Something happened in Watford City Friday night that was monumental, but outside the world of hockey, most people in North Dakota probably didn’t know about it.

There was a North Dakota Amateur Hockey Association Hall of Fame induction and when you see the details of this person, you’ll wonder why this didn’t happen five years ago.

Dave Hansen, who played high school hockey at Grand Forks Red River, moved to Watford City and started a hockey program there in 1985 with Arden Berg. His first team had 14 players, ages 5-14, and they skated on a local lagoon.

Fast forward 40 years and Hansen has not only been the coach for the Watford City Oilers program, but actually coached two teams for a time. In addition to that, he’s coached state teams, he’s been a referee and all three of his kids; Alex and Ryan played for him and daughter Kayla was an assistant coach, telling the Roundup, a Sidney, Mont., newspaper, that she knew everything about the game.

Through it all, Hansen has coached at least 50 hockey teams in 40 years and the program he built, along with Berg, went from those 14 kids to now, more than 250 hockey players in the Watford City program.

In addition to that, in 2016 twin hockey arenas in Watford City’s Roughrider Center were built, with one dedicated and named the Dave Hansen Arena in January 2017. It’s arguably one of the nicest hockey arenas in North Dakota, save the Ralph Englestad Arena on the University of North Dakota campus in Grand Forks.

So Friday night, the Watford City Park Board, the local hockey program board of directors and the North Dakota Amateur Hockey Association pulled out all the stops to honor this legendary coach, who was three times Junior Gold Coach of the Year.

At first his family was acknowledged; his wife Lynette, children Alex, Ryan and Kayla, as well as their grandchildren. Hansen said during his speech that his family has endured a lot over the past 40 years being in a hockey family such as theirs. There were late-night trips across the state to get home, there were early Wednesday morning practices and there was time away from home during his coaching career.

Through it all, the family stood by him and as he implied, it made him a better coach, a better father and a better grandfather. And it shows. The entire humble Hansen family showed a lot of grace and dignity Friday night while at center ice.

Hansen was also responsible for something indirectly related to the hockey program that doesn’t get listed in a statistic.

It’s about the spirit of volunteering and how he engineered virtually an entire community to believe in his vision of one day having a promising hockey program in Watford City. From that frigid and wind-swept lagoon to a multipurpose arena to a state-of-the-art facility, Hansen drove that train, but there were a lot of volunteers working with him and Berg to build, not just the team, but the enthusiasm that goes with creating a successful program. That translates to generations of fans today watching hockey games in the arena.

During his speech, Hansen talked about moving to Watford City from Grand Forks in the mid ‘80s and telling someone he wanted to start a hockey program in a huge basketball town. He surely got some odd looks after making that statement, but now you can easily see the dividends.

Hansen was presented with a special award and a plaque with all 59 of the Hall of Fame inductees listed including himself, the only inductee in the class of 2025. His award will be on permanent display in the North Dakota Hall of Fame headquarters in Jamestown.

Hansen created a spark that has been burning bright for 40 years and will no doubt be around another 40 years.