Shaun Newman Podcast - #5 - Brian "Shep" Sheppard

Episode Date: March 6, 2019

On this episode I talk with  Brian Sheppard.  He has been in the sporting good business for over 50 years, has owned and operated Shep Sports in Lloydminster since 1989 and is a 4x Canadian Trapshooting Champ. Shep is one of kind and I was honoured to share a glass of scotch while listening to a lifetime of stories.

Welcome to Sean Newman podcast. Tonight's guest is Brian Shepard, although I would argue probably 99.999 I could go on in Lloyd Minister, know you as Shep. So I'm really excited to have you here. Thanks for having me, Sean. It's going to be a great evening. Yes, it is.

We've got a nice cold glass of scotch sitting in front of us. Mr. Shep brought his finest, and so I'm excited about that as well. Just before we get started, for the people who don't know Shep, He's a proud husband, father, a father of two. You've got two grandsons. You've been in the sporting business or sporting goods business for probably 50 plus years. You've owned your Shep's sports store for 30 years this year, opened back in 1989. That's correct.

And let's not leave out your four-time national champ of trap shooting. Yes, that's correct, too. Three doubles, three times doubles, and one time in the 16th. Yard singles. No slouch there. That's pretty dang good. Now, I thought we would start. I like to go back to, I call it the beginning,

reverse time and go back to when you're a kid. And young, I know you originate from Kid Scotty, but you went to a little school in Kinnerd, which is just south of Kid Scotty, I believe. South and just three miles west. and then south again, but about 10 miles from the town of Kittskotty. Yeah, and I know I had dad on here a few weeks ago, and he'd talked about how he had to ride the horse back and forth to school

and those old stories. You'd mention something about skis and wearing them out. I didn't have the luxury of having a horse to ride, so old Shanks Pony was given up for a set of wooden skis with the old leather harness on them. Stick your felt boots with your toe rubbers there with your rubbers on there in those old harness that they had and the way you go across country to the school.

And these were hickory skis, but they were the old kind you used to buy in the hardware store probably for $9.95, which was quite a bit of money back then. and physically we could wear those out in one year by skiing. We had a few fences to cross, and of course the barbs always took a couch out of them, and we never ever waxed them. We just used them.

So it was about a mile straight across country from our house to the school, two miles around by the road. And it was in the wintertime every day we skied there, and we skied back. And then on the weekends, didn't have anything else to do, so we'd get on our skis and go up to the biggest hill, which was about three miles away, and we'd ski down that hill all day long, just for something to do back then.

Of course, we had to carry in our wood, you know, for the wood stove, and we had the luxury of having a well in the sand cellar that we had. It was 14 feet deep. Just had a sink pump on that, and we'd pump the water up from the 14-foot well, and we had basically running water without the added pressure that you have in the city. But it was really good soft water and didn't have to carry that. You're making me feel pretty soft right now. They always tell the old stories of we had to walk a mile to school uphill

and on the way home it was a mile uphill again and it was in four feet of snow. But you actually went through that. I mean, I can't imagine doing that or making a kid in today's world do that. But I wonder back then, if you ever complained about it, what did your parents say? Or did you ever complain about it? No, we never complained about it. We actually had a job and was janitor for the school. So when we got to the school, we had to light the old pot-bellied stove

and walk over to the neighbors, which was, oh, it seemed like a long ways, but it was probably 200 yards, and we would have to fetch back a five-gallon buck out of water for the school for that day. So we had George to do. We got $15 a month for that split two ways. We got $7.50 a piece a month. Which wasn't bad money?

Wasn't bad money back then, no. Yeah. No. And how many kids in the school, or what grades maybe? There was grade one to nine. and there probably wasn't any more than 15 at any top end time. Yeah, probably 15, I'm going to say. I've got pictures that I was looking at the other day.

I should have counted them. There was enough kids to fill three horses on one of the pictures. One of the horses had, I think, five kids on it, but three horses carried the whole school. Oh, okay. Just for the picture. No kidding. Right?

Yeah. I mean, and that wouldn't have been, that would have been a single room school, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And back then it sounded like, it felt like it was a huge room. But now going back there, I've been back several times just to have a look. And it was really tiny.

Yeah. Well, there's only, I mean, there's not too many of those left standing, those old schools. No, there isn't. This one's maintained by the, well, by the neighbor that we used to get the water from. He owns it now. and he maintains it a little bit. At one time, I had a grain storage for grain, of course. The old school was turned into a grain storage.

You've got to love farmers. Yeah, yeah. I think back at the farm, Grandpa used to have an old garage for his cars, and he got it moved on top of the top of the hill, and he turned it into grain storage. So this old car garage got moved off the cement pad and was turned into, I can just imagine grandma, you're going to do what? Yeah.

But that was, that's, you made it work the best you could, right? And if something needed to be moved, and they did it. Yeah. You guys did it. Exactly. Yeah. How old are you now, Sheper? I'm 78.

78. January the 11, I turned 78, yeah. You can hardly believe it, to be honest. I've got to be quite frank, I get 78, like, man, that's 19. 41. Yeah. You've seen some things. Yeah, I have.

Yeah, the Second World War, yeah, the Second World War was in progress. It was in progress, yeah. Yeah. Holy Mac. Well, that's a long time ago. Yeah. Of course, then there was the ration books and everything for gas and sugar and stuff like that, you know, that you had to have in order to get that product. You had to have what they call the ration.

It's a little stamped, ration stamps is what they were. And you pulled out a stamp and give it to the store click for, you know, five pounds of flour or five pounds of sugar, and especially gasoline, you could get only so much gasoline because it was rationed. I can remember all that. I'm speechless right now. Yeah.

Like, it's hard to imagine a world like that. I mean, we've been so fortunate here in Canada, right? Like, I mean, we just, we haven't, in my lifetime, we haven't seen anything even remotely close to that in my 30-some years, 32 years now. We had a dad had an old Ford car and the gas tank was right in front of the windshield. So you had to take the cap off that. And I think it held about eight gallons, maybe.

And in order to get eight gallons, they had those old glass pumps, you know, with the glass in them. Yeah. And you'd pump it up until there was eight gallons showing on the line in that gas in the glass bowl that was on top of the, pump and he'd dump all that in and that was your eight gallons and you paid him for eight gallons and it was probably going to cost you maybe two dollars for that yeah maybe but you had to have ration stamps ration stamps yeah if you had that much this week well then maybe you wouldn't be able to get any more for the next week or two so everything so what did you what did you do when you ran out of ration stamps we never ever did because we had a team of horses that we used most of the

time and even sometimes when the roads like it was probably to get to the main road was three miles so if you couldn't get there by car you had to take the horses so lots of times we'd throw a rock in the cutter put your feet on a hot rock we'd put it in the oven overnight rock heat up this 40-pound rock put it in the cutter then get in there and wrap up with a blanket and away we'd go to town on a Saturday afternoon shortly after lunch. And town was Lloyd or was that Kid Scott? Kid Scottie.

Kid Scottie. Yeah. Yeah. And you talked a little bit about Kid Scotty when we were just kind of talking about what we were going to talk about on here. And you mentioned that you boarded in Kid Scotty for, I actually didn't catch. What grade did you go to Kid Scotty school? 10, 11 and 12, just to high school.

Just to high school. And you boarded there and it was $15 a week. Yeah. Or $15 a month, sorry. $15 a month for room and board. Room and board. Monday to Friday. Monday to Friday.

And on the weekends you'd go home. Yeah. And you had a little bit of a glint in your eye when you, or gleam in your eye when you were talking about. You said the best education you ever got came from the dormitory. It was. Do you care to share a little? There was, there might have been 23 of us, I think, in a single room, like an annex, they called it. Bunkheads, like a military.

