nivek_wahs
06-08-2007, 08:45 AM
http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/sports/story.html?id=ecb5ef3d-8719-4229-a75c-651a1d358810
Following in grandpa's footsteps
Gordichuk even gets "Gunner's" sweater number for upcoming season
Howard Tsumura, The Province
Published: Friday, June 08, 2007
Just before he embarked on a four-year career in the Western Hockey League, Max Gordichuk was a minor-hockey phenom being recruited by some of the top schools in the NCAA.
On one of those recruiting trips, to the famed University of Denver, Gordichuk, a defenceman, was being given a tour through the school's hockey facilities when he noticed a picture from the 1949-50 season of the Pilots playing against the visiting University of B.C. Thunderbirds.
"I looked at it and there was my grandfather playing against Denver," remarked Gordichuk on Thursday of Stu "Gunner" Bailey, one of UBC's all-time greats. "I am not a goal scorer but my grandpa was. He was a player. He could really play."
The family ties that bind are not lost on Gordichuk, who after a four-year WHL career with Kamloops, Vancouver and Portland, will pull on a blue-and-gold Thunderbirds sweater some 58 seasons after his grandfather's greatest season, one in which the 'Birds won the highest Canadian competition available to them -- the Hamber Cup, emblematic of Western Canadian university hockey supremacy -- and also beat both Denver and the defending NCAA champions from Colorado College.
"My grandfather is such a modest guy but I know how good he was," said Gordichuk, a sixth-round draft pick of the Edmonton Oilers in 2004. "He wore No. 13 throughout most of his career, so when I asked (UBC head coach) Milan (Dragicevic) which numbers were available, he showed me the list and there was No. 13. It will be very cool to wear his number."
Dragicevic, besides being thrilled to announce the 6-foot-6, 215-pound Gordichuk among his list of recruits for 2007-08, loves the fact that his new blueliner respects Thunderbird hockey history and his place in the lineage of a program that has regained a foothold on respectability over the past few seasons.
"Our alumni has been so good and so supportive to us," said Dragicevic, "and any time you carry on bloodlines, it helps with recruiting because the alumni wants us to carry on traditions. But more than anything, it's great when players want to come to UBC and not second-guess themselves. Max said he was coming to UBC and he told that to all of the other schools that wanted him."
And Gordichuk is joining a 'Birds program that produced its best Canada West record in 17 seasons, going 14-13-1 in conference play and advancing to the Mountain Division final against the Alberta Golden Bears.
"When I start life outside of hockey, I would like it to be in Vancouver," said Gordichuk, who played with the Vancouver Giants in 2004-05 before spending his final two seasons with the Winter Hawks. "Maybe business, maybe architecture, maybe law."
And all the while, he'll wear his grandfather's number and do his best to lift UBC hockey to the same heights it enjoyed over a half-century ago.
© The Vancouver Province 2007
Following in grandpa's footsteps
Gordichuk even gets "Gunner's" sweater number for upcoming season
Howard Tsumura, The Province
Published: Friday, June 08, 2007
Just before he embarked on a four-year career in the Western Hockey League, Max Gordichuk was a minor-hockey phenom being recruited by some of the top schools in the NCAA.
On one of those recruiting trips, to the famed University of Denver, Gordichuk, a defenceman, was being given a tour through the school's hockey facilities when he noticed a picture from the 1949-50 season of the Pilots playing against the visiting University of B.C. Thunderbirds.
"I looked at it and there was my grandfather playing against Denver," remarked Gordichuk on Thursday of Stu "Gunner" Bailey, one of UBC's all-time greats. "I am not a goal scorer but my grandpa was. He was a player. He could really play."
The family ties that bind are not lost on Gordichuk, who after a four-year WHL career with Kamloops, Vancouver and Portland, will pull on a blue-and-gold Thunderbirds sweater some 58 seasons after his grandfather's greatest season, one in which the 'Birds won the highest Canadian competition available to them -- the Hamber Cup, emblematic of Western Canadian university hockey supremacy -- and also beat both Denver and the defending NCAA champions from Colorado College.
"My grandfather is such a modest guy but I know how good he was," said Gordichuk, a sixth-round draft pick of the Edmonton Oilers in 2004. "He wore No. 13 throughout most of his career, so when I asked (UBC head coach) Milan (Dragicevic) which numbers were available, he showed me the list and there was No. 13. It will be very cool to wear his number."
Dragicevic, besides being thrilled to announce the 6-foot-6, 215-pound Gordichuk among his list of recruits for 2007-08, loves the fact that his new blueliner respects Thunderbird hockey history and his place in the lineage of a program that has regained a foothold on respectability over the past few seasons.
"Our alumni has been so good and so supportive to us," said Dragicevic, "and any time you carry on bloodlines, it helps with recruiting because the alumni wants us to carry on traditions. But more than anything, it's great when players want to come to UBC and not second-guess themselves. Max said he was coming to UBC and he told that to all of the other schools that wanted him."
And Gordichuk is joining a 'Birds program that produced its best Canada West record in 17 seasons, going 14-13-1 in conference play and advancing to the Mountain Division final against the Alberta Golden Bears.
"When I start life outside of hockey, I would like it to be in Vancouver," said Gordichuk, who played with the Vancouver Giants in 2004-05 before spending his final two seasons with the Winter Hawks. "Maybe business, maybe architecture, maybe law."
And all the while, he'll wear his grandfather's number and do his best to lift UBC hockey to the same heights it enjoyed over a half-century ago.
© The Vancouver Province 2007