alt text

Captain of the Blue Tongues, 2007. Photographer not known.


CAREER SUMMARY

Birth
January 25th 1968
Penticton, BC, Canada

Clubs
BCJHL Summerland Buckaroos, PCJHL Prince George Spruce Kings, BCJHL Kelowna Packers, NCAA Div 1 University of Alabama, CHL Memphis Riverkings, CHL Wichita Thunder, CHL Tulsa Oilers, CHL Dallas Freeze, ECHL Roanoke Valley Rampage (later Huntsville Blast), IHL Atlanta Knights, SuHL West Palm Beach Blaze, NSWSL Macquarie Bears, AIHL Sydney Bears, AIHL Brisbane Blue Tongues (later Gold Coast Blue Tongues)

Goodall Cups
1999, 2002

World Championships
2004, '05, '06 Ice Hockey

Foundation captain, Brisbane Blue Tongues

BORN JANUARY 25TH, 1968 in Penticton, BC, Canada he attended the local secondary school between 1981 and '86 then played junior hockey for the Summerland Buckaroos in the BCJHL (1986, '88), Prince George Spruce Kings (1987) in the PCJHL, and Kelowna Packers in the BCJHL (1989). A 187cm (6'2") 100kg defenseman, he played NCAA Division 1 for 3 seasons at the University of Alabama in Huntsville (1989-94), completing a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and attending a Vancouver Canucks training camp in '92.

Over 3 seasons, he played in 4 leagues and 7 different clubs — the Memphis Riverkings, Wichita Thunder, Tulsa Oilers and Dallas Freeze in the CHL; Roanoke Valley Rampage and later as Huntsville Blast in the ECHL; the Atlanta Knights in the IHL; and the West Palm Beach Blaze in 1995. The Blaze were SuHL champions that year and he was selected to the SuHL All-Star Team that defeated the French National Team, 3-0, in a 3-game exhibition series.

He then moved to Australia where, like so many before him, he played for the Macquarie Bears — Ryan Switzer, Dubravco Andrlon, Dave Emblem, David Turik, Adam McGuinness, Glena Foll, Gary Doré to name a few. He won a Goodall Cup representing NSW in 1999, then another 3 years later with the Sydney Bears in the AIHL.

He had played hockey for 30 years when he left the Bears in 2004 to become a founding board member of the Brisbane Blue Tongues Ice Hockey Association Inc, later to be renamed the Gold Coast Blue Tongues. He was foundation captain when the team was admitted to the AIHL as part of the 2005 expansion. In the years that followed, the club attracted a number of former NHL players, including forward Rob Zamuner and Tyrone Garner, with mixed success. They made the AIHL finals for the first and only time in 2009, losing the semi to the Newcastle North Stars.

He remained there for 7 seasons until 2011, retiring as a player in 2010 after 37 years of organised hockey, about one-third of which was played Down Under. The year after he left, the club's license was suspended and eventually expired. He played 85 games in the AIHL for an average of 0.6 goals a game and represented Australia in 3 Division II World Championships — 2004 in Jaca, 2005 in Zagreb, 2006 in Auckland — winning a silver and two bronze medals.

He launched PuckNopener to raise money through puckNopener.com for the Blue Tongues while donating 10 percent of profits to Parkinsons Disease charities. He still lives on the Gold Coast, plays local hockey and works as Senior Occupational Health, Safety and Environment Advisor at Alder Constructions.

01. Historical Notes

02. Citation Details

Ross Carpenter, 'Burke, Don (1968 - )', Legends of Australian Ice, Melbourne, Australia, http://icelegendsaustralia.com/legends-2/bio_burke.html, accessed online .

03. Select Bibliography

04. Citations
Citations | 1 - 280 | 281-on |
G A L L E R YArrows at right scroll the images
alt text
Sydney Bears

NSW Super League 1999.

alt text
With Gold Coast Blue Tongues

2009.

alt text
C-Pool Worlds

Jaca, Spain, 2004 (Bronze Medal)

alt text
C-Pool Worlds

Zagreb, Croatia, 2005 (Silver Medal)

alt text
C-Pool Worlds

Auckland, New Zealand, 2005 (Bronze Medal)