Del Saint John

Del Saint John, a forward, was the first Austro-Canadian ice hockey player. Before focusing on ice hockey Saint John was also a talented pitcher for the Pincher Creek Jrs. In North America he played hockey for the Edmonton Athletic Club, Louisville Shooting Stars, Toledo Mercurys, Milwaukee Chiefs, and Johnstown Jets. In Europe he started his career with the Nottingham Panthers, Den Haag, and HC Bozen, but at the end of the 1950s he came to Austria and played with EC Kitzbühel, playing the following seasons with KAC and the Brighton Tigers in England.

In 1961 he moved to Vienna and won his first Austrian national championship with WEV in 1962. From 1964-71 he won eight consecutive Austrian national championships as player and player-manager with KAC, scoring 43 goals in 1961-62 and 20 goals in 1965-66 in only 12 games. He was the player-manager for the HC Salzburg for the 1972-73 season, the first season when helmets were required in Austria. He later played in Innsbruck and Villach.

Saint John was the first naturalized Canadian hockey player in Austria in 1961. He played with Austria at the 1964 Innsbruck and the 1968 Grenoble Winter Olympics, when the teams were eliminated in the group stages. He earned 59 caps, scoring 52 goals with 33 assists for Austria. With the Austrian national team he also participated in six world championships (five Pool B and one Pool C).

During his time in Klagenfurt he met his future wife Erika, the sister of his teammate and KAC legend Sepp Puschnig. After his hockey career he worked at the Golfclub Seltenheim in Klagenfurt, but never lost interest in ice hockey.