Hockey keeps country together along with the weather as great Canadian unifiers

Tee Chambers, Harry Pellow, Aldee Martel, 1954

I started my blog Michael J Morris Reports two years ago now, and seemingly, like most things I have undertaken in my life, I was not really sure the direction it would take. For the moment at least, it seems to have settled on creating "a portrait of Chapleau" as Ian Macdonald, my friend and now retired professor of architecture at the University of Manitoba once described it.

However, perhaps appropriately, given my interest in hockey over the years, in the beginning one of the first pieces I wrote  was how hockey keeps the country together. Given the start of the Toronto Maple Leafs in the 2010-2011 NHL season, about which I will say no more, I decided to share, in slightly amended form. Hockey Keeps the Country Together to mark the second anniversary of Michael J Morris Reports. Thanks so much for being part of the experience.

HOCKEY KEEPS THE COUNTRY TOGETHER

I took a course in twentieth century European history from Dr Jacques Goutor more than 40 years ago now, and the first thing I learned from him was that hockey kept Canada together. Well, he didn't actually come out and say that exactly, but on the first day of class he told us about his arrival in Canada from France.


Dr Goutor told us that upon arriving in Toronto, he went out and bought the newspapers and the headlines were LEAFS WIN STANLEY CUP! It was 1967, our Centennial year as a nation, and the Toronto Maple Leafs had defeated their arch rivals the Montreal Canadiens in six games. It was to be the last time the Leafs would win Lord Stanley's mug.

As an aside Dr Goutor was one of the best professors I ever had and went from Wilfrid Laurier University to the University of Western Ontario.

All so typically Canadian for our Centennial year in 1967-- a team from the heart of English Canada wins the Stanley Cup but the focus for the celebrations of the centennial is on Montreal, the major French Canadian city which hosted Expo '67, and the cup is named after an Englishman who was Governor General at one time. Trust me on this one! It is such as this that contributes to keeping the country together and safe-- the invisible hand of Canadian compromise!

Dr Goutor, who at the time had little knowledge of hockey and its importance to Canadians, said he decided to stay here because it had to be a safe place if the headlines were about a sporting event. He was raised in France and lived through the horrors of World War II and its aftermath.

To this day, I watch the headlines of Canadian daily newspapers, and headline writers are ecstatic on those days they can proclaim victory for their local hockey team when it wins a title, and are beside themselves with joy when Canada wins internationally. But they know their audience. Hockey keeps it all together in this vast and magnificent land where we will travel great distances for a hockey game, and complain about that other great Canadian unifier, the weather.

Our passion for hockey of course begins at the local level. I was raised in the northern Ontario town of Chapleau, where the Chapleau Huskies, in various incarnations have been the pride and joy for much longer than I have been around. Growing up there in the 1940s and 50s my hockey heroes were local, especially the late Garth ''Tee" Chambers, who to this day I believe was better than any NHL player who ever donned skates.

When I returned to Chapleau to teach at Chapleau High School, shortly thereafter I was "hired' by the 1970-71 Midgets to coach them. Yes, they actually "fired" their coach and I took over, and that is a story in itself. Jamie Doyle, the team captain, and his buddy Keith McAdam, approached me in the hall at CHS and offered me the position.

At that time though, the focus was on the Chapleau Junior "B" Huskies who were playing  in the  Junior B league, and in 1967, their first  won the league title, and Northern Ontario Hockey Association title. The coaches of the day were the late Lorne Riley, who had been an outstanding goalie, and Keith 'Buddy' Swanson. Earle Freeborn was the coach when I returned to Chapleau in 1968, and I had once again become a referee. Saturday nights were hockey night in Chapleau, and the great community unifier, especially when the Wawa Travellers were in town.

A few years later in 1974, again after receiving a visit from hockey players, the Chapleau Intermediate "A" Huskies were born and our arch rivals in the Northland Intermediate Hockey league were the Timmins Northstars. For three years it was a struggle to beat them in the league semi-finals but in our fourth year we did, and it was like we had won the Stanley Cup. We won in Timmins but soon received reports that back in Chapleau, the celebration had begun with horns honking and a party underway.

And so, from local unheated hockey rinks, many of them called barns, where rivalries among communities bring people together to cheer on their own team, to national and international championship series, Dr Goutor was right. It is a safe country in which to live



I welcome your comments. E email me at mj.morris@live.ca