The local hockey community is mourning this week the loss of a larger-than-life personality with the passing of former NHL linesman and reknown story-teller Dan McCourt.
Below is a story on Dan that was penned following an interview that we did in Skead in 2014.
As some are aware, McCourt was instrumental in what would become the Olympic voyage that both Todd Guthrie and myself would take in 2010 in Vancouver.
A chance meeting between the affable official who remained employed with the NHL following his retirement, mentoring CHL referees and linesmen with NHL dreams and Barbara Byrne, Events Results Manager for VANOC, would eventually lead to an offer for Todd and I to be part of the off-ice officating team in 2010 - and the rest, as they say, is history.
Words alone could never express the debt of gratitude that we owe to Dan McCourt, whose willingess to assist officials, both on the ice and off, knew very few boundaries.
************************************************************************************Blessed with a twenty-five year career as a NHL linesman and an ensuing decade now of involvement with the game as part of the NHL officials management team, Dan McCourt has logged more than 3000 nights on the road, more than eight full years in the hotel rooms of North American hockey cities.
Perhaps this is precisely why his greatest source of appreciation hits much closer to home. "My biggest sense of pride was that I could be on the ice with my brother (Dale), that I could be on the ice with my uncle (George Armstrong) coaching," said McCourt from his home in Skead.
"To me, that was my big "wow" factor, to be out there with them, because they were good. They were the best of their time."
The eldest of five brothers who grew up eating and breathing hockey, McCourt reflects frequently on family involvement as we cover more than four decades of hockey. A very natural goal scorer, if not overly physical, McCourt enjoyed success at the junior "B" ranks, though not enough to earn a promotion to the next level.
Setting aside, at least momentarily, work commitments in the Sudbury area, McCourt felt compelled to give his dreams one last shot. "I still wanted to make it to the NHL," he said. "I thought to myself that I would go as far as I can with it (officiating), and see where it takes me."
Moving quickly through the ranks, McCourt earned a job in the International Hockey League, working three games a week in his one and only year in the IHL, assigned to work four of the seven games of the championship final.
With the WHA (World Hockey Association) folding that same year, the NHL would be in need of officials, having welcomed the likes of the Edmonton Oilers and Quebec Nordiques to the fold.
It was anything but a slam-dunk for the kid from northern Ontario. One of the last to receive an invite to the NHL officials' mini-camp, McCourt was all but certain he was heading back home.
"On the last day, Scotty Morrison asked me to stay for the regular camp," recalled McCourt. "Something happened that made them change their minds and give me an opportunity." But with communication with the NHL higher-ups kept to a minimum, the 25 year old linesman would have little insight to the decision-making process that would see him sign a contract, once the regular camp concluded, to work the minor leagues, based initially out of Dallas, Texas.
Fast forward a quarter century or so and the NHL is looking to recover from the effects of a lockout (2004-05), with North Bay native Stephen Walkom now entrusted with the oversight of the team of officials working the highest level of hockey on the globe.
Walkom had changes in mind. "He's had ideas for years," laughed McCourt. "When we worked games together, we would stay up until five in the morning, talking. He had vision, and was thinking way outside the box."
Not that walking away from the daily rigours of the on-ice involvement was easy for McCourt. "I was in my fifties, I had nothing left to prove," he said. "He (Walkom) is putting together a management team right at that point."
"What an opportunity to get in on the ground floor of something new." And new it was, with an immediate amendment to the former position of "NHL Officiating Supervisor", to the title of "NHL Officiating Manager" that McCourt now holds.
"We needed to be better at how we coached "our" team, and I would say that the officials are "our" team," explained McCourt. "Once we identify an official that has potential, we have to start nurturing them, we have to start working with them."
"A big part of my job is helping prepare them for life in the NHL." And the reality is that it's a vastly different life than the one McCourt would first experience in the 1970's. Next to judgement, conditioning is a constant and primary focus.
"You have to know officiating," said McCourt. "Your judgement is going to set you apart from other people." When it comes to the hockey of the second millenium, this proud Sudburian migrates to exactly the area one would expect.
"The most positive change in officiating has been the addition of the second referee," stated McCourt. "We sped the game up, so fast, that one guy could not see everything."
Having celebrated his 60th birthday this past summer, McCourt is in no hurry to leave this labour of love. "I would love to do this as long as I still enjoy the travel, and that Stephen (Walkom) believes that I am still a valuable commodity."
"People ask me all the time what I do," McCourt acknowledged. "I tell them I sit in a press box and watch hockey games. They ask me when I'm going to retire, and I say to them, "I don't think you heard me - I watch hockey games!".
