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Thread: 90 Years of Pats Hockey

  1. #11
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    Clark Gillies


    Clark Gillies: Former Pat a big winner at every level

    Tim Switzer, Leader-Post
    Published: Friday, September 21, 2007

    Clark Gillies never envisioned himself as a big-time hockey player. After winning four Stanley Cups, a Memorial Cup championship and being inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, it's hard to imagine him as anything else.

    And if he never thought he'd make it as a hockey player, the Moose Jaw product certainly never expected to begin his career in Regina.

    "Growing up, we always had great rivalries," Gillies said with a laugh from his New York office. "We didn't really know the word 'Rivalry.' At that time it was just, 'We want to beat those guys from Regina because they're always trying to pick on the young kids from Moose Jaw.' "

    Growing up in the Friendly City, Gillies played hockey all the time, but never thought of it as a possible career. But one day, then Regina Pats general manager Del Wilson and head coach Earl Ingarfield called Gillies up and offered him the chance to play in the Western Canada Hockey League.

    "At that point I wasn't so sure I was ready to go to a major-junior hockey league," said Gillies, who was also drawing interest from the Houston Astros as a power hitter. "Up to that point I was just a big farm kid from Moose Jaw who played hockey. I didn't pay much attention to any of the other stuff."

    For Wilson and Ingarfield, there was never any doubt about Gillies' skill.

    "We only met with him the one evening and I guess we impressed the kid," Ingarfield said from his Lethbridge home. "We liked his enthusiasm and his size. I'd seen him play a game previously and he obviously had the skating ability, the hockey sense and he could shoot the puck. He was big and strong, but the biggest thing to me was that he really wanted to play the game."

    "My dad and I went and watched a game and I said to him, 'That doesn't look like anything I can't handle,' " Gillies recalled.

    Could he ever handle it.

    "I came down and played the next game against Swift Current and I remember getting in three fights my first shift of the game and got thrown out," Gillies chuckled. "My jersey was torn off and my dad came into the dressing room and said, 'What do you think?' I said 'This is fun.' And I guess the rest is history."

    A storied history at that.

    In his first season with the Pats, the 6-foot-3, 210-pound power forward scored 31 goals and assisted on 48 more. Still, Gillies said it took several chats with Ingarfield over that 1971-72 season to convince the player that he could move on to the next level.

    "He likes to say that," said Ingarfield. "I encouraged him without a doubt, but he was unbelievable, really."

    More important than the pep talks that first season was the fact that Gillies was teamed with a number of other rookies -- including Dennis Sobchuk, Ed Staniowski and Mike Wanchuk -- who would go on to lead Regina to the Memorial Cup title in 1974.

    "We did things a little differently (in the 1973-74 season)," said Gillies. "Most teams take two weeks off at Christmas but we went to Sweden and played some teams there. We came back in better shape than before we left from playing in the big, Olympic-size arenas. We just breezed through the second half of the season. Not to say that the Memorial Cup is easy, but other than a bit of a scare against Quebec in the final game, we didn't have too many problems."

    "They were young kids and they just wanted to play . . . the end result was there," said Ingarfield, who left the Pats after the 1971-72 season and was replaced by Bob Turner, who led the team to the national title.

    Looking back on the accomplishment more than 33 years later, Gillies cannot understand why the '74 squad was the last Pats team to win the Canadian major junior hockey championship.

    "It just goes to show it's not an easy feat," said Gillies. "It really is a source for bragging rights when you sit in an NHL locker room. When it gets around Memorial Cup time someone always asks, 'Did anyone in here actually win one of those?' "

    By the time Regina beat the Quebec Remparts 7-4 in the Memorial Cup final, Gillies, who had been named a WCHL first-team all-star that season, no longer had doubts he could make a career out of professional hockey.

    He knew he was going to the Atlanta Flames with the third overall pick of the NHL entry draft or the New York Islanders at No. 4.

    "I wasn't totally disappointed I didn't go to Atlanta because I really liked the makeup of the Islanders," said Gillies. "Being only in their third year in existence, they had a rag-tag group of guys they had got through interleague drafts and things like that."

