DeGagne reached big stage as player, ref

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This article was published 01/04/2022 (1441 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It was a mere 20 years from Rick DeGagne’s final Brandon University Bobcats game to his Olympic basketball debut.

The Kenora, Ont., native called it quits in 1980, after a three-season run in which he helped turn Brandon from the laughing stock of the Great Plains Athletic Conference to its champion and a national finalist. DeGagne immediately shifted his focus to refereeing, rising the ranks and eventually getting the call few even dream of and even fewer receive.

It was Feb. 17, 2000 — a notable birthday of his Bobcats coach Jerry Hemmings, NBA legend Michael Jordan and DeGagne’s late wife Colleen — when Dave Morphy called.

“He phoned me up and said, ‘Rick, I’ve got a piece of really good news for ya,’” said DeGagne, who learned he’d been selected to referee at Sydney 2000.

Knowing it could be his only Olympic Games, DeGagne took it all in. He watched Steve Nash lead the Canadian men’s hoops squad, took in baseball, team handball, the gold-medal badminton match and was in the stands as Michael Johnson won the 400-metre dash.

He worked three women’s games and four men’s contests, including the United States and Russia’s men’s quarterfinal.

At the time, it was the closest game the Americans played internationally since the formation of the “Dream Team” in 1992. DeGagne chuckles that he and his Slovenian partner nearly had an “international incident” at halftime.

Near the end of the first half, Vince Carter took a hard foul during a shot and Gary “The Glove” Payton took exception. The teams were supposed to take tunnels at opposite ends of the floor to their dressing rooms, but Payton snuck across to confront the Russian that fouled Carter. DeGagne reacted just in time.

“My partner and I zipped across there, cooled them down and got these guys going to the right exit,” he said. “For a moment there I thought ‘Uh oh, all crap’s going to hit the fan right away, but fortunately it didn’t.”

The U.S. went on to win gold, and DeGagne was back in a big-time international tournament the following year. This time, it was the world university games in Beijing, and he was awarded the final between the U.S. and future NBA players Yao Ming, Mengke Bateer and Wang Zhizhi’s squad dubbed the “Great Wall of China.”

They’d just competed at Sydney the year before but somehow classified as student-athletes.

Yao came up with two massive blocks in the final 10 seconds to preserve the win for China. The second was nearly goaltending, and up to DeGagne’s Japanese partner’s decision.

“He swats it to half court and the horn goes to end the game. Of course, the U.S. coach wants goaltending and he goes after my partner, the Japanese guy. I find him and I say ‘We gotta get out of here,’” DeGagne said of the moment they bolted for the doors. “That was a thrilling, thrilling end to a really big basketball game.”

“It was an unbelievable experience,” he added. “It was 5,000 screaming fans in a facility smaller than the Keystone Centre. The lights were brilliant, just smoking hot and it’s a tight game.”

And those are just a few of the crazy moments that follow the years of dedication required to obtain an international licence. DeGagne secured his in 1996, then a year later worked the first-ever basketball game at Disney’s Wide World of Sports, the facility that later became the home of the 2020 NBA playoff bubble.

Then each year he’d return to Brandon, where when he wasn’t in the classroom, he’d coach anything and everything. He’s a Brandon University Wall of Fame inductee (2006), soon to be Manitoba Softball Hall of Famer (2020) and a pillar of the western Manitoba sports community.

DeGagne’s path to Brandon started when his Lakewood High School team hosted the Vincent Massey Vikings and Crocus Plainsmen in 1977. Plainsmen coach Jim Mackey and Vikings bench boss Aubrey Ferris told Hemmings about DeGagne, who liked the idea of immediate playing time on what was a struggling BU team.

The Manitoba Bisons were still the toast of the Great Plains Athletic Conference, a year-and-a-half removed from their 1976 national title. They had all-Canadian Martin Riley and Greg Daniels in their fifth years and went 16-0 in league play.

“They just crushed us,” DeGagne said. “Jerry tried to build a schedule wherein those days we played a lot of two-year schools out of North Dakota and South Dakota so we did a fair bit of travelling to try to find that level of competition that would be somewhat conducive to the programs.”

Little did anyone know, it was the start of Brandon’s rise to greatness. The first big step was Brooklyn, New York native Jerry Abernathy’s arrival at Christmas. The six-foot-10 centre couldn’t play right away though, due to injuries.

“Jerry’s problem was his feet were size 17 and he did not have a pair of shoes that actually fit,” DeGagne said. “So he had big-time foot and toe problems when he first got here. It might have taken him probably close to a month before he actually set foot on the floor, and it wasn’t enough to salvage our season.”

