A three-time provincial first team all-star and Men's Hockey team MVP - turned NHLer - Ian McKegney (BEng '71) scores his spot in the Warriors Hall of Fame. 

"Waterloo is very, very important in my history," McKegney was quick to mention off the bat.  

The deep appreciation for the city, the University, and his days with the Men's Hockey program - which he called "the most fun times he'd ever had playing the game " - only scratch the surface for what McKegney means to the history of Warriors Hockey. 

Bursting onto the scene as a Warrior for the 1967-68 season, McKegney was a key member of four Waterloo teams who all made the provincial championship. Along the way, he earned first team OUAA all-star honours in 1969 and 1970 – as well as in 1971 – when the conference was renamed to the OUA.  

The personalities who supplemented McKegney's journey through Waterloo - and influenced a future in professional hockey - included former Warriors coaches Don Hayes and the legendary Bob McKillop - who was the first ever recipient of the Totzke Trophy as Warriors Male Athlete of the Year. As a coach, McKillop led the Men's Hockey team to their lone National Championship victory in 1974. 

"Don had coached throughout my first year, and then the last two years, McKillop came in - and it was a bit of a challenge for him – but he was a good lad," McKegney recalls. 

McKegney also credits teammates such as goaltender Ian Scott and fellow first team all-star defenceman Phil Branston. 

"Ian was the guy who I'd say is responsible for all of this," McKegney mentioned. "He's the one who floated my name in front of the selection committee, and Phil completes that duo of guys who I still keep in touch with." 

It was the pathway through Waterloo that led McKegney to a long professional career. Before his days as a Warrior, McKegney's rights belonged to the Sarnia Legionnaires of the Western Ontario Junior "B" Hockey League (WOJBHL). The Legionnaires – whom he joined in 1965 - were an affiliate of the Chicago Blackhawks of the NHL. 

With stops in Sweden and Finland, as well as five seasons with the Central Hockey League's Dallas Black Hawks – where he was the league's top defenceman twice, and MVP in 1976 – McKegney would be called up for three NHL games with the Blackhawks in 1976-77, before finishing his career the next season, splitting the 1977-78 campaign in Nova Scotia, and Innsbruck, Austria. 

"Looking back on it, I was really lucky, " McKegney reminisced. "I mean, I wasn't great, but I was good enough to fit into systems where I didn't have to get a job for five years," he added comedically. 

The reality is - McKegney was more than good enough – and that journey was kickstarted on Waterloo Campus, where he would graduate in 1971, and spent nearly 40 years as an engineer at the Bruce Nuclear Facility, which was the world's largest operating facility until 2016. 

"I was fortunate enough to have an engineering degree to fall back on, and then I became one for 35-40 years." 

McKegney recalled his times playing at the old Waterloo Arena as a "treat." 

"I remember the Warrior band would show up to every game along with the cheerleaders. They were right up beside the players' box, and after every goal that was scored, they would play the school song. You would hear the 'boom…pom, boom…pom. That was so much fun, and it added to my favourite recollection in hockey." 

"I can thank Waterloo for that, and I can thank them for my wife too" … one of those cheerleaders in attendance. 

McKegney, and his now-wife Dorothy, met at the University, where Dorothy was on the Warriors cheer squad during her time at Waterloo. They have now been married for 56 years, and still visit Waterloo frequently. 

Today, the two reside in Bruce County, and have enjoyed the purity that family life brings them. 

"I'm a very lucky guy. I get to spend a fair bit of time with my granddaughters. I'm not a very good golfer – so as much as I'd like to be out golfing – I don't get out. We have a bunch of buddies, and we play bridge once a week - It's just basic ol' retired life for me – and it's working out quite well." 

Modest as ever, and a true champion of the black and gold. Ian McKegney. Warriors Hall of Famer.