Coaching legend Don Phelps, who coached the Calgary Canucks for three decades has been inducted into the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame. Phelps was a former Drumheller Miner and had his AJHL coaching start with the Drumheller Falcons.
Almost exactly a year ago The Mail spoke to coaching legend Don Phelps about his induction into the Alberta Hockey Hall of Fame.
This year he is honoured on a larger scale as a member of the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame.
“In my mind there are two things that really resonate, one is the company you are joining (in the Hall of Fame), that speaks for itself. The other is a reminder of the fun I had at doing something I enjoyed. I stop and reflect and wonder why I am being recognized? To me the fun I had was the big thing, this is just an exclamation point at the end.
While Phelps is widely regarded as the legend behind the Calgary Canucks, some of his early hockey and coaching experience was in the valley. In fact, Phelps told The Mail previously that some of his fondest memories were from his time in Drumheller.
Phelps came to the valley as a Drumheller Miner in the late 1960’s after the team had won the Allan Cup. He was on two provincial championship teams. A few years after the Miners, he came on as a coach for the Drumheller Falcons and ran that bench. He was the 1974-1975 AJHL Coach of the year.
In 1979, he joined up with the Calgary Canucks and stayed with the team until he retired in 2011. In that time, hundreds of players were affected by his tenure.
“It is humbling to get an award like this, but at the same time, the real satisfaction I get is so many people I worked with called me and said ‘hey you deserve it.’ Hey if they are going to say it I’m not going to argue,” he chuckles.
It was also rewarding working with young people for all those years.
“The big thing for me was if you made a difference for some of those kids in terms of them making the right decisions or getting their house in order and achieving something that was attainable, then good,” he said. “I know there are thousands of people out there who do the same thing with little or no notoriety, so I was just fortunate to be picked out of the herd.”
“You don get into this with the idea of ‘maybe I’ll become a member of the Sports Hall of Fame'. That is not the magnet that draws you in into it; you cannot replace the friendships I have garnered over the years, the people I have worked with, that if I weren’t coaching I would have never known them. With kids on the teams, I have helped them solve problems, they have told me things they wouldn’t tell their parents and that is a lot of responsibility. When I look back at it I think I am a better person for having done it.”
The induction into the Alberta Sport Hall of Fame is on May 30.
