If you’re cheering on an athlete in this city, whether it’s an emerging player, an Olympian, or an Oiler, you likely have Bruce Saville to thank.
Born in Toronto, Saville grew up loving sports and competition. In hockey, he was a goalie, and he played for most of life.
In his early career at Goodyear, he found himself bogged down in paperwork and repetitive reporting. An early tech savant, he figured there must be a better way to do those tasks. So, he borrowed a programming manual from a friend and taught himself. The software he built to solve his own problem worked so well that it redirected the course of his life.
By the early 1980s, Saville had settled in Edmonton and founded Saville Systems, a telephone billing software company. Headquartered for a time in Terrace Office Tower, it grew steadily at first, and then exponentially, with offices in Ireland and elsewhere, serving major international clients before it was sold.
The company’s success and eventual sale afforded him wealth. It seems like he thought Edmonton deserved to share in it.
Saville often spoke about teamwork — not as a slogan, but as a strategy. Business was a team sport. So was community. In the 1990s, when the Edmonton Oilers faced possible relocation, Saville joined the Edmonton Investors Group, a consortium of local business leaders who purchased the team to keep it in the city. For hockey fans, it was a pivotal moment with a ripple effect still felt in this city. For Saville, it was about protecting a civic bond. He also served for more than a decade on the board of the Edmonton Elks (then the Eskimos), helping steward another source of local pride.
One of his most visible legacies is the Saville Community Sports Centre. With indoor soccer fields, tennis courts and a track and training facilities, it quickly became one of Canada’s leading multi-sport centres with more than two million visitors annually. Children learn new sports there. Elite athletes and whole varsity teams train there. Seniors walk laps in winter light.