The 1969-70 men's hockey team etched its name in the history books in the winter of 1970 by becoming the first York team to compete for a national championship in a team sport. Led by head coach Bill Purcell, the team was dominant through the OIAA regular season as they went undefeated with a 10-0 record, outscoring their opponents by a total of 74-23.
“We started the men’s hockey program on a cold outdoor arena on the Glendon campus,” said Purcell. “Our team really took off with the addition of Osgoode Hall to York. We added a lot of strong players with experience and I knew right away we were really going to take off.
We had a big tournament at Maple Leaf Gardens against teams from across the country during the 1969-70 season and we won. That really put us in the upper echelon of teams in Canada and gave us a lot of confidence.”
The team defeated the Laurentian Voyageurs by a score of 8-2 in the OIAA championship game to end the Voyageurs five-year OIAA championship winning streak and qualify for the CIAU national championships. The Yeomen dropped their first game at the CIAU tournament to Saint Mary's but rebounded to win successive games by a combined score of 18-6 and finish in third place.
“We played Laurentian every year and they were always a good team,” says Purcell on the team’s playoff run. “They had beat us for a couple years, but we knew there would come a day when we would be able to turn the tables on them and 1969-70 was the year. We ran into an outstanding goalie against Saint Mary’s who stole the game for them and they beat us by one goal. We were right there with them, we just ran into a hot goalie.”
As the first York team to compete on the national stage, the team created a great deal of excitement within a university whose varsity athletics program was in its infancy stages. The team's high-scoring roster was anchored by centre Murray Stroud, who led the league in scoring with 35 points and was named national player of the year. The roster also featured three provincial all-stars in goalie Bill Holden, Dave Kosoy and left-winger Steve Latinovich. Stroud, Latinovich and Purcell have all been inducted as individuals into the York Sports Hall of Fame.
The success of the 1969-70 team ushered in a new era of excellence for the men's hockey program that saw the Yeomen become a national power, winning three national championships and four OUA championships throughout the 1970's and 1980's.