Like military, yeah. And it was basically a military training. Like you had to pitch your in. You were on kitchen duty for a week out of a month where you had to do the dishes or you had to set the table. Yeah, the matron would prepare the food. And the food was awesome.

Like just you couldn't believe what they come up with for food. like beef and pork and chicken and just a tremendous lot of food that we could we had access to. And, of course, you'd get out of school at four and have an hour, and then you had to go to the dorm and the people that were going to prepare the tables and everything had to be there by then and prepare the tables, supper at 5, 30. Then you had another hour and a half or two. and at 8 o'clock it was you had the study hour so at 8 o'clock until 10 o'clock you did your homework and that was like Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday and that was compulsory those two hours of homework

10 o'clock put your homework away at 1030 lights were out in the anics and you were in bed well you were supposed to be in bed supposed to be in bed now that's when that's when your best learning came Came about? That's when the jet hit the van, I guess. You was always somebody that had something to do, like pull your bed on the floor or off the top bunk or water it down so that it was a little wet to sleep in or there was lots of things going.

But you had to put up with that. They talk about bullying now. Yeah. There was bullying back then. And if you let somebody bully you, you were bullied. The only way that you weren't bullied is if you took the bully by the horns

and thumped him on and put him in his place. And I witnessed that. There was one kid that was getting bullied by another boy and he was really agitating at it. And one day in the hallway I was there when it happened. The one that was getting bullied

decided that was enough and he whipped that other kid into shape, give him two black eyes. And that kid had to go to school then and explain how he got his black eyes because everybody wanted to know, and of course they were going to find out no matter what. And so he had to tell him that, well, he just kind of whipped my clock for me. And I'm kind of glad that I don't have to put up with that anymore, I guess. Did you ever have to whoop on any bullies, Sheper? No, I didn't. No, I always got along.

No, we had water fights and bedpoles and, oh. What's a bedpole? When you go and grab a guy's bed and pull it off and onto the floor. With him in it? Oh, yeah, sometimes. Sometimes without him in it. But if he wasn't in it, then you'd take it and put it in the shower and turn the cold water on. mattress, blankets, and everything.

What would a man have to do to get a bedpole thrown in the shower? Well, you'd have to do something pretty bad. That reminds me of when Evander Kane. I mean, it's kind of similar, but not really. Avanicane was playing in Winnipeg. What was that, three, four years ago? Yeah. Remembering the boys there took all his clothes and threw him in the shower?

That was right before he got traded out of there. Oh, yeah, yeah. And you always wonder, they said he wasn't a team guy or something along those lines. And you wonder what really went on in there to get it to that point. Because I played a lot of hockey in my time and I've never, I don't think I've experienced something like that. But I've seen a lot of stuff, but nothing to push us that far. I would have been, I'd love to have been a fly on the wall back in the attic when the bed was going in the shower and hear what was, I can't imagine sleeping on a wet bed all night. Oh, yeah.

Well, you didn't. You had to make do with something else. But one thing that taught you was how to get along with people. Yeah. You know, if you didn't get along, you didn't stay. There was, I witnessed three or four people that just couldn't take it. Yeah. Like they would come for a couple of weeks or months or maybe half a year and then they were gone.

We got trouble. No, all good. All good. I'm staring at the mic going, that seems awkward, but it's all good. Yeah. Anyway, that's dorm life. And it was an education in itself, and it was great. And I thank people for it because I'm still friends with some of those guys that I went to school with and kids got it.

Well, you'd develop a bond being that close to them. You know, stuck in a room with, I can just imagine for five days a week, close quarters, right? You'd have to develop bonds. And you'd have to develop how to deal with some people's quirks, I bet. Yeah. Yeah. It was, we had a few incidents where the dean had to come down and straighten things out a little bit. We snuck out a time or two and went to the Marween rodeo dance in June.

And we had, we called it the Great Escape. Yeah. It was in, the dorm was in that old Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. And then one of the rooms upstairs where Ronnie Sand, that was his room. There was an escape hatch out through the roof and you could go up on the roof and then walk down the roof

and then slide down onto a banister and then down onto the ground and there was usually a waiting car. Well, we had a fella from Clan Donald and he had a 1936 Chev with a six-cylinder but straight pipes on it on three cylinders on each side.

We stuck out and pushed the car down because it was loud. Pushed the car down the hill and started it up and went to the dance. Come back as daylight when we come back. How are we going to get this thing back to where it's supposed to be on the lot at the dorm? Well, if you get her going fast enough down the main street, you'll be able to just shut her off and coast over her. Well, we did.

We got her going pretty good and coasted over the sidewalk, but the matrons boy, Billy, had left his wagon there. And when we went over top of that wagon with that 36 jet, it made a heck of a noise. And did they all come, anybody come running out? No, nobody come running out. So you're saying sneaking out of the house isn't a new idea.

That's been around for years and years and years. No. And the girls' dorm, of course, was over on the other side of town. And they pulled some of the great escapes too, of course, and had to go to the dance with us because we needed a partner. Well, absolutely. You need a dance partner. Yeah.

Well, that's awesome. So you say you learn how to, or going to the Kid Scotty school and boarding there helped you learn how to get along with people. Is that kind of where you found your passion for, like, the sporting kids? Because, I mean, you've been doing that a long time. You're mentioning, I don't remember it, but foster sports in town. Yeah. And you started there after high school then?

Yeah, in 1963, so I was 22 when I started there. Okay. October 1 is 63. And my uncle, who was a self-taught gunsmith, said to me one day, he said, do you think you would like to work in a sporting goods store? And I said, you know, that might be a good thing. I was working in the UGG elevator and Kitska, or in Vermilion at the time, with a old friend of mine who taught me how to drink scotch, I guess, Neil McLean.

And it sure didn't do him any good just by the passing because he just passed away here not too long ago at 103. 103? Yeah. So he made it already down the scotch. Yeah, no kidding. Anyway, Dee said to me one day, he said, do you think he would like to work in a sporting store?

I thought, yeah, that might be a good idea. He said, why don't you come down in the morning and go talk to Bill Foster? looking for some workers there. So I went down and talked to Bill and he said, what the heck, let's give her a go. And Bill was from North Battlefield, and he's a brother-in-law to Skip Crake,

who was playing pro-hockey. And so we got going and kind of got along together, and I did the work, and he did the plan, and everything went fine until 1986, I guess. well, backtracking a little bit, 63 to 72. We were right in the corner where factory sports is now,

but it was where they had all their off-season goods in that one little quarter. In that one little corner, yeah. And the pool room was in the back of that building, and Norm's Barbershop was there, and they had, I think, a insurance office was there. Graham and Rory Home was just down the street with insurance. but in 1972 we bought

what was then Hanson's hardware Bill Foster bought it and we started our store in that so we had to move two doors down the store that I'm in now was an empty lot and we used that for boats

and snow machines when we were in the boat and snow machine business downtown Okay and there was a an original snow machine sitting there in that empty lot one day and it needed some gas. And what it was just on the front end was skis with a hood on it.

And the back end was the track, which was like a feeder chain on a combine or something that was only about 12 inches wide though. And it was made of steel. And the motor sat behind that right on the back end. and it was just a little air coup of motor. Foster decided one day he's going to go over and see Sid and Bob Beckson over at White Rose where about where the United Church is now.

And lo and behold, he got over there and, of course, had a coffee and something and went to start that machine on the way back. And in order to stop it, you had to push a piece of metal down on top of the spark plug and just ground it out, and that would stop the engine. So he pulled the rope. and away it went.

