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It was 1969, and Al Murdoch ventured to Ames, Iowa, to work on his master’s degree.

He planned on staying at Iowa State University for just a few years before heading back home to Neepawa, Manitoba.

A few years on campus turned into 45 and counting.

Murdoch got so wrapped up in coaching hockey and being a collegiate hockey advocate for the university, the time just flew by. Last November, Murdoch stepped down after 43 years as the coach for the Cyclone Hockey men’s team.

“I’d be less than honest if I didn’t tell you I do miss it,” Murdoch said. “But I’m at a point in time where I need to just move forward, get on with it.”

Murdoch finally felt it was the right time to step down. Three years ago, he got pneumonia and was urged by his doctor and wife to retire. He kept coaching. The next year, Murdoch was diagnosed with cancer. It made him think twice about retirement, but he stayed on the bench and beat the deadly disease.

Murdoch had quite an impressive coaching résumé with Cyclone Hockey, which is a non-varsity, non-scholarship club program. He retired with 1,070 career wins (almost 25 per season), one national championship, eight national championship game appearances and 12 Final Fours. He also made extensive contributions to quite a few other sports programs at Iowa State.

Murdoch coached hundreds of hockey players over the years, including Eric Tofte, who played for Murdoch from 1999-2002 and was the director of recruiting/assistant coach for 10 years under Murdoch. When Tofte is out on recruiting visits, either in the U.S. or Canada, people see his Iowa State gear and want to know if Murdoch is still coaching.

“Everyone has a story on the impact he made on their life, whether it was hockey or academics or a neighbor that went to Iowa State who played hockey,” Tofte said. “It’s amazing how far his reach is and how many people appreciate all that’s he done.”

Now that’s he’s no longer coaching, Murdoch, 68, plans to spend more time with his wife, five kids and eight grandkids. He should have a little more time on his hands. Murdoch figured he logged 50 to 60 hours per week on hockey.

“That’s something as a player I had no idea,” Tofte said. “Once I was working alongside of him and working under him on the recruiting, I could literally call him anytime between five in the morning and one in the morning. He was always going. People see what he does on game nights and they see what he’s doing at practice, but what they don’t see is the weekends he’s on the phone all afternoon talking to recruits or talking to other coaches around the league about ideas. … No one has more energy around hockey at Iowa State than Coach Murdoch.”

Murdoch also had to juggle being a professor of kinesiology at Iowa State and working with his son, Andrew, in a financial planning business. Murdoch plans on continuing to work in both those professions.

“After 43 years, you start to get worn out,” Murdoch said.

With all those years under his belt, Murdoch has plenty of memories on the bench. His biggest achievement came in 1992. One year after the American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA) was established — of course, Murdoch played a role in founding that — Cyclone Hockey won its first national championship, beating the University of Michigan-Dearborn 5-3 at Penn State University.

“I thought we had just an average team, but it all came together for the playoffs,” Murdoch said. “The team played outstanding.”

Along with his duties as the Cyclone Hockey coach, Murdoch has been a USA Hockey director, coach and lecturer at coaches’ clinics. Once Murdoch stepped down at Iowa State, he was quickly assigned different committees through USA Hockey, including the junior counsel, hockey equipment certification counsel and adult council representing the ACHA.

“There are days now that I feel like I am busier than I was coaching full time on the ice,” said Murdoch, who said he loves being involved in USA Hockey.

Murdoch also served as Team USA coach for the World University Games in 2001 in Poland. The U.S. did the unthinkable and upset the Russians, who were led by a young Ilya Kovalchuk. Every two years since, Murdoch has been Team USA’s general manager for the Games. He plans to continue his role with Team USA in the international tournament.

Murdoch will also stay active with the Cyclone Hockey program, mainly trying to get it granted Division I status through the NCAA. That’s something Murdoch’s been pushing since the early 1970s.

When Murdoch came to Ames, Iowa, he played a part in getting the Hilton Coliseum built. Back then there wasn’t a hockey arena on campus, so the team had to travel to Des Moines for practice and home games. Murdoch thought using the Hilton Coliseum would help turn club hockey into a Division I program. However, the NCAA wanted Iowa State to show it could operate at the top level budgetary-wise and have a large enough arena to accommodate crowds, Murdoch said. Iowa State also built a state-of-the-art practice facility. However, the NCAA wouldn’t budge.

“In the back of my mind I had the fear that the hockey program and the ice program could be eliminated at any time,” said Murdoch. “When we first went into Hilton Coliseum, I started every program that I could dream of. I helped start the figure skating program. I helped start broomball. We’ve got curling. We’ve still got all those sports at Iowa State, and hockey’s still non-scholarship.”

For all his contributions over the years to Iowa State, there will be a pair of on-campus celebrations for Murdoch on Oct. 10 and 11.

“I’m keep telling them, ‘Don’t be using that darn word retired, because once you retire the only thing after that is you drop dead and have a funeral,’” Murdoch joked. “So they’ve been calling it a celebration.”

Murdoch will be celebrating a storied career, but he still isn’t finished at Iowa State.

Story from Red Line Editorial, Inc.