Canadian Catholic priest, Father David Bauer, was the founder of the Team Canada program, and in this exclusive story on Bauer's life, his legacy as someone who loved the sport and those who played it was put under the microscope.

When Team Canada participates at the next Olympic Games, it will do so with a rich history of success at best-on-best international tournaments. And in this major feature story from THN’s April 22, 2024 edition (Volume 77, Issue 12), writer Clayton Trutor penned a deep-dive profile of the man who put together Team Canada – Father David Bauer.

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Born in Waterloo, Ont., in 1924, Father Bauer founded the Canada men's national ice hockey team program in September of 1963. Eventually, he managed the national team when it relocated to Winnipeg in 1965, and he crafted teams that won the bronze medal at the 1966 and 1967 IIHF World Championships, and at the 1968 Winter Olympics. And he had the highest of standards for the athletes who played for him.

“Father Dave’s father was a disciplinarian and expected people to be accountable for the gifts they’d been given, both in education and sport,” Bauer’s nephew, E.J. Bauer, said of his uncle. “And I think he carried that idea on throughout his life.”

Bauer continued to be involved with Team Canada until he died from cancer in November of 1988. He’s been honored with the Order of Canada, and been inducted into Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame, the Hockey Hall of Fame and the IIHF Hall of Fame. But it was his personal touch that defined his legacy, and his devotion to the sport and the people who played it that set him apart from his peers.

“If you had a tough decision to make, even in his later days, if you went and visited him, he would think, choose his words carefully, and he always came up with the right bloody answer to help you make that decision,” said Rick Noonan, who worked closely with Bauer over the years.

Added Terry O’Malley, who played for Bauer on the Canadian team: “He was a competitor who liked to win but abhorred the idea of winning at any cost.”

FATHER OF TEAM CANADA

By Clayton Trutor

Father David Bauer would have turned 100 on Nov. 2, 2024. Bauer died 36 years ago, in 1988, well before many of today’s hockey fans were even born. As a result, his name is not nearly as well-known as it was a generation ago. But anytime a player pulls a red-and-white jersey over their head with “Canada” across the chest, they’re continuing a legacy Bauer started more than 60 years ago with the establishment of the country’s first national hockey team.

Previously, the senior team that won the Allan Cup represented Canada at the World Championship or the Olympics. The creation of a genuine national team for the 1964 Winter Games made Canada more competitive against the rest of the world and served as a unique source of Canadian national unity. Bauer persuaded people around the globe that the goals of academic excellence, athletic excellence and good sportsmanship were in no way at odds. In our evolving international hockey landscape, it’s important to remember the role Bauer played in re-establishing Canada’s place on the hockey map.

David William Bauer was born into a large and prosperous family in Waterloo, Ont. He was the youngest in a family of 11 children. His father, Edgar, ran highly successful businesses in insurance, furniture and automotive parts. His mother, Bertha, was a devout Catholic and heavily involved with the church’s charitable organizations in Waterloo. The Bauers were a serious hockey family, too. David’s five brothers were all accomplished players. The most noteworthy was Bobby, who spent a decade with the Boston Bruins, winning two Stanley Cups, three Lady Byng Trophies and earning a spot in the Hall of Fame. “He lived across the street from the auto-parts factory at King and Allen, which was the hub of outdoor hockey before the indoor rinks got built,” said nephew E.J. Bauer.

E.J. is one of Bauer’s 83 nieces and nephews. Several of Bauer’s siblings died before the age of 50, including Bobby. The youngest of 11 responded to these tragedies by taking a leadership role within the family. “You’d think with 83 nieces and nephews, you’d need name tags to remember them all,” E.J. said, “but Father Dave had a personal relationship with most or all of them.”

E.J.’s family home served as his uncle’s base of operations in Ontario for many years. He remembers taking messages from a who’s who of the hockey world when Bauer was out of town. “Father Dave’s father was a disciplinarian and expected people to be accountable for the gifts they’d been given, both in education and sport,” E.J. said. “And I think he carried that idea on throughout his life.”

David may have been the best athlete in the Bauer family. He excelled on the ice, on the baseball diamond and on the gridiron. Many of his contemporaries–including no less an authority than Ted Lindsay – regarded him as one of the best Canadian athletes of his generation. At 16, David attended the Bruins’ training camp and was offered a contract with one of their farm teams. After long conversations with his father, he decided not to sign with the NHL club.

Edgar told his son to finish his education before pursuing professional hockey. Bobby had already foregone his studies to pursue a hockey career, and Edgar believed his son David was better suited for higher education and a vocation in the priesthood, which David chose to pursue while still playing hockey. David enrolled at St. Michael’s College School in Toronto while serving as captain of the St. Mike’s hockey team for two seasons (1942-43 and ’43-44). In 1944, Bauer joined the Oshawa Generals, whom he helped lead to a Memorial Cup title. After a brief stint in the Canadian army, Bauer studied for the priesthood with the Congregation of St. Basil and completed his undergraduate education at the University of Toronto.

