BOWLING GREEN — When Bowling Green State University made the transition from club to varsity hockey in 1969, Scott Slater was starting his freshman year on campus.
The Bowling Green native was studying to become a certified public accountant, and though he had never played the game competitively, he quickly became attached. The games were fast and loud and fun, but more than that, the game created a community that in recent years has revived hockey at BGSU.
The Falcons, for the first time since 1990, will play in the NCAA tournament Saturday when they take on defending national champion Minnesota-Duluth in Allentown, Pa.
It took diehard supporters to reignite Bowling Green hockey, and Slater has been at the forefront. In 2016, he donated $2 million to help renovate the BGSU Ice Arena, which is now named the Slater Family Ice Arena, and he has remained a close friend of the program.
In recent years, Slater, the chairman of Toledo Engineering Co., has responded time and again to help Bowling Green return to the national stage on which it will perform this weekend.
“He is a true — I want to say blue, but it’s not blue — a true orange Falcon. He’s so supportive,” Bowling Green coach Chris Bergeron said last week. “On behalf of our program, I can’t put into words how thankful we are to have him and his family as part of our family.”
When the Falcons hosted the first round of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association playoffs, Slater paid for 1,000 student tickets each night of the series to help the students attend games.
Two weeks later, after Bowling Green qualified for the WCHA title game, Slater donated again for a charter flight to send the team to Mankato, Minn., along with the pep band and select students.
Slater has stepped up repeatedly not for the attention, but rather for an ideal that he has carried with him for most of his life.
“I’ve always been a proponent that education is the most important thing in a person’s and especially a young adult’s life,” he said. “I value education first, and I value it even more when it’s interrelated with sports. I think sports and education just keep kids challenged, keep them motivated, and keep them learning. It’s the best way to achieve what people want in life for the most part.”
Slater said hockey took hold of his family once they became involved. His children began skating from the time they could walk, and the family quickly became entrenched in the sport.
The Slaters became a host family for BGSU hockey players during the program’s heyday in the mid-1980s and early ‘90s. The Slater kids grew up sharing meals with future NHL player Nelson Emerson and playing floor hockey with future Hall of Famer and Olympian Rob Blake, now the general manager of the Los Angeles Kings. Eventually, the Bowling Green hockey family and the Slater family were one and the same.
“At the time, they played a lot around Thanksgiving, and the university would close,” Slater said. “The boys used to come by and spend pretty much the whole week at the house because the dorms and [dining halls] were all closed, and that was all allowed then. It was a great thing that just became a family involvement.
“Our entire family just got sucked up into it and learned to love the game.”
In more recent years, Slater has gone from ardent supporter to a key player in the program’s resurgence.
“He is the picture of what you would want philanthropy to be,” said Dan Meyer, BGSU’s associate director of athletics for development.
That starts with the arena, which was in dire need of upgrades for not only the Falcons’ Division I team, but also for the BG area at large.
“He’s said, ‘This is important to me,’ and it’s not just BGSU hockey. It’s that building and everything that it stands for: youth hockey, youth programs, ice skating. Everything that it brings to the community in Bowling Green, he believes in it,” Meyer said. “He is now in a position to do something to secure the building for a long term and make sure that it’s there for generations of kids and families like it was for his family.”
Slater’s relationship with hockey happened by proximity more than anything else, and he said the community always seems to be full of great people. He often deflects credit, though he said he wants to keep opportunities available to the university and community. The time and effort Slater has given to BGSU’s program has not gone unnoticed.
Bergeron has said he believes Slater and people like him are what makes the entire endeavor worthwhile.
“He never ceases to amaze with that generosity,” Bergeron said. “He just keeps bringing it.”
First Published March 26, 2019, 5:07 p.m.
