Shaun Newman Podcast - #7 - Harland Lesyk

Episode Date: March 20, 2019

Harland Lesyk owns the Weekly Bean newspaper that is distributed in Kindersley, Moose Jaw & Lloydminster. He played hockey all over the world including South Africa, Holland and the United States. Former President of the Wild Goose Hockey League, Harland has been around the sporting world all of his life and we discuss all of this and more.

All right, welcome to the Sean Newman podcast. This week on, we got Harlan Lessig. And I've set his name to probably 40 of my buddies, and none of them know who you are, which is perfect. It's the first time I've ever even met you. So they're going to learn something. I'm going to learn something. Yep. Now, you're originally from Bursay, Saskatchewan, small town.

Yep. You're a husband. You've got four kids. You got six grandkids. You're a busy man. On top of that, you own the weekly business. Bean, which is in Kinnersley, Lloydminster, and Moostra. Yes, it is.

And I could go down the list of things that you've done in your life, but I'm just starting to find this out as I interview more and more people. It seems like you're all the same. You guys just go and going, going, you're full of energy. Yeah. Well, you know, you got to be. If you're an entrepreneur and you own your own business, you have to be, you've got to have a certain amount of energy and you just got to love what you're doing and keep going.

And that's what I do. Yeah, I love doing what I do and talking and being around people. Cool. Well, the first, I love to go right back to the start. So I want to start with Bursay and just talk a little bit about that. Like you were just saying off air that it's only got like 40 people maybe left living there? Maybe 40 people left living there. There's some farms around there that are a good size and there's still a strong farming community.

But as far as the town itself, there was never very many people in that town, probably 300, 320 at its max. And we thought it was pretty good town when we were growing up. We thought there was lots to do. And as long as we had a rink to play hockey in and we had a ball diamond to play ball on and stuff like that, we thought we had the greatest childhood ever. Yeah, absolutely. Well, you're talking to a guy who grew up in home on Saskatchewan.

They don't even register it as a town. It's an hamlet, I think. And it's just a farming community. But we've always had a rink. We've always had, well, we had ball diamonds growing up, right? And what else do you need, right? Exactly. And everybody plays everything.

And when you have a team, every kid in the town plays on the team. There was no selection or anything like that. You had to use everybody. And you ended up with the team you ended up with. Yeah. That was the way it was. And so you played your minor hockey there then? Yeah, I played right until I was 15 years old.

Yeah. And then at 15 years old, I went to school in Moose Jaw and played with the Junior B team in Moose Jaw. And they were Kuhnuk, Moose Jaw-Kinuk-Affiliated team. And the Moose Jaw Canucks were a team? Junior A team. Okay. And that was when the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League was the Moose Jaw Canox, Flynn, Flan bombers, Weyburn, Red Wings, Melville Millionaires,

Estaband Bruins, that group of teams. And they've been around for a long time. Yeah. Absolutely. And that would have been around the time, then they were all affiliated with, would that have been later on then? Or would they still been affiliated with the NHL clubs as well? They were affiliated with the NHL Caldbbsback.

We were affiliated with Chicago. Oh, Chicago, okay. And the Moose Jaw team wore the same type of jerseys of Chicago with the Black Hawk and all that. It was a good looking sweater. That would be cool to see it. Yeah, it was very cool. Yeah. And so did you play a little bit then with the?

No, I never had, my brother did. I had a younger brother that did end up playing with the Moose Jaw Connects. I think he played for about 14. games. I got called up for a game or two and never hit the ice. I sat on the bench and I was still on the junior B team though. Cool. So when you went to Moose Jaw, I know when I was talking to Shep, he'd mentioned like when he moved away, well, he moved to a kid's gutty. He actually went to a dorm room there. When you went to Moose Jaw, did you stay with Billets? Billets. You lived with a family. Yeah, we lived with a lady. She was a single spinster lady. And there was a,

one guy stayed in the and placed with me and my brother and he played with the Moose Jaw Playmores which was a senior team back then that was very well they played in a league

against Saskatoon and Prince Albert and all those guys and a big guy and my brother and I stayed with this lady and went to high school there and yeah it was a good time it was fun yeah well I played three years of Junior A out in Ontario

and I guess I should give a shout out by this time He's talked to me enough. My son that I live, or the Billet family I lived with, their son is now out in B.C. He's been listening to all these. So I'll shout out to Aaron Lane, Oaten. Oh, cool.

He's out in Revelstoke, maybe? But anyways, I got, I got very fortunate. I got put with a family that was like next to none. And when you're living at that time, I don't know, what's that, 16, 18 hours away from home. Never been, I was 18 at the time. So a little bit older than you. but I've never been that far away from home.

And, I mean, kids don't realize it right now, but I can't imagine the technology difference backward. You probably had the cord phone, and that was it. And at my time, we had pretty much the same. I still didn't have a cell phone at that time. There was no on these smartphones. There was no FaceTime. There was no taking a picture every second minute

and send it back to your parents, that kind of thing. And so to have a good family that took care of was... Oh, it was tremendous. us. She treated us so well, made great meals, but she stuck to the rules, too. You had to be there on time. And if you didn't show up without telling her, you were in trouble. And we got reported to the team. And we had to answer to the team. And we had to be on time for things and make sure we attended our classes at school and our marks were monitored and everything else. We had to tow the line, basically, and answer to a, we had a curfew all the time. And we had to pay attention to

it for sure yeah yeah that old curf you think you know yeah yeah i know hey yeah so i'm we uh i send off a questionnaire to everybody i interviewed and i just just kind of gather where we're gonna kind of go with this and the thing that stuck out as soon as i sent it to you the first thing i read i had to read it to my wife is somehow you go from bursay saskatchewan to musha to south africa yeah playing hockey yeah it's it's quite a story there was two guys that grew up in my hometown of Bursa, the Ferguson brothers. And Dave and Doug Ferguson were probably the best hockey players that came out of Bersay. They ended up playing in an Ivy League school in Cornell University.

Cornell, okay. And they played there and set all kinds of records. There was three Ferguson brothers. If you look them up, you can find them on there. The record still stands as far as goal scoring and the long time they were there. And anyway, when they were done Cornell University, that year they got a job going to South African play hockey. And when they got over there, the owners of the teams there needed more Canadian hockey players. So he was a family friend.

These twin brothers were family friends. And then they knew our family. They were good friends with our family. And at that time, I was 19, 20 years old. And so they phoned back to Bursi and said, you guys want to come to South Africa to play? And I said, yeah, sure, let's go. And that's how it happens. So did you have to pay for your flight over there?

No, we paid up the flight. We got reimbursed when we got there. How much did the flight cut? Can you remember that far back? I don't know. Dad paid for it, so I don't know. I didn't have any money. I was 19, 20 years old farm kid, eh?

And the only thing I took with me was my skates. That's all I took and a bag of clothes. And I went with Jimmy Ryechuk. Jimmy Ryechuk was Prince Albert and Prince Albert boy. And Jimmy played with the Moosechalk Canucks for a few years. Okay. But Jimmy Richuk and I went over there together and we ended up in South Africa. And then my brother, my younger brother came a little bit later, about two weeks later.

I forget why, but he didn't travel with me over there on that first trip. But, yeah, we got there. There was four teams in the league. And they were all based in Johannesburg. We played out in one rink. and how it got going over there, apparently from what I understand with the history of it, it was well established by the time we got there, and they'd been playing for some years. But there was a Canadian team, a Swiss team, a German team, and an Austrian team.

And every owner had to take care of getting his own players. So he advertised in Europe or he advertised in Canada, and that's how they kept the flow of players coming back and forth. And yeah, it was, and it was good hockey. There was players there that had played in the American Hockey League. There was players there like the Ferguson Twins that were, and the Swiss team was an amazing team. And yeah, it was good hockey, very competitive. And filled the rink.

They loved it. I got to ask about the rink because I'm sitting there and I'm going South Africa. Like, we're not sitting in the Arctic Circle by any means, right? No, no. And so, like, it's. Is it a big rink? Like, was it a small rink? Well, Wembley Stadium had, I don't think they have Wembley Stadium there anymore.

Jeepers, this is a long time ago, like 50 years ago almost. So the rink was established and there for a long time, and it would hold probably 1,500 to 2,000 people. And you guys are packing that. Packing it. And the South African people really didn't understand much about the game, but one thing that you know about the same, South African people. They love their sports.

Everything, they, like, they're, they're hardcore sports people. Yeah. And they love the game. They love the rough housing. They love the fights. They loved everything about it. They didn't know much about the game, but they learned. And they liked, they came out. They were rabid fans, really good fans. That's crazy.

Yeah. Right? Like, it, uh, I mean, to go that far south and, like, you're the first person I've ever heard of going, I've heard of a lot of places. I've never heard of us over there. Yeah, yeah. And then for you to pack house like that is even more outstanding. We were surprised, too.

We didn't know what to expect when we got there. We had no idea. They picked us up at the Janiceburg Airport, and they met us with a kind of an entourage. There were some Austrian players that met me at the airport. I got a picture, actually, on my phone. I could show you later of the Austrian guys that I got to meet that came out with the owner.

and some Canadian guys that were there. And they came out and met me and Jimmy Ritchuck and took us downtown and got us a place to stay. So, yeah. So team took care. They paid for everything? Yeah, they paid for everything. Do you remember, did you have to sign a contract?

We signed a piece of paper. It was a basic contract that we were playing hockey for this gentleman. Gentleman. And his name was Jack Furman, Jewish business guy. I think all the owners were Jewish business guys. Okay. And, yeah, we signed a personal contract to him to play for him. And he owned the Canadian team.

Do you remember what your signing bonus was or what your contract was? Do you remember if you're like, did you work a part-time job while you're doing this? Didn't have to work. Oh, you're making big enough money then. Yeah. I was trying to think of that before I came out here. How much money did we actually make? we didn't make a lot of money

but we made enough money we had no expenses our apartment was paid for we had to buy our food and they gave us enough money for our food but our apartment was supplied to us and I would say we probably made

maybe $800 to $1,000 a month and that would have been in 1969 well you've already outdone me my first contract and only contract I resigned paid me $150 euro a month I got a part-time job and they paid for everything else.

And I always say the best thing I loved to do. Where was that? Finland. Wow. And the best thing I loved about it was it's the only time in my entire life. I played Junior A for Dryden and they were by no means a rich team. And then I played for Northland College, which was Division III, and they were by no means a rich team.