    Quickly after Gillies went to the pro game, Ingarfield, who had a 27-year scouting career with the Islanders saw an even better player than the one he coached in junior, particularly during a playoff series with the Philadelphia Flyers in his rookie year.

    "Philadelphia had Dave Schultz and a couple other guys like that and they tried to rough it up with the Islanders and found out it wasn't gong to work," said Ingarfield, who retired from scouting five years ago. "Gillies decked Schultz and (Bob) Nystrom hit someone else and it was all over. That was the real turning point of the series and the turning point of the Islanders."

    The Isles took some time, but by adding players like Bryan Trottier (in the second round of the 1974 draft) and Mike Bossy (in the 1977 draft), they would build one of the greatest teams in NHL history. Led by Gillies, Bossy and Trottier (known collectively as the Trio Grande) the Islanders won the Stanley Cup every year from 1980 to 1983.

    "The first one was by far the greatest," said Gillies. "If you look back at all four of them, we went through more in the way of blood, sweat and tears in the first one than we did in the other three. When you have to beat Boston and Philly to win the Stanley Cup, that's pretty tough. But when you're sitting in the locker room so tired you can barely drink a beer to celebrate, you know you've really accomplished something."

    The Isles fell to the Edmonton Oilers in their attempt to make it five in a row in 1984.

    "As much fun as winning was, losing was the absolute bottom," said Gillies. "It just ripped my heart out and I was saying, 'I don't know what I've got left now.' We had played so hard and had so much success that to lose was like, 'What am I going to do? I don't know if I can play anymore.' It was a terrible way to look at it, but it was like it sapped all the energy out of you."

    A couple years later, some of the energy had been sapped out of the Islanders organization as the team went 39-29-12 and management decided it was time to make some changes.

    Gillies was taken off waivers by Buffalo after a deal by Isles GM Bill Torrey and Sabres head coach Scotty Bowman, who had coached Gillies with Team Canada in previous years.

    After accumulating just 34 points over 86 games in two seasons with the Sabres, Gillies walked away from the game for good. His NHL totals included 319 goals, 378 assists and 1,023 penalty minutes in 958 games.

    He had the opportunity to become an assistant under Islanders head coach Al Arbour the next season, but with a wife and three daughters at home, wasn't about to go back to that lifestyle.

    "I didn't want to subject them to all that stuff," said Gillies. "And for me, personally, I was just done with travel."

    After the NHL, Gillies found a new calling as a registered financial representative, a job he now performs within his own corporation under the Raymond James Financial umbrella. His office is just minutes from the Coliseum where he played as an Islander.

    Nystrom works just around the corner and Bossy and Trottier are now employed by the Islanders' front office.

    "From an alumni standpoint, we've got a pretty good presence around here," said Gillies.

    While he decided to stay away from further employment in the hockey world, Gillies still pops up on the scene every now and again. He still does promotional appearances for the Islanders when the team needs his services and he gets to a few games a year, largely to entertain business clients.

    One of his biggest joys in hockey nowadays, though, is getting to Toronto and Hockey Hall of Fame events.

    Not that he ever expected he'd been invited. He had his No. 9 retired by the Islanders in 1986 and the Pats in 2000, but he was starting to think those were the biggest honours he might receive post-hockey.

    "I had been nominated a couple times before that," said Gillies. "I just totally forgot about it. There was no reason getting your hopes up and having them dashed like that."

    Then came a call on June 19, 2002. Gillies and his family were at the Pearson International Airport in Toronto on their way back to Moose Jaw to celebrate his mother's birthday when he called his New York office to check messages.

    His secretary, Ellen, gave him a Toronto-area number to dial. He placed the call while his wife, Pam, and three daughters -- Jocelyn, Brooke and Brianna -- were in the washroom.

    When the women in his life returned to the terminal, Gillies had tears in his eyes.

    "My wife came back and saw me crying and said, 'Oh my God, did something happen to your mom?' " said Gillies. "I said, 'No, these are happy tears.'"

    Despite his greatest hockey success coming with the Islanders, Gillies still considers himself a Regina Pat.

