CALGARY – Nearly three decades after getting his coaching start at the University of Calgary, Willie Desjardins cracked one of hockey's most exclusive clubs when he was named head coach of the Vancouver Canucks on Monday.

Desjardins makes the jump to the National Hockey League after winning a Calder Cup championship with the Texas Stars of the American Hockey League last season, spending two years there after a pair of seasons as an associate coach with the Dallas Stars. The sojourn to the Lone Star State followed a lengthy and successful stint as head coach of the Medicine Hat Tigers of the Western Hockey League, where he won a pair of league championships and made two appearances at the Memorial Cup.

He has seen success at every level of coaching – but it all started in 1985 at the University of Calgary, when he became an assistant coach with the Dinos hockey program while embarking on his studies in the Faculty of Social Work. The native of Climax, Sask. joined a staff led by the legendary George Kingston, and the Dinos posted a 23-5-0 record in 1987-88 to win the league title, making it all the way to the national semi-final.

Kingston, the only other former Dinos bench boss to reach the pinnacle of hockey coaching when he led the San Jose Sharks from 1991-93, wrapped up his 16-year tenure after the 1987-88 season and the job went to the then-31-year-old Desjardins. In his six seasons at the helm, the Dinos won 21 or more regular season games three times, captured the conference title in 1990, and again made it to the national semi-final that same year. His Dinos teams posted 113 wins, 44 losses, and 11 ties in 168 conference games over that span, good enough for an outstanding .705 winning percentage.

Desjardins was the Dinos' coach the only time a University of Calgary player has won the Senator Joseph A. Sullivan trophy as the top men's hockey player in CIS – Wayne Hynes in 1991 – and six of his players were named first-team All-Canadians during his tenure.

Desjardins, 57, holds bachelor's and master's degrees in social work from the University of Calgary.

-UC-