And then I went over to Rahe. And the best thing about the signing the contract was they gave me as many sticks as could break. I remember writing it in English. Just let me, you're not going to pay me anything? That's fine. I don't want to have to buy sticks. And I always tell the story. I was at one practice and they were giving me these, I don't know, $300, probably at the time, $200 sticks. I just kept breaking them. I broke three of them and I remember the GM just cringing a little bit as he gave me my fourth one, right? But I finally got to let loose because I mean, hockey ain't cheap. Yeah. But my first contract, I mean, geez, a thousand bucks, that's pretty good. Yeah, I think it was in that range because

we didn't have to worry. We always had cash. We always had money. And I phone my brother even when I knew I was coming out here. Do you remember what we made? And my brother Colin couldn't actually, he says, you know, I don't know, but we always seem to have enough money to go to the bar and have a few wobbly pops and enjoy the town and go out. And we didn't have to travel anywhere. We lived right in Joe Berg so we what did what was uh Johannesburg like back then like was it the the transportation you mean no just the town the nightlife just living there yeah it was a very international town uh Johannesburg was a melting pot of lots of Europeans lots of Germans

lots of uh you know Austrian people from all over the world there Johannesburg at that time I think had over a million people in it. How was that from going from small towns? And the thing as apartheid was really, I think Nelson Mandela had been in prison for about four years or five years when we got there. Oh, yeah, right. And so the whole political atmosphere

was really so much different. We were young. We didn't know much. Like we were so young. Some of the older guys in the team were kind of, shocked about, you know, the difference between the black and the white and how you had to conduct yourself in the community. I did end up getting a job when I was over there at a sports shop. And I became very good friends with a fellow named Vincent that worked in the back shop. And he was our,

he strung our rackets and tennis rackets and all that stuff. And I became friends with them and I was taken aside by the owner. And he says, you be careful. I don't want you. mixing too much with that. Like, we got to keep him in his place, and he knows what his job is. So what were they worried about at the time? I don't know. I don't know. A apartheid was a very strict law.

They couldn't walk on the same street as you. Like, they had to move off the sidewalk when you came down. And we, as Canadians, we didn't know, like, we didn't really know how to act with that. We just have never seen. I'd never seen anything like that. And I didn't even know it was like that when I went there. and we found that out that, like, you couldn't really be buddy-buddy with them and hang out with them.

Oh, that's messed up. Well, they weren't allowed to come into any of the establishments that you went into, and there was buses for them and buses for us. Like segregation in the States. Complete. Oh, way worse than that. Way worse. Way worse.

Way worse. They were, yeah, it was apartheid. And it was, yeah, it's all, you talk to. South African doctors now in that country's in a mess, still a terrible mess. And I don't know what, it's just going to take years for them to dig out of that mess. I don't know. Yeah. It was an interesting time.

So like when you went out at night then, you went to the bars, it was just, you went to like essentially an all white bar then? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Really? Yep. Yep. There was workers there that were colored workers and, you know, they got paid to do that job. and stuff like that, but all the bars that we went to were all white only bars.

There was drinking establishments for them for them that they would go to, but we couldn't go to them and they couldn't come to ours. So you play a season there. You stayed there for two seasons, didn't you? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And did you enjoy it then? I loved it. Yeah, it was fun.

The hockey was good. It was very competitive. of and we were treated royally, I think. I think we're treated really well. And, you know, when you're playing hockey as a kid that young in a town of a million people and you're walking down downtown Johannesburg and somebody recognized you, you go, hmm, that's strange. Because we never had anything like that.

We were just kids. We didn't. And we weren't that great. We weren't that good. We were just normal Canadian kids playing hockey and all. Like, there was a few of us on that team that were really good hockey players. But most of us were like me, like, or just average. What position did you play?

Defense. You're a defenseman. How big are you? How tall? I'm only 5'7. Oh, your kindred spirit. That's all I am, 5'7 and a defenseman, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

So was a rough game back then? Well, we were playing against the Europeans. So you didn't expect to get hit very often. We did most of the hitting. Yeah. We got a reputation for it, too, of course, being the Canadian team. And we won all the time. You know, our biggest competition was the Swiss,

and we would have won two-gold games against them all the time. They were a good hockey team, very talented, fast. So four teams, man, that must have been a grind to play the same teams all the time. How many times do you play it? Like, what was the length of your season? Do you remember? Oh, boy. Isn't that something?

I can't even, I think probably only about 20 games. Yeah, but still, even if it was 18 games, it's still playing the same team, six times each, right? I think of Saskelt, I always bringing up, currently playing, we're down 3-1 to Walberg in the finals right now, and that was a rough weekend, but game five on Tuesday here. So we get a chance to turn it around. Okay.

Yeah. But I remember when I started in the Saskillot, and there was like, I don't know, seven teams. And at that time, you played each other like four times or what it was. And it's a grind, right? Like four team leagues. We were, I know at some point, we got to talk about the wild goose and everything, right? But like, to keep a league going like that when there's only four teams. It's almost impossible.

It's almost impossible. Yeah, you're right on the edge. You're right on the cusp of not being able to keep it interesting for fans. For fans, yeah. And when we talk a little later about the goose, that's where we ended up there. And it's hard to do. Yeah. Yeah.

So you said you started in Johannesburg and then you guys moved to Durbin? Durbin? Yeah. There was a, I really don't know the whole detail between the owners of the hockey teams that they fell on the, they started to fight amongst themselves. and the guy that I had signed the contract with, he had a personal contract to all of us. So he took us out of the league and moved us all to Durban on the coast.

And Durbin's on the coast for the coast. On the coast of the Indian Ocean, yeah. Yeah, yeah. And they had a rink there. But it was... What I want to know is, who the heck is building rinks in South Africa? Isn't that amazing, hey? That is amazing.

Yeah. You wonder about the game of ice hockey, but that was... Keep in mind, this is 50 years ago. That's right. You know, like, and but South Africa had a influx of Germans. Yeah. And Canadians, and they were instrumental in getting everything going.

And there was very wealthy South African people that were able to build these facilities to play hockey. And they'd been playing hockey. That South African Ice Hockey League was around for a long, long time. And we came in, and we weren't the first ones there, that's for sure. Yeah, that's still amazing. Yeah, yeah. So how was the coast then? Well, I mean, actually, you move one team out there.

What do you guys go do? We all played against each other. We pretended we were like, I'm serious. You went from being teammates to all right, I'm coming after you tonight. Yeah, we were, and we stayed together and stayed in the same hotel together. We ate together. We went to the beach every day together. And then that night, they'd be on the other team and we'd be on this team.

wear a set of sweaters that were green and they would wear some yellow ones. And then we had four sets of sweaters and they'd be all switched. It would be the same guys playing against each other all the time. We had four teams. And we played three men aside. It was three men hockey. You guys played a three on three. Three on three.

Just like regular hockey. And there was only one line, one center line. The rink was too small. So we kind of fabricated the rules to fit the game there. And again, it was amazing. People would come out and watch that. We couldn't believe it. We were just astounded.

We would sit on the beach the next day and go, can you believe that? Did that really just happen to do? Was that rinkful of people watching us? It's unbelievable. Well, it really is. I had dad on here. Well, and I even talked to Shep about it, right?

Like 40 years ago, senior hockey specifically in Canada, and Saskatchewan, if it was a Friday night, Everybody was down at the rink. It's best hockey going. That's right. And now there's so many options available, right? There's so much good hockey everywhere that until you get into playoffs and deep into playoffs, people go, they got options, right?

They go different places. And so it's cool to hear you're in South Africa. Right? It's still blowing my mind a little bit. It does. It's kind of crazy. You were like the original guys then, right? We always talk about the NHL and, and, you know,

You know, where would you play and blah, blah, blah, you know, and well, Tampa Bay, you get to go to the rink in shorts. Like, you guys are the originals. You were walking in the rink and shorts off the coast. Oh, yeah. Like, how hot would have been there? You know, with our temperature, you're looking at 25 to 30 every day. Every day. Every day.

Oh, yeah. And it cools a little bit down around December and, or not December, but in July, cools down a little bit because that's opposite to us, kind of. And December's your barbecue and, and, you know, that. That's what your Christmas is like. It's a briar fice and you have a barbecue in the backyard. Yeah, but you know, we adjusted and we loved it. It was they treated us no matter where we went. They treated us good.

We had a great time. And there was occasions when we were in Durbin. I remember one time the whole, all the players, I think there would have been probably, I think 24, 25, of all the players that were there, got invited out to this very wealthy man's place. And we walked into this place and we went, where are we? Like, can this really be real? And this guy was a multimillionaire and we had a barbecue and he invited all his friends to meet us.

And we were blown away. We just couldn't believe it. Were you signing autographs? Oh, yeah. Yeah. They were coming up and they were fans and we were going, are you kidding me? They want my autograph? Like anywhere, I should have asked you this on the phone before you brought you out here.

But as you can see on my wall, I brought all, I have all my jerseys from where I played. Yeah, yeah. Actually, the only one I still can't find, and I said it on the last podcast, I still haven't had anyone reach out as a red blazers jersey from back in the day. Okay. I played my midget, well, all my minor hockey and Lloyd. Yeah. Minus when I was really little, then I was in Hillmont. But did you keep a jersey from over in South Africa?

Can you believe it? No, I didn't. I know. It's one of my biggest regrets. And I never kept any of my jerseys anywhere. Really? No. You've got to be the first athlete I've met that is...

It's ridiculous, isn't it? I even had, like, Ken Rutherford on. Yeah. The first episode, he played for Lakeland Volleyball. Right? And I go, do you got a jersey? Well, yeah, I got my volleyball jersey, right? He couldn't find it, and then he calls me a week later and goes, oh, yeah, I dug it up.

I found it, right? You got to be the only... You played over so that. The only thing we brought back, my brother and I, oh, my gosh, this is just a crazy story, but it was late one night. And there was a bunch of us guys sitting and having a few beers as you do and looking for something crazy to do

and they're putting a, there was a new hotel that opened. I shouldn't say that. I wonder what the statute of limitations is in some way. Anyway, so there was a new hotel that was opened at the Johannesburg airport. Okay. And there was a

flagpole out in front of that hotel and had a flag on it that had a flag of every country saw that there was one of these hotels in. Right. And it was massive. And we figured it would be a good idea to go get that flag. And so we went and got the flag.

Which country? This is in South Africa where we went and got the flag. But the flag had a flag, all these flags sewn together. Oh, you mean the flag had all the flags in it? Yeah, all the flags in it. It had a big South African portion to it, but then it had small. portions of where these hotels were. We don't have it anymore, but my brother brought it all the way back from South Avenue in a big

suitcase and he brought it home. I don't know where it is now. I asked him, do you still have it? He says, no, I don't have it. I don't know where it is. But we ended up going over there and there was six of us went over there in this Ford Anglia little four door black thing and we piled out of that thing, ran up in front of that hotel and there was, what are you guys doing?

One guy pulls out a knife and goes cut. that flag comes flying down and we take that flag and throw it in the car and drive away. Are you kidding me? I wonder what would have happened if you would have got caught. Well, can you imagine? Like, we're, like, I don't know. I don't know. Like, it's just one of the stupid story that we did.

