CORNER BROOK, N.L. — Darren Colbourne always feels fortunate whenever he reflects on his athletic career.
Colbourne played professional ice hockey from 1985 to 1999 and was a successful baseball and inline roller hockey player. He often thinks about the places he has gone and people he has met, passing through Ontario, Ohio, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Germany, Scotland, California and eventually back home to Newfoundland and Labrador.
While the sporting world has given him so much, he was recently recognized for all he has given the sporting world. Colbourne and four other athletes and builders were inducted by Sport Newfoundland and Labrador into the Newfoundland and Labrador Sports Hall of Fame, as part of the 2022 class, at a ceremony in St. John’s on April 22.
He was inducted in the Athlete category for his achievements in baseball, hockey and roller hockey. Colbourne, who was vacationing in Florida at the time, was unavailable to attend the ceremony. His friend Mike O’Neil accepted the award and delivered an acceptance speech on his behalf.
“There’s no words to say how honoured you are,” Colbourne tells West Cost Wire. “You’re in a group of super athletes, super people and it’s not just sportspeople, it’s support people, it’s executives, it’s people that have grown sports and continue to grow sports, even after they’re inducted, that have given so much to sport in general in Newfoundland and Labrador.”
Speaking with West Coast Wire, Colbourne notes there are several people who have impacted his career.
He credits his parents for instilling in him his love of sports. His father Don coached him in both hockey and baseball growing up.
“The time was the big thing that he gave us that I remember and cherish so well,” says Colbourne.
His mother, Ida, was a sportsperson in her own right, playing golf and pitching for the Bank of Montreal softball team. Watching her play softball as a bat boy, he says, instilled in him a sense of competitiveness. He recalls growing up playing with the Corner Brook Barons baseball team and being surrounded by “amazing teammates.” Being in that team setting is something he has always valued.
He won multiple championships with his brother Larry playing for the Jr. Barons and had opportunities to learn from great baseball players, including teammates such as Frank Humber.
“Those are great memories and even to this day, every time we win something or even if you don’t win, getting together with your teammates, that’s the thing I would miss,” says Colbourne.
His father and Alex Blanchard coached those Barons teams, he says, with great leadership, while he credited his uncles Brian and Raymond for teaching him how to compete and win.
Team sports taught Colbourne there’s always something outside of yourself.
“You put your body on the line and sometimes not in the greatest circumstances, when you know you shouldn’t be pitching or doing something, but you do it just to say, ‘I’ve got something left, I’m gonna go,’” he explains.
“You put your body on the line and sometimes not in the greatest circumstances, when you know you shouldn’t be pitching or doing something, but you do it just to say, ‘I’ve got something left, I’m gonna go.”
— Darren Colbourne
When Colbourne made his way into junior hockey, he continued to have great mentors.
He was drafted to the Oshawa Generals in the OHL in 1985. However, through the first year and a half, he felt he wasn’t getting enough opportunity and requested a trade.
Orval Tessier, former head coach of the Chicago Blackhawks and now coach of the Cornwall Royals decided to take him in. Under Tessier’s tutelage, Colbourne excelled, registering 98 goals and 195 points over 123 games for the Royals. In 1988, he was drafted 227 overall to the Detroit Red Wings.
In his last year with the Royals, he says new coach Brent Loney put him on one of the best lines in the OHL. They reached the division finals that year.
In Roller Hockey International (RHI), Roy Sommer, the winningest coach in AHL history, also coached Colbourne during tenures in Richmond, Virginia and San Jose, California. It was an experience he enjoyed.
“He’s from the Bay Area and invited me out to play with a bunch of our teammates and we had a great time and won a World Championship and how can you not have fun in the summer in California?” Colbourne reflects.
After four consecutive years of being cut from an NHL training camp, Colbourne had to think about what was next.
He continued playing professional hockey in the ECHL, where he put up multiple 50-plus goal seasons before eventually retiring in 1999. He would eventually be inducted into the ECHL Hall of Fame in 2015.
Colbourne was a sniper and something of a powerplay specialist. On the powerplay, he would hang out on the right-hand side, between the dot and the circle, waiting to get a one-timer.
While he says he wasn’t the toughest guy on the ice, he always competed hard. To score goals he also had to get to those dangerous areas in front of the net. There, he knew he would take abuse from the defense, including cross-checks and slashes. But his competitiveness allowed him to persist.
“I think my proudest thing, personally, is that I managed to get there,” he says. “And once I got there, I stayed there.”
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