Now you're bringing back memories!

University hockey was huge back in the day, where we were. Loyola had a population of about 2000, but had a really good team. They went to the national finals in '67 by beating U of T - the powerhouse perennial champions - 1 -0 at 11:13 of overtime in the semifinal. I never saw such a nail-biter. And it was at the Forum. Unfortunately, they lost to U of A in the last minute (or so) of the third period. They could have won, but the shooter on an earlier breakaway deked the goalie right out ... and missed the net.

Loyola vs. Sir George Williams was a monstrously huge draw. SGWU used our new arena, but when they played each other, it was way too small. So we tried McGill's arena (our guys always beat McGill, by the way), then the Paul Sauve Arena. SGWU used to beat Loyola, but then the tables turned. When the Warriors beat the Georgians in their winter carnival game, in the last minute everyone on our side chanted, "Happy caaaarnival!" over and over. Our basketball team had beaten theirs the night before.

The Warriors played an exhibition game against the Canadiens Old Timers. At first the young guys used their speed and scored some goals, but the savvy, smooth skating old guys knew all the moves, and potted goal after goal. Very entertaining.

Ironically, rivals Loyola and Sir George Williams merged to form Concordia U. And SGWU's star player, Bob Berry, went on to coach les Canadiens.

I had a cup of coffee with the U. of Guelph Gryphons in 1972. I made the practice team (black aces) but never played in any league games. The old Guelph Auditorium held about 4,000 ; for University hockey they shoe-horned in a whopping 200. Jr. Hockey was the big ticket there,,even students didn’t want to make the trek downtown where the arena was. Two years later the Gryphons won the OUAA championship,, then got beat out in the playoff tourney by the host U of T Blues.

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Originally posted by chuckv97

I had a cup of coffee with the U. of Guelph Gryphons in 1972. I made the practice team (black aces) but never played in any league games. The old Guelph Auditorium held about 4,000 ; for University hockey they shoe-horned in a whopping 200. Jr. Hockey was the big ticket there,,even students didn’t want to make the trek downtown where the arena was. Two years later the Gryphons won the OUAA championship,, then got beat out in the playoff tourney by the host U of T Blues.

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I might have been at that series. Concordia was one of the teams and I went to that game at Varsity Arena. U of T shouldn't have been in the nationals at all, they lost in the provincials, but they were the host team, so they played. They beat Concordia. After a fight, some guy behind me had just arrived and a friend updated him, "One of the Concordia players hurt his wrist when our player attacked him with his face," or something to that effect. The U of T went on to win the title, even though they shouldn't have been playing at all. It's like having the Super Bowl city being in the game because, well, that's where the game is being played.

BTW, Larry Carriere, who played defense for the Buffalo Sabres, was a Loyola Warriors' player.

I never made it to those games. Yeah, the Gryphons beat U of T to win the OUAA title, then lost to them in the tourney like you said, they got in with a by as the host city.

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Originally posted by Paul R

Now you're bringing back memories!  <snip>

One of my favorites from back then was the Bisons winning their one-and-only national hockey championship in 1965.  http://honouredmembers.sportmanitoba.ca/inductee.php?id=503&criteria_sort=name   Full house [1000-1200?] for lots of games that season...sometimes standing room only.  I was [and still am] friends with one of the players. The linked article saying "John Shanski was solid in the Manitoba net." But my recollection was that he was anything but solid and got pulled after letting in a couple of softies early.  My friend recalls the shakey start, but doesn't recall whether or not there was a goalie switch.  Bill MacMillan was St. Dunstan's big star, but he didn't show much in the final game, although I think in fairness the supporting cast was rather weak.  He  went on to play with the Cdn. National team and the Maple Laffs:   https://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php?pid=3299  Anyhow.... all's well that ends well.    I think UofT almost had a stranglehold for several years afterward.   I also recall UofA generally icing strong teams.

As for "shoehorning" fans in, here's one for the ages.  Back then the Bison basketball team played in a fieldhouse that had served as an aircraft hanger... seated about 2200+ by my calculation.  I went to an exhibition game against a team from MN? or ND?   One of Bison players had brought his girlfriend and her dad along, so that was it... 3 spectators!   Except I got volunteered into operating the scoreboard.... so, actually two spectators!   Those were the days....!!

Oh, yeah. When we moved the Loyola-SGWU games from Loyola to the McGill arena, the place was packed to the rafters. In fact, the curved, corrugated metal roof met the walls at the top row of seats. Some guys were banging on it to make noise (and we were all really, really noisy), and, I was told, damaged the roof. We just weren't civilized enough for McGill, I guess, 'cause we never went back.

I went to Varsity Arena for that Concordia-U of T game, but I went to Varsity Stadium for a Linda Ronstadt/America/James Taylor (in that order) concert, and, later, for a Jesse Colin Young/The Band/Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young concert. I saw Willie P. Bennett in the Hart House quadrangle, so, the U of T was good for something.

Goalie Ken Lockett on the Gryphons ended up playing for the Vancouver Canucks. He was the first Canucks goalie to post back-to-back shutouts. I don’t think I ever scored on him in practice,,,as a matter of fact one time in a shooting drill I came in too close to the net and he skated out of the crease towards the corner shaking his head. (Oh the humiliation...)

Queen's U now plays at the Memorial Centre, where the junior team played until they built the new arena downtown. They used to play at the - no kidding - Jock Harty Arena. They tore it down a few years ago when they started building the new athletic/fitness complex.