You're just young kids, right? Well, just young kids, just having fun and laugh so hard. Get in that car and driveway. Laugh and laugh and go to the apartment. And we're unfolding this thing and looking at it. It is enormous. It fills the whole apartment. So we have to fold it all up and get it all folded up so we can put it away.

We were scared for a week after that. What if there was anybody that saw us or recognized us, but there wasn't. There was nothing. Yeah, yeah. It was, we were okay. I don't think Canada is going to extradite you for that. I don't think so. I hope not.

It was just one of those things. Yeah, it was, and we laughed about it for, gave us food for a lot of good laughs there for the rest of that season. Yeah. And so you didn't go back for a third. What made you... Well, it was... My wife and I separated in South Africa

and she went on her way and I went my way and that's when I went over to Europe to play. Well, we should maybe bring... Like, you had a kid over there, didn't you? Yeah, I did, yeah. Desiree. And Desiree lives in BC now,

British Columbia. Yeah. And she's my oldest daughter. And we're still in touch. Yeah, so you were, what, 20 when you had? 20 years. old, my wife was 19. Yeah.

And she was over there with you. She was over with me. Oh, the only. Yeah. Yeah. Like, it was, I can't imagine our parents even said that that would have been okay for, and I can't believe her parents allowed her to go over. Yeah.

Like, we weren't married and, and she got pregnant, and that's what you did back then. You, you did the right thing. You married the girl. And we got married. And this is, this might be one of the, the day that we got married i didn't know much about the laws there but we decided we had to get married this night i was working for the owner of the hockey team it was summertime and i was he had a business where he had a collection agency and go around collect bad debts for big companies

and stuff like this and i worked for him and i got an hour off at lunchtime to go get married at the town city hall in johannesburg and so we go down to the city hall to get married, Dallas and I, and we walk up the steps of the city hall. We get in there. We get the paperwork and they say, who is standing up for you? You got to have your witness with you. Yeah. Well, we didn't have a witness. We didn't know that that's what you needed. And there's a lineup of people getting married. So I just ran out in the street and I said, you got five minutes to this guy. And he says, yeah. That's we brought him in and he stood up with us and we got married. And that's, we got married in South Africa. There you got married in South Africa.

Had your first kid in South Africa? Yes. So does that mean she's dual citizenship? You know, I don't know. I don't think so. No. I don't think so. I don't think she pursued it. Yeah, yeah. I'm sure she didn't. She's been, she stayed in South Africa with the mother for another year and a half or two years and then came back to Canada. And, yeah, been in Canada ever since. So where do you go from South Africa? After you're done playing hockey in South Africa, where's the next stop? Well, one of the guys that I was playing with, a French Canadian guy, René, LeBonte, was over there playing with us.

And he said he had played it over in Europe the year before. And he played in a little town called Glein, Holland. And he says, they asked me if I wanted to come back there this year, but I'm not going to go back there. I'm going to go play in Lijj, which is just across the border from Glein and Belgium. And he says, I think they're looking for a hockey player. still let me give him a call. So he gave them a call, and they said they did need some hockey players.

But they wouldn't give me a yes or no over the phone. They said, if you want to come on and try out, by all means. By all means, come and try out. And I thought, oh, and I said to Renee, what do you think of my chance? Do you think that? He says, yeah, you should be able to play. And so when we were in South Africa,

they had to give us a return ticket back to Canada as part of the agreement, internationally, if you're bringing in somebody to play sports, you've got to give my ticket back home. Well, I took that ticket and cashed it in and bought a ticket to go to Holland. And I went in there and carried my skates into the rink and tried it out.

There was a Canadian guy running the hockey team, Richard Blanche, and I skated on the ice for five minutes in the practice, and they hired me. And so I played in... You always say you carried your skates. Did you not take your entire hockey bag? No, no. No.

No. Didn't carry my hockey bag anywhere when I traveled. Go to the next team and they give you all new equipment. No kidding. Yeah. Were you guys going at that time with no helmets? Yeah, a lot of us did. Yeah, mostly, most of us.

Some guys wore helmets. How about the tenders? Were they, the goalies? Were they? They wore like Scotty on our team. We helped them make those form-fitting masks, you know? Like, and we do it. We stayed in, when we were in Holland, we stayed in a place.

the YMCA and Scottie was there and we helped him make a mask he showed us how he greased his face all up with Vaseline and we laid the fiberglass on it and form fitted it to his face and give a straw to breathe out of and we we made mask form yeah and yeah yeah yeah that's unreal yeah it was yeah and Holland was a great place to play it was amazing it was treated us great yeah had a good time How were the fans over there? Really good, really good fans. A little more, like quite a bit more knowledgeable about the game. But still, the game was most of the players in our team.

We were fortunate in the team in Holland. We had quite a few Canadians on the team. They were not all import players, but there was a Canadian Air Force base not far away from Galeen and Brunsome. And it was called Afcent Air Force. base. Okay. So we were able to use the Canadians that could play hockey.

That were stationed there. That were stationed there. And they were not counted as imports because they were actually residents of Holland while they were living there. And so we could use them as non-importes. So the captain of our team was, he was a captain in the Air Force, Peter Lloyd. And we had Gary Pershing, Pete, and Gary Simpson and three or four other guys. And so besides the Canadian guys, they brought over his imports.

And then we had the best hockey player in our team was a fellow called Jerry Anton, and he was from the Czechoslovakia. And his buddy was the second best hockey player on our team was Mirak Fasadko. And these guys had played on the national team, junior national team of Czechoslovakia, and they defected in Holland. And they were on our team. And when I went back to Holland for my reunion here, my... Yeah, well, and I should tell people, like, that's how I found out about you.

Kenna, can't give me the newspaper. I read it out of it. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. The Lloyd newspaper in town did a little article on you going back for, I can't even, how do you pronounce it, Galeen? Gleen, yeah. Gleen Smoke Eaters. Yeah, the Gleen Smoke Eaters. They were named after the Trail Smoke Eaters.

Trail Smokers had won an international championship over in Europe, and I don't know the year. Okay. But Galeen is an industrial town with some smoke stacks and stuff. Yeah. And they like the name, the smoke eaters. So they took the name and called the Gleen Smoke Eaters. And now they're just called the Eaters. That's what they call them now is the eaters.

And yeah. Yeah, so. Yeah, so there's an article written in the paper. I read the article. It was fantastic, right? It was a good article. I just went, like, there's so much more than this story. Like, they rattled off like seven things in there.

And I'm like, each one of those can. be a story. Yeah. And it had to have been surreal. So you go back for their 50th anniversary this past year, right? Yeah, September. September I went and it was the 50th anniversary of the team. I didn't play on the team in the first year. It was formed. Formed. Okay. But I played on the second year. And there was only from our original team there, there was only five of us that came. But there was still. From all 50 years, there was guys coming back for that. Lots of Canadian. guys and good hockey. Still to see four other guys from when you

originally played there. And we hadn't seen each other since. Yeah. Like I just, I got the jersey sitting right behind you, my Dryden Alumni jersey. I went back to Dryden, actually in 2018,

and I got to see guys I hadn't talked to, well, I played there in 2004 to 2007. So it had been over 10 years since I'd seen something guys. That's special, isn't it? Oh, absolutely. Just sit and you never get, you never get 20 guys from a year to come back.

It's impossible. Never. But there was probably, I think, five to seven guys that I played with, maybe closer to 10. Yeah. And just sitting around in the stories and, like, it's something that I'll never forget, right? Yeah. I just can't imagine getting invited back another 20 years from now and getting to do the same thing. Right?

Like, in... Oh. The cool thing is, as you well know, Europe is one of those places. It doesn't change a lot. Like, it was old. When I was there and it's still old. And you go back and the streets are the same and the buildings are the same.

And so it felt like when I got off the train, I caught the train from Amsterdam down to Galeen. And I got off the train and walked downtown and felt like I hadn't been away. It just felt like I know that. I know that building and I know that building. And I was just there. It felt really good.

And I didn't feel out of place or anything. I just felt like this is my talent. It was a lot of fun, a lot of fun. How long did you go back for? I was there for a week. There for a week. Yeah. And I'm assuming they had the alumni game.

I didn't play in the alumni game. My niece are not, I can't play. You don't play anymore then? I don't play anymore. I don't play anymore. And I want to play because my buddy Gordy Redden plays, and I want to go out and play with those guys and do that. Dad's playing with the, what is it, over 60s on Tuesday, Thursday mornings?

Okay, yeah. You just started and I actually talked to him a little bit about it on here, right? You get to see, dad took a long time off from hockey and then get back into it. You get to see a little sparkle in his eye when he's talking about it again. Well, and they just had, the Never Sweats tournament was this weekend. Yes, and I went up and watched a little bit of that. Yeah. And I was just going, oh, I want to be out there so bad.

But the knees won't love? They won't. I have both my knees when I do quick turns and now they give out and I go down. I heard you're a competitive guy too. So I can just imagine you can't go out there and just kind of take it lightly. I can't. I still, and I even watch those guys on the weekend. I watch some of that.

And I don't care. They still like to move. They like going. They like to move the puck. They want to shoot and score and they're happy with it. Like that old competitive spirit. Like, we never ever played when we were kids for participation medals. We played to win.

And you didn't want to lose. And if you lost, you were a bad sport, but so what? Like, I didn't want to lose. My kids are going to inherit some bad tricks. I'm not a gentle loser. I don't like losing. Heck, I remember playing pogs. They had those stupid pogs back when I was in, like, elementary.

And I hated losing at that. And that's, like, the simplest of little games. But I, well, now I'm taking jujitsu with my brothers. Look at that. And got tapped out by my brother Dustin there on Friday. And I was ready to slug him across the face, right? Like, I was just angry. Teachers calling me down going, you know, you got to be okay with getting tapped out every once while.

I'm going, uh-huh, uh-huh. Teach me how I stop that, right? Like, I don't want to do that. You don't shut that off. And I'm glad. I'm in the same way with golf now. I'm in the same. Like, I play for fun, but I also play to win.

I hit the holy grail this year. Golfers hate me because I'm not a golfer. I hated golfing. You shoot a hole in one the first time. I shot a hole in one in the first year. Sure, sure now. And there's a video of me walking up to the hole and everybody's just like, you did what? And I didn't even know it right now.

Everybody's going to buy around. I'm like, why don't I got to buy around? I don't know what the heck's going on. Yeah, I know. I'm so dumb. I don't even get what's going on with golf, right? But yeah, sure is shit. Lloyd here.