Swallow was stuck wide open. But he managed to leap and hit that button and it stopped. So they fooled around with it for a minute or two and figured they had it all going. So CDK May and Big Larry Northquist, he said to Bill, well, we'll grab a hold of the handlebars and hold it just in case it gets away on you again. So they were holding on to the handlebars,

and Bill gave it a pull, and away it goes with them. Dragging them along. Trying to stop it then, that feeder chain was just digging into the ice and wanting to go. Anyway, Bill got her stopped again, so he burglied around with a little bit more. Turned it around and headed it the other direction. Figured he had it going, so he pulled the rope, and away it goes across the street to the north, and there was a used car lot there.

And it went right between two cars into that lot and up against the brick building there and stopped. So then they'd be able to. really did fix it so it wouldn't do that anymore. Just another one in the snow machine industry. Yeah, and when did you guys get, like... That was about 1965 or 66. And how long do you sell snow machines and boats for?

Well, until about 1986. And in 1986, we, Bill Foster bought what is now the Royal Bank building. Okay, right on Highway 17 there. Right on Highway 17 at the corner of 49th and 50th, 48 and 50th, 49th, 48 and 50th, anyway, that building we purchased and put the sporting goods store in there, and he sold the boat lot that's now that was over there on Highway 17 where, well, where donut shopping shopping shopping. is there and Tim Horton's yeah and that video store that used to be there and yes I know you're talking the photography's mr. Bill and yeah yeah that property as we purchased that Bill Foster purchased that in 1986 and no he sold it in 1986 we started that in 1972 we started that in 1972 and sold it in 1986 and

then started the sporting goods store in the Royal Bank building and proceeded to not do very well because of the downturn in the economy at that time just curtailed what we were trying to put together there. A beautiful store, but couldn't make it. So in 1989, I purchased all the existing stock and moved it over to what is. Walt Rables, where I am now. Where the Shep's store is now. Yeah, that was Walt's Westernware.

It was built about 1975, I think, is when he built that. So I moved into there at that time. Your daughter Brenda had an interesting memory from back then when you started up at the Shep's Sports store. He said you called a family meeting. And I love this quote. She said, you said, you sat us all down. And we were having a family meeting about whether or not you're going to start the Shep's Sports Store.

She said, if we make money at this, it won't change who we are. And for the people who have never been to Shep's store, even since I was a little kid, you walk in. And it was probably the friendliest place you're ever going to go into. I just got to, I was laughing with Brenda actually yesterday. And I finally got to have a coffee for the first time at coffee row at Shep's. And I said that's been, I've walked by it so many times. And then yesterday when you offered it to me, well, I got to sit down and have a coffee at Shaps. I mean, I've been walking by this now for a few years.

But it's such a friendly place. And I mean, like you've been, I don't know, almost like a pillar of the community shepherd. Like I always joke, there's no better skate sharpening in town. But I don't know if I've had my skate sharpened by anybody else, but you since I was yay high, right? Like I was, I was, everybody speaks so highly of you. And I don't know, I just, I enjoyed that you had the family meeting. And Brendan said, if you told the kids and at the time she said she didn't understand, now she understands. But if you were going to make money at it and you made a bazillion dollars,

it wasn't going to change how you're going to do and live life. Well, that's what's happened. We haven't made a zillion dollars. And now we're going backwards. but anyway we're still there serving coffee and talking to the people. Every time I go in there, there's about seven or 80 of you, just having a grand old time. Yeah, we discuss a lot of things. Some of it's even true.

Yeah. I had, we were talking about different families and how you've been, well, you've had the sports store open 30. years now and how you've probably seen and i always use my experience right you you saw five little newmans come through or you've seen the generations come through is there any stories from the store that just stick out or um where people are coming through or uh i mean you go through the like i was looking at the walls yesterday and and you got like you know you got the you got the big names you got the the holtby the mccarthy the redden the the crag you you You go down the list.

You got all, and then, but you go, I started looking further. You got the spurs from back in the day that won a national championship. And they were, I'm going to get scolded for this when I come home because Jason was on that team. And dad helped coach that team. But that was, I think, Bannam or Peeway, maybe midget. I can't remember now, but softball, fastball. Yeah. And there's a bunch of minor hockey teams.

You got the should have had them's up there. I guess I'm just curious like you ran the sports store for so so long there has to be or maybe there isn't but there must be something that sticks out in your mind as like a fond memory from running it or somebody who walked through your door and you were like oh geez I won't forget that anytime soon yeah well there's a couple of things that have happened for one thing Brady hoppy used to come in and Greg used to bring him in and have something to do and he'd say yep and you look at after Brady while I go and do this and that and I'd say worry you back. And Brady would put every piece of equipment on other than the skates.

He'd put the helmet, he'd put the gloves, he'd put the pads, he'd put the body pad, and then he'd stand there and he would shadow saves. And the only thing I didn't do was get a picture of that. How old are you been then? Oh, time flies, you know. Oh God, I don't know. It was a long time because he was just a little guy. He was just a little guy, yeah.

Five, six years old. Shep, the babysitter of Braden Holby. Yeah. Yeah. And when Joy Hartnell brought Scotty in for a pair of skates, and of course I took trades, so took the old ones, and Joey said, so how much to owe you, Shep? I said, 10% of his first contract,

but I never got it in writing. If you're listening to this, Scott, you owe, Shepard 10%. 10% of what he did. That's a lot of money. Yeah, yeah. There's just been so many guys. Like, it started, I guess, with Paul Kelly maybe, you know, back then

when he couldn't make the midget team in Lloyd Minster, so he went to Mar Wayne and played hockey. Yeah. And then went out to New West Minster. and played hockey, and then he went to Los Angeles and played hockey. Yeah. Played for 12 or 14 years there. And I'm sure he's the only guy that's got a cartoon that was made by one of the cartoonists in

Los Angeles, and there's a pair of skate sticking out of the penalty box with number nine on the back and a red leaf on the front, and he's looking at the ref and saying, Gordy who? He put Gordy Howell into the penalty box with a body check. No kidding. And never got any retaliation against it. Yeah. He's a big man, though.

Yeah, he is. But then again, you're talking about Mr. Hockey. Yeah. Yeah. Skippy tells a story, too, when he was playing against Gordy and Marty, was it? Marty was the other one that played with him in the NHH. The brother you're talking. Yeah.

Well, his son. Or son, yeah, no, sorry, you're right, yep. And Skippy said, I give Marty a cheap shot like you can't believe. He said it was really dirty. And he said, I know Gordy's seen it. And then I had to take a break, and then I had to go out, and I knew Gordy was going to be on the ice. And he said, that is the only time that I never wanted to go back on the ice for my

shift. But he said, no retaliation. He said, oh, God, he said, I just was sweating bullets. But, yeah, he said, everything went cool. Lots of hockey stories. Oh, there's so many hockey stories. Well, you've seen it all, right? I mean, like, I was curious. I got one of my questions that I wanted to ask you on the hockey front, or actually, I'll leave it open to sport, is in Lloyd, what do you think is the best group of players on a team? So the best team in town that's come through. Is there a team that sticks out? Border Kings.

Yeah, Border Kings? Border Kings. They had that stretch of years, when was that, 2000-ish to 2001. Well, 12 was the last year they hosted. They won it the first time in 2001, and then 2007. Does that sound about right?

Yeah, it must have been. Something like that. I think it's 2001 and 2007. Somebody will comment if I'm a little off there. But that group of guys with... Yeah, but it started a long time before that. Well, we were talking about that.

We were sitting there yesterday, and I wrote it down. Okay, so I'm sitting here, everybody's listening, they're going to be driving along, you're going to listen to this. I'm asking the question of, as Shepard said it, do you know who Max Bentley is? And I went, Max Bentley? Who is Max Bentley? I got no idea.

And you had a little gleam in your eyes. He said, just look them up. So, all right. So I looked him up. Max Bentley, who eventually coached. the border kings. Yes, he did. With Toronto, he won three cups in 48, 49, and 51. He won two heart trophies with Chicago before that.

