By Sheri Monk

A Gravelbourg boy by birth, NHLer Gord Sherven moved to the Lafleche Mankota area at a young age.
“From Mankota I went to Notre Dame for three years and went to North Dakota on a scholarship and turned pro out of North Dakota after playing with the Olympic team for three years,” said Sherven said in an interview with The Badger.
The 1988 Calgary Olympics were an incredible experience for the young forward, one he is reminded of lately, with the pre-Vancouver Olympic excitement gripping the nation.
“It’s certainly bringing back a lot of good memories with it being so close to home. It was just a phenomenal experience, the two years leading up to the Olympics with the national program.
Before the Olympics, Sherven played two regular season games with the Oilers in the 1983-84 season. He had been picked up by the club in the tenth round of the 1981 draft, but spent the first couple of years playing for the University of North Dakota.
During the season following his NHL debut, he played 37 games with the Oilers. Traded mid-season to the Minnesota North Stars, he played 32 regular-season games and three playoff games with his new club. The following year, in the 1985-86 season, he was traded back to the Oilers before being traded to the Hartford Whalers the next year. He was underutilized while with the Whalers and the trend didn’t change after the 1988 Olympics.
“I kinda bounced around between those three teams and never had a great opportunity in Hartford after the Olympics. So having played in Europe on a couple of occasions with the Olympic team, I saw an opportunity there and went to Europe in the fall of ‘88,” Sherven explained.
He moved to Germany with his wife and played in Europe for 12 years.
“All our kids, three children, were born in Europe,” he said.
Sherven prepared to leave the pro hockey world a number of years before his actual departure. Now in Calgary, the family has been there since 2000, when Sherven retired.
“I have since that time worked as an advisor in the investment community,” he said, adding he volunteers as a board member on Hockey Canada. “You know your day is coming and you have to start planning for that transition.”
Sherven played in the 2005 NHL Alumni Celebrity Tournament and will be attending the 2010 Celebrity Tournament April 10 at the Maple Creek Community Arena.
For more information on the celebrity tournament, log onto www.thebadger.ca/4on4.