Dryden Inducted into CoSIDA Hall of Fame
Jul 8, 2005 12:52:08 GMT -5
Post by Deleted on Jul 8, 2005 12:52:08 GMT -5
www.collegesports.com/sports/m-hockey/stories/070705aab.html
PHILADELPHIA, Pa. - Legendary Cornell and Montreal Canadiens goalie Ken Dryden '69 was inducted into the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Academic All-America Hall of Fame on Wednesday, July 6, at the Downtown Marriott in Philadelphia. The master of ceremonies for the event, which capped CoSIDA's annual four-day workshop, was long-time broadcaster Dick Enberg.
Dryden, who graduated from Cornell in 1969 with a 3.3 grade point average in history, was joined in the Class of 2005 by four other former standouts from across the nation and NCAA athletic divisions. Founded in 1988, the CoSIDA Academic All-America Hall of Fame now includes 88 members, among them five from the Ivy League. Cornell leads the Ivy League with three of its former student-athletes in the Hall. Joseph Holland '91 and Ellen Mayer-Sabik '97 have also been so honored. Mayer-Sabik was one of approximately 10 members of the hall of fame in attendance to welcome the new inductees, whom Enberg said are "the crème de la crème of our student-athletes."
In his acceptance remarks to a crowd of several hundred people, Dryden spoke of the balance between athletics and academics his parents stressed to him and his four siblings. "Our parents wanted us to be well-rounded," he said. "If there was a conflict or if a choice had to be made, school always won."
Growing up in Hamilton, Ont., Dryden enjoyed playing hockey, but he had no idea where the sport would take him. "I never imagined having an NHL career," he said. "I just imagined playing as long as a coach wouldn't tell me, `Sorry. You're not good enough to play for this team.' I knew when I went to Cornell that playing in the NCAA meant no NHL for me. We understood that. There were only six teams in the NHL then, but things turned out differently. There was expansion in the NHL, and it turned out college hockey was much better than anyone imagined."
Dryden went from being certain he would never play in the NHL to being one of the best netminders in the league's history. He proved himself as a collegiate goaltender with the Big Red first, though. When his Cornell career came to a close following the 1968-69 season, he held numerous school, ECAC Hockey League and NCAA records. He backstopped the Big Red's first national championship in 1967, posting a 26-0-1 record, .945 save percentage, 1.46 goals against average and four shutouts as a sophomore.
Dryden posted a career record of 76-4-1, which is the best in Cornell history. He has at least 28 more wins than any other Cornell goalie, and his .944 career winning percentage is still the NCAA record.
Dryden's .939 career save percentage and 1.59 career goals against average are both ECACHL records. His 13 career shutouts were tied for the league record until the 2004-05 season, when it was broken by Cornell sophomore David McKee (Irving, Texas).
Following his outstanding career at Cornell, Dryden went on to have a Hall of Fame career in the National Hockey League for the Montreal Canadiens. He contributed to six Stanley Cup championships in nine seasons from 1970-71 to 1978-79. He was named a first-team NHL All-Star five times and a second-team All-Star once. Dryden was a five-time recipient of the Vezina Trophy, given to the "goalkeeper adjudged to be the best at his position," including four straight years from 1975-76 through 1978-79. He also earned the 1972 Calder Memorial Trophy, the league's rookie of the year award, and was honored with the Conn Smythe Trophy, which is given to the "most valuable player for his team in the playoffs," in 1971.
Dryden, the only three-time first-team All-American in Cornell hockey history, recalled his alma mater and the Lynah Faithful fondly. "The Cornell years were wonderful years," he said. "I discovered that I could play, and that I could play in front of 4,000 fans at Lynah Rink that felt and sounded like 20,000. And our fans traveled well. A thousand of our fans on the road felt like 10,000.
"At Cornell, I discovered again that the best kind of play came with learning, and the best kind of learning came with play. I was able to become a well-rounded person because of my parents, and Ned Harkness, who was a legendary college coach. (General manager) Sam Pollock and (head coach) Scotty Bowman with Montreal allowed me to go to law school while I was playing. They didn't decide for me whether or not I could try both."