The first, he had 61 points, and he was the first Blackhawk to ever win the heart trophy. Then his second, he had 72 points in 60 games ahead of Maurice Richard. I think we all know who that is. The Rocket. Played in the NHL's first All-Star game, where they played, I didn't realize this, I was looking up once again going back to talking to dad with the home on all-stars. I didn't realize the All-Star games used to play. They used to be the league's best used to play the Stanley Cup winner.

Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah, there's old Hillman All-Stars. Lynn Priest has a box of stuff from back in the 60s when Hillman won a bunch of champions, well, won three championships in a row. And it's Hillman All-Stars versus Saskelt All-Stars or something along that lines. I always, I was like, oh, they were that good. I didn't quite fully understand. And I got talking to dad, and we'll know.

Back in the day, the Stanley Cup champ used to play the rest of the leagues also. That was the All-Star game. I see. Yeah, that makes sense. Hey, I'm teaching you something. Yeah, right, yeah. Anyways, going back to Max Bentley, so he wins two hearts. He's in the first All-Star game.

He wins a Lady Bing. And then for all my friends who are all over the Oilers whenever they make a poor trade, How about this for a portrait? Well, maybe not a portrait. I'll let you guys decide. He was Delta Toronto with Sy Thomas. Sy Thomas, from what I can understand, only played 12 games in the NHL. And in return, Chicago got Gus Bodner, played 12 games in the NHL as well.

Bud Polly, who played 12 years with a Calder trophy, two cups in an All-Star game. Gay Stewart, I hope I'm pronouncing that right. 14 years with a Calder trophy, over-rocked Richard that year. Two cups, 500-plus games. Ernie Dickens, one cup, and Bob. Goldham, 15 years, five Stanley Cups, and sixth All-Star game appearances. And the article read, trade sent shockwaves through the league when Toronto did it. Now, in their defense, Toronto did win, I think it was three of the next four years,

and that's where Bentley, Max Bentley, won all his cups. Anyways, where I'm going with is all this, that's what you go, you should look up Max Bentley. Max Bentley. Yeah. And he used to coach the Border Kings. Yes, he did. And Lynn Bentley used to play with him. and it was a nephew of his

and they were a little bit off the board as far as people though but they Max was beyond his ability to really perform at a high rate of endurance because I think he was

probably in his early 60s when he coached and played with the Hortic Kings and he played and played well he didn't give me that nuggett of information. He was Reg Dunlop, the player coach. Yeah. Yeah. Well, he he coached and played. At 60 years old. Yeah. You know, I was having the conversation, uh, oh, I've probably had it on every podcast now. People are probably getting tired of hearing it. But I'm 32 now. I'm still playing Sask Delta. And I asked the question, you know, at what age did guys retire and that kind of thing?

Because I got friends who retired in their 20s. I got friends who retired at, well, brothers that retired, 34 so a couple years off and everybody has you know their different stories and why they retired and then I hear 60 like I highly doubt I can play that good at 60 but and I didn't beat murice richard for the heart trophy in the NHL by any means but that's a long time to play yeah and that was a tough game back then but you still play the game very well so you can't quit well I was uh at the game on Friday night and there was a metal lake gentleman there that was senior like but well spoken and well versed in hockey and he said you got to watch that Sean he controls the game back there and he said he controls it very well and that's a quote well I appreciate that I'll take

that as a feather in my cap yeah and so what you're saying is I got to play tell at least a few more years. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. If you win the cup again this year, it'll be what the heck. Well, for the people who don't know, and we beat Meadowlake in double overtime for the second straight game to move on to the Saskalta finals

against St. Walberg, which starts this Friday. And St. Walberg beat Wainwright, who had been the three-time champ, so it'll be a good series. You bet. Yeah. But, I mean, that's the way it should be. It should be.

I was actually asking around, because I can't remember the last time the Saskalta Championship had two SAS teams in the final. It's got to be quite a few years. Yes. Yes. So how did that go? St. Walberg beat Wainwright?

Yeah, St. Walberg beat Wainwright and the other semifinals, four games to one. Wow. Yeah. They got one heck of a line on the top there with that St. Jacques, who used to be assistant coach for the Bobcats. Okay. And then they got that Bailey, who was the MVP. leading goal score most points of our league this year and then Casey Knight who once again

somebody's going to correct me because I'm probably going to be wrong on this but I think he played junior A in North Battleford and then I believe he was at Lakehead out in Thunder Bay and so he they got they got a top notch first line yeah and they can put the puck in the net there's no doubt about that so who are you going to put on them to cool them oh yeah that's a trade secret I guess So going back to Max Bailey, or Max Bentley, sorry, Bailey, Max Bentley. So he, this, like, was Lloyd in shock that they got a heart trophy winner at that time? Or was it not that big a news?

You know, I didn't, I was just a student of the game by it back then. And it really didn't ring any bells. I knew that he had been in the NHL, but, and that he was old enough to be probably not a top-knock player. but he still knew how to carry the puck and go from one end to the other. Maidstone was in that league back then, and they hated him with a passion, maybe because he was good or a little better than average. Yeah. Yeah.

But that was in the days when the Border Kings were something to watch. Yeah. And that was in the old rink, the old rink over there on 50th and 48th, the corner. about where that medical center is now. Yeah. Behind the fire hall. Behind the fire hall. Yeah.

Well, I don't know what year that got torn down, but it was long before my time, I assume. They opened the Civic Center in 67. 66, they had it open. Yeah, 67 it was dedicated, but 66. When was that place? I always wondered, like, when the Civic Center was built, was it just you walked in and it was, wow? Like, because it's a gorgeous rink now. And I know they had to refurbish it and everything, but I mean, it's always been a really nice rank.

Yeah, it was. Yeah, very nice. And that was when the Border Kings were Frankie Mapletoff and Owen Rogers, and then they brought in the boys from Edmonton, Chetna, Schultz, Rogaveen. You're saying these names, and I, well, I know the local guys, the Frank Mapletop, so those guys. Yeah. But the guys Remington, were they? They were something to watch.

Schultzsche was a fellow who liked his wine a little bit, and every once in a while got a little bit short of money or something maybe. And Jim Hill had a little bit to do with the Border Kings back then. And he'd come in to Fosters and he'd say, Shep, you got to pursue skates around. Okay, so what size do you need? Well, I'd like a nine or nine and a half. Schultz needs a pair.

Seems to have lost his or pond at my time. I haven't got any of that, Jimmy, but I got a seven and a half here, a seven. That'll do. And away he'd go with them, and Schultz are playing a hell of a game of hockey. I can just imagine his feet getting jammed into a tiny pair of skates. But he was some kind of a hockey player. In fact, every one of those was a really good hockey player. And we had some series with the loggers out of Powell River.

Okay. And one year we would go there, and the next year they would come here for the interprovincial, like Alberta against B.C. Yeah. And it was a real tussle, because those old lagers, boy, I'll tell you, they were tough. If you beat them, did you go to the Allen Cup after that? No, that was it. That was it. Yeah.

Yeah. To my memory, anyway, I don't think they had, they might have called those the Westerns back then, though. Okay. Okay. Somebody probably be able to clue me in on that, like Randy Smith probably would know for sure. Do you know, like with the guys that were coming out of Eminton, were they paying them money then to come play? I think maybe a little bit. Yeah.

Gas money. Yeah. Yeah. And you talk about this Schultz. Did he come from, well, at that time, it wouldn't have been the NHL. I don't think when in it. None of those guys I don't think played that quality of hockey, but they played up to like pretty good senior hockey.

Senior hockey. Yeah. Like Frankie Mapletoff probably could have gone someplace in the NHL, but he wasn't ready. Yeah. Johnny Rogers, he never played with the Border Kings. He was away playing better hockey. I shouldn't say better hockey.

