted as a builder. He resigned over the Stein affair, which later became public and prompted Stein to become the first person ever to “ decline” induction into a sports hall of fame.
“ That was a low point,” Costello said, “ no question about it.”
There haven’t been many of those for Costello, who served as the first fulltime, paid president of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association. His 19year tenure featured a number of accomplishments, the most prominent of which were the Program of Excellence, the union of bitter rivals Hockey Canada and CAHA and being a key figure in getting the women’s game into the Olympics. Funny how it all came about for Costello, who parlayed a failed NHL career as a player and as an NHL executive into one that made him one of the most powerful and influential men in amateur and international hockey. By the time he joined St. Mike’s in 1950, the big centreman from the Timmins area was drawing comparisons to Jean Beliveau. But things never worked out for Costello as a player. He drifted from the Chicago Blackhawks to the Boston Bruins to the Detroit Red Wings, never scoring more than six goals a season in his five- year career.
After his playing career, he moved on to be GM and part- owner of the Seattle Totems of the Western Hockey League. The NHL had promised to expand to Vancouver and both Costello and partner Bill McFarlane were convinced that Seattle would be a natural geographical destination to go with Vancouver.
“ We thought, we’ll work like hell, get it into the NHL, sell our shares to the big guys and go off into the sunset happy,” Costello said. “ Not only did we not get the second franchise, Seattle got beat out by Buffalo. That was a kick in the ( groin), I’ll tell you.”
Costello went back to law school and moved his family to Ottawa, then took the job as president of the CAHA. A few years into his tenure, CAHA was entering the Memorial Cup champions from the previous year into the world junior championship. The only problem was that all their good players had graduated by that time and Canada was being slaughtered.
Costello spearheaded the Program of Excellence, which brings together the best junior players for the tournament every year. Not only has it won 11 gold medals since 1982, it has turned that tournament and that team into one of the hottest properties in Canadian sports that has brought world and Olympic championships.
“ There was no alternative,” Costello said. “ If I remember correctly, the last team we sent there was the Cornwall team that Dale Hawerchuk played for and they were getting beat 8- 1 by teams like Switzerland and Germany.”
“ When you look at that program,” said current Hockey Canada president Bob Nicholson, “ it’s not only the best program in hockey, it’s arguably the best in any sport in the world.”
There have been lows for Costello as well. The Canadian juniors were embroiled in a brawl against the Soviets in the 1986 tourney that caused both teams to be disqualified. When CAHA unveiled its Speak Out program as a result of the Graham James scandal in 1996, Costello warned pedophiles to “ take your act somewhere else.”
Costello said he’ll accept his hall induction for many others than himself.
“ I understand that this really is recognition for the amateur side of the game. I get to take a bow for their efforts because that’s what I did for almost 20 years.”