Chapleau born Ron Schock played impressive 909 games in National Hockey League

Ron Schock, who was born in Chapleau in 1943, but moved with his family to Terrace Bay in 1948 where he started his hockey career played an impressive 909 games in the National Hockey League from 1964 to 1978.

Inducted into the Northwestern Ontario Sports Hall of Fame in 1990, an article on its web site says that in Terrace Bay he developed his "outstanding skills" which saw him go on to enjoy a successful NHL career.

It adds that given there was no junior or juvenile league there while Ron was growing up, "Ron found himself playing in a men's intermediate league at the age of 16 advancing to to the Western Canadian finals."

A Boston scout observed Ron's talents and he moved into the Bruins organization and he was sent to play with  Junior 'A' Niagara Falls Flyers. He also played with the Junior 'A' Kingston Frontenacs, the article said. He had a strong career with the Flyers.

Ron's grandparents were the late Mr. and Mrs. Tom Edwards a Chapleau pioneer family. His sister Norma was in the same grade as me at Chapleau Public School, and it surprised us when they moved in 1948. 

Ron played for several NHL teams starting with the Boston Bruins then on to the St. Louis Blues. While he was there while attending a hockey dinner he was asked what team he would "least" like to be traded to. He replied the New York Rangers or Pittsburgh Penguins. Two days later he was traded to Pittsburgh. Such is the hockey world.

On the web site 'Greatest Hockey Legends.com" Ron told Joe Pelletier, "That is a trade I'll never forget. I had been playing golf with the Blues' owner, Sid Salomon, on a Friday and he had been telling me how well the team seemed to be going and how he was looking forward to having me on the team the next season. The following Monday, I was traded to Pittsburgh!"

Ron Shock is perhaps most famous for his double overtime "Midnight Goal" that won game 7 for the Blues over the Minnesota North Stars on May 3, 1968, and sent the Blues to the Stanley Cup finals in the first year of the NHL expansion. Arguably, this was a major contribution to the early popularity of the St.  Louis Blues franchise, according to Wikipedia.

Ron also noted in his interview with Mr. Pelletier that  like most players who played just prior to the original expansion in 1967, he  took great pride in the fact that he made the NHL in the era of only 6 teams.

"I knew I was lucky to be with the Bruins, let alone being in the NHL. After all, there was only 120 jobs available in the NHL those days. You had to be VERY good to make it. "I think any of us who made it at that time just wanted to be wanted by someone."

He also told Mr. Pelletier: "It was a different time for the player then. This was still the time before using jets was the in thing to do. At that time we still took trains. Because of that I think teams were closer because they spent more time together. I can still remember a lot of the old stories the veterans used to tell".

Although he had said he did not want to be traded to the Penguins, Ron spent eight successful years there which included leading the team as Captain. His best season was in 1974-75 when he earned 86 points.

When he retired Ron had played in 909 games with 166 goals and 351 assists for 517 points.

Ron and Adie Lafrance, Floyd Curry and Jason Ward so far are the only Chapleau born who played in the National Hockey League. My email is mj.morris@live.ca.

Adelard Lafrance born in Chapleau played for Montreal Canadiens of the National Hockey League

Adelard Lafrance, born in Chapleau in 1912, was given a five game "look" by the Montreal Canadiens of the National Hockey League in the 1933-34 season, according to Joe Pelletier writing on his blog 'Greatest Hockey Legends.com, the Hockey History Blog'.

He was the first Chapleau born player to make the NHL. The others are: Ron Schock, Floyd Curry and Jason Ward.

Although it would not appear that the community had an official minor hockey program when he was growing up, hockey was played starting in the winter of 1885-86 on a rink on Lorne Street where the first two arenas were located until 1978 when  the Mrs. A.W. Moore Arena was opened at the Chapleau Recreation Centre.

Adelard, also called 'Adie' must have been playing on local teams to start his career as Mr. Pelletier wrote he was a "key member of the Sudbury Wolves team that won the Memorial Cup as Canada's national junior champions in 1932. He scored the overtime game winning goal against the Winnipeg Monarchs.

In  1933-34 season Adelard was given a try out by the Montreal Canadiens late in the year, according to Mr. Pelletier. He played three games in regular season and two in the Stanley Cup playoffs. No points, one minor penalty.

Interestingly, Mr. Pelletier adds that the Canadiens paid his train fare to Montreal. I recall Garth "Tee" Chambers, who was my hero as a hockey player, telling me that players wanting tryouts with professional teams usually had to pay their own expenses. As a result, many potential players never made the NHL. After the Great Depression and World War II, they simply could not afford to travel.

Here are more details on his hockey career taken from Wikipedia: He joined "Sudbury St. Louis of the Nickel Belt Hockey League in 1929-30. The following season he moved to the Sudbury Wolves in time for the playoffs and Memorial Cup play. The following season he split between the St. Louis and the Wolves and played in the Memorial Cup and Allan Cup playoffs.".. In 1933-34 he joined the professional Falconbridge team

After his tryout with the Canadiens late in that 1933-34 season, Adelard played one year with the Quebec Astors of the Can-Am league before joining the Springfield Indians for four seasons.

He retired from professional hockey after the 1938-39 season returning to Sudbury where he worked for the family company A. Lafrance and Sons. The company established in Chapleau in 1908 by his father also named Adelard, was in the fur trade business. It is still operating today in Sudbury.

bales of fur in front of Lafrance store (just behind Bridgeview Motel)

His father was playing hockey in Chapleau in its early years and was a member of the  team that won the McEwen Cup emblematic of local hockey supremacy circa 1911-12. Some other players from pioneer families at the time included Richard Brownlee, George Collinson, Tom Godfrey, Ovide Payette, and my grandfather Harry Morris.

The Lafrance family was among the earliest settlers in Chapleau. In 1885, Lambert Lafrance arrived to work on the Canadian Pacific Railway. His wife Adele Roy joined him shortly thereafter. Apparently the train stopped seven miles east of Chapleau, and they brought all their worldly belongings into the community on a push cart. Other family members arrived later.

Adelard Lafrance died in 1995 in Sudbury. My email is mj.morris@live.ca

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MM

Hockey keeps Canada together

Chapleau Int A Huskies in 1970s

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.

Dr Jacques Goutor

All so typically Canadian for our Centennial year -- 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.

MJM in 1978 at Chapleau Carnival

Tee Chambers, Butch Pellow, Aldee Martel, circa 1954

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 were  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, 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. At that time though, the focus was on the Chapleau Junior "B" Huskies who played in a Junior league, and in 1967 won the league title, as well as NOHA title.

Chapleau Jr B Huskies 1966-67

 The coaches of the day were the late Keith 'Buddy' Swanson, Lorne Riley, who had been an outstanding goalie and Earle Freeborn, one real tough defenceman in his playing days who also served as the Mayor of Chapleau. Saturday nights were hockey night in Chapleau, and the great community unifier, especially when the Wawa Travellers were in town.

A few years later, 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. Please feel free to add them or email me at mj.morris@live.com