Ace Brimacombe and the “Three-peats”

Name: Silent Ice Center Tour
Start: 2026-03-28
Location: Silent Ice Center | Hockey & Event Venue

Rick Peterson
Apr 6
10 min read

GBHA E-News | N.43

Silent Ice Tour Highlights

Our GBHA tour of of the Silent Ice Center | Hockey & Event Venue on March 28th was a resounding success.

We brought together about 65 Bears, Pandas, U of A Athletics staff and GBHA members, all of whom were impressed not only with the Silent Ice facility, but by the warm welcome from the Silent Ice staff.

As you’ll see below, a real highlight was meeting and chatting with the young student-athletes from both Bears and Pandas. We all spent 30 minutes together near the end of the tour in the main dressing room and had a ton of laughs, highlighted some of the key successes of the past year, and learned about so many of the challenges we face together and the very many more positive things that lay ahead for these programs at Silent Ice.

Huge thanks to Brian Middleton for picking up half of the tab for the pizza and soft drinks luncheon, with the GBHA footing the other half of the bill. The Bears, Pandas and Athletics staff all were grateful for our GBHA initiative in putting this together and hosting it. (And if you haven’t yet had the freshly oven-baked pizza at the Summit Restaurant at Silent Ice, you’re in for a treat when you do.)

Highlights of the two hours we spent together are now posted on our updated and very impressive new GBHA website, which is the result of hours of work from our amazing “Bear Necessities Team” of Angela Guignion, Delaney Miles and Léa Peterson. Check out these pics Silent Ice Center Tour - March 28, 2026 | 2026 Golden Bears Hockey Alumni and these two excellent videos from the tour: the first showing Bears defenceman Blake Gustafson‘s remarks after the shout-out he received for winning the U SPORTS national award for academic, athletic and community service leadership, named after GBHA member Randy Gregg; and a special GBHA presentation to Howie Draper for his remarkable career as a Golden Bear player and Pandas coach.

Howie’s a very accomplished guitarist, so we were thrilled to present to him a specially branded, brand-new, electric guitar! You can see in the pics below the Bears and Pandas logos on the front of his new guitar, and a list of highlights of Howie’s career printed on the back. This is an iconic, one-of-a-kind gift for an iconic, one-of-a-kind guy.

Special thanks to Brian Middleton, Dennis Cranston and Jeff Helland for coming up with the idea and getting this all done on very short notice!

Panda Posts

We’ve asked Howie Draper to start sending us updates on the Pandas and their Alumni. As you’ll read in his first post below, getting both Bears and Pandas together as we did at Silent Ice might have been the first time ever that’s happened. Clearly, there are things we can do together.

So, here is Howie’s first Panda Post – we’re looking forward to more:

Back in 1997, I was asked to take on the role of Head Coach for the brand-new Pandas Hockey program. With very little experience behind the bench at that point, I thought it best to bring in a veteran coach to help get things started. Fortunately for me, Dan Bouwmeester agreed to join me.

Together, we essentially borrowed the Golden Bears’ blueprint from front to back. It proved to be the perfect foundation for our young program. Just three years after the team’s inaugural season, the Pandas captured our first National Championship.

As I step away from this role to make room for new energy, new ideas, and continued success, I find myself reflecting on the influence of Coach Drake, Bill Moores, and the teammates I had the privilege to play with during my time with the Golden Bears. Without that experience, I’m quite certain my life would have taken a very different path.

Fast forward 29 years.

Sitting in the Silent Ice Pro dressing room last weekend, I found myself reinvigorated by the messages shared by Rick and our Golden Bear friends. With both the men’s and women’s teams together — possibly for the first time ever — the moment captured the true spirit of our programs: the optimism of what lies ahead and the belief that when our two teams work together, we can elevate our program to an even higher level.

The Pandas program and I look forward to working more closely with the GBHA in the future to see just what might be possible together.

It’s something both of our programs have said — and demonstrated — many times, but the words are always worth repeating:

“It’s amazing what can be accomplished when no one cares who gets the credit.”