Brandon went 3-13 that season but gained confidence, knowing it had a man capable of dominating on the defensive end.

Then came Keith Strieter from Michigan. He played the 1977-78 season under a coach named George Birger at UPEI and transferred a couple of years before players had to sit out a season if they switched schools. Brandon also got Dave Knutson from Iowa and the American trio all earned GPAC first-team all-star nods.

BU went 11-5, going over .500 in league play for the first time, ending up in a deadlock with Lakehead. The Bobcats lost to the Nor’Westers by five in their first meeting, then won the rematch by the same margin. The final weekend of the season would dictate which team got to host a semifinal. On Feb. 23, 1979, Lakehead won by seven. Brandon took the following game 92-85.

“So they literally flipped a coin,” DeGagne recalled. “The quarter hit the floor and started rolling and rolling and rolling and it wouldn’t fall over. I think coach called tails and it turned out to be heads.”

Lakehead won 76-73, ending Brandon’s season.

Reinforcements arrived once more and this time it was enough for BU to make the breakthrough. The first was Fred Lee, who came for the winter semester in 1979. The other was another UPEI transfer in Jude Kelly, son of Hamilton Tiger-Cat Ellison Kelly.

DeGagne had no plans to play the 1979-80 campaign as his knees were in rough shape.

“But when I heard who was coming back and who the new players were going to be, I said ‘OK, I’m going to suck it up and play through all that,’” DeGagne said. “And I’m really glad I did.”

The Bobcats went 15-1 in conference play that year, claiming their first GPAC title by defeating the Winnipeg Wesmen in the best-of-three final. The run included an incredible five-overtime classic at Lakehead. At the time it was a North American post-secondary record for the longest game. Oddly enough, Cincinnati and Bradley broke the record the following year with a 75-73 seven-OT contest that included a scoreless third extra frame and an average of just two points per team per period.

DeGagne played just a few minutes in the first half and sat out the second, not seeing the floor until the fourth OT.

He stepped in and made some key defensive plays on Nor’Westers’ star John Zanatta, then came down with a key offensive rebound that led to a Strieter bucket.

Zanatta scored in the dying seconds to send it to the fifth overtime, in which DeGagne rattled off seven of Brandon’s 22 points for a 125-111 victory after being tied 74-74 at the end of regulation.

“To say that I was cold would be an understatement. I just think it was a battle of attrition,” DeGagne said.

“I’m not a defensive specialist but probably my best moments in a Bobcat uniform. Rebounding a little bit, making a pass, making a shot, playing some of my best defence, I think, ever. A moment I was really proud of but certainly a great team effort.”

Strieter crumpled on the floor after his 4OT score and continued playing but suffered a right MCL injury a month later. He didn’t play until the playoffs and never returned to his usual self that season.

Still, the Bobcats were off to nationals for the first time — as the No. 1 seed — with Hemmings being named CIAU coach of the year.

Brandon edged York University 91-90 in the quarterfinals, then had to face Winnipeg yet again, surviving an 85-81 decision to face No. 3 Victoria, a hungry team after coming up short at the last few national tournaments.

BU hung around with tournament MVP Reni Dolcetti until about five minutes remained when former premier Brian Pallister cleaned up a Kelly miss to tie it 57-57. Then future national team star Eli Pasquale, Dolcetti and Billy Turney-Loos took over and powered the Vikings to a 73-65 win, their first of seven straight CIAU crowns.

For Brandon, the “what-if?” game is valid.

“Keith Strieter was maybe 70 per cent. He was dragging his leg up and down the floor. If he’s healthy, I don’t like to say ifs too often, but if he’s healthy I say we are the better team,” DeGagne said. “He’s a big body and if the ball’s there he’s going to get it, but he couldn’t go get it.”

“‘Silver sucks,’ was the only thing I could think of and I know my teammates all felt the same way,” he added. “It’s not until you look back many years later, with great fondness, and you say ‘You know what, we didn’t win the championship but we had a heck of a season, we bonded, it is what it is.’

“Proud moments for the Bobcat program.”

The Bobcats weren’t quite finished. They boarded a flight to France six weeks later for a tour featuring seven games in seven different towns. They lost a couple of games before finding their footing and winning the last five.

DeGagne was done as a player but the furthest thing from leaving basketball entirely. The local officiating association was low on numbers and he jumped right in, receiving GPAC assignments already in the 1980-81 season. He was still a BU student taking classes with the Bobcats, eating in the same dining hall.

