David Merhar
{{Short description|American ice hockey player (born 1946)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox ice hockey player
| name = David Merhar
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| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1946|10|23}}
| birth_place = Ely, Minnesota, USA
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| height_ft = 5
| height_in = 8
| weight_lb = 175
| position = Wing
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| played_for = Army
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| career_start = 1966
| career_end = 1969
| draft = Undrafted
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{{Infobox military person|embed=yes
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| allegiance = {{flagicon|United States}} United States
| branch = File:Military service mark of the United States Army.svg United States Army
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| rank = 12px Lieutenant colonel
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| battles = Vietnam War
| awards = Bronze Star Medal
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}}}}
David Michael "Otto" Merhar (born October 23, 1946){{cite book |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cNeqibq2y1EC&pg=PA790 |chapter=Class of 1969—Register of Graduates |title=Register of Graduates and Former Cadets 1802–1971 of the United States Military Academy |date=1971 |page=790 |publisher=The West Point Alumni Foundation Inc |access-date=May 12, 2022}}{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QqspAQAAIAAJ&q=755+%22David+Michael+Merhar%22 |title=Register of Graduates and Former Cadets, United States Military Academy |date=1989 |page=755 |publisher=Association of Graduates U.S.M.A. |location=West Point, New York |access-date=May 12, 2022}} is an American former ice hockey winger who was the NCAA Scoring Champion in 1968–69. He is also a retired United States Army Lieutenant colonel.
Career
Merhar hailed from Ely, Minnesota and, as did many from his home state, he grew up playing hockey. Merhar decided to pursue a career in the military after high school and was able to use his athletic background to assist in attending West Point. He played three seasons on the varsity team for Jack Riley, leading the team in scoring each of those seasons.{{cite news |title=Army West Point Hockey 2017-18 Record Book |url=https://s3.amazonaws.com/sidearm.sites/goarmywestpoint.com/documents/2017/10/4/2017_18_Army_Hockey_Record_Book_Final_c.pdf |work=Army Black Knights |accessdate=February 23, 2021 |archive-date=December 4, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211204124153/https://s3.amazonaws.com/sidearm.sites/goarmywestpoint.com/documents/2017/10/4/2017_18_Army_Hockey_Record_Book_Final_c.pdf |url-status=dead }} In his first two campaigns both Merhar and the team played well, but it was during his senior season that everything changed. Now the team captain, Merhar went on a scoring rampage from the first game. He scored in all 28 games Army played that year and was held to a single point in just four of those contests. Merhar ended the season with 9 hat-tricks, a program record, along with four 6-point games and three 7-point efforts. He became just the second player in NCAA history to crack the 100-point barrier, falling one shy of Phil Latreille's 108 points in 1961. Despite the gaudy numbers, Merhar was not named an All-American for the year. The reason for this was primarily due to the level of competition that Army faced during the season. While the Cadets were a member of ECAC Hockey the team played less than half of their games against conference opponents. 17 of the team's 28 games were against College Division or club teams. In the eleven ECAC games Merhar was still a potent scorer but his numbers were significantly lower than they were over the entire season (16 goals, 12 assists). His pace of scoring against top competition (2.54) was more than two points lower than it was against lesser competitors (4.65), though it would still have put him near the top of the scoring list for the season (Brian Cornell finished the season averaging 2.55 points per game). Regardless of how he was viewed by the All-American selectors, Merhar helped Army win 20 games for only the second time in program history.
After graduating with a B.S. degree in 1969, Merhar was commissioned as an officer and rose through the ranks of the Army. Deployed to Vietnam from 1971 to 1972, he received a Bronze Star Medal for his tour of duty. Merhar subsequently earned an M.S. degree in industrial engineering and operations research from Purdue University in 1974. He eventually became a lieutenant colonel and worked as an assistant to Alexander Haig.{{cite news|title=Merhar touts service academies |url=https://www.elyecho.com/articles/2016/03/11/merhar-touts-service-academies |work=Ely Echo |date=March 11, 2016|accessdate=February 23, 2021}} After retiring from active duty Merhar was inducted into the Army Athletic Hall of Fame in 2006.{{cite news|title=David Michael Merhar |url=https://goarmywestpoint.com/honors/hall-of-fame/david-michael-merhar/48 |work=Army Black Knights |accessdate=February 23, 2021}} He later had his jersey retired along with two other hockey players.{{cite news|title=Army To Retire Three Hockey Jersey’s; Former WNY’er Included |url=https://www.nyhockeyonline.com/army-to-retire-three-hockey-jerseys-former-wnyer-included/ |work=Army Black Knights |date=January 22, 2016 |accessdate=February 23, 2021}}
Career statistics
=Regular season and playoffs=
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! colspan="3" bgcolor="#ffffff" | ! rowspan="99" bgcolor="#ffffff" | ! colspan="5" | Regular Season ! rowspan="99" bgcolor="#ffffff" | ! colspan="5" | Playoffs | |||||||||
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! Season ! Team ! League ! GP ! G ! A ! Pts ! PIM ! GP ! G ! A ! Pts ! PIM | |||||||||
| 1966–67
| Army | — | 27 | 36 | 63 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| bgcolor=f0f0f0
| 1967–68 | Army | — | 28 | 31 | 59 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 1968–69
| Army | 28 | 57 | 50 | 107 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
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! colspan="3" | NCAA Totals ! — !! 112 !! 117 !! 229 !! — !! — !! — !! — !! — !! — |
References
{{Reflist|50em}}
External links
- {{Ice hockey stats|elite=332856|hockeydb=53979}}
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{{succession box | before = Delbert Dehate | title = NCAA Ice Hockey Scoring Champion | years = 1968–69| after = Tim Sheehy}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Merhar, David}}
Category:People from Ely, Minnesota
Category:Ice hockey players from Minnesota
Category:American ice hockey forwards
Category:Army Black Knights men's ice hockey players
Category:United States Military Academy alumni
Category:Military personnel from Minnesota
Category:United States Army officers