what a pleasant surprise...

[charlie]

i discovered the calendar on this site and was delighted to find out that i'm not the oldest person registered here. in fact there are many here also approaching 50.

i wonder how many members remember the great tiger teams of the early 70's with the gassoffs, barry dean, maxwell, mccrimmon and many other tough guys along with great forwards like weir, mcdonald and so many more.

or how about the bruins of the mid 70's or even the flin flon bombers of the late 60's.

i could go on and on about those times...not unusual to see 10-15 goals, 5 or 6 fights maybe even a brawl. no trap then lol.

anybody have any special memories of earlier dub days?

charlie

[Kristi]

Oh Charlie you are only as old as you feel! Bet you could keep up with me! :)

Kristi

[kelownakarl]

Well Charlie us old bucks gotta stick together....I watched my fair share of hockey back in the good ol' 60's but wasn't as big of a fan i am now...had I been a fan like i am now I'd still be working for that paycheck just to see a game :clown: Cheers to all the other fossils like us out there!

[Scout]

There are many of us old bucks around. I do remember the old Tiger teams, but at that time i lived in Brandon. I didn't like the Tigers even back then, not because of who they were but i chummed with Chipperfield,Blight,Johnson and the likes from The Wheatkings. That was good hockey back then and still is.

Scout

[charlie]

well scout

i remember those exciting brandon teams as well. i grew up in edmonton and "sort of" remember the oil king teams of the sixties that won championships but i have stronger memories of the ones in the 70's that struggled with the better teams in the league and then just as a lot of the kids were starting to blossom off they went to portland.

one of those oil king teams was in a playoff battle with victoria one year. victoria was far off in the basement and they brought in patty ginnell to coach and they went on a tear right away and finished (i think) about 1-2 points behind us after being something like 20 points behind when ginnell arrived. one game in the old edmonton gardens we were sitting in the officials room talking with the ref (darryl haverlock if i remember correctly) and the cougars dressing room was close by. they started this chant of "KILL, KILL" before they went out smacking their sticks against the concrete and when they came out of the room some of their eyes were glazed right over lol. you would never see that today. i remember one guy, eric sanderson, who started out a bit timid in the league but grew into a real tough guy...pretty sure he was one that bought into the "KILL" philosophy lol.

[Tinner]

Charlie, i know many of the players you listed as i played ball with the likes of McCrimmon. i also played ball with both the Comeau boys and Stan Weir. One of the great rivalries years ago was the RD Rustlers and the Ponoka Stampeders, and some of those guys went on to play with the Tigers.

[peatfan]

I was in Winnipeg back when the Bombers were the team. Clarke, Leach, Baird, Anasson, Stoughton, Wilson, Howatt, Morrison, Martyniuk and company. They came to town on a Friday, had a couple of fights(well maybe 5 or 6). Next day Paddy Ginnell would make a comment that this was only the tip of the iceberg and if the building was sold out for Sunday he waould gaurantee more fights. Guess what happened. Great fights, tough players and some excellant players. Exciting and like one of the post said no trap. 8 goals a game was a defensive struggle. :thumb:

[charlie]

mccrimmon went on to play for the oilers and i believe he turned down a chance to play for the eskimos to keep his hockey career going. i was doing stats/working the penalty box for the oilers at that time. the oilers were quite a "soft" team at that time and it was well known around the rink that many of the oilers stars were convincing mccrimmon that he was a hockey player and not a tough guy because they didn't want him starting anything they might have to get involved in.

one night i was working the oilers penalty box and i had bruce mcgregor in there (not a place he visited often)...as was the custom i would tell the player when there was a minute lefths penalty then 30 seconds, 20 seconds and at 10 i would countdown to when i opened the gate. he never responded or even moved during the calls i made to him, just sat there looking at his feet. at 2 seconds i grabbed his arm and pulled him off the bench and opened the gate and literally shoved him onto the ice. they were a lot of guys like that on that team...warriors they were not.

one night norm ullman was in the box and this fan peered over the glass into box and asked ullman for an autograph...he wanted to know if he had a pen on him. ullman nearly pissed himself laughing about that.

[charlie]

the bombers were quite the group. i remember keith mackie of the oil kings telling me stories of how the reffing worked in flin flon...most teams never had a chance. the bombers were good but the refs had to live there too and they never gave the visitors any break at all.

funny thing about that team...clarke had diabetes and ken baird developed it later when he was playing for the oilers and he had to quit playing as a result. don't know if any of those other guys got it too but two players off one team is quite remarkable.