Everyone is a household name… even if it’s only in their house.
“With the 13th pick overall, the Chicago Blackhawks are pleased to select… (if general manager Tommy Ivan doesn’t say the right name, I’ve got no story) …from the Edmonton Oil Kings of the Western Hockey League… Darcy Rota. (Phew.)”
Darcy Rota is a household name in more than just his own. Sure, not in the way Shakespeare or Einstein or err… Gretzky is, but in many, many homes of his native Vancouver, around BC, throughout Canada and, yes, even Chicago. And he is recognized as much for his post-NHL-career charity work as he was for his on-ice exploits. You guessed it; Darcy Rota is a former NHLer now making his presence felt again in BC.
Let’s skate backwards for a minute. Darcy was born in Vancouver and played many of his formative years in Prince George before a stellar junior career with the Edmonton Oil Kings. In the 1972–73 season, he notched 73 goals in just 68 games for a 129-point season and the league scoring title. Darcy could find the back of the net like a west coast cougar sniffing out a tasty mule deer. Sort of. But it wasn’t always thus. He is quick to point out – as he does to many minor hockey families and at hockey banquets – that he didn’t make an all-star team until his second year as a bantam at about 14 years old. In today’s world, where kids are lacing ’em up in-utero, this Rota-esque late-blooming is virtually unheard of. Darcy attributes much of his success to his dogged stick-to-itiveness.
After his first-round selection by the Blackhawks and several seasons with Chicago, he was traded to the Atlanta Flames in 1979. A year later, it was a homecoming of sorts as Darcy was dealt to the Vancouver Canucks, culminating in the 1982 Stanley Cup finals. Then, in the 1982–83 season, Darcy set club records for goals and points for a left winger, and the following season saw his selection to the NHL All-Star game. It was late in that campaign that a serious neck injury, the result of a check, eventually led to spinal fusion therapy and precipitated his retirement in December the following year.
Darcy’s father Ralph’s inspiration to his son is clear in how Darcy lives life. Giving back to his community, being able to inspire in others the passion that saw him through a successful hockey career and now sees him through every new adventure is high on the list of activities that motivates Darcy. A Vancouver Canucks alumnus and the board’s treasurer, he attends 30-plus Canucks home games at Rogers Arena to entertain guests and charities in the Alumni suite. An avid golfer and member of the Vancouver Golf Club since 1985, Darcy can combine his love of the game with his passion for charity work.
“I do 10 to 15 charity golf events throughout the year, where I am at a par 3 for the day doing a hockey shot and then a golf shot with each group. Call it my Happy Gilmore activity,” he says.
Obviously, goals have always been a big part of Darcy’s life, whether scoring them or setting them. Case in point:
“When I grow up, I want to play in the National Hockey League for the Chicago Blackhawks. Darcy Rota, Grade 6.”
This he wrote in his Canadian Dictionary for Schools, which is now proudly displayed in his home office.
These days he does much more goal setting than goal scoring, but goals are meaningless unless you work hard to regularly achieve them. Darcy is fastidious about attaining the standards he sets.
“Being active and living a healthy lifestyle are very important to me,” he says. “Staying in reasonable shape along with being very disciplined in not gaining weight and setting monthly exercise goals – golf, daily walks with the dog and yoga – have been a priority for me. Some other health benefits I work on are that alcohol is something I hardly consume, and getting my proper rest is another. On normal nights, I am in bed around 10 p.m. and up at 6 a.m.” Early to bed, early to rise…
That’s the sound body part of the Greek ideal. Here’s the mind part:
“Keeping my mind active is also very important,” says Darcy. “We have had Prince George Business Partners with the Wettlaufer family since 1964. Our Dads (Stan and Ralph) owned a Chrysler dealership. The property was turned into commercial spaces and, once our fathers passed away, Bill Wettlaufer, my brother, Brad, and I took over the business. This takes a bit of time each day. I have always enjoyed the accounting part of business – like my father and now my son who is at SFU studying to be an accountant. A nice legacy to continue. Also, out of the great respect I have for my dad, Kathy and I named our son Adam Ralph Rota,” says Darcy.
Healthy, wealthy and wise. Wisdom sometimes has a way of leading to health and wealth.
“I had successful lower back surgery February 2015 and now live with no pain. Being able to walk and play golf pain-free makes life very special again and I do not take that for granted,” says Darcy. “Stretching has become a big part of my life and this really got me into yoga. I find doing yoga classes with others is more beneficial than doing it on my own. I guess because you get pushed by your instructor and fellow enthusiasts.”
