Remembering Bill Davidge | Columbus Blue Jackets
Davidge was born April 1, 1954, in Dunnville, Ontario, a city of round 6,000 individuals within the southeastern a part of the province simply north of Lake Erie. He and his siblings – together with a brother, Dan, who grew to become an completed coach in his personal proper – performed hockey on frozen lakes and ponds in addition to on the bare-bones Dunnville Arena on the Grand River subsequent to a feed mill.
“You paid a quarter every time you practiced or played, and I’ll never forget, they had a $2 registration fee,” he instructed BlueJackets.com in 2018. “Two bucks. That basically was your insurance policy if you ever got hurt. It was pretty neat.”
As he acquired older, he confirmed a flair within the sport, and earlier than he acquired his driver’s license, he’d hitchhike to follow to hone his expertise. The exhausting work and dedication paid off, as Davidge was recruited to play at Ohio State and the University of Pennsylvania.
READ MORE: Davidge’s retirement announcement | Mr. Blue Jacket
Because he might get a full athletic scholarship and play as a freshman, he selected Ohio State, the place the fleet-footed middle/defenseman was a four-year letterwinner from 1974-77. He completed his time as a Buckeye with 45 objectives, 56 assists and 141 penalty minutes in 114 video games whereas serving as a co-captain as a junior and group captain as a senior. A scholar-athlete, he earned a level in training, which grew to become one of many passions of his life.
Fortuitously, he roomed with an All-American golfer named Paul Davis, and Davidge picked up a recreation that grew to become a ardour; his final quarter at OSU included golf all day and lessons at evening.
He additionally met a tennis participant in a bodily training class named Leann Grimes, the daughter of OSU soccer participant Bob Grimes and the varsity’s all-time chief in singles and doubles wins when she graduated. The two married, and when accidents dominated out a professional hockey profession for Davidge, they moved to Oxford, Ohio, the place Bill pursued his grasp’s diploma and taught bodily training at Miami whereas Grimes coached the varsity’s girls’s tennis group.
Davidge and legendary Miami coach Steve Cady helped persuade the varsity to take its hockey program to the Division I stage in 1978-79, and the 2 additionally created the Miami Hockey School on the best way to changing into two of essentially the most distinguished instructors within the state. After serving as an assistant, Davidge took over from Cady as this system’s head coach in 1985, spending 4 seasons heading this system behind the bench.
“He’s one of the best teachers that I’ve ever seen,” Cady mentioned in 2014. “He was in a position to break a ability down, clarify the ability. He was a really, very gifted athlete at Ohio State, and numerous guys which can be actual gifted from a expertise standpoint wrestle to show it as a result of it simply comes pure to them.
“Bill was not that way at all. He knew how to break the components of the skill down and then articulated that to whatever age he was working with in a way that made it easy for the folks to understand and learn.”
Bill and Leann had a son, Rob, however her life was tragically reduce brief in January 1985 when she died from accidents suffered in a automotive accident whereas returning residence from a recruiting journey.
After stepping away from the bench in 1989, Davidge continued to show at Miami – he had a settee in his workplace quite than hardback chairs, the higher to make guests really feel comfy – and settled into a job as a scout and, for the primary time, broadcaster with the Cincinnati Cyclones of the IHL. He additionally scouted for the Florida Panthers and Detroit Red Wings, and when Columbus was given an NHL franchise and selected Doug MacLean to run it, the latter reached out given his longtime relationship with Davidge.
He was first employed to scout in 1999-2000, the 12 months earlier than the group debuted, and instantly embraced spreading the gospel of hockey round Ohio with the group’s first radio broadcaster, George Matthews. The two crossed the state in a Stinger-adorned van visiting radio associates, speaking to followers and drumming up enthusiasm for the NHL group headed to the capital metropolis. Whenever the Blue Jackets wanted a consultant at an occasion, Davidge was there.