Steve Cady was one of six RedHawks inducted into the Miami University Athletic Hall of Fame during the month of October. Cady was inducted during Miami’s home hockey game against Michigan State on the 24th. He is considered to be one of the main people responsible for the growth of hockey at Miami University. Cady is in his 34th year with Miami and has held many different positions during his tenure. Currently Cady is the senior associate athletic director and the assistant vice president for finance and business services. He has held both positions since 1998. Cady served as the head coach of the hockey team from 1978-85, during which time hockey became a varsity program at Miami. He finished his RedHawk coaching career with a 157-147-12 record, including a 121-126-11 mark during the program’s first seven varsity seasons. Cady has also served as the chairman of the Athletic Facilities Master Plan Committee since 1995. The $34 million Steve Cady Arena at the Goggin Ice Center is just one of the many state-of-the-art facilities that Cady has helped bring to Miami Athletics. Cady has also served on many NCAA Ice Hockey committees throughout his career, including a just completed stint as chairman.
Q: It sounded like a perfect day for you, going into the Miami Athletic Hall of Fame, although I trust you would have traded it all in a minute for W’s for both the hockey team who lost to Michigan State, 3-2 in overtime and football team who lost to Northern Illinois, 27-22.
A: No question about that. Obviously the football team is struggling, but our new coach Mike Haywood is doing a great job, he’s doing the right things and they’ll get it turned around. As you well know, it’s a long time to get to March and April and you’re not going to win them all so you just keep playing and doing the things that you would normally do the right way and you’ll get your share in the long haul.
Q: Tell us about seeing a lot of your former players that you hadn’t seen for a long time that came back for the ceremony.
A: There were forty some players that came back and some of them hadn’t been back to campus in thirty some years so that was pretty special. In addition to the Hall of Fame ceremonies, there was a separate dinner just for the team and all the former players and my family so that was a pretty special evening, but the whole set up, as far as I’m concerned was really about Miami hockey and not about me. This is just a reflection on hockey and everything that has been built by a lot of people that have worked hard for a long time. I just happen to be the person who is at the receiving end of the award, kind of like a team captain accepting the Mason Cup at the end of the year. They are really doing that on behalf of their teammates and that is pretty much how I look at this as well.
Q: How fitting was it that on the very same day you go into the Miami Hall of Fame that Ron Mason is enshrined into the Bowling Green Hall of Fame.
A: Coach Mason called me a few weeks back and told me that he was going into their Hall of Fame at Bowling Green and was hopeful that I could be a part of it. I said that I would love to and asked him when it was. He told me it was October 24th and I said "Well, coach we got a little bit of a problem here because ironically I’ve been selected to Miami’s Hall of Fame and they’re doing it on the exact same day." That was disappointing because I would have loved to have been there for him and he was trying to stop here at Miami as well, but it just didn’t come together that way.
Q: For those who don’t know, Ron Mason is responsible for giving you, as well as many others, your start in collegiate hockey. Tell us that story.
A: Absolutely. The interesting part is that it was actually a little bit by accident. Jacque Martin and I were both at St. Lawrence and we were seniors together and Ron brought his team out there to play and he was looking for a goalie coach to come in and take a graduate assistant position. At the time Jacque wanted to go back to Canada, so he turned him down, but being friends, he came to me and told me that coach Mason was looking for a graduate assistant for next year. Jacque said he knew coach Mason was looking for a goalie coach, but I may want to talk to him. So I talked to coach Mason. I wasn’t his first choice, but he allowed me to come along and I had an unbelievable experience with Ron there. I learned more about hockey in one year than I think I had in my whole life. He’s been instrumental since I came here to Miami. Really all we tried to do was model our program after all that he had done with his program and he was instrumental in Miami getting into the CCHA. He was really the one that orchestrated the whole thing. Miami hockey owes a great deal to Ron Mason, as do I.
Q: Miami is known as the cradle of coaches in football with Paul Brown, Woody Hayes, and Bo Schembechler, but hockey is rocking that cradle too a bit isn’t it? George Gwozdecky won his 500th game last weekend for Denver and your coach, Enrico Blasi, is on everyone’s list as being one of the bright young minds in the game too.
A: Certainly those two have done very, very well. As you may remember, Bob Daniels was a graduate assistant coach here before he went on to Chicago Circle and then to Ferris. There are a number of others who have gone through the ranks as graduate assistants or have been assistant coaches and have gone on to the junior ranks or college ranks across the country. Jeff Blashill went on to Indianapolis and won a championship last year as their head coach in the USHL and he is a former assistant here. Again, we have all tried to model what Ron Mason taught us 30 years ago.
Q: As the chairman of the NCAA Men’s Ice Hockey committee you had to hand the National Championship trophy to Jack Parker after Boston University beat Miami in overtime in Washington last year. Was that just about the toughest thing you have ever had to do?
A: Well it certainly wasn’t how we had hoped it to be, but I have great respect for Jack Parker and the program at BU. Like you said, it wasn’t how one would hope it would play out, but Boston showed why they were the No. 1 team in the country pretty much all year long. Again, I have great regard for Jack Parker and his program. I guess it could have been a whole lot tougher than it was. Obviously I hoped I could’ve turned the trophy over to Rico. He had a great run and did a great job with our program. That certainly would have been something unique, but it wasn’t to be and we did the best we could making the presentation under those circumstances and hopefully it came off okay.