He was playing different hockey. Different hockey. And then they had some boys from Boneyville, too, Belcourt, Johnny Belcourt and Sylvester. And they had a fellow from Leesk, Hubbard. Gordie Hubbard was quite a hockey player too. So they were actually bringing in players from around, but the boys from Emmington drove down every game. but Gordy was in town. He was working in town.

I thought about the name of Dave Boyer, who was the British American oil boat dealer. He played hockey. I watched him. Of course, back then there was no helmets, eh? I mean, you just, well, the odd guy wear a skull helmet, one with a bar across the top. But I watched Dave Boyer and a fella, I think, from Rosedown,

whack each other across the head. at least four times apiece, and every time it hit, there would be a streak of blood come out, and they'd just beat each other. Dumbest thing I ever seen. They could kill one another. But no. What did they get for that?

Five minutes apiece in the game. Nowadays, I get you a lifetime ban. Oh, yeah. Probably throwing in jail. Yeah. It was the dumbest thing I ever seen. One guy hit one guy, and he'd wait and the other guy and well him. Yeah.

And Dad talked about it, senior hockey back in the day, about it being so packed. Like so many people go and watch, I assume when the Border Kings back then, they'd get a ton of fans. Oh, they did. If you didn't get there at 6 o'clock for an 8 o'clock game, you stood.

And the fire chief would come in and he said, how many got in here? Well, we're just about full. And there was a guy sitting up and down on the walks going up and down the steps there that was absolutely totaled out of the line, but we were full. But you had to get there early, and it was great hockey, but you must remember. There was no television then.

Yeah. Foster Hewitt on the radio. Yeah. Yeah. But no television to watch, period. I mean, it just wasn't. You have two channels, and they didn't come in very clear because they were broadcast from Saskatoon or someplace. Yeah.

So did you fall? With the NHL, did you follow the NHL at all? I didn't. No, I didn't. Couldn't get it on the radio, and we never had power in our house. Did I have it on the television or anything like that? Never had power on the farm. No natural gas.

Yeah. But we did have a well in the cellar. How about the... I've always been curious. The bobcats in town, I always grew up with them as the Blazers. And initially they were the Lancers of the SGHL, correct? And around town with the people I talk with, they always talk about local talent going elsewhere.

And the one that always stands out to me, and I don't know the full story, and so I don't claim to know the full story. I just see it the way I saw it and remember it, and the way I always remember Clark is they cut him because he was too small. That wasn't the only team probably to cut. Clark because he was too small. But at that time when I was a year younger than Clark, and went and tried out with him and Michael Carosa and I feel like there might have been one more.

No, maybe it was just the three of us. We went and tried out in Strathcona for one of the city teams. And Carosa and Clark made it. And I came back. I got, I think I was, I don't know, I was one of the last cuts anyways on defense, but I came back and played. And I remember Clark even at that time, which was Bannam AAA, he just lit every league on fire. He was just that good. I don't care how small you are. He was that good. And I think, I want to say he had 90-some points that year. Once again, it might be a smidge off, but he put up a lot of points for Strathcone. And I remember he came out and tried out, I believe, for the Blazers. And I remember they told him he was too small or something along that lines. And then he went and played Drayton Valley that year.

And while he lit the league on fire in the next year, he went to Medicine Hat. And he was, and he Manhattan. Well, we all know the story, right? He gets drafted and then he plays in the NHL, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Played team Canada. Well, absolutely, right? Played on probably the best world junior team ever assembled. That's exactly right. Like, that was some team with Crosby and gets laugh and while the list goes on, right? And I mean, there was a lot of talented hockey players out here.

You know, it's always amazing to me that with the amount of, young players that we put in the NHL out of Lloydminster, and there's a bucket full of them that have roots in Lloydminster. And a lot of those couldn't make the junior A's. I don't know whether it's friction between coaches and local families, or I can't make my finger on it.

But it started when Paul Kelly wanted to play with the midgets and they didn't want them for some reason whether it was because of a friction with the family I have no idea his dad John was a hockey man like he was totally hockey he was in the Alberta Minor Hockey Association for quite a few years and chaired a lot of things and did a lot of things for hockey was really big on referees, standing up for referees, so that they got a fair shake when people were down on them. Whether it was the referee's fault or not,

he always stood behind the referees. He said, you've got to protect the officials because without them, you haven't got a game. And Paul had to go to my way. And you couldn't agree more with that, right? You can't. Referees are, that's a tough line of work. Oh.

And when you were like your game Friday night, I couldn't believe that I was watching the same game as the team as the, as the fans from Metal Lake did. I mean, they were really upset with the referee. And we're told one lad told his dad to shut up. That's enough because he was really down on the referee. Yeah. And it is, if you go to a game where you're absolutely unbiased, and I went with Johnny Kelly a time or two to provincial playoff games out of this district completely. One of them was in Drayton Valley or someplace like that where we had to drive out to there and watch Drayton Valley play some team out of northern Alberta or something for provincials. and as far as I was concerned, the reffing was super,

but not according to the fans that I was sitting with. They're just, they're blind or something. They can't see. Not the referees, either, the fans. Yeah, I'm sometimes a slow learner. I'm sure there will be a ref or two that listens to this, and if you'd talk to me four years ago at times, I have my father's temper on the ice,

and I've been known to say a few obscenities that get me ejected from a hockey game, and I always think I'm not doing anything wrong, but I've been really making a conscious effort in the last few years not to, wow, they're doing a good job, right? Yeah. And they can only call what they see, and they see things differently at times than what you see them and vice versa, right? Yeah, and sometimes they're at ice level,

and there's somebody in the front of them that they can't see. what just went on. Yeah. So they see the retaliation, and then you get a referee like Dionne Pollard. Yeah. And he's played the game

at a high level, and he knows that something happened to cause that altercation. So, take them both. Yeah. I didn't see it all, but I know there was something

happened before what I did see. That's right, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Going back to the Bobcats, they got the new head coach, new, is he general manager now? This dubay, I don't know much about them.

I don't know anything about it. But what always gives me hope when a new guy comes in is they got the opportunity to set it all straight. And you watch different programs, whether it's the AJ, senior hockey, NHL. If you get the right guy in place, he can make a lot of really good changes very quickly. Yeah. If they give him a lead to do that. Yeah. Like up until a few years ago, they wouldn't give the GM and the coach the same job.

Like, it just wouldn't happen. If you were going to be the coach, you couldn't be the GM. And that was when Orris went to Camrose. That's what happened there. The only reason he left town is because they wouldn't give them the GM's job. You want to both roles? Yeah. And look what he did that were there at Cameras.

I mean, took them to the finals a time or two. and probably won a cup. Well, do you remember what year that was? No, I don't. Because I remember when I was playing junior out in Ontario, the team to beat back in Alberta at that time was Camrose. And they were as good as Brooks is right now. They were the team that everybody wanted to go to,

and they had their hands on every young talented hockey player, it seemed like, and it seemed like there were a few steps ahead everybody. I don't know if that was his time. not but that was the time when they were in the in the rbc cup yeah and and they were a very talented team he went directly from lloyd minister to camrose because he couldn't they wouldn't give him the gym in lloyd and and that i don't follow hockey that much but uh it seems to me like if if he did us that good a job over in camrose maybe we could have had them here doing that kind of a job for the bobcats Yeah, there's just, yeah.

Players seem to want to play for somebody that's good enough to put them up into the higher echelon and get an education out of it. Yeah. Not to say that the Bobcats haven't done that. There's a few guys that have got an education out of it, and that's a good thing. Yeah, absolutely. Well, the games changed now, too. I don't like, and it's probably similar to this back when I was playing.

