Episode 6
The Golden Age
Biographies
Father David Bauer
A superb athlete born in Waterloo, Ont., David Bauer as a youngster starred with the St. Michael's College hockey team and won the Memorial Cup with the Oshawa Generals in 1944. But Bauer heeded a higher calling and received ordination as a Basilian priest in 1953. Father Bauer's love for hockey never left him, though, and he returned to St. Mike's as a teacher and coach, guiding the school to the Memorial Cup in 1961.After moving cross-country to take a position at St. Mark's College at the University of British Columbia, Father Bauer began thinking seriously about assembling a national team of the top amateurs from across Canada. Intrigued by his idea, the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association put Father Bauer in charge of the squad, which he filled mostly with UBC students.
The first test for the new national team came at the 1964 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria. Canada finished fourth, but Father Bauer drew praise for icing a close-knit and passionate squad. Six years later, though, Canada withdrew from international hockey amid a dispute over the use of professionals, and the national team was scrapped.
Despite the setback, Father Bauer continued to play an instrumental role in helping coordinate future national teams at various levels until his death in 1988. For his contributions to Canadian hockey, Father Bauer received the Order of Canada in 1967 and induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame as a builder in 1989.
Father David Bauer, Hockey Hall Of Fame
Frank Mahovlich
A star of massive proportions from an early age, Frank Mahovlich scored a record-setting 52 goals for the St. Michael's Majors in 1956-57. In his first full NHL season, with the Toronto Maple Leafs, the six-foot-one, 205-pound "Big M" beat out Bobby Hull for rookie of the year honours and, three years later, piled up 48 goals to fall just two short of the league record.Mahovlich led Toronto to Stanley Cups in 1962, '63, '64 and '67, but his feud with Punch Imlach spurred the no-nonsense Leafs coach and general manager to trade his biggest star to Detroit in 1968. Three years later Mahovlich joined his younger brother, Peter, on the Montreal Canadiens and went on to notch 96- 93- and 80-point seasons, the three most productive of his NHL career.
Two years after representing Canada in the 1972 Summit Series, Mahovlich returned to Toronto – not with the Maple Leafs, but with the Toros of the newly-formed World Hockey Association. Mahovlich averaged 36 goals in two seasons with Toronto's "other" team before the franchise relocated to Burmingham, Ala., where Mahovlich struggled for two relatively unproductive years before retiring in 1978.
Inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1981, Mahovlich has parlayed his larger-than-life status into a successful political career. He currently serves on the Canadian Senate, to which he was appointed in 1998 by then Prime Minister Jean Chretien.
Frank Mahovlich, Hockey Hall Of Fame
