This past weekend saw many pitched battles for hockey supremacy taking place at three of our local outdoor rinks — Robinson Playground, Delki Dozzi and Algonquin Playground — during the annual Pond Hockey Festival on the Rock.
These men and women (both organizers and participants) are continuing a Sudbury outdoor hockey tradition that dates back to our very beginnings.
For many of our readers, commenter Andy Beland’s words will definitely strike a note within their collective memory banks.
“The sound of the pucks rattling off the boards (and the occasional goal post) are sounds forever etched in my mind.”
The first part of this two-part series detailing some of the history of playground hockey in Sudbury brought out a few readers who were ready and willing (after all these years) to represent and defend the honour of their respective playground teams.
Reader Kevin Martin who swooped in on net with his comment “Antwerp rules!!” was quickly double-teamed by the defenders Dale Daniel (“sorry...Riverside”) and James Mitchell (“Elm West forever baby…we owned you”).
Of course, others had differing opinions on the best playground hockey territory, with Linda Rissling-Baltzer concurring with Dale Daniel, touting “Riverside all the way” and Pat Lac remembering that his team (Eyre) “whooped them (all) in my day.”
Paul Huffels remembers “playing for Riverside and going to Hillsdale to play against classmates and even (his) brother.” This elicited a comment from another reader, Russ MacKinnon, who incredulously (though with tongue firmly planted in cheek) asked, “You suited up for those agents of darkness from Riverside? Geez Louise, what is the world coming to?” Apparently, (according to Paul) Riverside Playground was the area enemy at that time.
Once this playground tomfoolery was out of the way, many of our readers delved deep into their pasts to bring us some wonderful memories of their time on the playground rinks across the region.
At the time of his involvement, Bill Gordon lived at what was a new subdivision on Sandra Boulevard and remembers that himself “and three of (his) brothers were fixtures at the Byng Street playground in the late ’50's and early 1960s (with) hockey in the winter” and when the chilly puck battles were through “hula hoops and learning the twist to the sound of Chubby Checker in the summers.”
Mike Cooney played at Rose Marie in the 1960s and his “favorite (sic) day was the father son game (with) the stars that day … Connie Bonhomme and Hickory Cooney.” After all these years, he laments the loss of the entirety of what he experienced at Rose Marie, as he states, “they have ice but no boards … can history return outdoors?”
Reader Gerald Bradley was among those who were instrumental in teaching multiple generations of children across the playgrounds of the city. As he wrote, “I coached hockey at Byng Playground in the 1950s (then) coached hockey at Elm West Playground in the 1960s (and finally) coached the Sea Cadet hockey team in the 1970s playing out of Antwerp Playground.”
Paul Huffels recalls a rarity back in the old days of playground hockey as he “remember(s) being coached by Anne Primeau” at a time when girls/womens hockey was uncommon. Russ MacKinnon also recalled “some buddies who were coached by her” and stating that seeing a female coach was an amazing thing back in those days.
Reader Johnny Boyer showed us how playground hockey can become a family tradition that crosses over multiple generations.
“I played for Hillsdale on York Street,” he wrote, while “my boys played for Carmichael and I coached the team for three years … now my grandson plays for Cedar Park.” They are “Great times,” as he says.
Kevin Martin remembers that “Elm West used to have a great winter carnival that (his) Antwerp team would attend and dominate.” He claims (though not without a little bit of bias) that Antwerp “was one of the better playgrounds in its day” though he concedes that “O’Connor also had a good playground.”
James Mitchell, who played for Elm West in the late 1960s and early 1970s, also remembers their annual carnival. He recalls that “at one carnival (he) was the Atom B team’s goalie, and if they (had) a sons against mothers novelty game where they outfitted (his), in her 40's, roly poly mom to play goal for the moms.” James says that he “still laugh(s) at the thought of her stumbling her way onto the ice surface.”
Unfortunately, when it came to his team’s hockey games, his memories were not nearly as fun. “Truthfully, when I played, our teams were just average. We had good games against Antwerp (and) we used to smoke some teams like Lo-Ellen, Lorraine (and) Percy, but Riverside and most of the New Sudbury teams would demolish us.”
A Sudbury.com reader remembers the “great rivalry between (all of the) playgrounds in those days. Carnivals were always on the weekend closest to Valentine’s Day. We never worried about the temperature (and) played in -25 weather and blizzards.” As they continued, we “often sat in snow banks to put skates on or till the lights went out at 10 … the shacks were open and the older kids looked after the younger ones. Teams always came dressed and local kids would just skate back home after their practices or games on the icy streets.”
One funny situation that this reader mentioned is that “many hockey, broomball (and) ringette games were often cancelled because teams couldn't find Eyre Playground in our subdivision in Minnow Lake.” (For anyone who’s curious, it is on Ferndale Avenue, not too far south of the corner of Bancroft and the Kingsway.)
Dan Oeschler recalls playground hockey at Cedar Park, Ridgecrest and Downe. His memories can bring a chill to your bones, even across the decades.