It was only 2004 was my first year and junior. but when I was playing back then the amount of guys now that get scholarships is unbelievable and for the most part you were building if you brought an 18 year olds they stayed three years for you right like they were playing until you're 20 you wanted to max out in your 20 year olds you wanted to build that group that core group but man like you watch

and I'm no expert on it right I probably say that time and time again, but you watch the junior ranks now, and there's guys who play half a year or a year, and then they're gone to NCAA or wherever. It's a quick in and out lots of times, and that's tough on a program. When you lose your star players that quick, you only get them for a year, you only get to, you know, and you're trying to develop somebody at 18 and mold them into somebody because there's a huge change that goes from 18 to 20. Yeah, yeah.

And I mean, an even bigger change in 20 to 25, and I'd argue even, a better change yet again from 25 to 30. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. You just get smarter. I lose a little hair, but we haven't talked yet about, I mean, your four-time champ. Let's talk about, like, four-time national champ sheper. I don't know how many, I mean, I'm sure there's a lot of people that do know that,

but I'm going to sit here and say that a good majority of Lloyd didn't know. We had a trap shooter in town that was that good, let alone four times that good. And you started at 35 is what you told me. Yes, yeah, I did. So before we go 35 onwards, maybe we could pull it back before 35. Like, did you grow up hunting and around guns? You'd mentioned you had, I think it was an uncle that was self-taught. Is that how you learned then?

He was the one that was responsible for most of my gun things that happened. Yeah. Of course, living out on the farm, he had coal and wood stove, eh? So, he always had an ash pile that had the ashes on it. And right below our house was a nice-sized slew, which always had a mud duck or two or something out there that you could shoot at, even though you're not supposed to shoot muddocks. but he had a what they called a 244 rifle which is a four runner to the 6mm and they're pretty quick

and they got quite a muscle blast and I'm 13 years old or 12 years old and I'm gung-ho to go and I'm a pretty good shot and well here really good place right here at this ash pile he said just lean over that ash pile he said lay down in your belly and put the gun down there and he said shoot at one of those mud ducks out there on the slew. So he loads me all up. I get down on this thing and I get the mud duck in the scope. I pull the trigger and there's ashes come out of the muzzle blast of that thing like you can't believe.

Just covered me. And I look around to see where he is and he's about 15 or 20 feet behind me. Just killing himself laughing because I'm covered in these ashes. Whether I hit what I was shooting at, I have no idea. But that was a good education right off. the bat, the muzzle blast on a rifle that you don't want to be out there when that happens. And that started from there, and then we would go duck hunting, and we would go grouse hunting. Never ever did go deer hunting, but grouse and bird hunting was always in forefront with him.

Yeah, and so then you're 35, and somebody suggests that you, hey, why don't you get into a trap shooting? Yeah. Yeah, that's what happened. And not only do you get into trap shooting, I mean, it takes a few years. It wasn't like the next year, all of a sudden, your world chant or Canadian champ by any means. No. No. But you have to work at it.

Yeah, it won't like anything, right? You got to put in the time to get better at anything you do. Yeah. The more you do something, then you build that skill. But, I mean, so you start in 75, and then, I mean, what is it? 78? 77. 78?

That you win your first one. No, 80. Or not 70, sorry, 80. 87, 87, 88. Yeah. 87, I won the doubles in Hamilton. And I tied an eastern person with 97, so we had a shoot-off. Yeah. And I beat him in the shoot-off and won it on the first goal.

You should, for the people who don't know trap shooting, what is doubles versus singles? The level is there's five walks where you stand and they throw two targets at each one of those stations five times. So there's 10 targets come out on each one of those stations for a round of 50. And two targets come out simultaneously and you have two shells in a shotgun and you break both targets if you can. In Hamilton, when I won the first one, I broke a 97 to get the tie. and then I ran the tie so that we got that cup won. That started it off. And next year it was in Brandon, the Canadian.

And these Canadian shoots back then were probably, they're a lot smaller now, but there was probably between 350 and 400 shooters there that were competing for the same prize. So, you know, it was a little tougher back then. And it's really tough now because I can't hit the darn things. And then in 1988 and Brandon, I broke a 97 again, maybe a 98, and won that one, that one clean. Didn't have a shootoff.

And my very good buddy, Jerry Mills, broke a 199 in the singles. So we had two Lloydminster boys with first price prizes in the Canadian. I talked to Jerry today. Yes. He's very humble. Yes, he is. He was talking that he doesn't shoot anymore. No.

But he said he said Chef's been slacking off too. Yeah, that's the truth. Can't hit him anymore. Neither one of us. So then you win two in the 80s. You win your third in 94. 94. Yeah.

And then 95 you win it in the 80s. singles. Yeah. And the singles were probably a feather in my hat because I don't shoot singles that well. I've always shot doubles fairly good. We went out and we shoot them in hundreds. So you go out and shoot 100 targets and then they take a break and then you shoot another 100 targets. So first 100, I broke 100.

Hit them all and felt pretty good. and then the second hundred, you know, when it gets towards the end when you're going 195, 196, it gets a little so that the feathers in your stomach are starting to get out of there. Absolutely. Anyway, I managed to break the next hundred, so we have 200. 200, you broke everyone. 200 straight, yeah, never missed any targets.

So then, of course, there's always somebody else that shoots one or two of them. So I was tied with a friend of mine from Brooks, Ron McConnell, and a fellow from Calgary that turned out to be the ATA president in later years, who is the only Canadian that was ever the ATA president for the whole of North America. Oh, wow, okay. Anyway, we went out to the shoot-off. and yeah the bugs are flying you know they're giving you a little bit of you just hit 200 and it still ain't good enough so we shot the first 25 and two of us went broke all them and Rodney McConnell missed one so he was out so now you've hit 225 in a row and you still don't have no do you win a trophy a buckle statue do they give you a golden gun it's just just a the trophy. It's just another plate or

another cup or whatever. Fair enough. So now you're at 225? Yeah. So then we went back and got another box of shells and went out and we both ran nose so now we're at 250. 250 straight, no misses. And then we went out and got another box of shells and we'll go out and

Jesus, if he didn't miss one and right behind him I missed mine. So there we are a 24 piece. So then we went back and got another box of shells. Now we're on the 300. And he happened to miss one more, and I buckled down and managed to break all mine. So I had a $2.99 to win a singles event.

And that was in Evanton. And in Evanton, they've got plaques on the wall made out of wood. Okay. They're long woods. And they have your name up there with your scores, hundreds and two hundreds. They've been in Broke. Yeah. And I've got a couple of, they've got a little stud star that goes in with each hundred that you break.

So I've shot two one hundreds in Edmonton, so I got two little buckles there and there are little stars. And then I got a 200 with one star in it. And it's pretty neat to go there and just look at all the names that are up there and how many little stars. those guys have got like 15 or 20 of those little stars where they've got a hundred straight in competition. There's some good shooters out there. You're pretty good though. I was I was saying at the start of this what we should have done is yesterday we should have grabbed a box of shells and you could have showed me a thing or two. I don't think I can hit them anymore but we will in the spring when we start the club sure we can do that. Well I'm going to hold you to that

or you can hold me to that because I have a little 50 bird sporting clay shoot out at the on too this summer sometime or spring perfect well I guess count me in because I'm Nigel was telling me about it the other day oh really yeah yeah well I'll have to do it yeah because I mean it's a lot of fun sporting plays is a lot of fun yeah it's simulated hunting and everything is two two birds come but they don't come out of the same house maybe they might come from different directions or spring and teal or something like that there's just a barrel of fun You'd really enjoy that. Did you ever, I don't know if it's teacher, mentor or do anything like that with the?

No. No, never took a lesson, never gave a lesson. I shouldn't say that. I don't give lessons as such to be reimbursed or anything for it. But if somebody comes to our club and wants me to stand behind them and tell them, Give them a few points on where to look for the target, where to hold the gun. Safety, of course, is number one. So you've got to fill them in on the safety part of it right off the hop.