In 1953, Bauer began teaching and coaching at St. Michael’s, eventually taking over as hockey coach for the 1960-61 season. Bauer led St. Mike’s to an upset victory in the OHA final over a Guelph team that included Jean Ratelle and Rod Gilbert, and St. Mike’s went on to defeat Edmonton to win the school’s fourth and final Memorial Cup.

“We had a very good team, but I think we might have beaten a better team (Guelph),” said Barry MacKenzie, one of several players who played for Bauer on multiple teams and became close friends with the priest and coach. “Father Bauer’s teaching and the way he managed us was the reason we ended up winning. He had a vision of how a team should play and a coach should teach.”

At St. Mike’s, Bauer earned the reputation of a fundamentals-first, defense-first coach. He relied on the strong goaltending provided by future Bruins great Gerry Cheevers and a cadre of smart, hard-nosed players such as MacKenzie, Terry O’Malley, Ken Broderick and Dave Chambers, all of whom eventually joined him on the Canadian national team.

“He believed the offense would take care of itself,” MacKenzie said. “His individual teaching focused more on how to check, how to do a 1-on-1, and how to play defensive hockey. That’s what had an impact on me as a coach later on.”

Bauer, famously, taught Hall of Famer Dave Keon how to check, transforming him into one of the great two-way players in hockey history. Bauer also put the game into proper perspective.

“He made it so that if you lost, it wasn’t the end of the world, but if you didn’t do your best, that was wrong,” said Rick Noonan, who served as manager for the St. Mike’s team. Noonan later became a trainer for the Toronto Maple Leafs and at the University of British Columbia. He also served as GM of the 1980 Canadian Olympic hockey team, working closely with Bauer.

Bauer displayed a keen emotional intelligence about his players – something not typically associated with coaches of the 1950s and ’60s. Players who needed regimentation got it in spades. Players who thrived in a more freewheeling atmosphere got the requisite wiggle room.

At the same time, Bauer was devoted to his vocation as a priest. Bauer bore the strong influence of Father Athol Murray of Saskatchewan’s College of Notre Dame, who also believed that spiritual, academic and physical development were inextricably intertwined. O’Malley, who played for Bauer at St. Mike’s, UBC and for the national team, recalls the books of Catholic historian Christopher Dawson and theologian Jacques Maritain as Bauer’s companions on the road. The priest held weekend “encounters” with his players or friends or nieces and nephews at the Bauer family cottage in Bayfield, Ont., where they discussed the issues of the day as well as philosophy and religion, all while enjoying a range of refreshments.

“He was full of energy,” Noonan said. “When he spoke, you listened to him. He chose his words very carefully, and he always thought before he spoke.”

In 1961, Bauer was transferred to St. Mark’s at the University of British Columbia. Several of his St. Mike’s players went west with him, including MacKenzie, Chambers, Broderick and O’Malley. Bauer remained connected to St. Mark’s for the rest of his life, serving in numerous athletic, academic and administrative capacities.

During the early ’60s – after witnessing how strong European teams (especially the Soviets, Swedes and Czechs) had become over the previous decade – Bauer took an increasing interest in international hockey. He became concerned Canada would be unable to compete internationally in the long run if this trend continued. Bauer envisioned a national team of high-character players who valued their education, maintained their amateur status, and presented themselves as gentlemen to the world. These players would commit to move across the country for a year and prepare to represent all the best Canada had to offer.

David and his better-known brother Bobby presented to the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association the idea of building a national team around college players, winning the governing body’s approval to host a tryout camp in Edmonton in the summer of 1963 and prepare the team for competition at the ninth Winter Olympiad in Innsbruck, Austria.

Despite the CAHA’s approval, the first national team proved a rather bare-bones operation.

According to E.J. Bauer, “That first national team was largely funded by family and friends,” to the point it resembled the financial model of a senior ‘A’ hockey team more than a team that represented a nation. The Canadian government made only a nominal investment in the squad.

Nevertheless, Bauer found a talented, tenacious and high-character group to represent Canada. He built the team in his image and prepared them well for international competition.

“As well as the finer points of playing the game, he also was instrumental in bringing the total person into the situation, morally, ethically and religiously,” said Marshall Johnston, who played for the Canadian national team at the 1964 Olympics and served as captain of the bronze medal-winning team in 1968. Johnston went right from the University of Denver to spending the next five years with Team Canada.

Bauer’s teams had leadership up and down the lineup, as many players had been captains on previous clubs. For a time, the national team was a threat to the NHL’s talent pool, draining prospects from the Original Six’s farm clubs. It wasn’t until the league expanded in 1967 that some national-team players took advantage of new opportunities to play in the NHL.

Tactically, Bauer remained firmly in the defense-first camp, an approach that served his teams well against the virtually professional and highly conditioned teams the Canadians faced in international competition, namely the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia.