Appropriately, support from family, educators and coaches, and their commitment to balanced student-athletes and people was a common theme in remarks from each inductee. CoSIDA established the Hall of Fame to honor former college student-athletes who have excelled in their professions and made substantial contributions to their communities following outstanding careers in the classroom and the athletic venue. To be eligible for the Hall of Fame, a candidate either had to be an Academic All-America team member who graduated at least 10 years ago, or fall into the honorary category, as is the case with Dryden. Honorary inductees are eligible candidates who competed prior to the establishment of the Academic All-America program in their sport.
Following the ceremony, Dryden posed for photos with Cornell alumni, accepted the congratulations of many in attendance, including Enberg, and signed a few autographs. He also reflected upon the evening all of the events and people which had led to his induction. "One of the nicest parts about the ceremony is hearing the bios of everyone else," he said. "Every story is inspiring and interesting. There are many common things, but each one is unique.
"For those who were kids when I grew up, what was entirely understood was that sports and school are complementary," Dryden continued. "Everything was related and connected. The real connection for me was made at Cornell. You find a real sense of self in college and start to understand what you might be able to do. The people who were there were great teachers. They saw the possibilities in you and tried to pull those things out."
Since retiring as a player, Dryden has had a very full second career, during which he has authored several books, worked as a television commentator for the games of three Winter Olympiads, most notably the 1980 games in Lake Placid, N.Y., which featured the United States' upset of the Soviet Union and the subsequent win in the gold medal contest, a teacher at the University of Toronto and a member of Canadian Parliament. He was also the general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs for two seasons before taking over as team president in 1999, a post he held until 2004.
The CoSIDA Academic All-America Hall of Fame is the fifth to which Dryden has been inducted, having already taken his place in the National Hockey League, Cornell Athletics, Canadian Sports and International Scholar-Athlete halls of fame.
The other members of the CoSIDA Academic All-America Hall of Fame induction class of 2005 are football wide receiver Cormac Carney, UCLA '83; softball, soccer and basketball star Dr. Claudia Henemyre-Harris, Western Maryland College '92 (now McDaniel College); former Chicago Bulls star John Paxson, Notre Dame '83; and softball standout Tracy Warren, Trenton State College '87 (now the College of New Jersey). Paxson, now a member of the Bulls' front office, was unable to attend the ceremony due to a last-minute conflict with his work, but his father, Jim Paxson, himself a former college basketball player at the University of Dayton, delivered an emotional acceptance speech on his son's behalf.
PHILADELPHIA, Pa. - Legendary Cornell and Montreal Canadiens goalie Ken Dryden '69 was inducted into the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Academic All-America Hall of Fame on Wednesday, July 6, at the Downtown Marriott in Philadelphia. The master of ceremonies for the event, which capped CoSIDA's annual four-day workshop, was long-time broadcaster Dick Enberg.
Dryden, who graduated from Cornell in 1969 with a 3.3 grade point average in history, was joined in the Class of 2005 by four other former standouts from across the nation and NCAA athletic divisions. Founded in 1988, the CoSIDA Academic All-America Hall of Fame now includes 88 members, among them five from the Ivy League. Cornell leads the Ivy League with three of its former student-athletes in the Hall. Joseph Holland '91 and Ellen Mayer-Sabik '97 have also been so honored. Mayer-Sabik was one of approximately 10 members of the hall of fame in attendance to welcome the new inductees, whom Enberg said are "the crème de la crème of our student-athletes."
In his acceptance remarks to a crowd of several hundred people, Dryden spoke of the balance between athletics and academics his parents stressed to him and his four siblings. "Our parents wanted us to be well-rounded," he said. "If there was a conflict or if a choice had to be made, school always won."
Growing up in Hamilton, Ont., Dryden enjoyed playing hockey, but he had no idea where the sport would take him. "I never imagined having an NHL career," he said. "I just imagined playing as long as a coach wouldn't tell me, `Sorry. You're not good enough to play for this team.' I knew when I went to Cornell that playing in the NCAA meant no NHL for me. We understood that. There were only six teams in the NHL then, but things turned out differently. There was expansion in the NHL, and it turned out college hockey was much better than anyone imagined."
Dryden went from being certain he would never play in the NHL to being one of the best netminders in the league's history. He proved himself as a collegiate goaltender with the Big Red first, though. When his Cornell career came to a close following the 1968-69 season, he held numerous school, ECAC Hockey League and NCAA records. He backstopped the Big Red's first national championship in 1967, posting a 26-0-1 record, .945 save percentage, 1.46 goals against average and four shutouts as a sophomore.
