Dan McCourt of Sudbury, a longtime National Hockey League linesman, passed away Jan 20 after a long illness. He was 70 years old.
Inducted into the Greater Sudbury Sports Hall of Fame in 2015, McCourt spent 25 years as an NHL linesman, from 1979 to 2004, and then serving as an officiating manager for more than a decade after taking off his skates and striped shirt.
McCourt was a talented junior player in his youth, but he didn’t attract the attention of scouts like his brother Dale McCourt did (who played in the NHL for the Detroit Red Wings, Buffalo Sabres and Toronto Maple Leafs between 1977 and 1984) or his uncle, George Armstrong (Hockey Hall of Famer who played 21 seasons with the Toronto Maple Leafs, was captain for 13 years and won four Stanley Cups).
But he loved hockey and wanted to stay close to the game.
The eldest of five brothers, McCourt was a natural goal-scorer, if not an overly physical player. He enjoyed success at the junior B ranks, though not enough to earn a promotion to the next level.
"I still wanted to make it to the NHL," he told Sudbury.com in 2014. "I thought to myself that I would go as far as I can with it (officiating), and see where it takes me."
Luckily for him, the World Hockey Association was folding in 1979 and the NHL was absorbing four of its teams: the Edmonton Oilers, New England (soon-to-be Hartford) Whalers, Quebec Nordiques and Winnipeg Jets.
This meant the NHL needed to hire more referees, 16 in fact. Six of those officials would come from the WHA and 10 new ones would be hired. McCourt was one of them.
Over the course of his linesman career, McCourt logged more than 3,000 nights on the road — that's eight full years spent in hotel rooms across North American hockey cities.
McCourt was also involved in the game locally, as a tribute to him from the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League (NOJHL) released Jan. 21 highlights.
“The entire NOJHL sends its deepest condolences to Dan's family, friends and all those who knew him,” the NOJHL said in a statement.
The league said McCourt was “instrumental” in the development of the NOJHL officiating program over the past 12 seasons.
“From the supervision of game officials, to providing guidance during the course of their assignments, he presented abounding direction in their progress over the course of each campaign,” the NOJHL said in a statement. “That valuable insight to the league referees and those working the lines, earned the respect of all those he was associated with.”
As a key member of the league’s supervisory staff, McCourt worked alongside NOJHL Commissioner Robert Mazzuca as a special assistant and with the other league supervisors in the day-to-day role of the betterment of the league and its on-ice officials, the league aside.