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By Jim Leonard
For The Maine Campus
The passing of prominent people is always accompanied by a ground swell of grandiose characterizations. “He was bigger than life,” “she defined an era,” or “he changed the way the game was played,” are just a few.
Sometimes they are on the mark. More often, however, these descriptions serve to fill that acute void left in death’s numbing wake.
Over the next few weeks you’ll hear, and read, that grandiosity applied to Shawn Walsh. Don’t believe any of it – he was bigger than that.
I’ve been a sports fan and Maine resident all my life. That, combined with my arrival on campus as a non-traditional student three years ago, has given me a fairly unique perspective of the Shawn Walsh era at University of Maine.
There are few things capable of uniting an entire region. Catastrophe is one of them, as the singleness of purpose in this country over the past two weeks demonstrates. Sports is another.
People rally around their teams, especially when they’re good. Historically, in Maine that’s been a fairly uncommon occurrence. Things began to change in 1984, the year Walsh came to UMaine.
Walsh took over a program accustomed to losing and within five years won a Hockey East championship. In the process, he rallied a state used to enduring hockey season, not looking forward to it. Suddenly they weren’t the Black Bears; they were our Black Bears. Unconventional and cocky, Walsh inspired the state to love him and returned that sentiment in acknowledging the role fans played in the team’s success.
Suddenly UMaine hockey tickets were as coveted as no-interest loans, and Alfond Arena began to loom as a malevolent specter to visiting clubs. College hockey insiders began talking about UMaine.
And we were proud. This state had never before been the object of such national attention for any of its teams. Cinderella had become a princess.
Things kept getting better until Walsh produced what is arguably the greatest college hockey team of all time in 1993 and giving UMaine its first national championship in any sport.
I remember being huddled around a big screen with about 20 of my closest friends watching Paul [Kariya], Jimmy [Montgomery] and Garth [Snow] overcome a two-goal third period deficit to defeat Lake Superior State. Most of those friends weren’t hockey fans, but they were Mainers, so they watched – and celebrated.
As Black Bear hockey fans, our state endured the NCAA investigation and subsequent penalties levied during the mid-1990s. Regardless of Walsh’s involvement in the cited transgressions, he faced them head-on and stuck around. Walking through that maelstrom of criticism only cemented his legend with UMaine hockey fans.
He struck gold again in 1999 with a second national title. This one, in some ways, was more impressive than the first. There were no future NHL superstars on that club and he did it with two less scholarships than usual, the remaining wounds from the NCAA whip.
Personally, some of my most valuable lessons as a journalist, and as a human being, came from Coach Walsh.
I learned from him that without the media, college hockey wouldn’t be in the position it enjoys today. We were part of the process and Walsh made us feel that way. He specifically had a soft spot for the collegiate media, stating without pretense that we were the conduits to his most important and cherished fan base – UMaine students.
Last season he invited me to coach the Blue Team in the Blue/White scrimmage. When extending the invitation he told me that it would give me a better look inside the college game, therefore making me more perceptive to what the players experience. He backed up the invitation by walking me through every step of the game-day routine. It’s an experience I’ll always draw upon and treasure.
In April, we sat down to talk after his return from a debulking procedure at the National Institute of Health. He was sore and showing the effects of the surgery until the conversation turned to this year’s club. His eyes acquired that instant sparkle that accompanies any hockey-related subject. It was then I discovered the depth of his passion for the game; hockey and Walsh were one.
Some will say an era is over for UMaine hockey but that’s not correct. Suzanne Tyler could bring Scotty Bowman in and this year’s edition of the Black Bears would still be Shawn Walsh’s team. The image of Walsh barking behind the Black Bear bench will be an enduring one, but will never burn as brightly as during this emotional ride set to launch.
God’s got a good man behind the bench now. While he was with us, Shawn Walsh showed us a consistency rarely exhibited amongst mortals. Arrogance, commitment, devotion, loyalty and passion, they were all his calling cards and he displayed them prominently. In doing so, he helped give Maine sports fans a taste of the big time and a sense of national identity.
Thanks Coach.