Concordia still plays at the Ed Meagher arena, built in the mid-Sixties when it was Loyola, abd named for the late athletic director at Loyola (who was also one of my high school teachers). They really goofed when they built it - there are stands only on the east side, and just the broadcast booth and a wall on the west side.

Forgot to mention - Gary Green was on that 1972-73 Gryphons team,, he of Washington Capitals coaching fame, and later a TV hockey analyst. A small guy with average talent, he never got too far as a player.

As I said above, Bob Berry was the star player for Sir George. I made a cloth banner with Snoopy the WWI flying ace, saying, "Curse you, Red Berry." Someone said Berry saw it and would like to have it. I gave it to the guy. I never knew if Berry ever got it, or if the guy made the story up so he could have it.

Oh, yeah, Gary Green - his fellow broadcasters called him "Greener". How original.

At least he wasn't bombastic like someone else - the subject of this thread (remember? ).

Okay, now that we've gotten around to "Green" ... one that you-know-who would approve of, Ted Green, I'm reminded of one of my all-time favorite interviews.  The Habs and Bruins were in a playoff series... some "expert" was interviewing Claude Provost after the first period.  There had been an "altercation" [or, who knows, maybe even more than one].  The expert put forth some typically brilliant observation about some mundane tactic or other [eg. forechecking, clearing the front of the net, maybe even dumping it in, or clearing it out off the glass] , expecting the usual chiched platitudes, but Provost crossed him up. In his thick Frenchy accent Provost offered:  "Boy dat Fergie*, he sure give it to Green, eh?"

* = that makes two within this post that the subject of this thread would approve of.  

Fergie,,good grief. Knocked out Eric Nesterenko in a playoff game,, Nestor came back next period with a big white bandage wrapped around his head just to prove he wouldn’t cower in a corner of the dressing room. Ya take those Vancouver guys that grew up in alley fights - Fergie, Lucic - and couldn’t skate worth a hoot but they’re the Chon Derry types,,,FER SHORE, EH!

There was a men's suit store in Dorion (west of Montreal) called, appropriately, I suppose, Dorion Suit. They got one of the Habs (maybe Serge Savard, but I really don't recall) to do a TV commercial. The line was supposed to be, "Come to Dorion Suit, where there are no hassles." Unfortunately, he left out the "h" in "hassles", which, of course, sounded like, well, you know. So, when I visited Montreal, they'd changed it. Now he said, "Come to Dorion Suit, where there are no ... problemme." Big smile at the end.

As for Fergie, I had a research room in the library at Loyola. The Rangers were leading the Habs by two goals ('66 Cup) when I started walking home. When I turned on the game at home, Ferguson scored a fluke goal. Even though the Rangers scored another, you could just see that the Habs were going to win. It was inevitable. The Habs had guys you don't remember, like Red Berenson or Bobby Rousseau, who were excellent. And Claude Provost was the guy they had shadow Bobby Hull, and ended up scoring goals as a result.

The other things the Canadiens did better than anyone, was honour their players. I remember when they gave one guy a car, and a friend said that the Leafs gave one of theirs ... a shirt! Asked why he didn't attend some special Leafs' commemoration, Dave Keon said, "I don't do form letters."

Ya, Toe Blake would send Claude Provost out to shadow Hull. They’d line up for a face off and Claude in his broken English would say, “I don’t know why they always put you out against me, Bobby.”

 

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Originally posted by Paul R

<snip> ....When I turned on the game at home, Ferguson scored a fluke goal. <snip> 

He also fluked 19 other play-off goals, and 145 regular season ones.  

https://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php?pid=6381     

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Originally posted by Owen

 

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Originally posted by Paul R

....When I turned on the game at home, Ferguson scored a fluke goal.  

He also fluked 19 other play-off goals, and 145 regular season ones.  

https://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php?pid=6381     

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Yeah. But it was! 

No matter. It set the Canadiens on fire.

Not to mention his "enforcement duties". 

..just think what he'd have done if he didn't have to be a multi-dimensional player!!   

Kurtenbach gave him the whatfor

Is this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQldwlyfgXU what you're referring to, Chuck?  IF it is, can you imagine what it would have been like if they'd been influenced by you-know-who [who was still in the AHL at the time]. 

Your memory for all this hockey lore is 'way better than mine, thanks.

Doggone Manitobans always causing trouble,,,ever since Louis Riel fer gawd’s sake....
sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/ed-bel...-charges/

Maybe it's a case of "You can take the boy etc., etc."   

Because of Louis we gat a day off in a couple of weeks.  Retirement takes it down a notch, but nevertheless it gets a  from me. 

[In a lame attempt to appear as if I'm making a token effort to get back "off-topic," I wonder whether Louis favoured      D.C.-style hockey or was a "la-de-da" man.      ]

Louis would have had to favour “la-dee-da"” style. No self-respecting Métis would ever be caught chasing a puck.....

Ya, I think you're right... "structure" isn't at the top of the list for FN hockey I've witnessed. 

When I worked up north, on a couple of occasions I happened to be in Thompson when their northern native tournament was being played.... "free-flowing" would be a fitting descriptor, but some obviously good/talented/creative athletes... good entertainment.

My friend that played for the Bisons described a native team mate  [from either The Pas or Opaskwayak] thusly: "A nice enough guy... skates like the wind, but he's never where he's supposed to be."

The NHL Métis I recall : Rene Bourque,, Theo Fleury,, Brian Trottier,, Craig Berube,,,Patrick Marleau,,Reggie Leach (I thinks),,Mark Messier

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Originally posted by chuckv97

Louis would have had to favour “la-dee-da"” style.  ...

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I dunno. I wonder what he'd do to the refs.