Dick Burg Explained

Dick Burg
Birth Date:24 March 1936
Birth Place:Edina, Minnesota, U.S.
Height Ft:5
Height In:10
Weight Lb:181
Position:Wing
Played For:Minnesota
Ntl Team:United States
Career Start:1955
Career End:1963

Richard Burg (born March 24, 1936) is an American retired ice hockey winger who was an All-American for Minnesota.[1]

Career

After a stellar junior career where he was an "All-City" in baseball, football and hockey, Burg began attending the University of Minnesota in 1954.[2] While he initially planned to play all three sports in college, Burg suffered a shoulder injury while playing freshman football that forced him to stop playing both football and baseball. He focused solely on hockey and, when he made the varsity team as a sophomore, he played well. He finished 4th in team scoring in 1956 but both Burg and the team flagged the following year.

As a senior Burg had a resurgence, leading the Gophers with 19 goals and 35 points and was named an All-American. After graduating Burg joined the US National Team, scoring 20 goals in 50 games during the season. He was also a member of the squad at the 1959 World Championships, but has the unfortunate distinction of being the only forward on the team to not score a goal during the tournament.[3] The team could have used a goal from Burg since they finished in a tie with Czechoslovakia for third place and were beaten on the third tie-breaker for the bronze medal (the second tie-breaker was goal-differential).[4]

Burg was not selected for the national team the following year, spending the season with the Minneapolis Millers of the USCHL. After Team USA won goal at the 1960 Winter Olympics, Burg was offered a second stint with the team at the 1961 World Championships. Both Burg and the team performed worse than the last time with the team managing to win just a single game while Burg was limited to one assist in seven games.[5] After that debacle Burg returned to semi-pro hockey in Minnesota, playing two seasons in the USHL before retiring.

Burg was later inducted into the Minneapolis Hockey Hall of Fame.

Statistics

Regular season and playoffs

Playoffs
SeasonTeamLeagueGPGAPtsPIMGPGAPtsPIM
1955–56MinnesotaWIHL29 10 10 20 17
1956–57MinnesotaWIHL20 8 4 12 16
1957–58MinnesotaWIHL28 19 16 35 30
1958–59US National TeamInternational50 20 12 32 20
1959–60Minneapolis MillersUSCHL
1961–62Minneapolis RebelsUSHL
1962–63St. Paul SteersUSHL
NCAA totals77 37 30 67 63

International

YearTeam GPGAPtsPIM
1959United States80444
1961United States70116
Totals1505510

Awards and honors

AwardYear
All-WIHL Second Team1957–58[6]
AHCA West All-American1957–58[7]

Notes and References

  1. News: 1957-1958 All-American Team . The American Hockey Coaches Association . 2017-06-21.
  2. News: Dick Burg - Minneapolis Hockey Hall of Fame! . Minneapolis Hockey . September 2, 2020.
  3. News: Team USA - Ice Hockey World Championships 1959 - Player Stats . Quant Hockey . September 2, 2020.
  4. https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=zuYxAAAAIBAJ&sjid=DeQFAAAAIBAJ&pg=5966,3583874 Ottawa Citizen March 16, 1959, page 13.
  5. News: Team USA - Ice Hockey World Championships 1961 - Player Stats . Quant Hockey . September 2, 2020.
  6. News: WCHA All-Teams. College Hockey Historical Archives. May 19, 2013.
  7. News: 1957-1958 All-American Team . The American Hockey Coaches Association . 2017-06-21.