“He concentrated on the footwork and checking skills and team play that would keep a game close,” said O’Malley, who played on the national team from 1964 to 1970, serving as captain of the 1966 edition that claimed a bronze medal at the World Championship in Yugoslavia.

The Canadian national team proved an out-of-the-box success in Innsbruck. They went 5-2-0, placing them in a three-way tie for second with Sweden and Czechoslovakia. The Canadians nearly earned themselves a gold medal, falling 3-2 to the dominant Soviet club in the tournament’s final game. “We were a confident group,” MacKenzie said. “We were focused and well-prepared. Against the Soviets, it was 2-2 going into the third. We rang one off the post and then they scored.”

Famously, Bauer’s team went to the medal ceremony, expecting a spot on the podium. Instead, IIHF president Bunny Ahearne concocted a new formula for determining the standings on the fly, which pushed Canada to fourth place.

Rather than relying on head-to-head results, medals were awarded based on overall goal differential. The 1964 Canadian team paced themselves against inferior opponents in Innsbruck, saving their energy for better opponents. Moreover, Bauer instructed his teams not to run up the score. The Czech and Swedish teams showed no such compunction.

“We went to the medal ceremony assuming we were going to get a bronze,” Johnston said. “Father Bauer came to the bus and told us, ‘Everything’s over. We don’t get a medal,’ and went back to the dorms where we were staying. I remember saying, ‘Father, the shepherd and his flock have been fleeced.’”

Despite not coming home with a medal, players remember the warm reaction they received across the country for the way they represented Canada to the world.

The national team rebounded from Innsbruck with remarkable poise. They earned bronze medals at both the 1966 and 1967 World Championships as well as another bronze at the 1968 Olympics in Grenoble, France. Perhaps the proudest moment of Bauer’s tenure with the national team came in January 1967, when Canada defeated the Soviet Union in Winnipeg to win the Centennial Tournament, an event that commemorated the 100th anniversary of the country. During his travels with the national team, Bauer subverted the authorities behind the Iron Curtain, holding Catholic masses for believers-in-hiding in communist countries.

A multi-party dispute involving the CAHA, IIHF and International Olympic Committee led to Canada’s withdrawal from international competition in 1970, shelving the national team for much of the next decade. Bauer remained involved with international hockey, serving briefly as coach of the Austrian national team and working with the Japanese team in preparation for the 1972 Winter Games in Sapporo, Japan. Bauer spent several years in the 1970s working with the Japan Ice Hockey League, hosting clinics and coaching a team owned by billionaire Yoshiaki Tsutsumi.

Bauer returned to the national team for the 1980 Olympics, the first that included Canada since 1968. He played a significant role in both player and personnel decisions as well as preparing the team for competition.

“Frustration” was the word Canadian GM Noonan used to describe the experience in Lake Placid, N.Y., citing, among other things, the odd medal-round format that slotted a third-place Canadian team in the consolation round. In previous meetings, Team Canada had the number of the ‘Miracle On Ice’ U.S. Olympic team, beating them six out of seven times in an exhibition series in Minnesota. Who would have won in Lake Placid is unknown. The teams never met in the one-off format employed at the 1980 Games. Without question, the players on the Canadian team, including Glenn Anderson, Randy Gregg and Tim Watters, went on to a more impressive set of NHL careers than their American counterparts.

Bauer remained involved with Team Canada until his death on Nov. 9, 1988, one week after his 64th birthday. At the 1988 Calgary Olympics, event organizers named one of the hockey venues, Father David Bauer Arena, in his honor. It was neither the first nor last major honor he received. Years earlier, he had been awarded the Order of Canada for his service to the country. He has since been inducted into Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame, the Hockey Hall of Fame and the IIHF Hall of Fame.

In early 1988, Bauer learned that he had pancreatic cancer. He spent many of his final months at the family cottage in Bayfield on his beloved Lake Huron.

“If you had a tough decision to make, even in his later days, if you went and visited him, he would think, choose his words carefully, and he always came up with the right bloody answer to help you make that decision,” said Noonan, who spoke with Bauer almost every day in the final months of his life.

Added O’Malley: “He was a competitor who liked to win but abhorred the idea of winning at any cost.”

In September 2023, members of Bauer’s national teams met for their 12th reunion – a testament to the sense of loyalty and camaraderie that Bauer ingrained in his players. “His ‘boys’ were in every way loyal to him as a person and as a coach in a way I’ve never seen in any other player-coach relationship,” said Doug Buchanan, who played for Bauer at UBC, spent five years alongside him in Japan, and played on the 1980 national team.

It is hard to believe there was ever a coach who got more sheer effort out of his “boys” than Bauer did.

In the end, Bauer was committed to the idea that there was more to a game than the final score. It mattered just as much how you treated your teammates and opponents. It was how you represented your country, your team and yourself that truly counted.

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