Donn Clark 1962- 2019
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| Donn Clark on the Raiders Wall of Honour. |
It seems like the young people in Prince Albert love a
certain colourful story about the late Donn Clark.
The colourful story happened on Feb. 11, 2005, and those who
were eight years of age or younger then enjoy hearing about it. Those listeners
would be age 22 or 23 and younger now.
Back on Feb. 11, 2005, Clark was the general manager of the Prince
Albert Raiders who were hosting the Lethbridge Hurricanes in a WHL regular
season clash at the Art Hauser Centre. The game went to overtime with the two
sides locked in a 3-3 tie.
At the 1:45 mark of overtime, Hurricanes left-winger Kris
Versteeg hauled down Raiders captain and standout defensive defenceman Luke
Fritshaw with a hook behind the Prince Albert net.
Versteeg jumped on the loose puck
and centred it to linemate Tyler Redenbach. Redenbach shot the puck past
Raiders star netminder Rejean Beauchemin to give Lethbridge a 4-3 victory.
Due to the fact the Hurricanes
scored the winning goal on a play that should have resulted in an obvious
penalty to Versteeg, Clark came storming on to the ice after referee Ryan Agar
protesting the non-call.
The Raiders and their fans weren’t
pleased that night with the work performed by Agar and linesmen Paul Brunen and
Zac Wiebe. Debris rained down to the ice surface from the 2,115 spectators in
attendance showing their displeasure for the non-call that cost the Raiders the
game.
During that scene, Clark and
Raiders head coach Peter Anholt proceeded to pursue Agar.
At the time, I was working for
the Medicine Hat News in my first season covering the WHL’s Medicine Hat Tigers
as a beat writer, but I still heard that story from afar with keen interest. I
covered the Raiders as a beat writer for the Prince Albert Daily Herald the
three previous campaigns.
The Hurricanes arrived in
Medicine Hat to play the Tigers five days after that controversial win over the
Raiders.
I visited with Hurricanes general
manager Darren Stocker before that clash with the Tigers, and he still couldn’t
believe how that win over the Raiders played out.
Stocker told me I should have
been at that game. Stocker said Clark absolutely lost it that night.
The Hurricanes general manager
admitted the Raiders really got jobbed in that game, but his side wasn’t going
to complain about being on the good side of fortune.
Stocker said he was sitting
among the crowd with a couple of Hurricanes staffers, and the Raiders fans in
their section gave the look of rage towards the Lethbridge bunch sitting with them.
Stocker said it seemed like some
of the fans thought the Lethbridge side had conspired with the officials
against the Raiders. The Hurricanes boss said he explained to the fans all
those on his side were just as surprised as they were, and the Lethbridge squad
didn’t have anything to do with what the officials called or didn’t call.
Out of that story you saw Clark’s
passion for the Raiders in a visible form. Raiders fans who were so young that they
don’t have the most clear recollections of that time love hearing that story,
or it seems they do when I visit “Hockey Town North” and tell it.
Now as young adults or in their
late teens, those fans enjoy hearing how Clark was out to stick up for his guys
and was mad as hell and not going to take it anymore, when the Raiders were
hosed by a non-call by the officials.
On March 1, the Raiders inducted
Clark as a builder on to the Raiders Wall of Honour. Clark was still alive, but
he wasn’t able to be at the Art Hauser Centre that night due to his battle with
cancer.
His brother and legend with the
NHL’s Toronto Maple Leafs, Wendel, was in Prince Albert to accept the honour
and offer thanks on behalf of the family. Donn Clark passed away the next day
on March 2 in the palliative care unit at the St. Paul’s Hospital in Saskatoon.
The Kelvington, Sask., product
was 56 years of age and two days shy of his 57th birthday. Clark and
I both happen to have birthdays on March 4.
Clark was a defenceman for the
Raiders during their inaugural season in the WHL in 1982-83. He was the club’s
head coach for two seasons from 1993 to 1995.
During the 1994-95 season, the
Raiders finished third overall in the WHL with a 44-26-2 mark and advanced to a
league semifinal series against the Brandon Wheat Kings. The Wheat Kings
claimed the best-of-seven series in a deciding seventh game.
Had the Raiders won that Game 7,
they would have advanced to the Memorial Cup tournament to play for the CHL
title. The Kamloops Blazers had won the other WHL semifinal series that year,
and they were the host squad for the Memorial Cup.
Due to the fact the Blazers made
the WHL final, their opponent in that series was guaranteed a berth in the
four-team field at the Memorial Cup.
Clark left the Raiders following
that season. He returned to the club as head coach at the start of the 2000-01
campaign.
At the beginning of the 2001-02
season, Clark held both the role of head coach and director of hockey
operations. With the Raiders facing financial struggles, it was his idea to
break up the general manager’s role into the roles of director of hockey
operations and director of business operations to ensure the club’s business
aspect got the attention it deserved.
