Dave Burkholder earned his way on to the Welland Sports Wall of Fame in 2025 as both an athlete and a builder.

As an athlete, he was a NCAA competitor in hockey and baseball and as a coach, he was a long-time bench boss of a NCAA Division 1 hockey program.

His highlight as an athlete was winning the NCAA Division 2 hockey championship in goal with the Rochester Institute of Technology in 1983 and being selected as the tournament MVP.

“It was our third year as a program at RIT and we won a national championship. We were huge underdogs and we did it at UMass Lowell (University of Massachusetts Lowell). Of course, Chris Johnstone was my roommate and he was our captain at the time.”

During his time at RIT, Burkholder was a three-time Eastern College Athletic Conference First-Team All-Star and earned all-American status in 1984. His play saw him being offered a free agent tryout with the Buffalo Sabres.

At RIT, Burkholder also played Division 3 baseball and was second on the team in home runs and batting average.

He played hockey at RIT with fellow Welland native Jim Larouche and it was Larouche he credited for his baseball career at RIT. After playing their final hockey game of the season, the two friends ended up at a party hosted by members of the baseball team. At the party, Larouche announced that the best baseball player in the room was Burkholder.

“A long story short, I thought we were going to have to fight our way out of the party but I was invited to try out the next day for the team.”

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