We were on the 16th or 17th hole, whatever, the part. three is. Heck, I don't even know the course that well, right? And just pull out the nine iron, boop, there it goes in the hole. I got two buddies going, are you kidding me? And I'm going, what's just happened? They're like, you're an idiot, right? I know. I knew you were going to say that. When you started the story, I knew that that's exactly what you were going to say. That's awesome. So you're in, you're in Holland. You're playing there. Did you get to experience? I never played over there, but in Finland, some of the coolest memories I have is the chance they did. And this one team we played, whenever they went on a power play, they'd start this real slow clap.

And it just built and built and built. And once they got in the zone, it started speed up really fast like they were anticipating a goal. And then if it got dumped down the ice, they'd start the slow clap again. And we're talking, I don't know how many it was, but it had to have been 1,500. It was the last time I played in front of that many fans, although Meadow Lake had a ton of people when we played them in the second round this year. That was a lot of fun. It's always fun to play in front of a lot of people. And it doesn't happen a lot anymore at my age.

Yeah. But in Finland, there was always like 1,500, 2,000 people in the rink. It was a lot of fun. And that was like one of those chants. Or, you know, you watch the football or the soccer games and you see them chanting. Like, did they have any of that? They didn't do that back then with us. No, eh?

No. But when I was over there this past September, they do that now. Oh, yeah. And it's kind of a different thing now. and I've been watching the eaters play because they put it on YouTube. They televise it. They televise it. Oh, that's cool.

So I get to watch these guys play in their playoffs. They're in the playoffs right now. But it's the worst hockey ever watch. I'm telling you, like, it's terrible. And I'm watching it just because it's, you know, it's familiar. It brings back some memories. And I'm looking at it, and there is no body checking at all. Like our team, we had a good hockey team, and we had Canadians on there.

We had some, that Czechoslovakian guy that I was telling you about, he's the best hockey player I ever played with. He was six foot two centermen, 230 pounds. Did he ever go anywhere after that? He had the chance to go play with Philadelphia, and he fell in love with a Dutch girl and wouldn't go. But he was at the reunion, and I got to spend some time with Jerry and talk to him. And we're talking lots on Facebook right now. And I said, so how you do? and he says, I'm doing really good.

I'm married one of the richest women in Holland, and we live in Antwerp now, and I don't have to work anymore, and I'm a happy guy. So he's doing great. Turns down the Philly Flyers. Yeah, but smart choice. Smart choice.

He's doing really well. And, yeah, you know, you look at the hockey over there now, compared to, like, Holland wouldn't be anything close to what you played in Finland. I don't think. I played in Finland, but I played third division. I think they got five or six divisions. They got their elite league, which is where X-Pro is X-Nh-L or is X-HL.

They all go there. And then they got the second league, which I equate to what, when I watched it, it looked like our playing in the dub or the O-HL. It was geared to young guys moving up. And not saying there wasn't a few old guys in there, but it was really good young hockey. And then there was a third division, which I equate to, like Border Kings and like the senior.

Still pretty good. Oh, absolutely. No, some of the, we still had guys who played in the CHL. Okay. The defense partner they had me with, he was a little older than I was right now. I think he was 35 or 36, and he was a big man. I forget his name, but he was, you remind me a Nick Lidstrom. Okay.

He was just that smooth. And I remember we got scored on once. It's all, everything's finished. I can't understand a day where coach come over and just reamed us both of. And I look at him and I go, is he mad at us? Oh, no, no, you're fine. And I'm like, yeah, right, right? Yeah, yeah.

But he was unreal. Like, he was probably the best defense partner, sorry, Brewman, who I'm currently playing with for the last eight years. You're good, but that guy was, he was, he never went over to the NHL or anything. He played in a little bit of the elite league, I believe, in Finland. And he was fantastic. Like, he just made plays that I just didn't know. Isn't it true, though, Sean, like you look back on your own hockey career and you think about some of the guys you played with.

And you wonder why they never ever went further. Went further. And why they didn't. And it could be an instance like Jerry when he fell in love with that girl and didn't go. And there was other guys that were over in that league that played that were amazing hockey players. Very, very good hockey players. And you wonder, like, what is the difference of a guy going and not going and making it and not making it? And it's a fine line.

It's... Well, I was, like, I played... my midget, when I was a midget in Lloyd, I think, and I could be wrong, and somebody will correct me on this, I always get corrected, but I think, like, I was one of maybe three guys

out of two years to carry on and go play, like, higher high, and I wasn't the most talented we had. I just had, my parents pushed me hard. They wanted me to keep going with hockey, and they knew if they got me in the rink, I loved being in the rink. You had to get me there,

but once I was in the rink, I strapped skates on the way I went. and well that's how I got out to Ontario. Actually, Larry Wintoniac guy from Kinderzley. I'm having them on here. No way, are you? Yeah, and next week is Shanker, and I think it's the week after. I think it's April 2nd.

You're going to have a good time with Wintoniac. Well, Larry coached me for two years. Did he? Yeah, absolutely. Best coach you ever had. I always put him in the group of three. J.P. Kelly and Mervman coach me one here. Yeah, Merr's.

And I got Larry at probably the most pivotal time in my life when I was 18 and 19, and I was a kid. Where were you? I'm going to try to, so I got cut from Lloyd when I was 17, and I remember, I got, they used to do these MVP camps in Saskatoon and Calgary, and I'd always go there, and Larry was always a big part of it, and Darryl Spencer. Okay. And they, I'd always make the All-Star game, right? You play Round Robin, and then they pick the top teams, and I always playing it. And Darry and Larry always told me, you're going to play Junior A. You're good enough to play Junior A. it was nice to hear that because I was a 5'7 on a good day, defenseman, who I remember going to, I think it might have even been kiniously at the time, and them telling me if I was four inches

taller, I'd be on the team, right? And that just devastated me. Like, I just wanted to swap the coach because I'm like, if I'm good enough to play, I'm good enough to play. Don't tell me I can't go in the corner with somebody. I mean, I deal with it all the time now. But anyways, I came and tried out for the Blazers, and they cut me, and I had a letter from LaRange to go down and try out for Larry. Oh, it was Larry when he was in LaRange. So I went down there and I was the last cut. I stayed there for a month and they kept a local guy and basically what Larry told me is he's like, I'd like you to go back and play one more year and then next year come back and you'll be on the squad.

And what happens? Larry gets to let go from LaRange, goes out to Dryden. I didn't have any inkling and going out there. And as soon as he wasn't in LaRange, I didn't have any real get up and go to go out there. I'd been at the time. Bonneville had won't put me on their short list. So I was like 11th the fansmen. they wanted me to come trial, but no, I don't know.

I kind of just fell off the map. We had a badger and midget, so I just was like, you know, I'm done with hockey. I think I'm just going to work. And then as fate would have it on a Friday, my dad calls me at work. I was working at West Cam with one of my best, or well, with my best friend, Colby Man at the time, washing semis. And I get a phone call for my dad, and dad goes, you're not going to believe this, but Lerlianne just called me. You remember him?

And I said, the coach from LaRange? Yeah, he's out in Dryden. I said, okay. Yeah, he wants to come play there. You want to go? Yep. Walked into the boss office, said, I just got an offer to go to Ontario.

I think I'm going to go. And he said, you'd be dumb not to. Okay, sounds good. Quit my job. Buzzed around about four friends that hated me for a while after, because it was just such a shock, right? I'm just out of here. I just packed my bag, drove 16 hours,

pulled in in the Husky. They fed me a meal. I met my billet family that I lived with for three years. I got lucky because they were amazing. And got to planner Larry for two years. And he took me from a kid that was, you know, more worried about chasing.

some women and drinking beer on weekends to... I still admire him as... I never got to play for him, but I got to watch him coach in Kinder's League. And I still see Larry on a regular basis. I work in Kinderslie every week for a couple of days, and Larry and I are always talking. We see each other on a regular basis,

and he's helping out with the team. He loves the game more than anybody I have ever known in my life. Like, he got let go from the Junior Clipper team as the head coach and opened his own business. business and then yeah he's got a gym in town right he's got gym in town and and now he's back with the team yeah as an assistant coach and he just loves the game he loves kids he loves young guys he looks after them and he turns them into men no absolutely he he demands a lot he lives he believes what he teaches 100% of the way and I admire him a lot yeah well I got I got I finally got

to play one more year for a home and when actually when I talked I talked talk to him and I'm going to mention this. I got to play one year for him with the senior clippers about three years ago. He picked me up for senior A provincials. I remember that. Yeah and I played the first I played I forget who we beat the first round we beat him and then I played game one against Rosedown on the opening shift in the first 15 seconds and a guy need me in the inner thigh and I mean drop me I've never experienced pain like that I thought I don't know what it was like they

doctors couldn't figure it was but I I'm I still get harassed from the guys in Hillmont because that year, the year before we'd won Saskalta, and the next year we were probably a better team than the year we wanted. And then I went down in the second round and we ended up getting swept by Martin Wayne at the time. And I'm not saying, in here saying if I was there, we would have went all the way. But they always give me a hard time. I went and played for another team, got hurt in the first 15 seconds against Rosedown. That could happen, hey?

Oh, well, I just, a thing I wanted to check off on my list was I want to go play senior A hockey, right? And at the time, Holmong wasn't doing it. And I'd been talking to Larry a little bit. The thing I wish is right now I'm in probably the best shape I've been in since I came back from Finland. And every year I played for Larry, I was never in tip-top shape. Even my 19-year-old year, we went to the Dudley Hewitt Cup for, oh, if you win that, you go to the Royal Bank Cup. And I still wasn't in great shape.

It was a year after I was in phenomenal shape and was leading the league in scoring at one point, right? But never for Larry. And I always, in my head, I go, why did I do that? Because Larry was, he was that good. And he deployed you that well in the systems. And he just made you believe in everything in the team. Yeah. Yeah, he's, yeah, so he comes on.

It's a novel guy. Yeah, he comes on in a couple weeks here. Oh, that's cool. Yeah, I'm going to have to, I want to get him talking about the Thunder Bay bombers and all the old stories. I went out to Thunder Bay when he was playing with the Thunder Bay bombers. Did you really? And I was managing the, or working for the radio station in Kindersley, when the Kindishly Clippers were playing Senior A or AAA or whatever it was.

And they traveled out to play. We had a great team lined up to go out to Thunder Bay and play them. But at the last minute, a lot of guys jammed on us and didn't join us and didn't come. But I went out as part of the radio crew and we went out to T.B. And when Tonyak was playing for T. when I was doing radio back then. And I didn't know that when he moved to Kinderslie. And then we started talking.

He says, oh, yeah, we played against you guys out there. And it was a great experience. Yeah, it's funny how the hockey world is small that way. It's small. It blows my mind all the time how small the hockey world is. And you're talking hockey with people. Oh, you knew that guy or whatever they came. And you're always going to end up.

knowing somebody that you maybe didn't know that we're even in that town anymore or anything like that. I wouldn't mind you're talking about radio and I'm curious about it. So you did radio for four years? Yep, yep, yep. For what radio state? Rose town. Rosedown. Yeah.

