Ice hockey defenseman Donald “Don” Gauf first represented Canada internationally at the 1949-1950 World Championships with the Edmonton Mercurys, where Canada won the gold medal. He was still with the team when they were selected again as delegates from Canada, this time to the 1952 Winter Olympics. At the tournament he played in seven games and scored three goals, including the one that tied them against the United States and secured them Canada’s last gold medal in men’s Olympic ice hockey for the next fifty years.
He has continued to be athletically active since his retirement from active play and claims to walk, skate, or play golf every day. Along with Eric Paterson he was present in the stands of Salt Lake City when Canada finally reclaimed Olympic ice hockey gold in 2002. In 2008 he petitioned to help carry the Olympic torch through Edmonton as it makes its way to the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. As a member of his Olympic team, he was inducted into the Alberta Sport Hall of Fame Museum in 1968.
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