One bullet in the gun not loaded, like when it's your turn to shoot, you load it. Yeah. We've never had an accident and drop shooting, not ever. Table tennis can't say that. Some guy swallowed the ball and joked it after something. Some guy got killed in table tennis. But we've never killed anybody. Bullshit. That's true.

Really? Yeah. Here I thought you were pulling my leg. Some guy decided to smoke. They've had somebody die in table tennis. You can't fix stupid. No. That's right.

Holy crap. But we've never had a fatality in trap shooting. and like I was saying to you, when the Grand American in Sparta, Illinois, comes around every year in August, there's upwards of 5,000 people there with guns, competitors. And we actually have a Canadian from Brandon who has won that shoot completely,

like out of a thousand targets. He dropped like maybe two. Holy moly. Bullseye. Yeah. he's a really really really good juder what's his name you'd have to ask me that

um put you on the spot pull out your handy book Patty Patty Patty Patty Patty Patty Patty Patty Patty Patty Patty Um Lamont Patty Lamont Yeah and he's got

back to back in here in 2015 and 16 with 200 straight in singles and a $199 in singles and in doubles he shot 200 doubles no he shot a hundred doubles and 100 doubles back to back twice four times he's a heck of a shooter and he won the that grand American is very prestigious in trap shooting like you're going up against people that make a living at that just trap shooting. I asked you this off air, and I think I understood why it doesn't convert over, but I'm going to ask you again,

because trap shooting is an Olympic sport, and there's world championships every year. But that's Olympic trap. And it's just a little different. That's different, yeah. They shoot one target at a time, and they also have doubles that they shoot. But the targets are coming out at three different speeds,

at three different heights, off of three different traps. There's a bank of three traps in front of your walk. Yeah. And that target can come off any one of those traps. Have you ever tried it? Yeah, I've shot it a little bit. And just didn't like it.

Didn't like it. I just always assume, right? You see your national champion of trap shooting. And then you see Olympics, they have trap shooting. I'm like, holy crap, do we got Olympians sitting across from me? but it's just isn't this. It's a little bit different of a sport then. Rod Bull was an Olympic trap shooter,

and he's a really good ATA shooter, too, but he was Olympic champion in trap shooting. Okay. Yeah. He's from down in the South Country to down by Regina. Okay. And he was a really good Olympic trap shooter, but he shoots release trigger.

and a release trigger is in some instances you develop a flinch, which means that you can't pull the trigger. You see the target, everything's going fine, and you can't make that finger pull that trigger. It just won't. It locks up on you. Yeah. For various reasons.

They've kind of narrowed it down to recoil for one thing, noise for one thing, and confidence is the other. Like if you don't have confidence, breaking the target, you'll develop a flinch. So then you get a release trigger. It takes about 105 muscles to make your finger go with that. It takes two to go like that. So what they do is they mount the gun, pull the trigger, and hold it, and then call for the target, and then when the target comes out, they let their finger go. Instead of pulling it, they push it. And the gun fires. I tried it. I didn't like it.

That'd be hard to get your brain around. Yeah. Wouldn't it? Well, the guys that do it all the time. Yeah, it's still like anything else, right? They're so used to it. Yeah, yeah. But going from what you do to that,

yeah. Be retraining the brain. Yeah, it is. And I can't do that. I just about pull that whole forehand right off there, trying to pull that trigger, and it won't pull anymore because it's already pulled. Yeah.

And then you think, oh, yeah, I got to let it go. By then the target's on the ground. So both, there was two of them, really good friends of mine, Roddy Bowle and Gary Hill, and they both shot release triggers, and then the Olympic committee come out with, we are no longer can have release triggers, they're too dangerous. So they, if you shot release trigger, you had to quit the sport or else go back to a pull trigger. So they both quit the sport. No kidding.

Yeah. Yeah. And absolutely love. ATA trap-shitting. They said one thing they missed in Olympic trap was a camaraderie. The Italians went over there, the Frenchmen went over there, the other Englishmen went over there, and they were in a little group and they were bubbling amongst themselves, but there was no camaraderie between everybody. Like when you go to the Canadian trap-shoot, you pretty well know everybody there and everybody's willing to share stories with you.

That's a lot of fun. It is. Comratery is what it's all about. Yeah. Shooting 100 targets takes an hour, and so you're there for three hours a day shooting 300 targets. What are you going to do with the other 21 hours? You can't sleep them all.

Yeah. Yeah, no. No. Saskatchewan has always been known for their camaraderie and what kind of people they are and how bustling they are, you know. In Hamilton one year,

two of us went from Lloyd here. Ralph Mutter and I went down, flew down. And there were some other guys from Saskatchewan there. We rented a rent-a-wreck and had our own car and everything, and we were done at the club, so we went back to the motel room. Oh, shortly after dusk, 8 o'clock,

or 8.30. In they come into our room. Of course, we were all in one room. And, Shep, you got to get up and have a look at this. We got the bar. What do you mean you got the bar? We got the whole bar. There was nobody left

from the Hamilton Gun Clubs. He said, so we loaded her all in the New Yorker, and she's in the trunk. They go out and look, and they had the whole bar in the trunk. They'd taken it off the line, put it in the trunk, just in case somebody stole.

it in the middle of the night. So anyway, Jack Dury was from Saskatoon and he said in the morning, you know what we're going to do? We're going to get up. We're going to drive down the line like we own it. We're going to unload the bar and put it back to where it was and tell them we looked after it all night. And that's what you did? And that's exactly what they did, yeah. But everybody trusted Saskatchewan and they wouldn't steal from anything. So yeah. Just the whole bar. That's right, just the whole bar. Yeah, if you're going to steal, you might as well take it all. That's right.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it was fun. A lot of fun. There was five of us in a New Yorker going down to 401, and we're heading back to Toronto from Hamilton. And two big guys in the front from Macklin, and three of us in the back. And in those days, we used to keep our empty halls. So there's a thousand halls apiece.

so we had 5,000 hulls and five guys in a New Yorker. And we're going down to 401, and the guy on the right seat was the navigator. And we're going to four lanes of traffic or five or whatever happened to be. And we're on the left-hand lane, and all of a sudden he said, we got a turn here. No, we don't. We don't got a turn here. We can't turn here.

We got so much traffic. So we pulled over onto the shoulder on the inside and backed up for about three-quarters of a mile. that we could finally work our way over and get on to that one that we were supposed to be on. Where you're supposed to be going. Yeah. Crazy. Yeah. Get that doing that now and you're going to have some sirens coming out.

Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We haven't touched yet. I've walked by the picture in your store. I don't know. In the last several years, it always sticks out to me.

but with the should have had them as you played wreck with them for 30 years yes i did and we talked about camaraderie and that's what it's all about and i assume that's what that was all about right being on the same group of guys for that long um we talked i always thought they went to Hawaii but you corrected me and it's victoria they went to a few times i never went on one of those they were way too wild for me i was kind of a cool cool guy and had to to work, though. But I never went to Victoria, but I'll tell you some of the stories that come back from there were

just right out of this world. Yeah, they weren't good. I won't press you for too hard. You have to ask somebody that's a lot smarter than me and what happened, but yeah, they didn't have any really bad incidents, but they had a few that were close. Yeah.

I'd heard Brendan was telling me, your daughter, That, well, we talked, you retired in, you figured 2010. Yeah. And that's when. Donnie Olson passed away. Yeah, heart attack? Heart attack.