    "There's a certain camaraderie that never leaves," said Gillies. "My heart is still in Moose Jaw, but there was lots of fun in Regina too."




    © The Leader-Post (Regina) 2007

  2. #12
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    Fran Huck

    Fran Huck: Known as 'The Golden Hawk'

    Murray McCormick, Leader-Post
    Published: Friday, September 21, 2007

    Fran Huck has one of the coolest nicknames in sport. Huck was labelled "The Golden Hawk" during his first full season with the Regina Pats. The nickname was applied because Huck and linemates Andy Black and Barry Meissner donned gold helmets during the 1964-63 season with the Pats. Back then, players were allowed to wear their own helmets and they didn't have to match the team's uniforms.

    "It was Andy's idea,'' Huck, 60, said from Kelowna, B.C., where he continues to practise as a lawyer. "I don't know why he thought about it but he had a flair for that type of thing. He showed up one day with our helmets and he had painted them gold. We didn't think anything about it. We just put them on. There wasn't any design behind it. I just put it on.''

    Huck still has the helmet. It's kind of beat-up and has lost most of its golden shine but still maintains many of the memories during his playing time with the Pats.

    "People don't call me that anymore,'' Huck said of his nickname. "There are some who might still meet me and say "You were the golden something.' '' That's if they remember me at all.''

    The three stages of Huck's careers are all memorable. He was born and raised in Regina and played in the minor hockey system before joining the Pats for the 1962-63 season. He played half of the season in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League, which preceded the Western Hockey League. Huck would go on to play 31 games with the Canadian national hockey team and share in a bronze medal at the 1968 Winter Olympics. The final stage was his professional career, which includes stints in the National Hockey League, American Hockey League and the World Hockey Association. Huck retired from hockey after the 1977-78 season.

    Huck dreamed of playing for the Regina Pats while growing up in Regina. He made the Regina Pat Canadians as a 15-year-old before moving up to the Pats.

    "The biggest thing in Regina, other than playing for the Roughriders, was to play for the Pats,'' said Huck. "Every kid dreamed about it. I wasn't any different. It was a tremendous organization.''

    The seeds of the dream were nurtured by Saturday night hockey games at the Exhibition Stadium. Those were the only nights that the young hockey players could play indoors. The 30-minute skate was the highlight of the week for Huck.

    "I remember it would be 45 minutes by bus from the east end of the city to the west end,'' Huck said. "I don't know what it's like now but in those days it was like the Montreal Forum. You looked forward to playing there every Saturday because that was where the big guys played.''

    Huck joined the "big guys'' for part of the 1962-63 season where he recorded four goals and 11 assists in 28 games. He returned to the squad for the 1963-64 season.

    Huck played in 62 regular-season games in which he recorded 86 goals and 67 assists. He added another 22 goals and 18 assists in 19 playoff games with the Pats. He was picked up by the Edmonton Oil Kings for the Memorial Cup in which he recorded three goals in five games. Huck was named the SJHL's most valuable player and a first-team all-star.

    "That was a breakthrough year for me,'' Huck said. "The first year I bounced between junior B and the Pats and it took me five to six months to get used to them. I worked out all summer and then it happened.''

    Huck continued his torrid scoring pace in the 1964-65 season with the Pats. He recorded 77 goals and 59 assists in 56 regular-season games. He also netted 20 goals and 13 assists in 12 playoff games before being picked up again by Edmonton for the Memorial Cup. Huck had 15 goals and 10 assists in 10 Memorial Cup games.

    Huck obviously had a knack for the finding the net. He wasn't big but he was capable of scoring.

    "He was a great junior,'' said Lorne Davis, a long-time scout with the NHL's Edmonton Oils and a roommate of Huck's on the Canadian national team. "He had a lot of the qualities of the smaller players of today. It was just getting to the stage where bigger hockey players were wanted. He played hard and he wanted to win.''

    Mal Isaac, a former CBC sports reporter, covered the SJHL for the Saskatoon StarPhoenix when Huck burst onto the hockey scene. Isaac, would later join the Leader-Post's staff, marveled at the skating ability and goal-scoring attributes that Huck exhibited with the Pats.

