In Hockey Priest: Father David Bauer and the Spirit of the Canadian Game, Dr. Matt Hoven reviews the remarkable life of a Canadian legend and details his lifetime engagement at the highest levels of Canadian hockey. Bauer is most prominently known for establishing and leading Canada’s men’s national ice hockey team program (1963-70 and 1978-80). The first of its kind, the team represented Canada with players from across the country at several World Championships and three Winter Olympic Games. He was also the longest serving, original member of the Hockey Canada Board (1969-1988).
As a child, Bauer was a superb athlete and dreamed of playing professional hockey like his older brother Bobby, who was an all-star with the Boston Bruins. But his father repeatedly reminded the young David that he needed to understand sport within some larger context. On his return train ride home with other soldiers–he had joined the Canadian army, but the Second World War ended immediately before his deployment to the Pacific front–he decided that there was something more meaningful to do in his life than to chase a puck around. He was ordained as a Catholic priest in the Congregation of St. Basil in 1953 and was a teacher and coach at St. Michael's College School in Toronto, where his team won the 1961 Memorial Cup championship. He was also heavily involved in Japanese hockey for over a decade.
Too often people have seen Bauer as a religious do-gooder, as someone who turned down opportunities in the professional game to help young people in the sport. Although he was selfless in many ways, Bauer should more accurately be understood as someone who sought to make substantial changes to the sport of hockey so that it could become a greater force for good in Canada and the world. This book examines closely his educational beliefs and philosophical teachings as found in various speeches and hockey reports in order to provide a deeper understanding of his hockey alternative.
Dr. Matt Hoven is Associate Professor and Peter and Doris Kule Chair of Catholic Religious Education at St Joseph's College, University of Alberta, in Edmonton. His books include, Hockey Priest: Father David Bauer and the Spirit of the Canadian Game (CUA Press, 2024), and the co-authored text, On the Eighth Day: A Catholic Theology of Sport (Cascade, 2022). His work examines how religious and philosophical thought has impacted and inspired sports and the people who play the games. Matt is married to Crystal and together they stay active with their children in local youth sports.
Excerpt from Chapter 1 – Bauer’s Motto: “Use Technique, but Let the Spirit Prevail”
An examination of religious influences on hockey must include Bauer. This hockey philosopher summed up his thought in sport through his motto: “Use technique, but let the spirit prevail.” This phrase, first written by Bauer in 1961, comes from Pope Pius XII’s 1955 speech given to Italian sports leaders, in which the pontiff argued that the spiritual traditions of the Church can free sport from obsessions over technical aspects of athletics. Pius XII, who gave several sports-themed speeches, explained: “Technique, in sport, as in the arts, should not be an impediment to the unfolding of spiritual forces, such as intuition, will, sensitivity, courage, tenacity, which are, after all, the true secret of every success.” He concluded: “The spirit must predominate over the technical. Use technique, but let the spirit prevail.”
Bauer said that he learned the motto from Joe Primeau, who worked alongside him with the St. Michael’s Majors. Bauer wrote: “What then is the essence of greatness ... ? When applied to the game of hockey it is ... to have served to the maximum the ideal ... : ‘Make use of technique, but let the spirit prevail.’” A Basilian confrere explained that Bauer believed that his teams could learn and grow from any experience in sport; he set hockey within a broader reality where God could work through relationships in the game. Learning skills remained vital, but this work was set within a larger background of life’s meaning and purpose.
“Make use of technique, but let the spirit prevail” underlined a spiritual understanding of the human being: a person of both body and spirit. Bauer questioned why overly commercialized hockey disproportionately put material concerns above spiritual values. He wanted to make a better society or, in his words, create “a more spiritual world.” … One Basilian [priest] explained that Bauer “knew that sports were very important in people’s lives, but that their lives were much more important than sports.” Bauer put hockey into a larger, transcendent perspective.
Paperback copies of Hockey Priest can be purchased with the University of Toronto Distribution in Canada (Hockey Priest), with its U.S. publisher, the Catholic University of America Press (Hockey Priest - CUAPress), or with an online seller of your choice.
As a child, Bauer was a superb athlete and dreamed of playing professional hockey like his older brother Bobby, who was an all-star with the Boston Bruins. But his father repeatedly reminded the young David that he needed to understand sport within some larger context. On his return train ride home with other soldiers–he had joined the Canadian army, but the Second World War ended immediately before his deployment to the Pacific front–he decided that there was something more meaningful to do in his life than to chase a puck around. He was ordained as a Catholic priest in the Congregation of St. Basil in 1953 and was a teacher and coach at St. Michael's College School in Toronto, where his team won the 1961 Memorial Cup championship. He was also heavily involved in Japanese hockey for over a decade.
Too often people have seen Bauer as a religious do-gooder, as someone who turned down opportunities in the professional game to help young people in the sport. Although he was selfless in many ways, Bauer should more accurately be understood as someone who sought to make substantial changes to the sport of hockey so that it could become a greater force for good in Canada and the world. This book examines closely his educational beliefs and philosophical teachings as found in various speeches and hockey reports in order to provide a deeper understanding of his hockey alternative.
Dr. Matt Hoven is Associate Professor and Peter and Doris Kule Chair of Catholic Religious Education at St Joseph's College, University of Alberta, in Edmonton. His books include, Hockey Priest: Father David Bauer and the Spirit of the Canadian Game (CUA Press, 2024), and the co-authored text, On the Eighth Day: A Catholic Theology of Sport (Cascade, 2022). His work examines how religious and philosophical thought has impacted and inspired sports and the people who play the games. Matt is married to Crystal and together they stay active with their children in local youth sports.
Excerpt from Chapter 1 – Bauer’s Motto: “Use Technique, but Let the Spirit Prevail”
An examination of religious influences on hockey must include Bauer. This hockey philosopher summed up his thought in sport through his motto: “Use technique, but let the spirit prevail.” This phrase, first written by Bauer in 1961, comes from Pope Pius XII’s 1955 speech given to Italian sports leaders, in which the pontiff argued that the spiritual traditions of the Church can free sport from obsessions over technical aspects of athletics. Pius XII, who gave several sports-themed speeches, explained: “Technique, in sport, as in the arts, should not be an impediment to the unfolding of spiritual forces, such as intuition, will, sensitivity, courage, tenacity, which are, after all, the true secret of every success.” He concluded: “The spirit must predominate over the technical. Use technique, but let the spirit prevail.”
Bauer said that he learned the motto from Joe Primeau, who worked alongside him with the St. Michael’s Majors. Bauer wrote: “What then is the essence of greatness ... ? When applied to the game of hockey it is ... to have served to the maximum the ideal ... : ‘Make use of technique, but let the spirit prevail.’” A Basilian confrere explained that Bauer believed that his teams could learn and grow from any experience in sport; he set hockey within a broader reality where God could work through relationships in the game. Learning skills remained vital, but this work was set within a larger background of life’s meaning and purpose.
“Make use of technique, but let the spirit prevail” underlined a spiritual understanding of the human being: a person of both body and spirit. Bauer questioned why overly commercialized hockey disproportionately put material concerns above spiritual values. He wanted to make a better society or, in his words, create “a more spiritual world.” … One Basilian [priest] explained that Bauer “knew that sports were very important in people’s lives, but that their lives were much more important than sports.” Bauer put hockey into a larger, transcendent perspective.
Paperback copies of Hockey Priest can be purchased with the University of Toronto Distribution in Canada (Hockey Priest), with its U.S. publisher, the Catholic University of America Press (Hockey Priest - CUAPress), or with an online seller of your choice.
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