The Hobey Baker Memorial Award Foundation is very pleased to announce its 2009 Legend of Hockey recipient is Don Roberts from Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minn. He readily admits he never played the game and couldn’t skate worth a lick, yet Don Roberts ranks 12th overall in all-time collegiate hockey wins.
Growing up in Appleton, Minn., Roberts was recruited to play football at Gustavus in 1952 and also played basketball and baseball. Upon graduation, he entered the Marine Corps, spending three years full time and another five in the reserves. Completing his three-year military hitch, Gustavus brought him back in 1959 as a faculty member in the Phys Ed department and to be an assistant basketball coach, his preferred sport that he never did coach. Faculty members were teachers first with added responsibilities of coaching sports. So, football, a renewed wrestling program and baseball were his assigned sports for coaching.
Eventually, the wrestling job was filled so Roberts could recruit. The MIAC conference added hockey and since Don no longer had a winter sport to coach, the former basketball star was handed the hockey coaching reigns beginning with the 1964 season.
“In order to fill my hockey roster, I recruited all the football players who had skates. Basketball and hockey are fairly similar sports so I just had them run basketball drills. Our first team went 1-14 and I was named Coach of the Year – by my team,” he said laughing.
The Gusties got better in a hurry. His second season they went 16-2 and won the MIAC championship, adding 11 more titles in the next 12 years, including finishing second in the nation three times. Two of his greatest achievements came off the ice. An arena was added on campus during the 1970s and Roberts also founded the St. Peter Youth Hockey Association in 1966, serving as their president for 12 years.
Honors were numerous for Don in his 33 years of coaching the Gusties, including MIAC Coach of the Year six times as well as the 1976 National Coach of the Year by the American Hockey Coaches Association. He retired from teaching and coaching in 1997 with 532 career wins. He was also a full professor with a master’s in education.
Don Roberts will be honored along with this year’s Hobey Baker Award winner at the Hobey Baker Award banquet May 7, 2009 in St. Paul. Banquet tickets are available by visiting the Hobey website at hobeybaker.com. The Hobey Baker Memorial Award annually honors college hockey’s top player and the 2009 recipient will be announced Friday, April 10 during the NCAA Frozen Four championship in Washington, D.C., and will be televised live on ESPNU at 7 p.m. ET.
