This year’s Manitoba sports books shine

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 05/12/2016 (3573 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The time has come to take our annual look at recent sports books of special interest to Manitobans looking for a holiday gift.

Right at the top of any list should be The Hot Line, by Winnipeg journalist Geoff Kirbyson (Great Plains). The author tells the story of  how the Winnipeg Jets line of Bobby Hull, Anders Hedberg and Ulf Nilsson had a major impact on hockey through their teamwork and style of play.

Readers who saw the trio play with the WHA Jets will be reminded once again how talented they were and how enjoyable the hockey was to watch. The positive comments of the many hockey people Kirbyson interviewed should convince readers who didn’t see them in action.  

Prolific Winnipeg author Ty Delillo has produced Hockey Hotbeds Volume 2 (McNally Robinson) as a follow-up to his first book about hockey communities around the world. This time Flin Flon and The Pas are included. Flin Flon is represented by Eric Nesterenko, who played in the northern mining community as a young boy, and goalie Ernie Wakely. After moving south, Wakely helped the Winnipeg Braves win the 1959 Memorial Cup and later played for the Jets. Murray Anderson was interviewed about playing in his hometown of The Pas and his junior and pro career.

Here’s a question for the most ardent Winnipeg Jets fans.

Who is Glenn Tomalty?

You can find out in One Night Only (ECW Press) where Ken Reid from Sportsnet talks to players who played one game in the NHL. Manitobans Darren Boyko, who now works for the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, Dave Chartier from St. Lazare and goalie Ron Loustel offer their memories of  their one game with the Jets. Trevor Fahey, who coached at Brandon University, played, a single game for the New York Rangers.

Rick Sparling has completed another labour of love about hockey in the town of Neepawa. His first book covered public school hockey while the latest is titled  Amateur Hockey in Neepawa: A Scrapbook (McNally Robinson). The 732 pages are filled with stories and photos from Tom Thumb through intermediate as well as women’s hockey.

Two very different wrestling books are available. Rowdy: the Roddy Piper Story (Random House Canada) began as an autobiography and was completed by two of Piper’s children, Colt Baird Toombs and Ariel Teal Toombs, after his death in 2015. The book provides an insight into the pro wrestling game during the 1970s and ’80s. Piper got his wrestling start in Manitoba.

Thrashing Seasons (University of Manitoba Press) examines wrestling in Manitoba through to the Great Depression. Author C. Nathan Hatton, a professor at Lakehead University, has produced a welcome addition to an area of our sports history that I suspect few knew about.   

A personal favourite is The Hockey Scribbler (ECW Press), by Canada’s former poet laureate, George Bowering. He filled the book with his musings from his boyhood to today and all the connections he had with the sport as he moved about the country from B.C. to Montreal and back to Vancouver, where he now lives.

He saw his first pro game between the Winnipeg Warriors and Calgary at the Winnipeg Arena while he was stationed at the RCAF base in Macdonald near Portage la Prairie.

Reading the book was like hanging out talking hockey with a bunch of guys in a pub.

Memories of Sport appears every second week in the Canstar Community News weeklies. Kent Morgan can be contacted at 204-489-6641 or email: sportsmemories@canstarnews.com