    "He was something to watch,'' Isaac said. "There were many times they would be down three or four goals going into the third period and he would start it. They would do everything they could do stop him. They would hack, take runs at him and slash him and he would keep on going. He was just unstoppable.''

    Huck stunned the junior hockey world when he skated away from his final season with the Pats to join the national hockey team in Winnipeg.

    "He wanted to go to school so he picked the national team over the NHL,'' said Isaac.

    Huck devoted time to his studies while playing with the Pats. He also wanted to study law and playing with the national team afforded him the best opportunity. Huck was protected by the Montreal Canadiens before deciding to join the national team.

    "I thought if I could go to school and play against some of the best players in the world, it was the best thing for me,'' Huck said. "At the time, there were a minority who considered the Europeans good hockey players. I found out in my first year that they were outstanding. I remember that they wouldn't give you the puck. You had to chase them all around. It was a revelation and precursor to the 1972 series when we learned they are good.''

    Huck won bronze medals at the 1966 and 1967 world championships.

    "I had my moments at all three areas but I put more passion into the national-team program than any other,'' Huck said. "I did play in Stanley Cup semifinals but there seemed to be more intensity and more passion playing in the Olympics and the world championships at the international level.''

    Huck embarked on an extensive professional career after leaving the national team. He joined the Montreal Voyageurs of the AHL for the 1970-71 season. He played five games that season with Canadiens before being traded to the St. Louis Blues. He played another season with St. Louis before joining the Winnipeg Jets of the WHA. Huck played 105 games in the NHL recording 61 points.

    "If Fran hadn't been drafted by Montreal, he might have had been better off,'' Davis said. "The way Montreal played, though, it certainly suited his style. He was very popular in Europe, though. Everyone knew who he was. He was the one the fans watched. He was fun to watch.''

    Huck started his WHA careeer in 1973 with the Jets. He played in 351 games with the Jets and Minnesota Fighting Saints, recording 90 goals and 34 assists.

    "One of the reason I went to the WHA was because I was used to Winnipeg,'' Huck said. "I had been there five years with the national team and I was comfortable there.''

    Huck turned to the coaching ranks after retiring from hockey. He coached the St. Boniface Mohawks of the CSHL and the Winnipeg Warriors of the WHL in 1980-81.

    Huck's international efforts were recognized in 1999 when he was inducted into the International Ice Hockey Federation's hall of fame as a player.

    "That was a significant for me on a personal basis,'' Huck said.

    Huck's effort was also recognized in 2006 when he was inducted into the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame and Museum.

    "You appreciate that people recognize some of things that you've done,'' Huck said. "I didn't do it for recognition. I just love the fact that I was able to do what I did.''

    Huck moved from Regina to Calgary in 2000 and eventually settled in Kelowna. Huck studied law while playing with the national team. He even took the bar admission course during the summer when he played professionally. He remembers he wasn't much of a student in his early days because he was always with hockey, football, baseball or basketball.

    "School was pretty far down on the ladder,'' said Huck, who graduated from the University of Manitoba. "I stuck with it and when I played for the Pats I went to school. I had it drilled into me hard that school was important. It stayed with me.''

    Huck still has fond memories of his year's with the Pats. even though he did leave a year early to join the national team. His career as a lawyer has reduced some of his contact with the organization.

    "The Regina Pats were a big and proud name in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s,'' Huck said. "It was also a strong organization. I just hope that that tradition continues.''




    © The Leader-Post (Regina) 2007

  3. #13
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    Bill Hicke

    Bill Hicke: Legendary Pat left his mark on team

    Rob Vanstone, Leader-Post
    Published: Friday, September 21, 2007

    Lisa Hicke-Ostertag looks up to her father -- literally.

    Every time Bill Hicke's daughter visits the Brandt Centre, she appreciates the fact that his name and Regina Pats uniform number (17) are prominently displayed in the arena's upper extremities.

    "It's overwhelming sometimes to think that he accomplished so much and was such a loved person and had so much fun and that his jersey number is up there,'' Hicke-Ostertag says. "You see his retired Number 17 and it always makes you cry and think about him.