And did you enjoy it? Loved it. So why didn't you stay in it? I was doing sales for the radio station. Yeah. And I was doing this as an added on. I wasn't on the air or anything. I was in the sales selling advertising for the radio station.

for the radio station. And the radio station got sold to a bigger corporation to Golden West Broadcasting. And everything changed. It was a privately owned radio station at the time when I was working for them. And they gave me lots of leeway. I was a good salesman. And they allowed me to, I was the one that when the Clippers first came to town, he said, we got to get on the radio with these guys.

We got to let me sell this. So that's how the radio station in most of us. started doing play-by-play because they had never done it up to then. And we started to do the junior clippers. And we did the Wild Goose League on that. So I was on the radio all the time. Which is awesome. I, well, I had Greg on last week and he was talking about doing curling and other things on the radio.

It's cool to me that senior hockey at one point was broadcast on the radio. No doubt, hey? Right? Like, that's hard to battle. They did it this year in Kindersley. Did they really? Yes, they did. The radio station there got on board with the kinderously senior clippers,

and they broadcasted a lot of games. They didn't even do the Junior League game. I don't understand that. There's some kind of a follow-out between the juniors down there and the radio station or something, and they never came to an agreement how that could work, but it's a mistake. It's probably the only junior team in the whole SGHL

that doesn't have a broadcast. That doesn't have a broadcast of games. And I think it'll change for next year, I'm hoping. Yeah. It's odd. It's really odd, but the senior hockey was on the radio this year in Kinderslake. That's cool. Yeah.

We, we, uh, it's kind of an odd. We're a SaaS team. We play in an Alberta, Saskatchewan League. And so, and our playoffs are really long. We do best of sevens where most senior leagues do best of threes and best of fives, right? We play a lot of hockey. Wow. And so we did Saskay Provincials last year and lost to Wilkie and two.

They were a very good. good team. Good team, yeah. Yeah, and this year we decided not to. And by deciding not to, we've earned a birth in Alberta AA provincials because our league needed to send two teams that way. And they're allowing as long as the SaaS team doesn't go to SAS Provincials, they'll allow you go that way.

So at the end of March, we're going to play Mornville and Daysland and Lethbridge and Nantin. And then Wainwright's hosting. Are you picking up players? We can't because we're a SaaS team. So we've got to go there with what we got. Okay. Well, that's kind of the way I like it. We got a good enough team.

Right? It'll be a fun. We went two years ago we won bronze there. Two years ago we had like 12 skaters there. Like we had hardly enough guys. Is that when Kenny was coaching? Yeah, when Kenny was coaching. Yeah, we lost in the league finals.

Probably had no business being in the league finals, but we beat that year we went down three games to none. I always laughed. The NHL says, you know, when a team gets down three rip or whatever it is, ah, there's no way they're coming back. Well, that year and senior hockey is like this. but that year we were down 3-0 point and reverse swept them to make the finals. And we probably had no business being in the finals.

And then Wayne Wright beat us in the finals and we went to Alberta Provincials and won the last game of the year for a bronze medal, right? Wow. And when I heard Kenny was coaching, I went, you're coaching. Just wait, let me figure this out. You're coaching a pretty good caliber of senior hockey.

Like, how? How did you? He manages people, right? You're dead on the money. And he knows a little bit of, about the game and he's a competitive guy he's a sports guy absolutely he is yeah but i was surprised yeah oh he did a good job yeah and everybody says that everybody liked him and that he was a great coach so who knows hey well now we got within a minute last year winning him a title yeah we're up three games

to none on wayne right now as you know i got to talk about the the good time and i got to talk about the bad time we were up three nothing last year in the finals against wayne right a minute away from sweeping them they score a goal that had eyes and then they scored an overreesome overtime and after that we just we just fell in the quicksand and they reverse swept us beat us four straight and we were a minute away from having ken rutherford who's never played a drop of well actually that's a lie i just found out he played senior hockey in prairie hill for one year which blew my mind yeah but a guy who didn't play high-end hockey no yeah we almost that that was a surprise for me and he's my nephew eh yeah yeah absolutely and uh uh like i was all i was just blowing when my

My wife told me, well, Kenny's coach, you got to go out there and watch his team play one of these nights. And I never did get out and watch, but I want to go watch you guys play. Tuesday night. Tuesday nights, game five against St. Walbury. And it's at? In Helmont. I'll be there. Yeah.

I'm coming to watch. What was it? We lost game. We were up four or two going into the third period in game three, and they scored four unanswered on us in an empty netter, but they scored four unanswered to beat a six four in game three. and then game four we went there on Saturday night, I guess last night. And 1-1, we scored with two seconds ago in the second, tied up at 1. They scored first shift of the third 2-1.

They got a penalty shot, made a 3-1, and then I'm empty an error. And so that's just the way hockey goes sometimes, right? It's a roller coaster in the playoffs. Well, for sure, that's where it's supposed to be. Yeah. Isn't it? Absolutely. That's the way it is supposed to be.

Yeah, well, teams are good. It's a good league right now. Like it's healthy. There's 14. How many teams? 14. That's amazing. All the way from Meadow Lake to Wainwright to Two Hills, Elk Point.

Wow. Is Meadow in the league? Yeah, we beat them in six games. We played them in the second round. Beat them in six games. They were up to two games to none on us. The one game went to triple overtime. Then in game three, I think we, what was it?

We beat him six one. Then we beat them three one. And then to finish the series of, We beat them in double overtime and double overtime, right? And they were the team that did what we did last year. They were playing Senior A Provincials at the same time, made it to the second round. They were playing an ungodly amount of hockey. Yeah, that's the thing.

Robert Tigers used to do that all the time. And they were this little town, but they had one unbelievable team. And they played in, I don't know how many. They played in... Did they even have a team right now? No, but they took this year off. And they had a... This, actually this, last night, yeah, this is Sunday night.

Last night they had an alumni game and brought back Tim Willoughby and Saccundiak and all the guys that had played over the years. And they got an organization. They're going to put a team back in the league next year. Oh, good for them. It's senior hockey is a funny, is a funny beast because nobody understands how much volunteer time goes in behind the seams to keep any team going. It doesn't matter if it's the best team in the league or the worst team. And then on top of it, like, we play in a non-pay league, right? So none of the players are supposed to get paid.

Now, I always put an asterisk beside that because there's rumors fly about everyone, right? Of course there's, yeah. All I can say is Hillman's never paid a player, and I'm on the board, I play for them. I know. That league is an anomaly. You know, that league is an anomaly in senior hockey. There's not many senior leagues that don't have a non-pay. policy in the league.

And it's healthy, though. Absolutely it is, hey. And, you know, like, the boys are always honest. Well, how are we doing financially? Well, we're surviving, right? Yeah. I mean, but we don't have to worry about chelling out,

I don't know, a thousand bucks a game or whatever the heck to do you're paying, right? Well, when I was managing the clippers back in the day, I remember standing in the stick room with the cash handing it out as the guys were leaving the room. We had a lot of paid players. And our bill, every game was. Easily a thousand dollars and That money's gonna come from somewhere. Yeah fundraising. It's volunteers. It's everything you do and you never get credit for the people behind the scenes

I'm like we have some you know I I always get credit for what home on's done, but there is a lot of people I work with that are fantastic on our board We have an amazing board. We have amazing group of volunteers that are just They put in so many hours and they don't have kids playing on the team. They don't have like Right? They don't have that. They just have a tie to the community. They like what, you know, Kenny is one of them. Like Kenny helped with this benefit game we do with the bandits for the community. It's been, I think that this was the third year we did it. And every year it's made roughly 20 grand in one day. Amazing. Amazing. Amazing. Unbelievable. Right? And that's going to some family that's in, and that's just by having a senior hockey team and tying it. You know, Greg Buchanan and the band is coming out for that one. And Kenny's not the only one else. Like Marine McKeon. and goes around getting donations from everybody. And if I'm going to throw those two,

I've got to throw out, like, Norm Jans has been the manager there now since I've been there. So eight years, probably 10 years. He's on the original board, right? Like, just does things for the team and doesn't have a kid playing on it, right? Like, it's just cool to watch. It is.

And be a part of and be around. It's fun. It's what keeps these communities going. You know, you have that team out there. I saw the picture posted to the hockey team the other day. Somebody posted a team. picture. Yeah, yeah, the Facebook. Yeah. And I looked at that and I went, like, look at this. This is a hockey team. This is not just

some throwing together a bunch of hacks. There's some hockey players here. And it looked like a professional picture. And I thought, good for these guys. That's how you do it. Yeah, well, I got to give a shout out then to Randy, uh, Randy Noble, but I'm forgetting what her married name is now, but she took the picture. She's a professional photographer. So you could tell. Like, I looked at that picture. I thought, look at that. Everybody with. their gloves on their knees. Everybody's looking professional the way it's supposed to be done. And these guys have obviously, all the players have obviously posed in these

pitches before. They know what to do. And it looked good. I was impressed. I was totally impressed. Well, let's talk a little bit about the wild goose. Yeah. Because it hasn't been going, like you were the present of it, 0608.

Yeah, 2006, 2008. Yeah. And when did it fold that? 2008. last year. And so you had the Border Kings were in it that year? Yep. Border Kings, Metal Lake.

Bonneville. Oh, Jesus. Yeah. You couldn't get like a North Battleford? We tried. Well, we thought Saskatoon was coming into the league, and they had said that they were going to come in. That was going to give us five.

And it was a stretch keeping the Border Kings in that back then. They wanted to play good hockey. They wanted to have teams to compete with. Well, 06 to 08, in the middle of that, they went in Allen Cup. That's right. And they wanted competition. They wanted to play good hockey. And I didn't blame them. We needed to get more teams. So we thought we had a meeting in Battleford, and we talked about the possibility of getting Saskatoon, so it was approached, and they said yes, and possibly even North Battleford coming back into the league. And North Battleford got back to us within a week and said there was no way they could get enough guys committed.

and Saskatoon folded to and said they can't do it. So we were stuck with four teams. That's when the Board of Kings decided that they would join the Chinook. And we had another meeting saying, can we keep this going at three teams? We all decided, no. We just can't keep it going at three teams. And that's when the league ended.

Yeah. It was unfortunate. It was a good hockey league at one time. One of the best senior leagues in Western Canada at one time. Yeah, but I think it's Wilkie's rink. that they've been going for 100 years? I think so, yeah. I think there's a sign there when we played there.

And that always amazing. I've got to try and track down somebody who's been with Wilkie for a while. Well, it's going to be a say. Yeah, you're right. Yeah, absolutely right. It'll be a say, one of the says for sure. It's amazing to me that they've kept that going for 100 years. I know.