First Bob Twyver and then Robin
Davie proceeded to get the Raiders back on their feet financially in the
director of business operations role.
Shortly into that campaign, Clark
gave up the head coach role to focus on the player personnel side of the team
to get that aspect of the club on good footing. He even got the better of
Brandon Wheat Kings head coach, general manager and owner Kelly McCrimmon on a
couple of trades.
Clark’s position morphed back
into the role of general manager at the start of the 2004-05 campaign, when the
Raiders were again healthy on and off the ice. That season with a group of
players that were extremely popular in the community, the Raiders went on “The
Run” and advanced to the WHL Eastern Conference Championship series falling in
seven games to the Wheat Kings.
The Raiders wouldn’t go on
another long playoff run until winning the WHL title this past season and
advancing to the Memorial Cup.
Clark remained the team’s general
manager until being ousted on Jan. 14, 2008.
During the time Clark was with
the Raiders in a coach or management role over his two stints, the person that
was the general manager of the Raiders immediately received heaps of fan criticism
similar to the fan criticism heaped on any person that becomes general manager
of the CFL’s Saskatchewan Roughriders.
Looking back on time, I believe
Clark dealt with that situation as well as anyone could have. He came up with
the Wall of Honour idea for the Raiders and was quick to say he would probably
never be on it.
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| The 2004-05 Raiders team picture including Donn Clark. |
I remember Clark telling me there
would always be people that didn’t like Donn Clark, and he was content to live
with that being an “it is what it is” situation.
When I first arrived in Prince
Albert in May of 2001 to work as a sports reporter for the Prince Albert Daily
Herald, Clark gave me all his contact info and phone numbers during our first
meeting.
Over the years, he always
returned phone calls and messages.
At one point in the first half of
the 2003-04 season, I remember stressors were coming up all over the place, and
looking back, I wasn’t reading things with the team correctly.
Clark set up a meeting in his
office, where I met with him and Anholt. Clark knew the criticisms that had
come up against him in town.
Clark said whatever might come up
that raises a concern his office door is always open.
He went on to say if I have to
come and yell “Clark you’re and asshole,” he said that was fine too.
Clark said to come in, say that
and we’ll talk about it.
For the rest of Clark’s days on
earth, that meeting allowed so many
things to hit new heights even after I had left Prince Albert.
About a month-and-a-half after
that meeting, my father passed away from cancer, and the Raiders were a great
family-type support system during that moment in time.
I rode the bus with the team
during in division road trips, and that made for great memories. During those
trips, I learned how thoughtfully Clark could speak on all sorts of subjects.
After I moved to Medicine Hat, I
went out for Halloween once as NFL diva receiver Terrell Owens in 2006. The
Raiders were in for a road game shortly after that, and Clark gave me the
good-natured gears about my Halloween night out during a morning skate.
I almost fell down laughing,
because he was able to find out about that night from someone in town.
Even when he was battling cancer
for about the last four years, Clark would not let on with how he was doing in
email or social media exchanges regarding his health. He always encouraged me
in my freelance sports media pursuits and with the work I did on this blog.
I remember this one email message
he sent, where I was amazed at how beautifully written it was. Clark showed off
another talent I didn’t know he had.
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| Donn Clark shakes hands with Evan Fiala at the Blades 2017 home opener. |
As the Raiders marched on to
finish first in the WHL’s regular season standings and win the league crown
this past campaign, it was great to see any difficulties people in Prince
Albert might have had with Clark were buried in the past.
It was cool to see that he was
being remembered now in a fond way, and his place in Raiders lore was secure.
For Raiders fans, Clark will always be one of theirs.
I should note that doesn’t
discount his time with the Saskatoon Blades. Clark was with the Blades for the
full 1981-82 season and small parts of the 1980-81 and 1982-83 campaigns as a
defenceman.
Those involved with the Blades
1981-82 campaign are really close, and that group has taken the passing of Clark
and Bruce Gordon in 2017 hard. Gordon, who also passed away from cancer, was a
captain with the 1981-82 squad.
Clark was the Blades head coach
from the start of the 1995-96 season and was released part way through the
1997-98 campaign.
Clark liked to show a tough
exterior, but he really did have a soft interior. After he passed away, I saw lots
of stories over social media telling about Clark’s various acts of kindness.
Overall, he will always be
identified for his time as a coach and an executive with the Raiders.
Today at 2 p.m. at the Legion Hall in Kelvington, Sask.,
people from all over the hockey world will arrive to celebrate Clark’s life.
It is safe to say all who knew him will miss someone who was as
genuine as Clark was.
If you have any
comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them
to stankssports@gmail.com.
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