    "To him, it was his life and what he did. He just enjoyed life so much. The glass was always half-full with him. It was a tall glass, with lots of ice.''

    Hicke saw plenty of ice over his 67 years.

    He rose to prominence by helping the Pats reach the 1956, 1957 and 1958 Memorial Cups.

    The 5-foot-8, 168-pound right winger had 33 goals in 36 games as a 17-year-old before scoring 52 times in 53 games (during the 1956-57 season) and 54 goals in 49 games (1957-58).

    The Pats recognized Hicke's brilliance by retiring his Pats jersey during a 1959 ceremony at Exhibition Stadium.

    Hicke's successful stint with the Pats prepared him for a long career in the pro ranks, including 14 seasons in the National Hockey League. He had NHL totals of 168 goals and 402 points in 729 regular-season games.

    He also played for the Alberta (now Edmonton) Oilers in the World Hockey Association's inaugural 1972-73 season while moonlighting as the first president of the WHA Players' Association.

    Upon retiring as a player, Hicke established himself in the business community as the owner of Kyle's Sporting Goods on Hamilton Street. Ties with the Pats were formally re-established in February of 1986, when Hicke was part of a group that purchased the Pats.

    Along with being a part-owner, Hicke was the Pats' general manager from 1989 until the team was sold to Calgary-based entrepreneur Russ Parker in the spring of 1995 -- shortly before he was inducted into the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame and Museum. Hicke also coached the Pats with Al Dumba from November of 1992 through the 1993-94 season.

    Hicke and Dumba guided the Pats to the WHL's East Division final in the spring of 1993, when the Swift Current Broncos engineered a sweep en route to the league title. The Pats have not reached the third round of the playoffs since that time.

    But such details -- while fundamental to any portrayal of Hicke's life -- are only part of his story.

    Hicke is also affectionately remembered as a character, and for his character.

    The latter attribute was especially evident as Hicke battled cancer, which claimed him on July 18, 2005.

    "He was a cool guy,'' his daughter recalls, "and I really miss him.

    "My mom did say to him, 'This isn't fair. This isn't right.' My dad said, 'Don't ever feel sorry for me. I've had the most wonderful life. I've had the most wonderful experiences.'

    "How do you ever handle that without three days of crying?''

    Hicke also had a unique gift for making people laugh. As much as Hicke-Ostertag misses her father, she cannot help but break into laughter while reflecting upon him.

    "Life was never dull,'' she says. "He loved an audience -- especially anybody who hadn't heard his stories before.''

    Oh, how he could tell stories.

    In 1990, for example, Hicke began spinning anecdotes as the Pats' bus left the exhibition grounds en route to Prince Albert. For the next 31/2 hours, Hicke had everybody rolling as he talked about, well, everything. The extended monologue stopped when the bus did -- in front of Prince Albert's Comuniplex (now the Art Hauser Centre).

    Hicke regaled coaches, players and two reporters with yarns from his playing days, and about life in general.

    And what a life it was.

    In the Montreal Canadiens' dressing room, Hicke sat between two eventual Hockey Hall of Famers -- Maurice (Rocket) Richard and Dickie Moore. That team also included luminaries such as Toe Blake (who was the head coach), Jean Beliveau, Bernie (Boom Boom) Geoffrion, Doug Harvey and Jacques Plante.

    Hicke shared in the Canadiens' Stanley Cup triumphs of 1959 and 1960 before being dealt to the New York Rangers in 1964.

    "Dad used to joke about the worst five words he ever said to Toe Blake: 'Play me or trade me,' '' Hicke-Ostertag recalls with a chuckle. "It was right before Christmas. The next day, he was on a train to New York.

    "Ho ho ho.''

    Before leaving Montreal, Hicke had to clear out his apartment on very short notice.

    "He had this big Christmas tree,'' his daughter says. "He carried it downstairs and gave it to the superintendent -- who didn't have a lot of money -- with the lights on it and everything. That's how generous he was.''

    While in New York, Hicke met the likes of Muhammad Ali, Dean Martin and Bill Cosby. During a visit to New York which preceded the trade to the Rangers, he shared an elevator at the Waldorf Astoria hotel with a senator named John F. Kennedy.

