Notre Dame Mourns Bill Hunter - 1920 - 2002 Today Notre Dame mourns the loss of a favorite son in Bill Hunter who died on Monday, December 16, 2002. Its "Hound" flag is at half-mast. Bill passed away the day after Athol Murray own death on December 15, 1975. This timing will link these two flamboyant western Canadian leaders and friends. Athol Murray was a teacher and mentor to Bill who arrived at the doorstep of Notre Dame unannounced in 1938. When Pere hesitated in accepting this grade 11 lad at first, recalls Hunter, he pleaded with him. "Father, can't I stay here? I want to be a Hound!" Pere gazed back at me, said 'Wild Bill', paused for a moment and said, "Well, you're here, so you're a Hound!" Hunter used to claim that when he got to the other side, he'd link up with Athol Murray again and have the greatest hockey team the heavens have ever witnessed. We here at Notre Dame do not know if the Lord is ready for both of them.
Bill's life and achievements are well documented in this article below. Today, at our own Assembly, although our flag is lowered, we celebrate the gift of Bill to our little school. Although living a famously busy life, he always had time to visit his Alma Mater. So now we commit our fellow "Hound" to your presence Lord. Let us pray.
Heavenly Father, receive our loyal "Hound" into your community of saints. As we await the Light of the World in Christ Jesus during this advent season, we commend to you our own Bill Hunter who was "light" to his family, fellow "hounds," community, hockey and curling world, and to his Canada. May he rest in peace! Amen
Wild Bill Hunter would not be tamed
The man who tried to bring the NHL to Saskatoon, always looked for the next game to play -- and win.
Bob Weber The Canadian Press
Tuesday, December 17, 2002
EDMONTON - Hockey fans from Regina to Russia knew him as 'Wild Bill', the man who founded the Edmonton Oilers, took on the NHL with a rival league and nearly brought the pro game to his hometown of Saskatoon.
William Dickenson Hunter, who died in an Edmonton hospital yesterday at age 82, never liked the nickname bestowed in 1949 after a particularly vociferous disagreement with a referee.
But somehow the moniker seemed to fit many areas of his life -- not just his coaching style.
During his 65 years as a coach, owner, promoter and holder of innumerable press conferences, Hunter changed the landscape of hockey not once, but twice, and he did not do that by being sedate.
"If to be passionate and emotional looks wild to some people, so be it," he wrote in his autobiography Wild Bill.
"If that's what Wild Bill means, it's a compliment and I hope the name always remains appropriate."
Family friend Lyle Best said Hunter will be remembered for his unflagging perseverance against the odds. "His indomitable spirit will be a rallying cry for all people involved in professional sports, especially in small towns."
Hunter was born in Saskatoon and started his first team while still in high school. He organized, funded and drafted a junior football team that evolved into today's Saskatoon Hilltops. His schooling was completed at Notre Dame College in Wilcox, Sask., a renowned Prairie institution of scholarship and athletics. Hunter always credited the school's founder, Pere Athol Murray, with being one of the most important influences on his life.
When he was not in class or listening raptly to Murray expound on self-reliance and the pursuit of excellence, Hunter was managing the high school's sports teams. One summer, on a whim, he took the Hounds baseball team on a 78-game tour of the Prairies, living off tournament winnings and eating baloney sandwiches by the side of the road.
Hunter spent the Second World War in England, where he flew Beauforts, Spitfires, and Hurricanes for the RAF's International Squadron. Upon his return to Saskatchewan, he wholesaled groceries and set-up a sporting goods store.
But, by 1946, he was back in hockey.
Over the next 25 years, Hunter was to own, manage or coach -- often all three --minor-league teams in Saskatoon, Regina, Medicine Hat, Moose Jaw, Yorkton and Edmonton.
In 1966, he was among a group of Western hockey owners who changed the way the game was structured when they formed what is now the Western Hockey League. For a while, it was known as The Outlaw League. But it eventually became too big to ignore and is now one of the largest junior leagues in the world.
Despite taking the Edmonton Oil Kings twice to the Memorial Cup -- bringing it back in 1966 -- Hunter wanted into the big leagues. Stymied in an effort to buy the Pittsburgh Penguins and denied an expansion team by the NHL, he began looking elsewhere.
When an old associate called him in July 1971, and told him about two American promoters interested in a new pro-hockey league, Hunter was ready to listen.
Hunter, Gary Davidson and Dennis Murphy eventually started the World Hockey Association, an eight-year circus of musical owners, wild travel schedules and sometimes-thrilling hockey.
The WHA gave Hunter his first pro-team, the Edmonton Oilers, who eventually became one of four teams accepted into the NHL. That team, with a bunch of kids named Gretzky, Messier, and Kurri, rewrote the record book during the 1980s. The WHA, however, changed pro hockey forever.
It broke the NHL's much-hated reserve clause, which bound players to their team and destroyed their bargaining power. It gave hockey its first million-dollar contract when Bobby Hull jumped to the Winnipeg Jets and it brought hockey to new markets that learned to love the game.
Hunter had sold the Oilers by the time they entered the NHL, but he still wanted into the league. In 1983, he heard the St. Louis Blues were for sale and he pounced. Saskatoon, his old hometown, would be their new home.
"This would be my greatest challenge. This would be my legacy," he wrote.
Weeks of secret talks alternated with razzle-dazzle sales trips as Hunter negotiated the deal, raised money for a stadium, and taught the people of Saskatchewan to dream. Eventually, he closed the sale, built the stadium, and sold more tickets than he had seats.
But the NHL, unconvinced such a small market was viable and unwilling to move a U.S. franchise north, said no. "I was braced for it, even half expecting it," he wrote. "Still, I was unprepared for the weight that tiny syllable would drop on my shoulders."
Best said Hunter still talked about that time in Saskatoon.
"He was still upset at the NHL board of governors for voting it down," Best said. "Bill always bounced back, but that one really stuck in his craw."
The Blues were Hunter's hockey swan song. He turned to curling where he energized the game with big-money prizes and all-star lineups.
His last years were spent in Edmonton with family and friends. Hunter was married four times. The first two marriages ended in divorce, the third when his wife was killed in a car accident the day after their first anniversary. He is survived by his fourth wife Vi Hunter to whom he was married for 30 years. |
