Inductees
Mark Locken
Inducted in 2018
Category: Athlete
After you鈥檝e climbed and conquered the hockey mountain as a 17 year-old Junior and won the Memorial Cup (the game鈥檚 biggest prize at that level) where do you go from there?
Mark Locken answered the question by becoming one of the most successful goaltenders in Saint Mary鈥檚 University hockey history.
Following a 4 year career in the OHL that began with the Memorial Cup champion Hamilton Fincups, Locken was drafted by the NHL鈥檚 Chicago Blackhawks. When he failed to make the big club, the idea of playing in the Minor Leagues wasn鈥檛 very appealing so he took the advice of two Saint Mary鈥檚 alumni Jack Lovett and Bob Warner and accepted an invitation from Bob Boucher to play for the Huskies. He rejected offers from the University of Toronto and schools in Minnesota and Denver to wear the maroon and white.
In 鈥楯r. B鈥� hockey he was known as 鈥榯he Spider鈥�....he was all arms and legs and seemed to be everywhere. A dislocated shoulder changed his style and Locken would become a 鈥榖utterfly鈥� advocate and a good one. 鈥楬e made himself big, played his angles extremely well, knew where everyone was and was tough to beat in close鈥�: that from George Murphy, who had a front row seat for 4 years as his backup. Murphy didn鈥檛 play much; Locken missed only 3 games in 5 years and logged over three thousand minutes of playing time. Time that would see him become a 4 time Conference All-Star, a 3 time CIAU All-Star, a two-time League MVP and the first Huskie to be named the CIAU hockey MVP; that honour coming at the end of the 82/83 season.
His teammate and Saint Mary鈥檚 captain said: 鈥榞oaltenders don鈥檛 win hockey games鈥�. After playing in front of the Burlington, Ontario native, Mike Kelly changed that to: 鈥榞oaltenders don鈥檛 win hockey games...Mark Locken does鈥�. Another teammate referred to net minders as chairs. The thinking was a chair could block as many shots as the guy with the pads. Mike Peterson had a new name for Locken: 鈥楲a Chaise鈥� - A chair with class.
Locken would never win a CIAU title for Saint Mary鈥檚 to go along with his Memorial Cup but he did play for Canada鈥檚 Olympic team over the Christmas break in his final season and got a chance to do what no other Saint Mary鈥檚 net minder has done - play against the Soviets.
Portrait Artist: Barbara Dorey
Portrait Art Photographer: Colin Sutton