Book Feature Hockey Priest: Father David Bauer and the Spirit of the Canadian Game (by Matt Hoven)

[MattHoven]

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.

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[Theokritos]

Thanks for joining us!

First question: For your book you have examined "various speeches and hockey reports" by David Bauer. Where did you find those?

 

[MattHoven]

The speeches and hockey reports that Bauer wrote with others were scattered across the country in different archives.
Hockey Canada in Calgary had a couple early reports Bauer wrote for the CAHA as it was negotiating a new agreement with the NHL in the mid/late 1960s. The Basilian Fathers Archives in Toronto and those at St. Mark's College (UBC) in Vancouver had reports written in the 1970s and 80s, along with some speeches. At these locations, along with the HHOF, there is an invaluable overview of the 1960s and Bauer's work in hockey that he wrote to Minister Munro. I also was fortunate for family and friends to share materials with me.
These documents really shaped the book, as they helped me understand at a deeper level how Bauer was trying to impact the sport nationally and internationally.

 

[Theokritos]

The speeches and hockey reports that Bauer wrote with others were scattered across the country in different archives.
Hockey Canada in Calgary had a couple early reports Bauer wrote for the CAHA as it was negotiating a new agreement with the NHL in the mid/late 1960s. The Basilian Fathers Archives in Toronto and those at St. Mark's College (UBC) in Vancouver had reports written in the 1970s and 80s, along with some speeches. At these locations, along with the HHOF, there is an invaluable overview of the 1960s and Bauer's work in hockey that he wrote to Minister Munro. I also was fortunate for family and friends to share materials with me.
These documents really shaped the book, as they helped me understand at a deeper level how Bauer was trying to impact the sport nationally and internationally.

Since all these sources are not exactly readily available to a wider public, we have to thank you for examining them and conveying their contents. If you didn't do this work, most of it would probably have remained unknown.

So for modern eyes, Father David Bauer was an apparently curious combination of a Catholic clergyman and a dedicated hockey devotee. But back in the days when David Bauer grew up, this combination might not have been quite as peculiar as it seems today. In Canada, there was a rather vigorous tradition of hockey being pursued at Catholic schools, right? And in terms of their outlook, some of the teachers at those schools were perhaps predecessors of David Bauer, even if they didn't become as widely known, let alone nationally influential, as Bauer.

 

[jigglysquishy]

My priest in University in the early 2010s (Father Ron Griffin) had met David Bauer a couple of times as they shared a love of hockey.

Father Griffin played hockey in his younger days. There's a sizeable contingent of Catholic priests who love hockey. Sport, in general, is quite popular amongst clergy.

I frequently see my current priest (a short elderly Filipino man) shooting hoops.

 

[Theokritos]

It's unfortunate that the author didn't come back for more.

 

[MattHoven]

You're both right. There is a long tradition of coach priests in sports. Father Bauer was part of a group of priests named the Basilian Fathers. They got involved in hockey in its first full decade in Toronto, for instance, at St. Michael's College School and were earlier victors of junior and senior hockey in the Province of Ontario. Their sports involvement spread across the continent at their different schools in Detroit, Rochester, Houston, Calgary, and elsewhere. Bauer arrived in Vancouver in 1961 at St. Mark's College, where he was a chaplain and instructor while coaching at UBC and eventually the National Team.

This priestly tradition in sport mirrors Protestant involvement in sport. Basketball was created by Dr James Naismith, a minister working at the YMCA. American football has deep roots in Christian Colleges in the late nineteenth century. Both games today make room for individual religious practices, like kneeling in the end zone or pointing to the heavens. Catholic schools generally remain highly engaged in sport.

In the book, I examine the Basilian sporting tradition and try to show how Bauer tried to make it relevant later in the twentieth century by engaging values and principles that could guide and direct sport for the benefit of youth in the country. It's not about turning back the clock, but in recognizing the importance that churches and pastors played in shaping sport and how today Canadians are seeking core values and principles to guide the sport. Bauer's point of view is worth reading about and considering.

 

[Theokritos]

Matt Hoven has agreed to answer more questions since he didn't have the time to engage much back in December.

So Matt, what would you say were some of the core ideas of David Bauer about hockey and its state in Canada that distinguished him from the mainstream and other hockey minds of his time?

 

[MattHoven]

Bauer came from a Canadian sporting tradition that believed that there was more to hockey than profits and entertainment. He wasn't against professional hockey, in fact, he poked fun at those who were strict adherents to amateur ideals that prohibited any commerce in the game. He was a realist. While he voiced a unique perspective, many reporters, government leaders, hockey coaches, and Canadians generally supported his core ideas about hockey. Many found it hard to disagree with his reasoning.

I'll name three major ideas that distinguished him in hockey.

First, he was against crash-and-bang hockey. He was not a fan of the dump-and-chase game. He believed that this arose in the midst of WWII when player talent dropped off when young men served their country. He also saw this in the international game, when European teams were better skilled and conditioned and so Canadian players would act like thugs. A prime example of this was at the 1977 World Championships in Vienna, where Canadian professionals lost 8-1 and resorted to goon-play against the Soviets. In fact, this moment was a watershed event for the rebirthing the National Team for the 1980 Olympics.

Second, as Canadians tried to catch up the training methods of other countries in the sport, Bauer started to feel unease about increased scientific training. In the 60s, Bauer was near the front of the growth in better coaching, but by the 80s he had reservations. He was pleased how well trained the 1980 Olympic team was, but he was concerned that hockey players were losing their spirit, emotion, and humanity. Strangely, we might say that someone like Don Cherry would agree with Bauer on this point.

Third, Bauer believed that development in hockey was about more than just skills and strategies. His motto was: "Make use of technique, but let the spirit prevail." He believed that if coaches made better people, they would create better hockey players. He believed in larger social aims for the sport than did the powerbrokers in the game--he often quoted past league president Clarence Campbell, who once said he wasn't concerned about the growth and development of half a million Canadian boys.