{"id":24576,"date":"2019-08-29T17:05:29","date_gmt":"2019-08-29T21:05:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=24576"},"modified":"2019-08-29T17:05:38","modified_gmt":"2019-08-29T21:05:38","slug":"gardners-are-a-family-first-in-aurora-sports-hall-of-fame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/gardners-are-a-family-first-in-aurora-sports-hall-of-fame\/","title":{"rendered":"Gardners are a family first in Aurora Sports Hall of Fame"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Jake Courtepatte<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the Gardners, the game of hockey is\na family affair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Drafted eighth overall by the Montreal\nCanadiens in the 1972 NHL Entry Draft, Dave Gardner was a staple of the game for\ntwo decades. He passed that passion on down to his son, Ryan, who was a\nhousehold name in the mouths of Swiss hockey fans up until his retirement only\na few seasons ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Photo by Karen Merk<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Now, both find themselves as part of the\nincoming class of 2019 in the Aurora Sports Hall of Fame, the first father-son\nduo to earn the honour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m really honoured to be part of the\n2019 Aurora Sports Hall of Fame inductees, along with my son Ryan and other\ninductees,\u201d said father Dave. \u201cLooking forward to celebrating a great evening\nwith everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat a great feeling to receive a call\nfrom the Aurora Sports Hall of Fame that you are not only being inducted, but\nwith your father,\u201d said Ryan. \u201cI was totally speechless. Can\u2019t wait for the\nevening and meeting the other inductees. I\u2019m thrilled.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One could say it was in the Gardner\nblood to find success on the ice: Dave\u2019s father, and Ryan\u2019s grandfather, Cal,\nearned a pair of Stanley Cups with the Maple Leafs back in their heyday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dave himself is a veteran of 350 NHL\nGames, while Ryan\u2019s resume includes the likes of four Swiss League titles, a\nfive-year stint with Team Canada at the Spengler Cup, as well as a World\nChampionship silver medal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ryan ended his famed Swiss career, where\nhe managed to play over 1,200 games, after the 2014-15 season while playing\nwith SC Bern. These days, he can be found helping the younger generation reach\nhis level of success, operating as a skating coach with The Hockey Club in\nAurora.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly enough, the father and son\nduo took entirely different paths to making hockey their careers: Dave made\nmassive splashes at the junior level while skating with the Toronto Marlboros,\npart of an offensive-heavy lineup that also featured the likes of Mike Murphy\nand Steve Shutt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ryan went undrafted in the NHL after an\naverage junior career, instead choosing to carve his path in European hockey,\nafter spending time in Switzerland when his father played there in his twilight\nseasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So engrained he became in the Swiss\nculture, he suited up in the red and white of the Swiss national team for the\n2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia, something that he called \u201ca great\nhonour.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for Dave, he has stepped on Russian\nsoil just once: suiting up in the red and white of Team Canada in the 1979\nIzvestia Tournament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Gardners are two of three athletes\ninducted into this year\u2019s Aurora Sports Hall of Fame class, alongside one\nmember each into the \u201cCoach\u201d and \u201cBuilder\u201d categories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joining the Gardners are star gymnast\nTravis Romagnoli in the athlete category, as well as Ducks Swimming founder Reg\nChappell in the coaching category, and longtime PGA volunteer Jim Clark as a\nbuilder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Auroran will next highlight the\ncareer of Mr. Clark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Held annually at St. Andrew\u2019s College,\nthe ASHoF Induction dinner is one of the most spectacular nights of the year in\nthe Aurora sports community. This year\u2019s dinner will be held on November 7, and\nmore information can be found at www.aurorashof.ca.<\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jake Courtepatte For the Gardners, the game of hockey is a family affair. Drafted eighth overall by the Montreal Canadiens in the 1972 NHL Entry Draft, Dave Gardner was a staple of the game for two decades. He passed that passion on down to his son, Ryan, who was a household name in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5,24,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news","category-news-sports","category-sports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6oo","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-30 10:39:07","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24576\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}