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Dallas Stars Hire Ken Hitchcock As New Coach After Announcement Of Lindy Ruff's Departure

Bill Zeeble
/
KERA News
Dallas Stars and St. Louis Blues players line up to shake hands at the end of Game 7 of the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs in 2016.

Five stories that have North Texas talking: Lindy Ruff won't return as coach for the Dallas Stars; a landscape architect wins the richest arts prize in Texas; Bonnie Parker’s bloody glasses are on display; and more.

Update, Wednesday, April 12: Ken Hitchcock will replace Lindy Ruff as head coach of the Dallas Stars, anonymous sources with direct knowledge of the matter confirmed to The Associated Press and SportsDay.

 

Hitchcock won the Stanley Cup with Dallas in 1999, coaching there for parts of seven seasons from 1995-96 through 2001-02, according to AP. He has since coached the Philadelphia Flyers, Columbus Blue Jackets and St. Louis Blues. The formal announcement is expected Thursday.

 

General manager Jim Nill made the announcement of Ruff's exit on Sunday, a day after the Stars finished with their second-fewest points in a full season since moving to Dallas in 1993-94, The Associated Press reports.Nill thanked Ruff "for his commitment and professionalism over the four years that he served as our head coach in Dallas."

The Stars finished 34-37-11 this season, 11th in the Western Conference with 79 points. The Stars were a popular preseason pick to challenge for a Stanley Cup title, but injuries were an issue early this season. But once the Stars were healthy at the beginning of February, they lost seven times in regulation in a span of eight games. [The Associated Press]

  • A sea of people marched through downtown Dallas Sunday, calling for immigration reform and religious equality. From the Cathedral of Guadalupe to Dallas City Hall, participants in the Dallas Mega March protested developments since the election of President Trump — specifically, recent deportation efforts, executive orders banning travelers from Muslim-majority nations, as well as hate crimes and hate speech. The march took place on the 49th anniversary of the day Martin Luther King, Jr. was buried. King’s son, Martin Luther King, III, was one of dozens of guest speakers, along with state representatives, Dallas school board members and religious leaders. [KERA News]

 

  • Dallas officials believe the city’s emergency alarm system was triggered by someone in the area. Unless you’re a deep sleeper, you might have heard sirens across Dallas blaring sporadically for an hour and a half Friday night. City officials had to manually shut down parts of the system, which controls 156 alarms. They are now working with the Federal Communications Commission to figure out how the hack happened. The incident, initially labeled a "system malfunction," sparked an avalanche of worried posts on social media and calls to the emergency 911 system. [KERA News]

 

  • Bonnie Parker’s blood-caked glasses will be on display in Dallas today before heading to auction. The glasses — small, circular and cracked — date back to May 1934, when Parker, one half of the historic West Dallas gangster duo, was ambushed on a  Louisiana road. They’re going to be on display in downtown Dallas for a media-only event with other rarely seen items before going to auction, The Dallas Morning News reports.  Mike Graff, a spokesman for the Boston-based RR Auction, said it believes the glasses will go for upward of $50,000. Buddy Barrow, Clyde Barrow’s nephew, and Rhea Leen Linder, Parker's niece, have been invited to attend the one-day event. [The Dallas Morning News]

 

  • Landscape architect Peter Walker is the inaugural winner of UT-Dallas’ Richard Brettell Award in the Arts. The $150,000 prize – the richest arts prize in Texas – was established by arts patron Margaret McDermott to honor Bretell, a distinguished arts professor at the University of Texas at Dallas, Art&Seek reports. Walker, one of the world’s leading landscape architects, is the man behind the Nasher Sculpture Garden, the National 9/11 Memorial in New York and dozens of public parks, plazas, gardens, corporate headquarters and museums around the world. He also designed UT-Dallas’ campus. [Art&Seek]

The High Five is KERA's daily roundup of news stories from Dallas-Fort Worth and across the state. Explore our archives here. And sign up for our weekly email for the North Texas news you need to know.