    Hicke tended to travel in circles with prominent Americans. At a private party in Fort Worth, Texas, Hicke met Janis Joplin. He was also in the Baltimore Orioles' clubhouse when they celebrated a 1966 World Series victory. At the time, Hicke was playing for the AHL's Baltimore Clippers.

    An avid golfer, Hicke once enjoyed a round with another colourful character, Chi-Chi Rodriguez.

    "Dad loved to golf, and he was such a fantastic teacher,'' Hicke-Ostertag says. "He could analyse your golf game on the first hole and tell you on the second hole the things you had to do. He'd say, 'Move your hand here,' or, 'Move your foot here.'

    "He'd never offer the advice unless people asked. Scotty McLellan said my dad took five or 10 strokes off his game because he was such a good golfer.''

    Hicke also spent plenty of time on the links with Charles M. Schulz, who developed the Peanuts comic strip. The California-based Schulz, a hockey fan, befriended Hicke when he played for the NHL's Oakland Seals.

    "They became really good friends and my dad was his favourite player,'' Hicke-Ostertag says. "Did you ever watch the cartoon when Snoopy is playing hockey? Snoopy is wearing Number 9. He gave Snoopy that number because my dad wore it.''

    Hicke's wardrobe often reflected his ties to Regina.

    "He used to wear his Pats jacket to Oakland practices,'' his daughter remembers. "That's how he got the nickname Patty on the Seals, and the jacket still fit after 10 years.

    "That's how close he felt to the Pats and how ingrained they were in him. That's why he was so thrilled when he bought the Pats. He had come full circle.''

    Hicke purchased the Pats along with Morley Gusway, Ted Knight, Jack Nicolle and Huddy Bell. Nicolle and Bell eventually sold their shares, making the ownership group a trio.

    The team was put up for sale during the 1985-86 season after owner Herb Pinder Jr., found himself in an irresolvable dispute with the Regina Exhibition Association over the imposition of a $1 parking charge for Pats games.

    Pinder initially sold the team to a Swift Current group, only to have the WHL intervene and purchase the club with the intent of keeping it in Regina. Hicke and his associates then bought the franchise from the league.

    "I have never met a more generous guy than Billy,'' says Gusway, who was one of Hicke's closest friends. "When my daughter got married, Billy picked up my daughter and her husband in his big limo. I offered him a few bucks but he wouldn't take a dime.

    "He was dressed up like a chauffeur.''

    Gusway remembers when Hicke was dressed up in Pats garb at Exhibition Stadium in the 1950s.

    "Billy could stickhandle like crazy and skate like the devil,'' Gusway recalls.

    "I had a lot of good years with Billy. He was a great guy. He had no fear of anything. He just faced life the way it was.''

    That was especially true when Hicke battled cancer.

    "He used to come into my office every day,'' says Gusway, who owns the Regina Rent-It Centre. "He'd take his treatment at the cancer clinic and then come into my office and tell me about it.

    "He always called me Mo. He said, 'Mo, if you have to go, you have to go. Nobody can stop it.' ''

    Nothing could stop Hicke from making jokes -- not even a battle with cancer.

    Hicke made light of having spent tens of thousands of dollars on treatments at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

    "Every time I see a Cadillac Suburban, I say, 'I left one of those in the Mayo Clinic,' '' Hicke told the Leader-Post during an interview in January of 2005.

    On Feb. 4 of that year, Hicke was among the inaugural four recipients of the WHL's Governors Award, which recognizes outstanding achievements and contributions to the league and to hockey.

    Hicke spent his final months at home with his family -- including his wife, Lee Anne, and their two children (Lisa and Danny). The Regina hockey legend was also close to his two grandsons, Ryan and Dylan Ostertag.

    "He loved you unconditionally,'' Lisa says. "He was always there to cuddle and hug and tell you he loved you.

    "Even when I was 40, I'd jump on the couch and cuddle with him. We'd laugh and he'd tell stories.''

    Like father, like daughter.

    "It's just a flowing waterfall of memories,'' Lisa concludes. "So many memories ...''




    © The Leader-Post (Regina) 2007

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