The new Dale Hawerchuk Park officially opened with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Friday, where Oshawa City Council and the late legend’s family and friends honored him with a friendly game of street hockey.
In 2020, city council unanimously approved naming the park in honour of Dale Hawerchuk, a decorated hockey hero who grew up in Oshawa before drawing the attention of Junior and National Hockey League (NHL) scouts.
Fittingly, the park is situated in the new Symphony Towns development on Harmony Road South, the former site of Donevan High School where Hawerchuk attended while excelling in local hockey as a leading member of the Oshawa Minor Hockey Association, Oshawa Legionaires and Oshawa Kinsmen teams.
Naming the park after Hawerchuck underscores Oshawa’s strong connections to hockey and its core values of discipline, teamwork, respect, communication and humility, all reflected in Hawerchuk’s legacy, said a city statement.
No stranger to international ice, Hawerchuk represented Canada five times at the World Junior Hockey Championships, three times at the World Championships and twice at the Canada Cup, first in 1987 where he was named the team’s M.V.P. in the deciding game over Russia and once again in 1991.
Hawerchuk was inducted into the Oshawa Sports Hall of Fame in 1999, the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2001 and the Durham District School Board’s Definitely Durham Hall of Fame in 2020. He continued his passion for the game by sharing his knowledge and strategy as the longest-serving Head Coach of the Barrie Colts Junior A team, spending nine years behind the bench, six of which included playoff runs.
Family members have shared that naming the park in his honour was a great source of pride for Hawerchuk, who learned about the tribute before his death in 2020. The park features a vibrant playground with shaded seating areas and wide accessible paved pathways.
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