Howie Draper

GBHA 2026-27 Partners’ Circle

Take a minute and check out what we’ve got lined up for this year: two sponsorship programs to support the Bears at Silent Ice this year – a $10K and a $20K package. Click here for details.

We owe a huge thanks to Jon Kruwulak from the U of A Athletics Department for offering luxury suite access at Silent Ice for our Partnership Circle sponsors. As you’ll see on the details, everything else we’re offering is supported by exposure to and activities that we offer through the GBHA.

The key thing to remember here is all sponsorship funds that come through this Partners’ Circle program stay with the GBHA. The GBHA Board of Directors, working with Bears management and coaching staff, then decides where those funds are allocated to have the greatest impact on the Bears’ program.

Know anyone who would like to learn more? Drop us a line and let us know. This program will go a long ways – in addition to our casino and golf tournament – to helping the Bears fill the $200K + funding gap for next year’s program.

Ace Brimacombe and the “Three-peats” I got a call from Kevin Primeau the other day that made me think of Garnet “Ace” Brimacombe.

“Cec”, as Kevin is known by everyone, asked if we could reach out to GBHA members who were part of any one or more of the 1978-80 “Three-peat” Bears national championship teams. He tells me that this group is at about $8,000 towards its $15K fundraising goal in support of scholarships for the Bears. Our ’74-’75 and ’85-’86 national championship teams both hit their scholarship fundraising targets on this same effort last year.

Ace Brimacombe passed away just over ten years ago, in January of 2016. As a member of the 1979-80 Three-peat team, if he were alive today, he’d be the first guy to step up and support this scholarship fundraising cause. In a big way.

Here’s how I got to know Ace, and why I believe he embodies everything our “Once a Bear, Always a Bear” stands for:

In 1984 I was playing in France, living in Paris, and during that summer I called Bill Moores. We had room on our team for one more foreign player, and I asked Coach Moores if there were any recently graduated Golden Bears who’d want to come to Paris and play on a second division French team. The hockey wasn’t great, but living in Paris was a blast. Billy said he had just the guy in mind.

Three weeks later, there was a knock on the door at my apartment in Paris. I opened the door, and there is this tall, lanky guy with a huge grin and sparkling eyes.

“Hi Rick, I’m Ace. I just got off the plane from Edmonton and I’m starving. What do you have in the fridge?” An hour later he was fast asleep on our couch, after inhaling a full baguette loaded with peanut butter and jam. And so it started, a friendship with one of the nicest, most humble yet most competitive and best teammates anyone could ever have.

Ace had a rocky start playing on our team – no goals in the first two games. I was feeling the pressure since I had told my French teammates about how great and strong he would be. He had played four seasons with the Bears, winning a national championship in his first year in 1979-80, the third of the Three-peat wins. He played three more years, wearing the “C” in his last year of 1982-83, when he won the Andy Purcell Trophy as the Bears' MVP and was a Canada West First Team All-Star. As Steve Knowles reports to me, Ace played 146 games as a Bear, with 83 goals and 85 assists for 168 points.

It didn’t take long, however, before he got on track. Once he figured out that he likely wasn’t going to get the puck back on a give-and-go with his French teammates, he carried the team on his shoulders on his own. We ended up winning the French Division 2 national championship, with Ace leading the way. He inspired our French players and made every single one of them better. Not through speeches in the dressing room, but simply letting his game and his personality speak for itself. His unselfishness, his focus and his strength set the bar for us all.

But more importantly, Ace quickly charmed everyone he met. His effort to learn the new language and culture, his constant smile and easy laughter, along with his wicked sense of humour, simply blew everyone away. If you played with him, or knew him, you know what I mean.

Our French teammates couldn’t pronounce “Ace” correctly – it came out as “Ass”. So, when they cheered him on, and the crowds picked it up, it was “Allez, Ass, Allez!!” (Go, Ass, go!).

Ace became a deeply loved member of our entire family in France. He attended all our celebrations, family events, welcoming newborns, joining us around the dinner table, tagging along on wine trips to the Beaujolais. When Ace went back to Canada to join Mr. Lube and I came back at roughly the same time to live in Vancouver, we kept in close touch. When he and Vicki started their family and moved just outside of Vancouver to Langley, we saw them often. Over the years, the same smile, laughter and sense of humour filled our house whenever they came by.

