MONTREAL – Each Wednesday for a six-week period from May 20 to June 24, one of the 2020 inductees to the McGill Sports Hall of Fame will be profiled. In our sixth and final installment, meet hockey player Bryan Larkin.

Born on Feb. 2, 1967 in Saskatoon, Sask, Larkin was educated locally at St. Thomas Elementary and Holy Cross high school before attending the University of Saskatchewan for three years while playing junior hockey prior to his McGill career from 1988 to 1991, culminating with a commerce degree.

He played minor hockey for the Saskatoon Flyers (bantam) and the Saskatoon Blazers (midget AAA). In 1983, at the age of 16, he started his junior career with the Saskatoon Blades of the Western Hockey League and played his over-age year of junior with the Spokane Chiefs in 1987-88, where he earned all-star honours.

"I was recruited to McGill by head coach Ken Tyler in the summer of 1987," recalled Larkin. "But I decided to play one more year of junior. Tyler was not amused but it turned out to be a good move for me as I had a good year under head coach (and former NHL star) Butch Goring.

"I ended up with a few NHL tryout offers but no contract, so I chose to attend the Los Angeles Kings camp as they appeared to be thin on defence. But then Wayne Gretzky was traded to LA and our training camp was a circus. I was assigned to their AHL farm team in New Haven, Conn., but asked them for a plane ticket back to Montreal instead, as I didn't want to risk losing my college eligibility."

By the time the 6-foot-1, 205-pound rearguard arrived on campus, Tyler had stepped down as head coach and was replaced by the duo of Al Grazys and Jean Pronovost.

Larkin patrolled the McGill blue line from 1988 to 1991, earning the Friends of McGill Hockey Trophy as rookie of the year in his freshman campaign, when he led the league's rearguards with 14 goals in 26 games.

A two-time OUA conference all-star, he earned All-Canadian honours in 1989-90. The following season he merited the Bobby Bell Bowl as Team MVP and the Forbes Trophy as McGill athlete of the year.

Larkin capped his university career as the second-highest scoring defenceman in school history with 109 points, including 33 goals, in 96 games overall.

After graduating, Larkin went overseas to play pro hockey in the UK for the Swindon Wildcats. He toiled for nine seasons -- including four as a player-coach -- in the English Premier Ice Hockey League, winning championships in 1997 and 2001. He currently resides in England, where he runs a UK distribution company for Canadian brands CCM hockey, Jackson skates and Biosteel.

Other new laureates joining Larkin in the 2020 McGill induction class include football all-star Glenn Miller of Beaconsfield, Que., hockey All-Canadian Vanessa Davidson of Kirkland, Que., soccer All-Canadian Odile Desbois, basketball All-Canadian Nasko Golomeev of Sofia, Bulgaria and Mike Richards, a former hockey player from Estevan, Sask., who was inducted in the builder category.

The hallowed Hall now has 157 honoured members, 27 of them Olympians, since the pantheon was initiated in 1996. The 25th annual induction luncheon was expected to kick-off the University's 2020 Homecoming Week celebrations in late September but the coronavirus pandemic has resulted in a probable postponement for a date to be announced later. Profiles for all previous inductees to the McGill Sports Hall of Fame are also available online at: www.mcgillathletics.ca/hof.aspx


SOURCE:
Earl Zukerman
Communications Officer
Athletics & Recreation
McGill University
514-398-7012 (Tel.)
m.athletics.mcgill.ca (mobile website)
www.mcgillathletics.ca
earl.zukerman@mcgill.ca