Recalling the golden age of outdoor hockey…

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 19/03/2025 (202 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Column ideas come from a variety of sources. Readers make welcome suggestions and often a date will trigger a subject to research. For this column, three different items had this writer skating down memory lane.

The first was a feature story in the March 1 Free Press about pond hockey in Manitoba. The second was a winter 1950s photo of the Chalmers Community Club in Elmwood, posted on the “If you grew up in Winnipeg you remember” Facebook group. The third was a discussion in my old hometown of The Pas about the drying up of Halcrow Lake.

If you grew up in Winnipeg, you surely skated on outdoor ice at a community club or on rinks with low boards on school grounds. My first time on skates was on a rink at Gordon Bell High School (now Mulvey School) at the southwest corner of Wolseley Avenue and Maryland Street. However, our family moved North of 53 when I was 10 years old, so I never had the experience so many boys remember of playing C, B and A playground hockey at ages 10, 11 and 12. If your team was good enough, you played for a championship on the indoor ice at the Winnipeg Amphitheatre.

My old writing partner, Ted Holland, often waxed eloquently about his hockey career on a rink at Queenston School. While playing playground, he dreamed of playing for the junior Monarchs and then for Toronto. He later claimed he came close by playing a game for Monarch Life and another for Toronto-Dominion Bank.

There were no outdoor rinks in The Pas when we moved north. Our only experience skating outdoors came in early winter, when Halcrow Lake froze over. Leon Grosky, a classmate who lived a block away from the long, narrow lake, was usually the first to test the ice to determine if it was safe enough. Once it was safe, it seemed half the community ended up on Halcrow Lake, skating or playing pickup hockey. One year there was an early freeze with little snow and you could skate for a couple of miles. A heavy snowfall usually ended the outdoor season and skating, and hockey moved to the local indoor rink that was the hub of the town’s winter activities. Owing to the lake drying up over the years, skating on Halcrow Lake is no more.

The photo of Chalmers C.C. brought back memories of my early days as a hockey referee. The only indoor rinks at the time were the Winnipeg Arena and the Olympic Rink in the North End. I quickly learned the fastest routes to every community club in the city. On Saturday morning, you might be assigned by the Greater Winnipeg Minor Hockey Association to work three playground games by yourself. Despite experiencing the northern Manitoba cold, I believe the coldest I ever felt was three hours one January Saturday in January at Windsor C.C. in St. Vital. Being assigned to an evening game at the old Silver Heights club on Ness Avenue was an unforgettable experience when the north wind blew across the airport runways.

While most of the hockey of my adult days was played inside, my friends and I occasionally played pickup games outside. Holland always called them “chops,” for no apparent reason – other then maybe he was chopping players with his wooden stick. You just showed up with your skates, stick, toque and garbage mitts. For some reason, one night at Tuxedo C.C. remains in my memory.

Still showing off his stickhandling ability was Ross Parke, who starred for the junior Winnipeg Monarchs (who lost the 1951 Memorial Cup final to the Barrie Flyers), and for the 1964 Canadian senior champion Winnipeg Maroons. Ross brought out Murray Wilkie, whose 14-year pro career included stints with the WHL Brandon Regals and Winnipeg Warriors. Even at Tuxedo, Wilkie maintained his aggressive play. He was inducted into the Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame in 2009 and Parke was honoured in 2017.

Two of my colleagues from the Central Mortgage and Housing Prairie Region office joined us that night. Economist Eugene Flichel, who later became CMHC president, had played hockey in his home province of Saskatchewan. His son, Todd, played pro from 1987-88 until 1993-94 including six games with the Winnipeg Jets. Social development officer Cam McCallum had attended university in Butte, Mont., where he played for a senior team. One of his teammates was a young man called Robert Knievel – who later became the famous daredevil Evel Knievel.