AHL Utica Comets

Comet Tales: the Bill Horton Award

Published on March 28, 2014 under American Hockey League (AHL)
Utica Comets News Release


If you want to know about hockey history in Utica you need not look further than Comets' Director of Administration Luann Horton-Murad.  To have the most accurate background on the late Bill Horton, the man for whom the  Horton Award is named in honor of, a conversation with the the team's front-office executive is a must.

The Horton Award will be presented annually to the Comets player who shows the most heart on the team.  And the selected player will be voted on by the fans.  A people's choice winner perhaps is the most valuable of all public recognition.  Veteran Mohawk Valley hockey fans surely have a lasting mental image of Bill Horton's contributions to the area.  For everyone else, particularly those who weren't in the area a quarter century or more ago, Horton-Murad can supply all potential voters enough information on just what a giant of a man Bill was in order to cast a well thought out selection.

"I first heard about the (Bill Horton) award a couple of weeks ago," Horton-Murad recalls.  "Rob (Comets team president Rob Esche) came up with the award and asked if I would be okay with it."

The more one researches the accomplishments of Bill Horton, on and off the ice in his career, you wouldn't be alone if you were scratching your head wondering why there is no statue of the late player/coach/executive standing proud in front of The AUD.  This is not a stretch of imagination or some cockamamie pipe dream.  What Wayne Gretzky meant to the Edmonton Oilers, Bill Horton meant the same to hockey in the Mohawk Valley, especially through the 1970""s and mid-'80""s.

Just what was the Lindsay, Ontario native like as a person and professional?  Why should a former World Hockey Association rookie of the year (1972-73), player, assistant, head coach, and general manager for teams that called The AUD home be the guy a fan-based award gets named after?

"Bill exemplified the true passion of a professional, on and off of the ice.  He was an unselfish person.  Naming the award after him is so fitting,"says Horton-Murad.

Remembering her days with Horton, who in 1997 was part of the Lindsay and District Sports Hall of Fame class, and before that, in 1990 inducted posthumously into the Greater Utica Sports Hall of Fame, Luann offers a continuous stream of personal highlights during her union with Bill.  It's heart warming to be allowed to learn of how special they were to each other.  It certainly was a magical time to be in and around a hockey hotbed in the Mohawk Valley during the Bill Horton era.

"People today who come in the Horton Room (newly renovated lounge/bar located behind section 218) and see all the pictures of Bill, they get to see what a great guy he was.  Passion and perseverance, that was Bill," Horton-Murad tells.

Gone now for 26 years, Horton passed away while waiting for a heart transplant.  With all his hockey travels, Horton-Murad confirms that her late husband considered himself a Utican, and the Mohawk Valley his adopted home.

"Bill would be very humbled and honored that the fans still think of him and have an award named after him."

After each off-season the Hortons returned to the Utica area.  With professional hockey back at The AUD, a building Horton truly believed in, Luann believes had Bill would have pursued a career in hockey. When asked for a highlight of Horton's association with Utica hockey, Horton-Murad doesn't need a second breath before answering.

Bill's coaching the 1981-82  Mohawk Valley Stars (Horton skated in three games that season) to the Atlantic Coast Hockey League championship is the only choice, as Horton-Murad ranks their Utica hockey memories.  The team finished second overall in the six team league, and in the finals won over the Salem(Va) Raiders to collect the Bob Payne Trophy.

"That year was such a struggle.  Bill was selected as the league's Coach of the Year but winning the championship meant more to him.  He was all about the players," Horton-Murad explains.

There's a sense of loss in Horton-Murad's voice in going down memory lane of her inseparable linkage to hockey in the Mohawk Valley.  She describes the location of Bill's resting place on Oneida Street in Forest Hill Cemetery with much care and detail.  There were the association between fans and one of the most beloved sports figures in Utica history, and then there were 11 years of personal memories shared between Bill and Luann.

"Hockey has come full circle, from the '70""s, the '81 Stars.  There is a change in energy, and positiveness now.  Bill believed in the building (The AUD).  He would be very happy that it has worked its way back," Horton-Murad states.

A time before cable TV allowed for hockey teams and leagues to bombard its public with around the clock game choices, there was no such conception of instant, wireless communication, there were simpler, yet gratifying times had by all in The AUD.  From 1975, when Bill Horton first arrived in Utica with the Mohawk Valley Comets for 10 games, through the spring of 1987, he was the protector of pro hockey in the Mohawk Valley.

Everyone who has a Bill Horton story to tell are in agreement, that he cared as much about the area as he did about the game of hockey.  He was the heart and soul of the passion felt by fans.  Today, that tradition continues with the Comets, and the voice of their fans.

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American Hockey League Stories from March 28, 2014


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