Dryden posted a career record of 76-4-1, which is the best in Cornell history. He has at least 28 more wins than any other Cornell goalie, and his .944 career winning percentage is still the NCAA record.
Dryden's .939 career save percentage and 1.59 career goals against average are both ECACHL records. His 13 career shutouts were tied for the league record until the 2004-05 season, when it was broken by Cornell sophomore David McKee (Irving, Texas).
Following his outstanding career at Cornell, Dryden went on to have a Hall of Fame career in the National Hockey League for the Montreal Canadiens. He contributed to six Stanley Cup championships in nine seasons from 1970-71 to 1978-79. He was named a first-team NHL All-Star five times and a second-team All-Star once. Dryden was a five-time recipient of the Vezina Trophy, given to the "goalkeeper adjudged to be the best at his position," including four straight years from 1975-76 through 1978-79. He also earned the 1972 Calder Memorial Trophy, the league's rookie of the year award, and was honored with the Conn Smythe Trophy, which is given to the "most valuable player for his team in the playoffs," in 1971.
Dryden, the only three-time first-team All-American in Cornell hockey history, recalled his alma mater and the Lynah Faithful fondly. "The Cornell years were wonderful years," he said. "I discovered that I could play, and that I could play in front of 4,000 fans at Lynah Rink that felt and sounded like 20,000. And our fans traveled well. A thousand of our fans on the road felt like 10,000.
"At Cornell, I discovered again that the best kind of play came with learning, and the best kind of learning came with play. I was able to become a well-rounded person because of my parents, and Ned Harkness, who was a legendary college coach. (General manager) Sam Pollock and (head coach) Scotty Bowman with Montreal allowed me to go to law school while I was playing. They didn't decide for me whether or not I could try both."
Appropriately, support from family, educators and coaches, and their commitment to balanced student-athletes and people was a common theme in remarks from each inductee. CoSIDA established the Hall of Fame to honor former college student-athletes who have excelled in their professions and made substantial contributions to their communities following outstanding careers in the classroom and the athletic venue. To be eligible for the Hall of Fame, a candidate either had to be an Academic All-America team member who graduated at least 10 years ago, or fall into the honorary category, as is the case with Dryden. Honorary inductees are eligible candidates who competed prior to the establishment of the Academic All-America program in their sport.
Following the ceremony, Dryden posed for photos with Cornell alumni, accepted the congratulations of many in attendance, including Enberg, and signed a few autographs. He also reflected upon the evening all of the events and people which had led to his induction. "One of the nicest parts about the ceremony is hearing the bios of everyone else," he said. "Every story is inspiring and interesting. There are many common things, but each one is unique.
"For those who were kids when I grew up, what was entirely understood was that sports and school are complementary," Dryden continued. "Everything was related and connected. The real connection for me was made at Cornell. You find a real sense of self in college and start to understand what you might be able to do. The people who were there were great teachers. They saw the possibilities in you and tried to pull those things out."
Since retiring as a player, Dryden has had a very full second career, during which he has authored several books, worked as a television commentator for the games of three Winter Olympiads, most notably the 1980 games in Lake Placid, N.Y., which featured the United States' upset of the Soviet Union and the subsequent win in the gold medal contest, a teacher at the University of Toronto and a member of Canadian Parliament. He was also the general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs for two seasons before taking over as team president in 1999, a post he held until 2004.
The CoSIDA Academic All-America Hall of Fame is the fifth to which Dryden has been inducted, having already taken his place in the National Hockey League, Cornell Athletics, Canadian Sports and International Scholar-Athlete halls of fame.
The other members of the CoSIDA Academic All-America Hall of Fame induction class of 2005 are football wide receiver Cormac Carney, UCLA '83; softball, soccer and basketball star Dr. Claudia Henemyre-Harris, Western Maryland College '92 (now McDaniel College); former Chicago Bulls star John Paxson, Notre Dame '83; and softball standout Tracy Warren, Trenton State College '87 (now the College of New Jersey). Paxson, now a member of the Bulls' front office, was unable to attend the ceremony due to a last-minute conflict with his work, but his father, Jim Paxson, himself a former college basketball player at the University of Dayton, delivered an emotional acceptance speech on his son's behalf.