“Goalies feet got too cold so we had a break and the zambonis (parents) cleaned the rink and the goalies got to wear their winter boots.” A reader at Sudbury.com also remembers those frozen memories of “cold hockey games at night … hands and toes were frozen.” But this came with a reward. “The free hot chocolate after was great (and) some times we'd get a bag of chips with it also.”
While reminiscing, some of our readers remember their times on the playground rinks as an exercise towards bigger and better things in hockey while others only exercised their imaginations.
Russ MacKinnon “played for Hillsdale during the late ’50s and early ’60s, back in those halcyon days when (he) entertained delusions of actually going somewhere in the game.” Though, he concedes, in the end it was still “lots of fun!” And, while Dave Scott remembers “those days striving to be George Armstrong and Bobby Hull.”
Harold Fraser, who played for Byng Street, harboured “no visions of the NHL” in his future.
For Rob St. Marseille, whose memories could easily form the basis of a Sudbury version of Roch Carrier’s famous story “The Hockey Sweater”, the outdoor rink was “a big part of (his) social life in the winter when (he) was young.”
“We played for the Stanley Cup (Leafs vs. Habs) a couple times a week, then went home to watch Hockey Night in Canada. Mom would make a bunch of hotdogs and KD for all of us … Good times and great memories. So many learned how to skate and play hockey out on the outdoor rinks.” I’m sure many of our readers would agree with Rob that this was indeed “A Canadian Rite of Passage.”
Reader Don Hanninen played at the Lockerby site, which was “where I honed my skills and had a chance to play competitive hockey.” A couple of our readers also shared with us that at least two NHLers had their starts on Sudbury playground rinks.
Allan Elsie Moxam commented that future Hockey Hall of Fame goaltender Ed Giacomin got his start at Gatchell playground. While Keith Harris let us know that Riverside Playground was the “home of Eddie Shack.”
Now speaking of Eddie Shack, another Sudbury.com reader remembers spending “many hours playing at Riverside Playground (where) Eddie Shack’s father, Bill, was the caretaker … and many nights (he) would remain late and keep the lights on and rink-shack open.” James Mitchell remembers Mr. Shack’s superb ice-making skills referring to it as “like glass … the best outdoor ice ever!”
Of course, the rink caretakers are perhaps the most important part of the playground hockey scene (I may be a tad biased myself with this comment) and many readers wrote that they still recall with fondness, even after many decades, those who took care of the neighbourhood rink.
Jim Spencer “played at Byng St playground in the early to mid 1960s (and) I recall, Mr. Armstong was a fixture at the rink keeping it in good shape.” Noreen Barbe remembers that “Mr. Houle was in charge of maintaining the rinks” in Coniston as well as keeping the heat on for when the “kids skated in minus-30C weather and warmed ourselves around the black stove” in the skate changing shack.
If you want to see some really old footage from 1938 of a hockey game and public skating on the Coniston outdoor rink, click here.
Joan Martin also remembers well the outdoor rink days in Coniston. “We parents,” she wrote, “helped clean the ice so (that) our kids could play hockey (and) everyone was happy.”
Over at Sudbury.com, a reader commented that they were involved in all aspects of the outdoor rink life-cycle from November to March.
“We spent our nights and weekends at the rink,” they wrote, “either playing hockey/broomball, flooding, shovelling or indoors putting coal in the furnace.”
Reader Jeff Sutton was another person similar to this, he lived close to Rose Marie playground where he said he could be found for many years, “playing hockey from Atom to Midgets (as well as) shoveling, watering, coaching, and reffing.” To Jeff, “those were the best of times for a kid.”
For Andy Béland, who was lucky enough to have East End Playground in his backyard, allowing for many nights of playing shinny, he remembers “from (his) bedroom window watch(ing) Rene Lepage, Mr. Seguin, Mr. Lake and a host of other parents giving the rink a coat of fresh ice in sub-zero temperatures.”
The daughter of one of those men, Julie Lepage-Gibson, responded to Andy’s comment with a glimpse into her father’s motivations for his volunteer work. “You know my dad loved going out there! He just loved seeing you kids (and me playing ringette) on the ice!”
Gerald Baronette had his own reminiscences about playing for East End Playground, which “would start when volunteers the likes of Rene Lepage, Fern Seguin … and many of the adults of the Levesque Subdivision would shovel snow and in the early hours after their shifts at Inco or Falconbridge flood the ice.”
For Gerald, “volunteers were the heart of the community” as the community events that they organized “brought the neighbours together.”
Well dear readers, thank you for regaling us with your memories of the best game you can name … the good ol’ hockey game. I leave you now with four simple words from reader Dan Oeschler, of which your memories above attest: “Nothing beats outdoor hockey.”
See you all back here in two weeks with another hot topic from our shared history.
Jason Marcon is a writer and history enthusiast in Greater Sudbury. He runs the Coniston Historical Group and the Sudbury Then and Now Facebook page. Memory Lane is made possible by our Community Leaders Program/
