McCourt makes the call

Blessed with a 25-year career as an NHL linesman, and a decade of involvement with the NHL officials management team, Dan McCourt has logged more than 3,000 nights on the road.

For some perspective, that's eight full years spent in hotel rooms across North American hockey cities.

The eldest of five brothers, McCourt grew up eating and breathing hockey. A natural goal-scorer, if not overly physical, McCourt enjoyed success at the junior B ranks, though not enough to earn a promotion to the next level.

But his desire to be involved, somehow, with the NHL, propelled him in another direction.

"I still wanted to make it to the NHL," he said. "I thought to myself that I would go as far as I can with it (officiating), and see where it takes me."

Moving quickly through the ranks, McCourt earned a job in the International Hockey League, working three games a week for a year, including four of the seven games of the championship final.

With the WHA (World Hockey Association) folding that same year — 1979 — the NHL needed more officials, having welcomed the likes of the Edmonton Oilers and Quebec Nordiques to the fold.

It was anything but a slam dunk for the kid from Northern Ontario. One of the last to receive an invite to the NHL officials' mini-camp, McCourt was certain he was heading back home.

"On the last day, Scotty Morrison asked me to stay for the regular camp," McCourt said. "Something happened that made them change their minds and give me an opportunity."

Whatever made them change their minds, NHL higher-ups signed the 25-year-old linesman to a contract, officiating in the minor leagues based initially out of Dallas, Texas.

Fast forward a quarter-century or so and the NHL was looking to recover from the effects of the 2004-2005 lockout. North Bay native Stephen Walkom was given oversight of the officials working the highest level of hockey on the globe.
Walkom had changes in mind.

"He's had ideas for years," McCourt said. "When we worked games together, we would stay up until five in the morning, talking. He had vision, and was thinking way outside the box."

And Walkom wanted fellow northerner McCourt to join him outside that box. Not that walking away from the daily rigours of the on-ice involvement was easy.
"I was in my fifties, I had nothing left to prove," he said. "What an opportunity to get in on the ground floor of something new."

And new it was. The position of NHL officiating supervisor was amended to "NHL Officiating Manager," the job McCourt now holds.

"We needed to be better at how we coached our team (of officials),” McCourt said. "A big part of my job is helping prepare (referees) for life in the NHL."

Having celebrated his 60th birthday this past summer, McCourt is in no hurry to leave this labour of love.

"People ask me all the time what I do," McCourt said. "I tell them I sit in a press box and watch hockey games.

“They ask me when I'm going to retire, and I say to them, 'I don't think you heard me — I watch hockey games.'"

And the game is better for it.