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Inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1993. Born
in Edinburgh on May 24th, 1931, Willie Clark’s involvement
in ice hockey began in the early 1950s, when he took up skating while
working as a steward at the newly opened Murrayfield rink. The
Murrayfield stewards formed their own hockey team and Clark, after
starting to play on defence, went between the pipes and stayed there one
night after the regular netminder failed to appear. He soon became the
back-up goalie for the Murrayfield Royals and after a brief spell with
the Glasgow Flyers, established himself as the Royals first choice
‘keeper. In
1961, he back-stopped the club to victory in the major tournaments
played in Brighton, Durham, Southampton and Whitley Bay, and he went on
to appear for regularly for Scotland against England as well as
representing Great Britain in four world championships. The
formation of the Northern League in 1966 heralded great days for the
Murrayfield club. Now known as the Racers, and with Willie Clark in
goal, the team swept the three major NL competitions and went on to
complete "Grand Slams” in 69/70, 70/71 and 71/72 – an
unprecedented run of success. Willie
Clark’s final playing season was 1975/76, by which time he had become
manager of the Scotland team, a role he filled from 1973 to 1992. During
the 1980s he became a member of the Scottish Ice Hockey Association
responsible for senior development, which in turn led to him
representing Scotland at BIHA Council meetings culminating in his
personal membership of the Council in 1990. A
glazier by trade, Willie Clark became Projects Manager at the
Murrayfield rink and maintained his connections with the sport that
first caught his imagination over forty years earlier. by Martin C.Harris – April 1993. |