I still remember the phone call I got in early January of 2016. Ace was in the hospital in Langley after suffering multiple strokes, and it didn’t look good. A few days later, he was gone.

Perry Zapernick and I were asked by Vicki to join the family in speaking at Ace’s memorial service. That was a day neither of us will ever forget. More than 1,000 people packed a large ballroom at a golf and country club in Langley, standing in disbelief, in complete silence. The grief, sadness and pain were palpable. Yet, through it all, when Perry and I looked out over the gathering, we could see and feel an overwhelming sense of love that was shared and deeply felt. A huge bouquet of flowers from France, as well as dozens of sympathy notes, letters, cards and pictures written in French, from his French teammates and friends, were on the tables.

I realized then the next level of magic of Ace – his ability to have the same profound and meaningful impact on any community he lived as he did in his role as a Golden Bear. There is no greater legacy for any one of us than to display the same values in our post-Golden Bear lives as we did while wearing the green-and-gold. Ace did that in spades. Once a Bear, Always a Bear.

He’s still with us today, in so many ways. And I know he’d be the first guy to step up on this Three-peat fundraising campaign that Cec and his colleagues are leading in support of the Bears.

So, if you played with Ace, or knew him, or if you feel who he was represents what we are all trying to achieve, I hope you’ll join me in supporting this Three-peat scholarship fundraising cause.

Here’s the link: Give to the University of Alberta. Mention your donation is in honour of Ace Brimacombe, if you’d like, or any one or more of the 1978-80 Three-peat teams. If you have any issues and need some help processing, please reach out to Brad MacGregor at 780-237-0062 or brad.macgregor@ualberta.ca. Tax receipts will be issued.

Allez, Ace, Allez.

Season of Chaos

Over the past few months, GBHA Advisory Council member Dale Henwood has written three op-eds on the significant changes that have recently taken place in U SPORTS hockey and NCAA hockey programs:

· Part I: Background on NIL and Transfer Portal

· Part II: The Push and Pull and U SPORTS Advantages

· Part III: The Changing Hockey Landscape in the NCAA, CHL and USPORTS

Today he’s winding up this series with Part IV A quick look back on "A Season of Chaos" an assessment of the 2025-26 migration of players from Canadian U SPORTS hockey to NCAA programs and the broader shifts in eligibility that have affected U SPORTS teams.

Here’s a short summary: The changes at the NCAA level were the trigger for what Dale calls “a season of chaos”. He says there were a few monumental changes at NCAA hockey that reverberated across the hockey ecosystem. Firstly, the NCAA was “gifted” a pool of talent that previously was not available as players with CHL experience were now eligible to compete for NCAA teams. Secondly, new, and significant financial resources are now available for universities to recruit and/or retain players. Finally, although the CHL continued to be the primary feeder for U SPORTS talent, this trend is declining rapidly. These changes have resulted in the most tumultuous and ever-changing landscape in history of junior and university hockey – and they are still evolving!

This latest installment, and the full four-part series, is great work by our fellow GBHA member. Please take the time to check them all out.

Remembering Garrett Trennery – Bears’ Student Trainer

GBHA past-president Graeme Craig passed along a note about the recent passing of former Bears’ Student Trainer Garrett Trennery. Garrett was part of the 2017-18 national championship team that Graeme played on, and was with the Bears in a supporting roles from 2017 through to 2022.

“He was probably one of the nicest guys I have been around,” said Graeme, “and he was a great resource for our team. He truly cared about the program and embodied what it meant to be a Golden Bear despite not playing.”

Garrett’s Celebration of Life takes place on Saturday, April 18^th at 1:00 pm at The River Room, 53538 Range Road 232, Sherwood Park, AB. He’s pictured below with the 2017-18 team on the ice celebrating their win (he’s back row, centre) and shortly afterwards, front row in middle, kneeling down with his hands on the University Cup.

Our condolences to Garrett’s family and his very wide circle of teammates, colleagues and friends.