Team player all around

Tom Wilson was never a big hockey star on the ice, but you would be hard pressed to find anyone more committed to helping build the game in this province.

Wilson grew up on Garfield Street in the West End and strapped on his first pair of skates as a child. As a youngster, he played minor hockey at Isaac Brock Community Centre and later at Orioles Community Centre, where he won a city championship in 1955.

By his late teens he had hung up his blades as a player, but it wasn’t long before he was drawn back into the game. In 1971 he began refereeing and a short time later started coaching community club hockey, including his son Jeffrey’s team. He was also recruited to pitch in with everything from timekeeping to refereeing to overseeing disciplinary hearings for players.

Where Wilson really left his mark was behind the scenes. He served three terms as the president of Hockey Manitoba, the official governing body for amateur hockey in the province, where he also contributed as treasurer. Twice he was presented the Hockey Manitoba Volunteer of the Year Award (2000 and 2008). He was also a recipient of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association’s Meritorious Service Award.

Wilson also served a total of 15 years on the council of the Winnipeg Minor Hockey Association, including a stint as president. In addition, he helped found the Manitoba AAA Midget Hockey League and served as its convenor for 15 years.

He was also a fixture of the Manitoba Major Junior Hockey League for more than two decades until shortly before his death on July 24, 2025. He served in several different roles on the MMJHL’s board of governors, including a term as president, and was also the league’s vice-president of suspensions for the better part of a decade and part of its scholarship committee. He is one of 20 people to be honoured by the MMJHL as honorary life members.

Kerry Lines is the current president of the MMJHL and a former owner of the Pembina Valley Twisters. He first met Wilson when he purchased the Twisters franchise in 2001 and got to know Wilson when the latter served as league president a couple of years later.

One of the first things Lines did when he became MMJHL president was to ask Wilson to serve as past president so he could access his hockey expertise.

“He was always the guy that I could just pick up the phone and talk hockey with and he would give me advice from his past experiences,” Lines said.

“He did everything that was asked when he was in the league. He served in several different capacities and being able to draw on his past experience was pretty valuable to me. He was just one of those guys that you don’t want to push into retirement because he continued to add value to any position that he served in.”

Wilson’s wife Gail jokes that she was a “hockey widow” every winter. In any given week, Tom would be at a rink or a meeting four or five nights a week.

One night it might be working as the timekeeper at a game at the St. James Civic Centre, the next it could be conducting a suspension hearing for a player or refereeing a game.

He never complained about any of it. Instead, he savoured the opportunity to remain involved in the game long after he’d quit playing.

“I don’t know what it was. He just really enjoyed hockey,” she says.

While hockey may have seemed like a full-time gig for Wilson, it wasn’t. His real full-time job was as a clerk with CNCP Telecommunications, where he worked for more than 30 years until his retirement in 1995.

It’s where he first met Gail, who started working there in 1963. The duo would often run into each other at work when Wilson had to deliver messages to the third-floor offices where she worked. A friendship blossomed, with the pair often exchanging messages. That relationship would evolve into romance and they were married in 1970. They were joined a few years later by sons Jeffrey and Bradley.

The couple would have celebrated their 55th wedding anniversary in October. Gail says the enduring nature of the relationship was a reflection of the fact they were a team, fitting since he was such a big fan of a team sport like hockey.

“It’s hard to say why things worked out like they did for us. I think the main thing is we just got along. We got along and there weren’t many arguments or things like that. Plus he wasn’t home a lot because he was at hockey all the time,” she says, laughing.

Tom was one of three sons born to Albert and Eileen Wilson. His youngest brother David died in 2017, while his surviving brother, Bob, lives in Victoria with his wife Marlene. His parents separated when Wilson was young. Although his relationship with his father frayed as a result, he remained close with his mother and used to visit her every week until her death.

In retirement, Wilson had ample time to work on his golf game and play cards with other couples. Not surprisingly, his love of hockey never abated. He’d often check out minor hockey games just for fun.

His other big passion was reading. He was a voracious reader and would often consume a couple of books each week. His favourite authors included James Patterson and John Grisham.

Wilson’s health began to decline a couple of years ago following a stroke. Another stroke followed a short time later and he suffered a head injury as a result of a fall not long after that. He died in July, owing to heart failure.

While he may be gone, Wilson’s presence will continue to be felt in Manitoba’s hockey community for some time to come.

The MMJHL recently announced plans to honour him by presenting an annual Tom Wilson Memorial Scholarship to a deserving recipient between the ages of 17 and 21 to assist them in pursuing a post-secondary scholarship. The first scholarship will be presented at its annual awards gala in May.

Lines says it will be a fitting tribute to his happy-to-lucky friend who gave so much to the game and especially the MMJHL.

“I think with most coaches and people that are running things there’s kind of a shelf life. That wasn’t the case with Tom. Even when he wasn’t able-bodied anymore, he still wanted to be part of the league he helped grow. Tom was a big part of the league. He was really a great man.”

fpcity@freepress.mb.ca