• In the three years Don played defence for the Bears, the team won three CWUAA Championships as well as two gold medals and one silver at the CIAU Championships.
• Named a CIAU All-Canadian in 1978 as well as a Canada West Second Team All-Star in 1977-78 and again in 1978-79.
• Played for the Winnipeg Jets of the NHL (1980-84).
• Played in the West German Elite League (1985).

Don Spring began a brilliant hockey career as a youth pursuing the Canadian dream – “to make it to the NHL”. He achieved his dream and along the way he has left a legacy of success stories. Don was raised in a rural Alberta town, the kind of town where every young person is given the opportunity to be a part of every activity program such communities can offer. While a student in Edson’s Parkland Composite High School he actively competed in volleyball and swimming. He loved the rolling foothills of Alberta and enjoyed summer challenges such as canoeing and kayaking. But the world of hockey was his first and greatest love and by the age of 16 he was a star on Edson’s junior B hockey team. At 17 he became one of the youngest players ever to play for the University of Alberta’s Golden Bears.

During Don Spring’s three seasons as an outstanding Bears defenseman (1976-1979) the team won three consecutive Canada West Championships, competed in three national CIAU finals and captured the silver medal in his first season and gold medals in each of his last two – a rare accomplishment. All who watched his superb defensive play, including those charged with the selection of all-star teams, recognized his all-around excellence. Don was singled out for berths on the CIAU All-Star team in 1978 as well as on Canada West 2nd All-Star teams in 1977-1978 and 1978-1979. During his final season as a Golden Bear player, Don and his teammates were selected to represent Canada at the Pacific Rim tournament that was held in Japan. They completed the tournament on the gold medal podium – a fitting international tribute to an outstanding team.

1980 was a Winter Olympics year. At this point in hockey’s history Canada did not send NHL players as her Olympic competitors. Instead, the finest young players of our nation were selected and trained as Olympians. Don Spring (and four other Golden Bear stars) was among these named to Canada’s hockey team and while the team did not finish in the medals at the Lake Placid Olympics, Don and his teammates were exceptional representatives of our country.

Don signed as a free agent with the Winnipeg Jets of the NHL, in the spring of the 1980. He joined the Jets for the 1980-1981 season and continued with them until 1984. He completed his professional hockey career with the ESC Essen (West Germany) Elite League hockey team in 1985 and returned to Canada to join the Clare Drake’s Golden Bears as an assistant coach.

Throughout his career Don has served the Golden Bear Hockey program in many other ways – as a hockey school instructor/coordinator, as an instructor at the Professional Hockey Conditioning Camps and as an active Golden Bear Alumni volunteer. In 1987 the Golden Bears won the right to represent Canada in the World Students Games (held in Czechoslovakia) and Don accompanied the team as Clare Drake’s assistant. The team was the only non-All-Star team in the tournament and still was able to finish with a bronze medal in a strong field of international contenders. Don Spring has added greatly to the Bears and his allegiance to their program remains as strong today as when he played for the Green and Gold.

Don Spring joined Amoco as an analyst in 1985 then moved to Petro-Canada as a Business Manager in 1987. In 1988 Don joined the host of volunteers who helped staff the 1988 world acclaimed Calgary Olympic Games by visiting schools in the Edmonton are to share his Olympic experience.

From 1996 onward Don has served those essential building programs that helped him to develop his hockey talents, his sense of purpose, his integrity and his motivation to succeed – minor hockey. He has coached (and currently is coaching his son, Eric, at the AAA Peewee level); he has served as a Minor Hockey Division Coordination, and been a major organizer of minor hockey tournaments. Truly hockey has played a major part in his life and today he shares his love of the sport with the youths who fill the rosters on his team.

In 1999 Don, his wife Carol (whom he met at the University of Alberta) and their three children, Michael (14), Eric (12), and Lauren (10) moved to Kelowna where he is the owner and President of Spring Fuel Distributors Inc.

Rated as one of the finest defensemen in Golden Bear history, Don Spring has lived the dream of every young hockey player. He has contributed in many important ways to the Golden Bear hockey legacy of our University and his name adds honour to our Sports Wall of Fame.