Walter "Skip" Stanowski is a retired

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

player. He helped

Cornell Cornell University is a private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson White in 1865. Since ...

win their first National Title in

1967 Events January * January 1 – Canada begins a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Canadian Confederation, Confederation, featuring the Expo 67 World's Fair. * January 6 – Vietnam War: United States Marine Corps and Army of ...

, receiving the Tournament MOP and captaining the team the following season.

Career

Stanowski began his career at Cornell in 1964 on the freshman team before joining the varsity squad for the 1965–66 season. Stanowski was part of the defensive corps that cut the team's goals against by nearly a full goal per game from the season before (2.88 to 2.00) and brought the Big Red their best finish with a 22–5 record. In the postseason Cornell won their first playoff game and ended up as the ECAC runner-up. Ordinarily that would have allowed the Big Red to receive the second eastern bid into the NCAA tournament; however, due to an ongoing dispute between the

Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference of eight Private university, private Research university, research universities in the Northeastern United States. It participates in the National Collegia ...

and the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

over player eligibility Cornell was not allowed to participate and their season was over. The next year Stanowski led the Big Red defense in points, pushing the team even higher in the ECAC standings. With sophomore

Ken Dryden Kenneth Wayne Dryden (born August 8, 1947) is a Canadians, Canadian former professional ice hockey goaltender, politician, lawyer, businessman, and author. He is an Officer of the Order of Canada and a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame. He was ...

around to clean up any defensive mistakes, Cornell reduced their goals allowed even further, surrendering 46 goals in 29 games (1.59 goals per game) and again set a team record for wins with 27. Because the eligibility issue had been resolved Stanowski was able to continue his offensive pace in the 1967 NCAA Tournament, Cornell's first ever appearance. He scored the only goal in the team's 1–0 semifinal win over

North Dakota North Dakota ( ) is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the indigenous Dakota people, Dakota and Sioux peoples. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north and by the U.S. states of Minneso ...

then recorded three points, including the game-winner, in their 4–1 triumph in the National title game. Stanowski was named the Tournament Most Outstanding Player for contributing on four of his team's five goals, only the second

defenseman Defence or defense (in American English) in ice hockey is a player position that is primarily responsible for preventing the opposing team from Goal (ice hockey), scoring. They are often referred to as defencemen, D, D-men or blueliners (the l ...

to win the award. In his senior season Stanowski served as

team captain In team sport, captain is a title given to a member of the team. The title is frequently honorary, but in some cases the captain may have significant responsibility for strategy and teamwork while the game is in progress on the field. In eithe ...

and led the Big Red to a second ECAC title but the team was unable to get past the Fighting Sioux in the semifinal a second time and finished third in

1968 Events January–February * January 1968, January – The I'm Backing Britain, I'm Backing Britain campaign starts spontaneously. * January 5 – Prague Spring: Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Cze ...

. Stanowski finished with 24 goals and 73 points in his three seasons with the Big Red. After graduating from Cornell Stanowski briefly played for the

Muskegon Mohawks The Muskegon Mohawks were a minor league professional ice hockey team in the International Hockey League from 1965 to 1984. Muskegon were Turner Cup champions in 1968. This team was originally named the Muskegon Zephyrs. After the completion of ...

before retiring as a player in 1970. In 2001 Skip Stanowski was inducted into the Cornell University Athletic Hall of Fame.

Personal life

Skip's father

Wally Wally may refer to: People and fictional characters * Wally (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Wally the Green Monster, mascot of the Boston Red Sox * Water Wally, mascot of the Singapore's Public Utilities Board * Wall ...

played 12 seasons in the

NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...

, winning four

Stanley Cup The Stanley Cup () is the championship trophy awarded annually to the National Hockey League (NHL) playoff champion. It is the oldest existing trophy to be awarded to a professional sports franchise in North America, and the International Ic ...

s with

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

Awards and honors

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Stanowski, Skip 1944 births Living people Canadian ice hockey defencemen Ice hockey people from Winnipeg Cornell Big Red men's ice hockey players Muskegon Mohawks players NCAA men's ice hockey national champions AHCA Division I men's ice hockey All-Americans 20th-century Canadian sportsmen