I know, hey. We're at year 11, I think, at Helmand. And that's a feat. I think. You know, you guys could get hockey on Doer Radio. here. You could do it. You think so? Oh, absolutely. Why not? Anybody'd listen to a senior game? Sure they would.

Sure they would. Sure they would. Yeah, I think they would. They did back then. In the old Goose, we had lots of followers. Really? Oh yeah. We had lots of people listening to those. Who is the back in that day? I mean, the Kings probably would have been winning that league then? Well, they were in it. They

Kindersley and Lloyd always had a big rivalry. And I remember. I remember I was standing in the stands. I was living in Kindersly. I hadn't moved here yet. And I was in the, and Brent Dallin was coaching. I think he was coaching the Board of Kings at the time.

And I was up here watching a game. And I'm in the stands and the Clippers there. And I'm yelling down. I've known Brent for years. And I'm yelling down, being kind of rude. He looks back at me and he just shakes his head at me. What are you doing now? And then I moved up here and working with the team

and doing all the other. they're looking across the room at each other's shaking her head. There's a lot of water. But that gets left, hey, that gets, that's just in the passion of the moment. Well,

if there's one thing I love about, I think it goes for most sports, but I know it goes for hockey, tenfold, is me and you can go out there. Well, you were talking about it in South Africa, right?

You're playing each other and then going out at night and sitting on the beach. The lovely thing is, is you go out there and try and kill each other because everybody wants to win. That's right.

If you're not trying to win, then you're in the wrong sport, essentially, right? And then you can go sit and have a beer and forget about it. I know. That's what makes the game so wonderful. And I'm still amazed by watching these guys when they, especially you see it, especially

in All-Star games. Do you guys have an All-Star game? We don't. And I wondered if we shouldn't be doing an All-Star game because there's a lot of talented hockey players. Oh my goodness, yes. And that league, it had 14 teams. And one of the things we did is a radio station, which I implemented when I was with the radio

station. We've got the radio station to sponsor the jerseys and the uniforms. And we had the league split up into two. And we had an All-Star game in these towns with different color. Yeah. Nice jerseys. Well, I think about it this way. It was fun. Sass Delta has seven SaaS teams, seven Alberta teams. Wow. How about Team SAS versus Team Alberta? Couldn't you do something amazing with that? Yeah. Like I would think that that would be just an amazing opportunity for the league to showcase the talent and showcase the talent and...

Absolutely. Get some talented... Well, I mean, I've played in a couple All-Star games. I got to play one in Junior Out in Ontario. And now it's always a fun time

to get to recognized A for one. I think you almost got to do it though. When I look at that old All-Star game we used to do in the Goose, it would have been better if we'd done it after the playoffs was done. Yeah. Everything is done.

You have, especially in your case... When did you guys do it? We kind of did it. same as the NHL break. Just had a little break in the middle of January or something. We had the All-Star game, but it was more of a rec hockey game, of course, because nobody wanted to hit anybody or anything like that. But I think there's a great opportunity with your league.

When you say there's 7 SAS 7, 7 Alberta, wow, could that be something? What a fundraiser for the league or a charity game for something. Yeah, a charity game or something. It would be an amazing thing. It would be pretty cool. Somebody, you should grab onto that idea and run with it. I know who I'll be enlisting when it happens. Yeah, yeah.

So do you, do you, are you, so you helped out with the Border Kings when you came back? Well, like, you said you've been Lloyd now twice, right? Yeah, I was here. I forget the year that I was back here. I think, did I write it down on my piece of paper that I gave you? Let's see here. Let's check the notes. You said you were in Lloyd Minster in 1978.

That's it. the manager of Richardson's jewelry in the mall. Yeah. And then you also put in there, you were here for two years. Yep. We're the managers of the Blazers hockey team when Gord Redden was coaching. Yes. But we didn't have a junior, what Blazers team were you talking about?

Well, was it the Blazers or was it the bat? Well, there was the Lancers, but I thought the Lancers. Maybe it was the Lancers. Were they playing in the SJ? No, they were playing against like Onion Lake and. So when was that June? Junior B then? Junior B, I think, is what it was, yes.

And Gordy was coaching. And Gordy was coaching. You know the fun fact about, and you probably remember this, is, and I'm excited to talk. Gord's coming on here in three, four weeks. Oh, he'll be a good year. He's in the middle of April. He'll be fun. And he won up until 2014 when we won the Saskalta.

He was the last guy or last team on the last team at home on that won. It was 37 years before. and it was 1978. There you go. And 778 is when they won. The Helmont All Stars won the league for it. I've seen the newspaper clip, but it's pretty cool. And Gord had just come from playing while some very good hockey.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. He was a great hockey player. And I think he's got a messed up back right now. He's hurting. And I don't think he's playing with the Never sweats right now. But he plays every week still. Yeah, well, yeah, yeah. Dad talks about it, yeah.

Yeah. And he's always saying, when are you going to come out? When are you going to go? You know I can't. I'm not going to be able to. But yeah, you should give him a call and come Tuesday night when you come to home on Gord's always at the break. I'm doing that. I'm doing that. I'll go watch the game of Gord. Yeah, absolutely. That'd be fun. You make sure after we win that you come up to the dressing room, you have a beer.

Because you got to see the dressing room upstairs. Absolutely. Yeah, I would love to have you up there. That'd be fun. I'm looking forward to it. I'll be there. I'll be there for sure. So in 78, you come back, you're managing Richardson Jewelry. Yeah, yeah. And I got to know some of the guys I was at the rink watching games and stuff like that. And they needed a manager. And so I decided to help out. What the heck?

Why not do that? And I wanted to stay connected with hockey. So I did that for one year. One year? Yeah. And we had a guy that was on the executive of the team who worked for Husky Oil or something. And I remember I had to get all. the players cards signed and I had to get to Calgary with these cards and signed, but they wanted

to leave it to the last minute because he had some guys coming that they thought. So I got to fly in the Husky Jet. Here I am just new to Lloyd and I'm managing this hockey team and they fly me by the Husky Jet to Calgary and my buddy picks me up and takes me down to the headquarters of the Alberta Junior or the amateur hockey so as you can get the card signed and get back on the jet and come back home. I couldn't believe it. I said, this is this. This never happened to me in my life. Like, are you kidding me? I'm in the big time.

I'm in Lloyd Minster. We're flying a jet. I feel like you've been in the big time for like 20 years by this point, right? I know. I know. Who gets to fly in the bloody corporate jet for just a bunch of cards? I know. It was insane.

And my buddy that I picked me up. This is a crazy story. He'd come. I said, do you want to fly in a jet? Well, yeah. I said, well, why don't you come? back to Lloyd with me. So he hopped on the jet and came back. I asked permission. And he said, sure, we got room. He can come. So he came back here. We had to find him a way

to get back home. But it was fun. We had a good time. It was a good year. There was one game in that league. I remember we were playing against. Do you remember what league it was? I can't remember the name of the league. But you figure Junior B. Junior B and Onion Lake and played in it. And I can't even remember the teams anymore. It's been so long. No, no, fair enough. Carry on that. And anyway, there was one game, and I think we were playing against Onion Lake. And one of the players' dads was in the stand. He was an older gentleman on our team.

And there was some pushing and shoving up in the stands. And anyway, to make a long story short, I ended up in the stands protecting this kid's father because he was an older guy. Christy, Mike Christie was a player, I think, that was playing for us. And it was his dad that was in the stand that was getting pushed around by this other teams fans and it was getting pretty raucous and before you knew it everybody's in the stand gordy was in the stands i was in the stands it was a donnybrook in the stands right here in the lloydminster arena and uh we had it was quite a night it was gordon i will i you'll talk to him

about that yeah yeah yeah well i'm getting more everybody everybody that had on at some point brings up gourd because they've had dealing the hockey world like you say small so i by the time i get to guard. I'm going to have like 20 stories for him that he's going to have to tell. No doubt, no doubt. On top of everything else, he's going to have to talk about. Yeah. Yeah. So where do you go so you're in Lloyd for a couple years, you manage a team and then you go back to Kindersley? Yeah, back to Kindersly. But when I got back from Europe, I never, I never, when I ended up back in Canada from Europe, one of the players that, coaches that I had, Richard Blanche, he had been a player for the Denver University and he had coached us over in Galene. He was, he was an, he was an, yeah, yeah.

support player coach, good hockey player and a good coach. And anyway, two years after that, he only coached us for one year over in Holland, went back to Canada. And he got a job coaching a team in the newly formed league in the United States called the USHL. Like the USHL that's still going right now? Yes, it is, but it wasn't a junior team back then. Okay.

It's now a junior league. Yeah, it's now a junior league. And the USHL, we had Milwaukee played in it and Thunder Bay in Chicago. and Waterloo, Iowa, and Sioux City Musketeers. And it was a good league, and there was players, a lot of Canadians down here playing on that. A lot of Americans, but a lot of Canadians playing on that team. And anyway, I went down and played for a couple of years in Sioux City,

and that's where I met my second wife, was in Sioux City, Iowa, and playing for the musketeers. Yeah, that's how I ended up down there. And he ended up getting a job as the coach of the Sioux City Musketeers. And he remembered that... Do they still got a team or no? Yes, they do. A junior A team now.

Junior A team now. So when Richard got there, he needed a couple of defensemen, and he, of course, he looks back in his past. I'm going to phone up to Bursie, Saskatchew. And I'm going to phone, Lestick, and his brother are still back home. And he phones up there. You guys want to come play hockey in Sioux City? Yep. Packed up and away you go.

Packed and went down there. How old are you at this time? That was, I would have been. been, because I was 20, let me think about that for a second. Probably I would have been 24, 25 when I went down and played in the USA JL. And I played there for two years. And what was the hockey like there? Good. It was a good hockey. We were a new team. And we had a rough year, but we were still a pretty good team. And we won our share games. We never made the playoffs the first year. Made the playoffs the second year. And, but yeah, I was a good year. And, uh, but, uh, yeah, I was a good. And, uh, but, uh, yeah,

It was good hockey. It was really good hockey. There was players from all over Saskatchewan and Alberta in that league. Lots of guys that I knew, and we ended up playing against them and stuff. And in fact, there's one story, one of the teams that we played with Milwaukee, remember the movie Slapshot. Everybody remembers the movie Slapshot. As soon as you start talking about the H.L back, then I'm thinking,

I wonder if that's around the top of Slapshot. So on our team, or on the team in Milwaukee is the, What were their names? The Charleston Chiefs? Yeah, but the... The handsome brothers. But they... One of them ended up playing for L.A.

There was only two brothers. Okay. It was, I can't remember their names, but they played for Milwaukee and we played against them. And when I... Shop movie and realized that I played against those guys. And I can't remember... Offhand it right now,

I can't remember their actual real names. They weren't the Hansons. No. They were some other name. I can't remember them. Did you guys pack? Did you have tons of fans for that too? Yeah, it was good.