These days, DeGagne is a quintessential professional. Whether he’s on the court or evaluating and mentoring young refs, his passion for the job is abundantly clear. He admits the transition to his nonpartisan role wasn’t easy.

“This was my coach (to whom) I committed whatever I could give,” DeGagne said. “… Abernathy was there, Jude Kelly was there, these are my teammates and all of a sudden I’ve got to go out there and be the adjudicator. It was really difficult to remove myself emotionally, then just take a step back and realize ‘I’ve got a job to do.’

“That job is to call the plays as I see them and not worry about the colour of the jersey.”

DeGagne developed into one of Canada’s top referees and soon after obtaining his international license in 1996, he worked a game at the Nike Hoops Summit in 1997, involving the top U.S. high school players and a world all-star team. The American squad featured future NBA players Elton Brand, Aaron Davis, Shane Battier and Ron Artest — who changed his name to Metta World Peace in 2011, then Metta Sandiford-Artest when he remarried in 2020.

“We had a good ball game,” DeGagne said. “It turned out to be an eight-point victory for the U.S. and the ball went in the hole for us nicely.”

DeGagne started teaching in Boissevain in 1981, spending two years there before 14 at Harrison in Brandon, then 14 at Crocus Plains and five at Neelin Off-Campus.

While in Boissevain, he joined the nearby Minto Mustangs fastball team and stayed with them for 14 years. He pitched a bit while Bev Workman, the “heart and soul” of the team was the ace. The group, which DeGagne chuckles featured “nine farmers and two teachers” reached 10 provincial finals, winning seven and taking home a couple of medals at western Canadian championships, including gold in 1988.

They spent seven years in a league before barnstorming around Manitoba, North Dakota and Saskatchewan. When Rick and Colleen started having kids, it simply meant weekend family road trips.

“She was both feet in, in terms of committing to ‘Yeah, we’re going to pack up the kids, fill up the cooler, get on the road and where are we going this weekend?” DeGagne said.

“We’re playing top teams out of Manitoba, top teams out of Winnipeg and also guys that are literally getting off the tractor in their jeans. … You name it, we played them.”

DeGagne also dove deep into coaching and has guided more than 100 teams from basketball to baseball and more. He’s quick to credit Colleen, who died of cancer in 2011, for making it all possible.

“You don’t do this on your own,” DeGagne said. “She was, without doubt, the glue to our family and, without doubt, the best mother and best friend of all my four kids.

“We raised them together and we had them in gyms, we had them involved in sport.”

Rick started the Crocus Plainsmen baseball program in 1998 and coached for 10 years, helping form the Prairie West High School Baseball League and getting baseball sanctioned as an official Manitoba High Schools Athletic Association sport in 2005. Crocus was in the provincial final each year from 2003 to 2006, winning three. His son Matt was on the 2003 and 2004 squads, the latter of which Rick considers the best team, yet the only one to lose the title game when Winkler’s Garden Valley scored the winning run in the last inning.

“That was my fault … I called the wrong pitch,” DeGagne admitted.

Matt went on to a journeyman college career, starting at Indian Hills Community College, then Campbellsville University in Kentucky. He transferred again to the University of Nebraska Omaha, which was a Division II school then and DI now. He regularly referees Canada West games now.

Rick’s son Brock suffered a broken femur in Grade 9, which impacted his path in sports, though he also played on Plainsmen baseball team.

Daughter Danielle was a basketball and volleyball star at Crocus and spent four years on the North Dakota State University women’s basketball team, becoming a conference all-star and leading the league in rebounding her senior year. Shen then played one year of volleyball for the school as athletes are allowed five years but only four in one sport.

The youngest, Josie, went to Dakota College at Bottineau for volleyball and basketball, then Minot State University. She ended up joining the Bobcats for the 2018-19 season. That year, Rick, Matt and Danielle officiated a university game as a crew.

“Real special moment and I know there were some ruffled feathers in different camps with that,” DeGagne recalled. “It was just a very proud moment as a father. Then of course when the game’s on you forget … you’re working with your son and daughter, they’re just partners and you’ve got a job to do.”

DeGagne looks back at his move to Brandon 45 years ago. The things that brought him here and some of the people that supported him are still cornerstones in his life today. He took a chance on basketball, Hemmings took a chance on him and the move paid off handsomely.

It all started with the first time he sunk a shot on a 10-foot rim.

“When that happened, you just fall in love with the game,” DeGagne said. “To have the opportunity to go from a high school program in Kenora that was OK … then the opportunity to play at the university level and slide right into a different role as an official, couldn’t plan it any better.”

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