Ice Hockey’s Lasting and Continuing Benefits are Next Level at Oxford University
In a Past Life….
For roughly two decades of my life, hockey occupied the majority of my time. If I wasn’t training for or playing it, I was thinking about it. While playing junior hockey in Strathroy, Ontario, our coach and mentor, Pat Stapleton, a former Chicago Blackhawks and 1972 Summit Series defenseman, often diagramed three interdependent attributes critical to success in the game, appearing as follows:
Since my competitive playing days as a goaltender, I have yet to experience an activity that matches the degree of discipline required in all three elements to reach and sustain peak performance. The isolated yet spotlighted nature of the goaltender position came with unique challenges. A physical, mental, or spiritual lapse at any point in the game could be — and often was — the difference between a save and a goal.
I still think about hockey every day. Whether I’m relaxing or working, I’ll be involuntarily, imaginatively, and momentarily back on the ice, looking out through the cage of my helmet. In fact, one of my recurring dreams places me back to age 20 with one final chance to make something of my junior hockey days. Being very much aware of the deficiencies in the interdependent elements of my game that limited my performance and consequently my career, I carry regret. Yet my visualised return to the past also results from the fact that I channel lessons learned from hockey to drive me forward. I corrected my approach too late to salvage a hockey career, but I learned in time to reinforce these lessons in other arenas of life, both military and civilian, where I’ve found that they have universal applicability.
I realised — finally — at around the age of 24 that it was time to move on from the notion of a hockey career. Now I’m in what I call the hockey afterlife. In my hockey afterlife, practices are evil, and games come with the stipulation that there’s beer available immediately after. Additionally, I can only play when the boss let’s me. The boss is my groin.
The Oxford University Sports Scene
The unique opportunities that hockey provides however, continue, made especially possible by the sports scene at Oxford University, where I studied. Rowing, rugby, and cricket are the three major sports at Oxford, and their athletes compete for prestigious Oxford Blues, requiring the experience of competition with Oxford’s age-old rival Cambridge in the annual Varsity Match. The honour of earning Blues has been in effect since the 1860s, and in addition to being recognised as a successful athlete at the national level, the student is entitled to wear the distinguished Dark Blue Blazer.
The Oxford University Ice Hockey Club (OUIHC): Then
I jumped at the opportunity to represent Oxford University as a student-athlete by joining the Oxford University Ice Hockey Club (OUIHC). Awesomely, the club has Blues status, and the Varsity Match against Cambridge (CUIHC) is hockey’s oldest rivalry. The OUIHC men’s team is born from a history that dates back to Circa. 1885, giving it claim to be the second oldest team in hockey. The Oxford Canadians were later formed Circa. 1906, becoming one of the few teams to play the Canadian style of hockey in Europe. If that’s not enough, the team’s esteemed alumni list includes the likes of the Right Honourable Lester B. Pearson (former Canadian Prime Minister and Nobel Peace Prize winner), Clarence Campbell (former NHL President), and Mark Carney (current Governor of the Bank of England).
The Oxford University Ice Hockey Club (OUIHC): Now
130 years on, the OUIHC, which has progressed to include Women’s and Mens’ teams along with players from Oxford Brookes University, has a fun, integrated, and inclusive community that is in keeping with Oxford University’s continually evolving combination of tradition, prestige, and heritage.
During the 2014–2015 season, we were invited to the Rhodes House to meet one of our distinguished OUIHC alumni, John McCall MacBain, who made headlines in 2013 with his Foundation’s landmark £75 million donation to the Rhodes Trust. More recently, the Women’s and Men’s teams were awarded Blues at the storied Oxford Union.
Shortly thereafter, each team had its own awards ceremony, with the Men’s taking place at Vincent’s Club, a clubhouse founded in 1863 that counts athletes such as Sir Roger Bannister, the first person to break the 4-minute mile, as members.
The Hockey Afterlife: Simple in Design, Still Difficult in Execution
Personally, my season was an abbreviated and odd one. I was awarded ‘Man of the Match’ in a few of the games, including the Varsity Match, despite a double-digit goals against average in those games. I coached for the first time, losing each contest, along with each effort to let my groin heal. And while I was eventually awarded an ‘Extraordinary Full Blue’ through a rare process, for which I have the captains of Oxford University’s mens’ sports teams to thank, I had initially forfeited the opportunity (another story for another time) to join my teammates in the earning and receiving of Blues.
Unquestionably, hockey’s continuing benefits present themselves in familiar forms. The adversity, the accolades, the winning, the losing, the praise, the criticism, the emotions, the injuries, the network, and the teamwork all create occasions for character development, whether in progress or in the rear-view mirror and learned from upon reflection. I think back to the days of minor hockey, learning the importance of giving a firm handshake when introduced to coaches and scouts, or to the days of junior hockey, moving in with another family away from home after being traded, or to the days of college hockey, balancing the demands of academics and athletics in a new country.
The Oxford University Ice Hockey Club (OUIHC): Inherently
Presently, I am reminded of the first lesson I learned in the military: The mission is the top priority, the team comes second, and the individual or self comes third. I joined OUIHC for the opportunity to represent a larger institution that carries with it more history than I will ever carry on my own. Indeed, the OUIHC exists because Oxford university exists, unifying the support of students, faculty, and staff and making possible the kind of atmosphere I experienced in NCAA hockey. I’m especially reminded of these values and distinctions by our OUIHC alumni, who demonstrate that the passion and pride last a lifetime. None of us will claim that competing against other British universities was a glorious return to top-tier hockey, but I don’t think that’s ever been the intent. Rather, the intent has been to represent the oldest English speaking institution in the world, in combination with the experience of camaraderie and the odd crew date with the women’s sports teams.
I marvel at the opportunities I’ve been afforded years after my competitive goaltending days ended, and I’ve left Oxford confident that the OUIHC will carry on the tradition, the strong values systems, and the drive to throttle Cambridge that’s expected of Oxford University teams. As for my own on-ice activity, I’ll find some arena in some city, where I can join others in appreciating this great sport, along with the beer, wings, and nachos that come with it.
Truly, the hockey afterlife is good.
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Top 5 Links
“Oxford University Ice Hockey Club” in The Canadian Encyclopedia
An article on Mark Carney and his time with OUIHC
The OUIHC’s website
OUIHC Women’s Blues on Twitter
OUIHC Men’s Blues on Twitter