Sounds like you might find Darcy atop Mount Waddington, cross-legged and dispensing pearls of wisdom to anyone who could make the ascent. But Darcy finds his grounding much closer to sea level. There’s the golfing, the yoga, bike riding, and the walks with their Eskimo/Pomeranian Coco. But he is nothing if not a family man. His wife Kathy and his children are Darcy’s real foundation. Son Adam, 21, studies at Simon Fraser University’s Beedie School of Business, and daughter Megan, 20, is a professional dancer on the Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines. Darcy and Kathy left March 19th to join her cruise in Shanghai.
A quick internet search of Darcy Rota will give you loads of statistics – did you know he was a +16 with the Chicago Black Hawks in 1973-74? And what’s with all the penalty minutes in the ’81-’82 season? Goals and assists are only a superficial assessment and don’t speak to the integrity of a person. Want to know a little bit more about Darcy Rota; the kind of stuff hockey stats can’t tell you? Hole #7. It’s a 172-yard par 3. Stand quietly in the tee box and hear the jostling of clubs as Darcy decides which iron to pull from his bag. Feel the cool morning breeze and look down the short fairway to where the stoic fir and hemlock stand like Swiss guards around the dewy green. Then have a chat.
“Most days I will try and practice my golf game at my home course – Vancouver Golf Club – I enjoy working on all aspects of my game – chipping, putting, sand play, wedges, longer iron shots, hybrids and driver. I have a handicap of 1 and love the game of golf. Kathy isn’t quite as avid, but we enjoy playing together when we can.”
In hockey, perhaps more than in any other professional sport, there is a special premium put on the ability to lead by example, to leave all the fist-pumping and grandstanding to others. The great leaders have done this. Despite all their talent and brilliance, the likes of Richard and Howe, Hull and Orr, Messier, Lemieux, and Gretzky went about their jobs with a workmanlike attitude that rubbed off on their fellow players and made for a better team. Darcy was that kind of player because he is that kind of person. He brought lessons to the arena and worked hard to make his dreams real. I suspect Darcy still would have forsaken it all had he not been able to be true to himself.
Not once did Darcy mention his neck injury or that it had ended his career in its prime. No lamenting what might have been. No bemoaning his situation or begrudging the success of others. In a country where hockey is religion, for Darcy it was still just a means to a better end.
There is a continuity, a cyclical nature to Darcy’s life. You can see it in the influence his father had on him and now the impact he has on his own children. You see it in his departure and return to Vancouver in his hockey years, and in his sense of communal work and play. And there it is in his charity enterprises, taking what he was given and returning it to those who need it most.
Darcy shared that after a recent knee scope, replacement surgery may be in his future. Despite the trials that come with the procedure and the difficult rehab that follows, my bet is that Darcy will set a goal, persevere and grind through. He’ll have the love and support of family and community from whom he’s earned a ton of respect. He’s got lots on credit.
“Giving back” is a phrase that has entered our vernacular and, for its ubiquity, has lost some of its cache. Everyone, it would seem, is “giving back” or “paying it forward” these days. Lip service for some, but Darcy Rota is a real-life example of the prodigal son having stretched his legs in the big city only to return to his neck of the woods and make it a better place for everyone.
Last I heard from Darcy, he and Kathy were soon off to the Vancouver Canucks Annual Dice and Ice Fundraising event at Parc Hotel in Vancouver. Figures.
Snapshot
If you were to meet your 20-year-old self, what advice would you give him?
“Stay the same course – you reached your goal of playing in the NHL. You played for an original six team in Chicago and finished your career playing in Vancouver, where you were born and raised in the province of BC – Vancouver, Burnaby, Kelowna, Prince George and currently Coquitlam since 1987. You will feel very blessed and honoured by reaching your professional goal.”
Who or what has influenced you the most? And why?
“My father Ralph Rota. He came from a very poor family – 11 brothers and sisters. My dad became a successful businessman through his high integrity, solid work ethic and disciplined mindset. He was supportive, sacrificed and was always dedicated to his family, business, recreational and sporting activities.”
What does courage mean to you?
“To me, courage means not to be scared to set goals and persevere and grind through hardships to achieve those goals.”
What does success mean to you?
“Success comes in many forms – being healthy, comfortable financially, having a loving and solid marriage, having the love and respect of my children, as well as the respect of people both in business and charities. Also, respect in my communities throughout BC. I believe I have achieved all of these at one time or another. But some sustain the test of time and some fade. When you come right down to the bottom line, it is believing that you are a good and worthy person. That you have ethics, morals and integrity that you are content with – and that the real you is who you want to be.”
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