Yeah, it was well attended. People loved the hockey and Midwest and the United States. And you go into Iowa and Nebraska and those, you know, it was good hockey. It was really good hockey. Lots of guys. We had a couple of guys from Minnesota playing for us from Minneapolis. and we have one guy that Greg Gilbert, his name was, and we changed his name to Gilbert.

We wanted him to be a Gilbert, but he was from Minneapolis. But he was a tough kid. About six foot tall, wasn't real heavy, but could throw him, better than anybody ever seen. And he had a fan base in Sioux City that would flip the cards over at the end of the rink. And he's 1 in 0 and 2 and 0 and 3 in 0 and 4, and he'd win every fight. He could fight as good as anybody I ever saw.

It was a pretty raucous league. It was a tough league. Yeah. It was a hard fought league and there was some good battles for sure. Thunder Bay was in the league. Yeah. The bombers. The bombers.

I've heard stories of the bombers. No, they were the twins back then. Oh, the twins? Thunder Bay twins is what they were. Yeah. They weren't the bombers then. They were the twins. And I don't know.

We'd go into Thunder Bay. Sue St. Marie was in the league. Holy crap. You guys did some travel. Well, the owner of our team bought a DC3 airplane and painted in the team colors. You've got to be kidding. No. No.

No. And we got to fly to our games, those long trips. Absolutely. He bought a DC3, and the two pilots on the plane were guys that flew in the World War, and they knew how to fly this thing like it was nothing. They outfitted it with seats and tables for us to sit at, and I couldn't believe it. Like, we were flying to the games in that plane, painted. in the colors of the hockey team, yellow and green.

And, uh, yeah. And I got to say this all over again. You didn't keep a jersey from there either. No, but I got pitcher. No, I don't have a jersey from there neither, hey. Yeah, I'll show you some pictures after. Absolutely. I got them on my phone.

Yeah, I got them on my phone. So you're flying all over the place. Yeah, yeah, with, with a team in, in Iowa. I mean, it's awesome. I know, that was awesome. Like, that's unbelievable. Yeah, I know, hey. Like, like, we, we thought we'd, here we are.

all this guys are looking. We got our own plane. Yeah. This guy's bought a plane? Yeah. And we're flying around, going to these. Only on the launch trips. We didn't get the plane to,

we would fly to Milwaukee, we'd fly to Chicago, we'd fly to Thunder Bay. What we'd do on the Thunder Bay trip, we did Thunder Bay, Sue St. Marie, and usually Chicago, and then home. We'd do a three-game trip. And the plane would wait for us,

and we'd take off. And we were the only team in the league that had a plane. What were you making then? Not very much. No. It wasn't much. Maybe, maybe I'm going to say 100 bucks a game. Yeah.

Doing it for the love of it then. And for a plane right every once in a while. Well, it was fun. We had a good time. And you didn't have any expenses because you had your accommodation paid for. And so on. That's where I met my second wife was in Zuse. And I was a farm kit, and I was farming my own land, and so I had a little extra money.

So how long did you go, what would be your stints down, you'd just go for the winter and then come back? Just for the winter, yeah. Is that how you did all the different leagues? Not over in Europe. I stayed over in Europe all the time. All the time. And what I'd do in Europe is for the first trip over to Holland, I flew back to South Africa for the second season. And because it was in the opposite time of the year.

so you could go play hockey in both places if you wanted to. Yeah. And, you know, it was, I never came home for three years when I went over to Europe. I stayed over there. My brother came home, but I stayed there. I got to ask then, were you sending letters to your parents? Once a year for Christmas, yeah. You'd write a letter, and other than that, would they give you a call?

It drove my mother crazy. Yeah, I can just imagine. She didn't know from, in fact, when I flew back to home from Europe, the first time I got home, they came to Saskatoon Airport to pick me up and they walked right by me in the airport. They didn't recognize me. They walked right by my seat.

I looked at them coming in the door at the airport and I wasn't going to say nothing. They just sat there and washed and they walked right by me. My mom and dad and my sister and they finally turned around and took another look and then they saw me. Like nobody that's even my age now, you're slowly starting to forget the times

where you can't just pick up a phone and text somebody, call somebody, I mean, when I was over in Finland, my parents came and visited me, and we FaceTime my brother. I remember that's the first time when FaceTime was just starting to get going, right? And it's hard to remember a time where you couldn't just, right? When I was over in Finland, I didn't have a phone. I was sending emails, but I'd send off a weekly email to update my friends and family on what I was doing, right? But I mean, I can't imagine going a year and not.

I know. Right? Like that's It's, it was real I think I, we ended up, I did phone home occasionally. Yeah. But not very often during that time

because first of all, it was expensive and where are you going to phone from? And I didn't have my own phone so you'd be phoned from a billet or someplace or trying to connect with somebody. And it was, yeah, that's just the way it was. And none of the guys did. Nobody did.

That's crazy. That's crazy, right? Yeah. And finally, when you get, my mom, when she says, this has been the hardest three years of my life. My mom just passed away last year and she was 91 and she still recalls those days and says when you guys were overseas playing and down in the States playing, that was the hardest time on your dad and me. Not knowing. We didn't know nothing. We didn't know what you.

In the States, it wasn't so bad. It wasn't. They came, they would come down and see us play once in a while. but yeah it was easier for them when we're playing in the states of course than it was in Europe I can just imagine my mother right like when I played in Drydenud, what's that 14 14 to 16 hour drive? Yeah that's and Larry Larry will be able to remember this because he's the one who wrote it up on the board. We had our awards banquet and I was the last, I saw that you're one of five kids. Yes.

You get four siblings. Yes. As do I. I was the youngest. Okay. But when I left the house, they were empty nesters, and it used to drive me nuts. Mom would come to every game in Ontario. Think about that from Little Town, Saskatchew. She'd drive, she'd fly, whatever. And one time she flew to Thunder Bay, we played two games against the, if it was the North Stars or the Bulldogs, I can't remember.

And I got in two scraps, two games, and I got booted out of both games. She flew down and watched me play. Dad still laughs about it. Got two scraps. I was done in both games. That's amazing. But at a awards banquet, Larry's going through. It's my first year.

Larry's writing on this whiteboard. You know, like 22 wins, right? I'll clap. And the next one's like, I don't know, 100 and some. And it was goals four. And then he kind of goes through. And the last one is 27,000. And everyone's like, what the hell is that number?

The amount of kilometers Newman's mom drove to come see him play. And my parents were sitting at the awards banquet. And I'm just like, yeah, that's pretty much right, right? Like, she didn't miss a game the first year. It drove me nuts because I'm like, I'm supposed to be living on my own here. Like, just leave me alone. Let me. How old were you?

I was 18. Yeah. Yeah. So I can imagine you disappearing for a year with a letter. I know. Right? Like. When you're 18 and 19.

And not only that, their granddaughter was born over in South Africa. Oh, yeah. Like, it drove them crazy. It literally drove them crazy. They didn't know what was going on. half the time. I had phone and they'd ask questions. And I'd bring them up to date once or twice a year.

And that was about it. Yeah. Yeah, it's amazing that that's the way it was. It just, I don't know. Yeah. So you marry an American girl and then do you bring her back to small town Saskatch? Yep, yep. I'd like to point out I married an American girl.

I married, my wife is from Brooklyn Park, which is a suburb of Minneapolis. Okay. Because I went to college in Wisconsin for four years. Midwest gal. Yeah, absolutely. And I brought her up and stuck her in a little tiny town. Well, Helmong, we renovated my grandparents' house. And I'm sure she was thinking, like, I can just imagine what she was thinking.

Now we live in Lloyd, right? But she's a volleyball star. She was very, very, very talented in college, right? But how did... She liked it. Yeah, we ended up... You farmed it this time? Yeah, I was farming.

And we actually bought a house trailer and moved it in. the Lucky Lake and we moved in Lucky Lake, Lucky Lake, Saskatchewan. Yep, yeah. And that's where we lived. She worked at the school and I coached all the hockey in Lucky Lake. I coached for three years there. They hired me to coach all the minor hockey right up to the seniors and I played and coached on the seniors back in Lucky Lake in those days.

So. So you played for, played for, you played for Lucky Lake? Yeah, for the Lakers. Yeah. Yeah. Now I can't remember that would have been after I came back from Iowa from Sioux City so that would have been in Oh shoot I can't even remember that the dates that would be but Like we had of course a small town Saskatchewan you have all the minor hockey

The little little tiny tots and so I I had assistant coaches with every team So I would go on the road I had a commitment that I had to travel with all the teams whenever I could so I tried to split it up and travel with, we had a juvenile team, we had a midget team, we had a Bannum team. Holy moly. Yeah, it was busy. I was on the ice every day. Yeah.

Right after school, right until eight or nine at night, every day, every day, all winter long, and coached all the hockey. And I'd have my assistant coach with me on the ice, and we would work out to stuff, and he would go, okay, this team was going here, so he would be the guy going with that team and I'd be going with another team.

So we tried to split it up all year long. It worked. It worked fine. Yeah. Yeah. I heard, I was talking to, who was it? I was talking to Dean Dorset today. Oh, yeah.

And he said you ran a shoe shop? Yeah, I had a shoe store in Kinderslie. Yeah, yeah, I had a shoe store in Kinderslie. And that was when the mall first opened in Kendrously. And I'd moved there to run a jewelry store. I'd moved to Kendersley to run a jewelry store from Calgary. And the company that I came to work for in Kinderslie went bankrupt. And somebody bought the jewelry store and didn't include me in the action.

So I ended up being in Kinderslie and moved to Kinderslie. I'm probably missing a step here. So you go in Lucky Lake. You're doing everything Lucky Lake. And then eventually you get to Kindersley? Yeah. It was after that. I'd gone from Lucky Lake after the farming got kind of, there was too many brothers and not enough land.

So somebody had to leave. So I left, Lucky Lake and moved to Medicine Hat, Alberta, and I started working at a jewelry store down there, Richardson's jewelry, in Medicine Hat. And there was a... Do you remember why Richardson's jewelry, why Medicine Hat? Well, it was just I was looking for a job. And I had a friend that had moved to Medicine Hat,

and they liked Medicine Hat, and it was a great town to live in. And I just said, okay, so I took my wife from Iowa, and we moved to Medicine Hat, and I found a job. And I got to work with JR. James Richardson, and I worked for him for, I think, three years. And then Tony Dice, his brother-in-law, had a store in Camrose, Alberta, Richardson's jury in there opening a new Richardson's jury here in Lloyd Minster, and they needed a manager.

