LITTLETON, Colo. (BVM) – Colorado hockey includes the Avalanche, their affiliate, the Colorado Eagles, along with college programs at Colorado College, Air Force and the University of Denver who just won the national championship this past season. But there is another hockey organization in the state that many probably don’t know about. It has a big impact in the community and the game of hockey as a whole: Dawg Nation.

It started as a group of 15 friends playing in a recreational hockey league being cheap and buying the only jerseys they could find on eBay which were the Georgia Bulldogs biting a hockey stick in half, and just like that, the Dawgs were born. 

In a five-week span, three players on the team were diagnosed with cancer and while they were missing work and undergoing treatment, the rest of the team began passing a hat around to try and raise any money they could to help. Thankfully, all three won their battles and are still playing Dawg Nation hockey. 

It was years later when another member of the original team, Jack Kelly, would come down with an autoimmune disease. He sadly did not survive. However, while sitting beside his friend on his deathbed, the original founder of the Dawgs and now CEO Marty Richardson wanted to make something of it to help others in need. 

Now, Dawg Nation hosts many smaller events to earn money and help others who are hurting whether it is golf outings, comedy shows and many other activities. Then there is the big event every year: the Dawg Bowl. 

The Dawg Bowl is an annual fundraiser hockey tournament. It takes place right around Father’s Day every year. It is currently in its 12th year and every year it spans five days at Edge Ice Arena in Littleton, Colorado. It consists of 58 teams and around 1,100 participants across a multitude of skill levels having fun playing hockey. There is $120,000 worth of donations given to recipients that submitted requests who are in need of financial help due to life-threatening causes. Along with that, they have sled hockey, auctions, giveaways, and to top it all off, the survivor game. 

The survivor game steals the show each year and includes anyone who has survived something traumatic whether it be a war injury, fighting a disease, or breaking every bone in their body. And every year, the game is played celebrating those who survived something that is life-threatening.

“Over the 12 years we’ve been doing this, we’ve given away almost $3 million,” Greg Clinard, the board chair of Dawg Nation, said. 

While Dawg Nation started in the Front Range of Colorado, they have continued to expand across the county and even into Canada to help aid those who need it the most. 

They helped the Humboldt Broncos of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League after their team bus was hit by a semi-truck causing 16 deaths and many other injuries on April 6, 2018. Richardson was recently with five of the team members in Edmonton at the conference finals of the Stanley Cup Playoffs continuing to support the injured players all these years later. 

Dawg Nation continues to run events all over the country. They went to Chicago to run a blind hockey tournament with the U.S. National blind hockey team and branched out to have a Dawg Nation in St. Louis to run its own operations. Dawg Nation has also made it a point to really follow the NHL’s marketing campaign, making sure that hockey is for everyone. 

And seemingly, Dawg Nation always wants to help more. The organization gave away around $900,000 over the last calendar year and it is looking likely to exceed that price in 2022 as well as moving forward. 

There is another big project in the works for Dawg Nation that will have a major impact on the hockey community in Colorado. They will be building a full sled hockey complex in Castle Pines that will be easily accessible for sled hockey players. 

“You don’t even think about a step. You step up, you step down. You run up steps or down steps,” Clinard said. “Well, if you’re missing a limb or have some other challenges where you’re unable to walk down below the waist, a single step can impose quite an obstacle. So our goal is to ultimately build a three rink complex. When they park in the parking lot and get out of their vehicles, they will be on the same plane until they get onto the ice. No steps up or down. They’ll be able to dress in an absolutely bonafide locker room like anyone else. And they’ll be able to go directly [on the ice] using artificial ice in between the locker room on the same plane to the actual sheet of frozen ice. It’s a unique design situation. But it only exists in a couple of places in the United States, and we are going to build [one here].”

One difficulty for Dawg Nation is that most of the people helping the organization run have day jobs. So what they do is for the cause and the love of the game. But even with the sweat they are putting in now, they look to continue to grow.

Ultimately, what Dawg Nation does is bring the hockey community together to help those who share a common love. They have help from former and current NHL players like Milan Hejduk and David Clarkson as well as a lot of collaboration with University of Denver Pioneers past and present like Troy Terry and Hobey Baker winner Will Butcher as well as so many more who are willing to sign memorabilia for the auctions to bring in money and do anything they can to help the cause. 

From what started with passing a hat around to losing a friend, Dawg Nation has built itself from the ground up to be a cause that the community has fallen in love with and a place people are proud to be a part of over these last 12 years. And a lot of it is for one reason and one reason only. 

“It’s an amazing opportunity to be able to help people,” Clinard said.