Honouring Manitoba’s hockey heritage

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 13/12/2023 (723 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Dec. 20 is Hockey Heritage Day in Manitoba. The provincial government proclaimed it so in 2020 to acknowledge when the first recorded hockey game was played in Western Canada, on Dec. 20, 1890, at the Winnipeg Railway Rink on the Assiniboine River.

This year the Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame is recognizing Hockey Heritage Day with a special veterans’ induction during a luncheon on Dec. 20 at CanadInns Polo Park. Three players and one builder will be inducted, and two teams will be added to the list of championship teams honoured by the hall.

The players are Paul Meger, Sonny Rost and Charles Tobin, while the builder is George Tackaberry. If the names are not familiar to readers, that may be because to qualify for veteran induction, candidates must have been away from the game for at least 70 years.

Although he was born in Watrous, Sask., Meger’s Manitoba roots were in Selkirk, where he played minor hockey and junior with the Fishermen. After moving east, he played junior for the Barrie Flyers. In his pro career, he saw action in five seasons with the Montreal Canadiens, winning the Stanley Cup in 1953. The 25-year-old left winger suffered a career-ending injury in November 1955 when an opponent’s skate sliced his temple and broke his skull, which required three surgeries. Meger, who described the accident as “a fluke”, died in Barrie at age 90 in 2019.

Rost, who was born in Winnipeg in 1914, played midget for St. Paul’s College and then junior for the 1933 Manitoba junior champion Kenora Thistles. At age 21, he was one of the many Manitobans who went to England to play during the Depression years. Primarily a defenceman, his career with Wembley teams lasted until 1960. After the Second World War, he took on a player-coach role with the Wembley Monarchs and then the Lions. Rost was inducted into the British Ice Hockey Hall of Fame in 1955. He died in England in 2008.

Tobin was born in Winnipeg in 1885 and played for teams in Winnipeg and Brandon between 1906-07 and 1910-11. He moved to the West Coast in 1912-13 to play for New Westminster in the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA). The right winger played in the PCHA until 1921-22, playing in the Stanley Cup final for Portland in 1916, Seattle in 1920, and Vancouver in 1922. However, his team lost all three finals in the fifth and deciding game. Tobin died in Portland in 1924.

Tackaberry, a shoemaker in Brandon, made the first pair of what came to be known as Tacks for future Hall-of-Famer Joe Hall, who was his neighbour. Hall wanted a pair of boots that would last a season. Word spread of the skate and other Hall-of-Famers Lester Patrick and Art Ross were early customers. After Tackaberry died in 1937, the Canadian Cycle and Motor Company (CCM) acquired the trade name and the shoemaker’s innovative designs. The combination of the CCM Pro-Line blade and the Tackaberry boot became the skate of choice for both pros and ankle-benders like this columnist.

The teams being honoured come from Brandon. The professional Regals won the Western Hockey League championship in the spring of 1957. The Regals had an important Manitoba component led by playing coach Don (Bones) Raleigh. Winnipeggers Bob Chrystal and Ray Manson both played junior in Brandon. The Chorley brothers from Winnipeg, Elliot and Bob, were forwards and Bob and Flin Flon-born Lyle Willey also played junior in the northern Manitoba community for the Bombers.

The Brandon Wheat Kings won the provincial junior championship four times between 1959-60 and 1963-64, losing only in 1960-61, to the Winnipeg Rangers. In the other four seasons, the Wheat Kings reached the Western Canada final, but lost to the Edmonton Oil Kings. Players of note during the run included Flin Flon product George Hill, who led the MJHL in scoring the first two seasons, future NHLers Dunc McCallum, Bryan and Dennis Hextall, Ted Taylor, Marc Dufour, Jim Murray and Tracy Pratt. Defenceman Bob Ash was an original WHA Winnipeg Jet.

Buffet lunch tickets for $25 can be purchased for the Dec. 20 luncheon by e-transfer at MHHFTickets@gmail.com until Dec. 18.