Dave McKee featured on cnnsi.com

[sportsillustrated.cnn.com]

There is a picture of him on the SI EXTRA section and an article called A Cowboy on skates. You have to be a subscriber to access the article.

The author, Rick Lipsey, is a Cornell alum. He wrote the article on Schafer that appeared in the latest edition of the alumni magazine.

[Q]bigred06 Wrote:



There is a picture of him on the SI EXTRA section and an article called A Cowboy on skates. You have to be a subscriber to access the article.[/q]

That is a downer. Perhaps someone with access can give us a summary. Or better yet maybe it will show up in INCH's "Newstand" (they sometimes get access to online articles that require membership).

Here is the article (minus a graphic about Cornell goalies):

The raucous Lynah Faithful support Cornell's hockey team in 3,836-seat Lynah Rink with some timeworn traditions, including throwing fish on the ice and silently reading newspapers while opposing players are being introduced before games. More recently the Faithful have added a new rite: crooning Deep in the Heart of Texas to serenade a cowboy-boot-wearing Big Red star who loves okra, George W. Bush and hunting. (He owns eight guns.) "I just love it when that song comes," says David McKee, Cornell's junior goalie. "It makes me feel so at home."

McKee, from Irving, is one of the few born- and-bred Texans ever to play Division I hockey, and he's by far the most successful. Having started every game since arriving in Ithaca, N.Y., in the fall of 2003, McKee has gone 51-18-10 with a 1.68 goals-against average. Last season he led the Big Red to a 27-5-3 record and the NCAA quarterfinals, and was one of three finalists for the Hobey Baker Award, the Heisman of college hockey, after having the third-best GAA (1.24) and save percentage (.947) in college hockey history. He also had 10 shutouts, raising his career total to 15 and breaking the Cornell record held by Ken Dryden.

"David makes tough saves look easy and has the rare ability to win games by himself," says David McNab, assistant G.M. for the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, one of several NHL teams that tried to lure McKee out of school last spring and sign him as a free agent. "He has a great future in pro hockey." If McKee does make it to the NHL, he would become the first lifelong Texan to play in the league. (Bruins defenseman Brian Leetch was born in Corpus Christi but moved to Connecticut as a toddler.)

McKee's path to hockey success was hardly conventional. He saw his first hockey game at age 10, when his father, Carl, took him to a Stars game in 1993, the team's first year in Dallas. McKee was entranced by Andy Moog, the Stars' goalie, and told his dad he wanted to become an NHL goaltender. A few days later Carl took David to an Irving rink where the Stars were sponsoring a youth league to drum up interest in hockey. "The coach [of the team he was assigned to] thought I was real bad," says McKee, who'd never been on skates before. "He told my dad I wouldn't make the team."

But because he was the club's only goalie, the coach relented. McKee has excelled at every level of hockey since. As fate would have it, he became a protégé of Moog's, adopting a hybrid butterfly-stand-up style from the 18-year NHL veteran, who coached McKee for seven summers at the Okanagan Hockey School in Calgary. "I love David's competitive spirit," says Moog, who's now a Stars assistant. "He just battles so hard to keep the puck out of the net."

Recruited by Cornell, Harvard and Yale, McKee chose the Big Red partly because of its tradition of producing great goalies (chart). But the academic pressures of the Ivy League have tested McKee, who suffers from dyslexia and attention deficit disorder. He hid his disability for his first semester, and it nearly proved disastrous as he earned a 1.6 GPA. Since then he has been assigned more tutors, is given extra time for tests and sits near the front in every class to avoid distractions. As a result his GPA has not gone below 2.8. McKee has even created a fund-raising program with an Ithaca charity -- the Racker Centers, which support people with learning disabilities -- that raises money for every save he makes. "I've never seen such a big change in a student in such a short time," says coach Mike Schaefer, whose team is ranked ninth in the nation with an 8-3-1 record.

"School still isn't easy, but I can do it," says McKee, a hotel administration major. "And that confidence is allowing me to focus on doing what we should've done last year -- win the national championship."

Looks like it will be in the December 19th issue of SI also, I'll let you know when I get it in a couple days.

Oh no. David was already under performing and now we have to deal with the SI curse? We're in trouble now...

Oh wait, the curse is only for the cover, right? Phew...

[Q]KeithK Wrote:

Oh no. David was already under performing and now we have to deal with the SI curse? We're in trouble now...

Oh wait, the curse is only for the cover, right? Phew... [/q]

Yeah, only the cover.

Talk about burying the lead, bigred06!!! It is nice that there was an article in SI about McKee, and I appreciate that you linked to it (props also to dsr11 for reprinting it), but did you know that this was going on?

[Q]...the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, one of several NHL teams that tried to lure McKee out of school last spring and sign him as a free agent. [/q]

Did any of you?

I'm not that surprised, given his excellent year, but I don't think eLynah even had a rumor that he was being pursued by NHL teams.

the article is in the december 19th issue of sports illustrated in the Scorecard section. in addition to the text already provided, there is a picture of dave in red making a gloveside save, a smaller faceshot with the caption title "Blank slate" and the caption "McKee, a Hobey Baker finalist last year, has 15 shutouts in two-plus seasons."

the graphic in the bottom right hand corner of the one page article is titled "Cradle of Goalies" and reads "David McKee is the latest in a long line of successful goaltenders at Cornell, including the player who wrote the book on the position, Ken Dryden (right [cueing a picture of dryden on the cover of SI wearing #29 for the habs]). Here are five former Big Red netminders who went on the [sic] play in the NHL.

Player (Class) College Record GAA
Ken Dryden (1969) 76-4-1 1.59
In eight seasons with Montreal Canadiens, he won six Stanley Cups and five Vezina trophies as the NHL's top goalie

Brian Hayward (1982) 42-27-2 3.88
Played 11 NHL seasons with four clubs, sharing three Jennings trophies with Patrick Roy in Montreal. Lifetime record: 143-156-37

Darren Eliot (1983) 36-28-3 3.86
Dressed for LA, Detroit, and Buffalo in five NHL seasons, ending his career with a 25-41-12 record. Better known as a TV commentator

Doug Dadswell (1988) 37-17-4 3.27
Spent just two seasons with Big Red before signing with Calgary Flames, for whom he played 27 games, finishing with an 8-8-3 record

David LeNeveu (2005) 39-5-2 1.29
Second-round pick of Phoenix Coyotes in 2002, he turned pro after sophomore year. Is 2-5 with a 3.20 GAA this year as Curtis Joseph's backup"

Received my SI yesterday. Great exposure for CU hockey.

Keith Olberman just mentioned it as well on ESPN Radio. Said it's the first pull pager of a Cornell athlete in SI since Ed Marinaro....

[Q]ugarte Wrote:

Talk about burying the lead, bigred06!!! It is nice that there was an article in SI about McKee, and I appreciate that you linked to it (props also to dsr11 for reprinting it), but did you know that this was going on?

...the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, one of several NHL teams that tried to lure McKee out of school last spring and sign him as a free agent. [/Q]
Did any of you?

I'm not that surprised, given his excellent year, but I don't think eLynah even had a rumor that he was being pursued by NHL teams.[/q]

[Q]Did any of you?[/Q] Yes.
on Sept. 6 [Q]jkahn wrote:
[Q]That being said, McKee is obviously in a strong position by being overlooked in the draft and now being a free agent. There's no doubt in my mind that he's been approached by several teams this summer, and his decision to stay in school is much appreciated by Big Red fans. [/Q][/q]
source:
[elf.elynah.com]
9th post flat view

 

___________________________
Jeff Kahn '70 '72