Councillor wants Civic Centre rink named after Jets’ first captain Ab McDonald
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 06/05/2019 (2661 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
The memory of inaugural Winnipeg Jets captain Alvin “Ab” McDonald could be honoured with a hockey arena, if St. James city councillor Scott Gillingham succeeds in renaming the rink inside the St. James Civic Centre the “Ab McDonald Memorial Arena.”
“The St. James Civic Centre arena is one of the oldest arenas in St. James, and has been central to amateur hockey for decades,” said Gillingham, who will present a motion to the Assiniboia Community Committee Tuesday. Gillingham said he has the support of councillors Janice Lukes and Kevin Klein, who also sit on the committee.
If successful, the motion will have to go through the protection, community services and parks committee and then city council, which would have the final say. Gillingham said he hopes to complete the process over the coming months and schedule a renaming ceremony for the arena. (The St. James Civic Centre itself would retain its name, he said.)
Gillingham said the idea was the brainchild of Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame president Don Kuryk, Winnipeg businessman Ted Foreman, who was a friend of McDonald’s, and the McDonald family. The councillor also said he has letters of support from Sport Manitoba president Jeff Hnatiuk, True North Sports and Entertainment chairman Mark Chipman and others.
“This is really the community, that has come together led by Don Kuryk and the Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame, and I’m certainly in support of their efforts and working to move this through council,” Gillingham said.
Kuryk described McDonald as a moral leader, both professionally and in his personal life.
“Naming something after an individual is an honour in itself, but the person has to deserve it. In my mind, Ab McDonald more than deserves it, on many fronts,” he said Kuryk, referencing McDonald’s accomplishments on and off the ice, including charitable work with the Special Olympics and other groups.
“His presence, when he walked in a room, everybody… wanted a piece of him. They wanted to know him, they wanted to meet him, they wanted to talk to him.”
McDonald lived in the St. James area with his family from 1967 until his death in 2018, a press release from Gillingham’s office noted Monday.