So you moved to Lloyd to manage it. So I moved to Lloyd to manage it. And that's how I came with myself. But I had a history with Lloyd Minster before that. Like my uncles used to live and work for Nelson Lumber way back. and I think I wrote it in there. 50s and 60s, I think is what you said. And we used to come up here all the time for trips to visit my aunt and uncle.

And so even back then when I was a kid, it seems like I've had this connection with Lloyd Minster my whole life. Like right from when I was a little kid, coming up here to visit to Lloyd Minster to see my uncles. And then I came back here before to run Richardson's jury, and then married a girl from Lloyd Minster. We moved away from here. and now we're back here.

What did you move to? You went back to Kindersley? Yeah, we moved to Kindersly. We were in Kindersly for 25 years, my wife and I. And then after that, or 23 years, we moved here because my wife wanted to come back home. Her mom was sick and wanted to come back home. And we thought, okay, well, and she wanted to go to college here at Lakeland and take some classes and stuff. My daughter and her moved up here.

And I kept the house in Kinderslie. I'd travel back and forth and come back. and see them in their apartment. And then we said, this ain't working. So I sold the house in Lucky Lake and Erie and Kindersley, and we moved up to Lloyd, I bought a house in Lloyd and started my paper up here. I'd been running the paper in Kindersley and Moose Jaw. And when I got up here, I said, I must have just started another paper.

I'm up here all the time anyway. So we started being here, and we've been going for about 18 years here in Lloyd now. And how many years have you been running the bean? 22. 22. Totally, yeah. Yeah. How did you come up with the idea for the beer?

Well, I was selling advertising for the radio station. When the radio station sold, I ended up trying to think about what I was going to do. And I knew a lot of the business owners through my advertising sales. And I just thought, I'll do something for now, figure out what it's going to be. And I started this little paper and still doing it. Yeah, it's awesome, right? Well, it's hard. It's hard work because the economy.

Economy is not all that great. And there's a lot of competition for the advertising dollar, but it's a niche market, and I've got some loyal customers, and I just keep going. Yeah, I used to go to booster juice all the time. My first got back. I loved sitting in booster juice,

and I'd sit there and wait for it and read the bean and the trivia or the weekly joke, right? Yeah, for sure. Yeah, it's a cool. Thank you. Yeah, it's really well done. I appreciate you saying that. Yeah, for sure.

And so you got three of them. So do you got offices? in all three places? Justin Kindersly and just in here. Moose Jaw is a franchise operation. The guy's been doing it down there for 16 years. So he pays me a franchise fee. Yeah.

And I supply him with all the material and everything. And then all he does is put in the advertising. And he's been doing it all these years. Still going strong down there. Holy man. Oh my gosh. Hey. The life of a crazy old hockey player.

Oh, it's, it's, it's, it's been a really fun little chat. It's a lot of fun talking about it. You know, it's part of my, like I have crazy dreams all the time about, especially after this reunion back in Europe, I started to think about the stuff down at Sioux City and all the stuff that went on down there.

Like anything you can. Just crazy things, crazy to where there was dancers, you know. Well, anyway, it was a club in the lower fourth area of Sioux City. We came out and we ended up in some trouble. And these guys wanted to take a piece of about four of us hockey players. And we had our hockey sticks in the back of the trunk. And that even the score a little bit, they had some other stuff that they wanted to use against us.

But we were able to get out of there with our teeth and with our lives. And we had some dangerous things happen to us down there too. Yeah, it was really. It was rough and tumble for sure. Yeah. But a good time. Sioux City was awesome, and I met a great gal, and unfortunately, the marriage didn't work out. But I got a beautiful daughter, and out of that relationship,

and great memories from playing hockey in Sioux City. And, yeah, came back to Lucky Lake and ended my hockey playing days pretty much in Kinderslie. When I came back, I played old-timers in kindersly when I moved there, finished off playing. I heard. I heard. And I don't know if this is true or not. So I'm going to throw it at you.

What are you going to say? I heard you could pee over a bus. Okay. I knew. Did Dorset say that? Did Dorset say that? Yeah, he probably said that. Well, we won't go there.

There was an occasion once, yeah. That you could pee over a bus. That's just... I wonder how that even gets going. I mean, actually, no, I should say that. I know how that. You're part of a hockey team. I know how that gets going.

know how that could happen. You know how that could happen. And it's funny how something like that follows you around because people still talk about it back in candorously. Now I can't pee over my shoes. Here's a question I wanted to ask. Okay. You played a ton of hockey. You've been all over the world.

and the game continues to evolve what was what was maybe the biggest change in how the games played you had to go through I always think of the red when I was in midget I think it was midget

first year midget they took away the two line pass that really opened up the game right up until that point I played with the red line you can do the two line pass and that's hard to even remember that right is there a rule in the game

that you just sticks out like As soon as they did this, changed the way we played hockey. I think that taking out that two-line pass or taking out that offside over the red line, changed the game enormously. And I think they're going to have to change it back. I think they're going to have to take that rule and put it back the way it was. Because now we got these guys, and I think there's going to have to be some changes about making the ice surface bigger.

The players are all bigger and faster now. The ice surface needs to be bigger. They have to put that two-line off-side rule back in there. Because when guys are coming across that line, the way they're coming, that's where guys are getting hurt now. The big hits are happening in that open ice. Everybody's flying through there like jets. And big guys are stepping into them. That's when they're getting hurt.

I think that anyway. And I think if you took that and slowed that down a little bit. Just a smidge? Just a smidge. Well, they won't allow anybody to hook and hold anymore. So you can't slow a guy down anymore. You can't skate and impede his progress. So by the time they hit the opposite guys.

blue line, they're flying, and that's when guys are getting really, really hurt, not so much in the corners. And making the ice surface a little bit. So I think that did change the game a lot. And they're taking the game and changing it. There's not as much hitting as there used to be. And I think that's a detriment. I liked watching a good open ice hit.

Anybody did. Now if you hit anybody hard in the NHL. It's a penalty. It's a penalty. I don't even know what they're calling. calling anymore. They just call it. They just call it because they don't want any, they can't have anyone hurt on their watch. I can't have any hitting on their watch, right? Actually, the one that's, it's really tough to watch now in the NHL is anytime the goalie gets touched even a little bit.

I know. But they don't even call it, like, as a fan, you sit there and the goalie gets bumped? No, so just call it goal interference and be done. But sometimes it's, no, it's a good goal. And you're like, how is that a good goal? And the last one wasn't, like, it's so confusing as a fan, right? It is. And I watch these young guys play, and you, you see. see everything's changed so much. I used old Sherwood hockey sticks that weighed a ton and you couldn't shoot hard. Like guys, some guys could shoot hard, but not, we, everybody shoots hard now. Everybody's got a rocket.

Well, everybody's using a $300 piece of equipment. It's amazing. And so the game has changed so much from that perspective. And I think that the NHL is going to have to meet, really take a hard look at maybe giving up that first row of seats in their arenas and saying, We've got to make the ice surfaces bigger. We have to adopt maybe a little bit of what the Europeans are doing on that bigger ice surface. It'll stop some of the injuries, I think.

It'll change the game. Definitely it'll change the game. And when I watched my old team, the eaters play over in Europe, I see these guys skating around out there. I go, oh, my gosh, like, this isn't even hockey the way I remember it. Like, there's no hitting whatsoever. Nothing. and it just it's not fun to watch anymore. I don't feel.

And I still enjoy watching a good game on the NHL and I do watch it. Who do you follow on the NHL? I love the, I've always loved the Leafs. That's my. Here's a question for you, man. Jerome McGillenlist Jersey got retired. Yeah. What was that two weeks ago?

Yeah. And I don't like the flames. I'm an Oilers fan. We've got the best player. we won't go down that road. But Iggy was a guy I always respected. That guy played the game right. Didn't he ever?

And when that jersey got retired that night, I went, and that's the end of an era for the NHL. Those players aren't there anymore. That style of hockey isn't, right? The hit. He scored, yeah, right? That's the end of an era. Was there a guy growing up that you watched

when they retired his jersey that was just like, and there's the end of an era? Wow, hey? Wow. I look at the old Chicago Blackhawks, a guy like Stan McKita Gritty, Bobby Hall, that type of player, you know, back in those days. When those guys stopped playing, I think that was the end of that.

There was a special thing about the, like a guy like McDavid, like he's a star, but back then those guys were big stars. Those guys were gods. We looked up to them like so much. And as far as it changed in the game, those guys invented so much. They invented the slap shot. They invented the way the game was played.

I'm an older guy. I'll be 70 this August. And so I look back in the game, and I've watched it change so much over the years compared to what it used to be. And I don't know. I can't really put my finger on any one particular guy that when that was it for him,

that there wouldn't be any more of those guys. But I, you know, it's just, it's just amazing that this game has evolved the way it has to me. I look at the speed, the finesse, the way these guys play the game right now. I don't think I could coach in this hockey anymore. I really don't think I could take a team like yours and coach it anymore, the way the game's played now. I've not, I, all this cycling in the corners and all the things that have happened. and not as much contact and, you know, so I feel the game has changed a lot.

And it's kind of gone past what I could do. I think you're not giving yourself enough credit. You've been around hockey and awful long. It's definitely, I love, I still love the game. I still love going to watch. And a lot of guys that played the game like I did don't go and watch hockey anymore. And it's in my blood. I love it.

Absolutely love the game. Yeah. Well, you've officially become my longest interview. We're at an hour and 44 minutes and I know, and I know I'm going to get a phone call about this because I do this every episode and somebody goes, why do you do this? Why do you cut you guys off? Just go for like four hours if you want to go and just talk. And I always go, yeah, but at an hour and 44 minutes, my jaw is slowly getting tired, right? I'm sure it's the same on the other side.

But this has been, I will remember this day. This has been a fun chat. I've really enjoyed having you on. You got an unbelievable story. It's been really cool to have you in. You're the first guy I've interviewed where I haven't known. The only reason I knew about you was because the newspaper and Kenny telling me about you. But I didn't know half the stuff you were about to talk about.

It's been really cool. It's been really enjoyable experience. I hope, and I'm sure the people listening are going like, I don't know, that was good, right? This has been a really cool experience. Old time hockey and lots of fun. and never made any money at it, but had a great time. Had a great time and saw the world. Absolutely.

Yeah, absolutely. Cool. Well, I really appreciate you coming on. It's been an absolute pleasure. You bet you. Thank you very much for the opportunity. You bet you. Thank you.

Hey, guys, I hope you enjoyed that as much as I thoroughly did. That was entertaining is all hell. Next week on the podcast at Brad Crickshank. He is quite. a guy too and he former pro hockey player played down in the states he played over in Europe he's got

four boys he's married to a pretty cool lady here in Lloyd and was a former bandit's head coach as well here in town so I look forward to that next week Bragg Chuck Shank will be on the show see you next week