YORKTON - Growing up in Neepawa, Man., it’s likely Al Murdoch dreamed of a future in hockey – at some point most Canadian boys likely share in that dream.
But not in his wildest dreams would Murdoch have thought his future, while tied to hockey, would be as a pioneer of the sport at Iowa State University, but that would be the path he took.
It’s also a story Murdoch tells in his recent book, with co-author Tim Harwood, in Iowa State Hockey and Al Murdoch: Building a Dream from The History Press.
“I wasn’t exactly sure what I was doing after high school in Neepawa,” said Murdoch in a recent Yorkton This Week interview.
So with no exact plan he headed to Brandon to take a teaching course at what is now Brandon University.
Murdoch’s first teaching job was at The Pas.
“It wasn’t the edge of the earth but it was near it,” he joked.
Still, remote or not, Murdoch liked teaching and decided to take his teaching to the next level, attending Bemidji State University.
That move led Murdoch to Iowa State University, where he got into coaching as well as hockey, playing with what was a college club team.
“I loved what I was doing,” he said.
Murdoch quickly began growing the hockey program at Iowa State, working as a recruiter of talent for a non-scholarship team, coaching, and even fundraising for facilities.
“It was our goal to buy five sticks for each skater and make sure everyone had a helmet. We even hoped to raise enough money to buy our own skate sharpener. The team did have matching uniforms, and that was important. Some of the teams we played at that time did not,” he wrote of the early days of the program.
Eventually, those efforts in time would include working toward Iowa State moving into NCAA Division I hockey.
It just never happened.
Murdoch said there were always people at Iowa State who could not see value in making the jump.
“They didn’t see a future in it,” he said.
While Murdoch is now retired, he said he still believes one day Iowa State will make the jump, in large part because hockey is gaining greater interest at the American college level.
“No question about it,” he said. “Schools are around the country are going Division I each year.”
Even without the Division I label the program under Murdoch prospered.
“In the middle of the 2007-8 season, Iowa State earned its 900th win since I had become head coach, and the number was up to 912 when that season ended,” he wrote.
“The next year was my 40th in Ames since first arriving for graduate school in 1969. Word spread, and the countdown was on. There was a chance to break the record at home during a two-game weekend against Arizona State in early November. Friday was a record-tying night, and on Saturday, we swept the series with a 3-2 victory. After the game, the team presented me with a jersey on the ice. It had my name and “925” where the player number would be. It was a special, memorable night, made all the better because we were at the Ames/ISU Ice Arena with so many people who had been part of getting the program there. By luck or coincidence, I was very fortunate that so many of my milestone wins – the big numbers that ended in “00” -- happened at home, and they became occasions for the players and fans to celebrate Iowa State hockey together.”
As far as hockey in Iowa is concerned Murdoch said the state has long had an interest in hockey from the days of the Des Moines Ice Leafs which members of the United States Hockey League from 1961 to 1963, and the International Hockey League from 1963 to 1972.
As for the book. Murdoch said he has always “told lots of stories not only to players that I coached but my family.” It was a son who suggested a book, and he thought it a good idea, and it has proven popular so far.