On the ice. On the ice. On the ice. Did, uh, with no, and Brenda was mentioning there was no defibrillators. Is it? You know, the city of Lloyd Minister had ordered defibrillators and they had come in and there was no French on them. So they didn't put them into the rinks.

because there was no French on them. They had them in their facilities, but not in the rinks. And we held a little wake over at Ross Richards. And I wasn't playing that particular game. And I said, boys, we have to have a defibrillator, and I got a hundred bucks to put in on it. and there was about 18 or 19 of us there and we each threw in a hundred and we bought a defibrillator that night kind of a thing

and to my knowledge joe rooks has still got it in his bag he carries it to every game never had to use it since but it's there it's there travels with the show to had them yeah yeah and you know i said this can happen to any one of us but it can also happen to some of the players that we play against play against they're all about the same age, you know, and it would really be nice if somebody could just say, hey, we've got a defibrillator, we'll get him back. Yeah, absolutely. We didn't have the opportunity to do that with Donnie, but the attending physician said that it probably wouldn't work, but I mean, you can't see it 100%. Yeah. He said that he was probably dead when he hit the ice. We've lost three now out of that group. Frankie Mann and Donnie Olson and Len James.

Yeah, Alan. Yeah, I played with all them. Frank, he is. Frank, man, is. Yeah. Yeah. He was quite the guy. I got to go roll while.

Best friends with his, with Colby. Well, and Brew's been my defense partner now for, I've been giving him a rough time, actually, Brooke, because he's out right now with an injury, and we have this, I don't know, I keep, I keep all the alumni stats for the Hitman. So we're both at, he's been beating me for the, last little bit on games played most games played we actually just passed brad

simons we retired brad simon's jersey um oh geez that was probably last year i think two years ago my memory is getting bad on me and uh brood just passed them this year but then he got hurt here in playoffs so i've been teasing them every game because i just tied it back up we're both played over 200 games now for the hitman so i tease them all the time because because uh oh it's a little of a feather in our cap, whoever's leading the most games played, right? Yeah. But Frank was one of the best. Yeah.

He was, there's not too many guys like Frank out there. There's not too many guys like Shep out there. Well, yeah. We both were on the same team, so we knew what it was like. Frankie and I, and Freddy Gagne and I used to play defense. Okay. I was 44 and he was 55, and you know what that makes? 99.

Is that why you took, is that why? Somebody had come in, I took the picture of your should have had them's jersey and, what did they say, good old Reggie Jackson number. Was there a reason why you took 44? Yeah, well, we started a new team, and I was 44 years old, I guess, when we started it, so I took 44 and so many other guys took, like 39 or 38. My 44th birthday, we played in a tournament in Grand Center, and it was quite a hoot.

Donnie Olson was sitting on my cowboy hat all night, and I didn't know that until I went to go home and couldn't find my hat. Went back to Donnie's room because we were playing Lair's Dice in there. I said, Donnie, you've seen my hat? No, Shep, I haven't seen it.

Next morning, he brought it to me. It wasn't pretty. Oh, yeah, Donnie Olson. was one of the kind. Yeah. Yeah, good guy. Well, my final question for the night is, is are you ever going to,

comes from your daughter, actually. Is are you ever going to retire? You've been running chefs for 30 years now. You know what I'm telling people now? What are you telling them? Today was one day closer, period. Period. Well, here's, I said this,

the day you sell your skate sharpener, I might be done playing hockey. So if you say I got a few more ears than me, you might as well just keep it going. I'm like, hire you to come out. I mean, don't get me wrong, because Leo, listen to this. Lee's a good skate sharpener, too. I just, I joked around with Brenda again, right?

We were talking earlier today. I joked around with her that I said, every time I come in and I've had my skate sharpened by somebody else, you go, you only use me, right? And I go, yeah, why? It doesn't look like my sharpening. I'm like, oh, you still got it. Yep, no, Lee sharpened those because I stepped on something

and Lee had to run them through. If you retire, I don't know what I'm going to do. Ah, well, we might not have a store, but we might still have the skatechartener. How's that? Sounds good. As long as I'll just bring a bottle of scotch over, sit and have a scotch and get my skate sharpened. Yeah. I once thought, you know, that some young entrepreneur should put a camper on the back of a half-ton with a generator

and put one of those dupluscate sharpeners in the back. Yeah. And just go town to town three different days a week and have it set up with a hotel or a garage or something that's going to be open in the evening. Yep. So that you can take, go to that place and sharpen skates for an hour and give him back to the hotel and let him collect the money

and then the next time he comes through, he pays you. I think it would be a hell of a thing. Like a traveling skatechartner, you could hit Kitt Scottie, Marwain, Dewberry, Clan Donald, and up there, Bonneville. Now they got those, you can buy skatechartner. Guys are putting them right in a garage chaper. Oh, yeah.

Like, uh... I sold one to Quist. This is the same as mine, exactly. Really? In Marwain. Yeah. He just does his own kids. Yeah.

Because it doesn't matter how good you are. you'll do a bad job on somebody's, and then the world will get out because you're not a good skate sharpener, and that'll be it. So it's better not to start. Yeah. There was a fella from Thunder Bay.

His son is married to Randy Noble, Eddie Noble's daughter. Yeah. Jesse, yeah. And we were playing golf out at Silverwell, or at Silver Lake. Eddie and I and Annie and Jesse's Dad.

Okay. And Irish Schlep. That's all he knew was my name was Schlep. So one day he phoned Eddie Noble and it happened to be the hockey day in Canada, first one they had. Yeah. And he said,

Eddie, you know Wade Redden? Yeah. He knows Schlep. He knows who? Schlep. You know that Schlep that we. we were golfing with. Shep. Yeah, him. I heard him say on national television. He was being interviewed on Hockey Day in Canada and he said, oh, and by the way, he said, thanks,

Shep, for all the skate sharpening you did when I was playing junior there. He said, he knows Wade Redden. Yeah. So it was on national television, my skate sharpening. That's right. Well, it's renowned. It's top notch. I always look forward whenever I came back from wherever I was, getting my skate sharpen there and going for a burn. Yeah. I always laugh. Well, you just did it.

You haven't made me pay for a skate sharpener. One of these times I'm just going to... Well, actually, you know what? Now that I know what, I'm just going to bring you a ball of scotch. And that's what I'm going to do. But since I've been back, you've only made me pay for, like, maybe one skate chirping in, like, I don't know, six years, seven years. But I laughed the last time I was in, you got that little box of skate sharpening cards.

Yeah. I said, ah, Shep, what do I owe you? And you open it up and you started looking through old relatives that are passed on. Well, he ain't using this. And you clipped it and said, you're good. And I was like, well, that's it in a nutshell. Yeah, yeah. Well, I really appreciate you coming in, Shep.

This has been a lot of fun. I know I'm going to remember this day for a long time. I've really enjoyed having you in here. Well, that's fine. And I've enjoyed being here. What are we, two hours now? No, actually, I think we're an hour and a half, hour and 27 minutes is what we went. That's the longest I've done yet.

You got a nice, the boys were giving dust on the last one a little bit of rough time because he had the first swear ever on the podcast. We each had one tonight, so. I'll probably have a phone call from my mother, but that's all right. Oh, saying what? We're a little obnoxious? Oh, no, I think she'll be fine with you, but I'll, I'll probably get a little bit more.

Well, I hope it's not too severe. No, it's always good. It's always good. It's always good. Well, once again, I really appreciate it. This has been a lot of fun. And if you will have to, maybe we'll have to hop on here one more time

after you teach me a thing or two shooting some skates. Okay. Sounds good. Awesome. Thanks, Shepherd. Thank you very much, John. Hey, guys. I hope you enjoyed that as much as I thoroughly did.

Next week we have Greg Buchanan in. He is vice president of the Canadian professional Chuck Wagon Association, director of hockey operations for the Lloydminster Jr. B. Bandits, former general manager of the two-time Allen Cup champion, the Lloydminster Border Kings, and he's been in around the hockey world for a long time. So stay tuned for next week as we have Greg Buchanan in. Thanks for listening, guys.