Joey Payeur
It’s been almost 35 years since Bill Selman represented the Gateway City.
But the Fort Frances native still feels the spirit of St. Louis—and the Missouri metropolis still remembers what he did for the city, too.
Selman will become part of an illustrious group of notable athletic contributors when he and the St. Louis University Billikens men’s hockey teams he coached will receive the President’s Choice Award from the St. Louis Sports Hall of Fame on Nov. 20.
The 74-year-old was the only head coach throughout the first incarnation of the program from 1970-79.
“It was a great time,” recalled Selman, who still lives in St. Louis during the winter months while spending his summers at his cabin just east of Fort Frances.
“It’s a great honour to be going into the Hall.”
Greg Maracek, president of the Hall of Fame, had no problem explaining why he settled on Selman and the Billikens to receive the accolade.
“I think they deserve it for bringing college hockey back to St. Louis and being the great succes they were,” said Maracek.
“They were really liked by the public.”
Selman, who played on the 1958-59 Fort Frances Canadians, is the only person to have coached four different NCAA Division I men’s hockey teams.
Before arriving in St. Louis, he was at the helm of the University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux from 1966-68 and the University of Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs from 1968-71.
After the Billikens lost their hockey program in 1979, Selman moved on to coach the Lake Superior State Lakers from 1981-83.
But his time in St. Louis holds a special place in his heart.
“We were the only college team to play in an NHL building,” Selman recounted about the St. Louis Arena.
“The Salomons, who owned the St. Louis Blues, wanted more ice activities in their arena when the Blues weren’t playing, rather than a bunch of concerts and circuses,” he explained.
“So we would play there on Fridays and Sundays while the Blues played there on Saturdays.
“Getting to play in an NHL building was a big plus when it came to recruiting,” he added.
Selman compiled a 72-42-6 regular-season record with the Billikens, and a post-season mark of 12-5-2.
He was part of a trail-blazing group of coaches which created the Central Collegiate Hockey Association in 1971 after the Billikens were refused entry into the Western Collegiate Athletic Conference.
The CCHA lasted 42 years before folding this past spring and Selman remains proud of what he helped make happen.
“We won the league six times . . . it was a great run for us,” he remarked.
But when the Salomons ran into financial difficulty in the late 1970s, they sold the Blues—and the rights to the arena—to the Ralston Purina company.
That signalled the beginning of the end for the inaugural tenure of the Billikens, although the program rose from the ashes to begin play again in 1996.
“I didn’t really feel the school wanted the hockey team and when the Salomons sold, there was no pressure to keep the program and the team folded,” he recalled.
Next month’s ceremony will see Selman recognized alongside a star-studded collection of inductees.
Among those gaining entrance will be NHL Hall-of-Famer Brett Hull, whose glory days came during his time with the Blues; former St. Louis Cardinals’ manager Joe Torre, who went on to win multiple World Series while guiding the N.Y. Yankees; and former Cardinals’ and N.Y. Mets’ first baseman Keith Hernandez.
However, the moment will lose some of its lustre for Selman as he will be in attendance without his wife, Anne, who passed away in August.
“It’s going to be a little tougher to go back to St. Louis without her,” admitted Selman, who last year was inducted into the Northwestern Ontario Sports Hall of Fame in Thunder Bay.
He also is in the University of North Dakota Hall of Fame as a member of the 1963 national championship men’s hockey squad.
Despite all his travels, Selman hasn’t forgotten about where it all began for him.
“I give credit to Fort Frances for me going as far in hockey as I have,” he stressed.
