By Greg Nikkel
Much of the focus of the Saskatchewan Hockey Hall of Fame induction ceremonies were centred on Weyburn’s Red Wings on Friday evening, as many of the tables set up in Crescent Point Place were filled for the gala evening.
Several players from the 1983-84 national championship squad of the Red Wings were on hand for the event, at which the team was inducted in the Teams category, along with coach Dwight McMillan and head of scouting Ron Rumball, both in the Builders category, and the late Tom Huston was inducted in the Grassroots category.
“It’s a very humbling experience,” said Rumball of the ceremonies. He had been chosen to speak on behalf of the inductees after each one was presented with a plaque and jersey from the Hockey Hall of Fame.
“Hockey is a people business. Without good people, there’s no good hockey,” he said, and quoted one of the players from the ‘84 Red Wings, John Corrigan, as he said “you have to have character” to have a winning team, and that team had a lot of good character.
In spite of the team rivalries, there is a shared sense of community in hockey, said Rumball, noting that one year, in the 1981-82 season, there were seven or eight Notre Dame Hounds players who came and played with the Red Wings.
The programs developed by the Saskatchewan Hockey Association and the hockey leagues all around the province also all deserve credit for helping develop good hockey players and coaches.
He referred to the Hockey News which rated the top 15 coaches in the NHL, and at least four of them came out of Saskatchewan’s hockey system.
Rumball was happy to see the good number of Red Wings who were able to come for the ceremonies, and said on behalf of the inductees, “We’re very proud to be here, and we’ll carry on the tradition.”
There were some anxious moments during the evening’s program, as the former owner of the Red Wings at the time they won the national championship in 1984, Tom Webb, collapsed and required medical attention. He was taken to hospital by EMTs, and received treatment at the hospital and was released later that evening.
Earlier, Mayor Debra Button spoke of the large impact that hockey has on life in Saskatchewan, and said, “There is no prouder community than ours” when it comes to celebrating hockey success.
She noted that inductee Dwight McMillan had coached her husband Greg along with many others, and said no matter which former player of Dwight’s one asks, they will tell you that he helped those boys become men under his coaching and influence.
Of the late Tom Huston, Mayor Button said, “I still can’t walk into this arena without looking for Tommy Huston. He was ‘Mr. Hockey’,” adding that inductee Ron Rumball is also a household name in Weyburn through his years of working as a scout, team manager and general manager of the Red Wings.
Addressing all of the inductees, she said, “You are the reason hockey is and will continue to be the greatest sport in Canada.”
The co-chairs of the Saskatchewan Hockey Hall of Fame also spoke briefly.
“One of my favourite categories is the Grassroots category, and I was reading about Tommy Huston. We’re going to have two guys in the Hall named ‘Mr. Hockey’,” said Jack Brodsky, referring to the late Gordie Howe who was also widely known by that moniker.
The other co-chair, Blair Davidson, noted that the Hockey Hall of Fame, located in Swift Current, is a great facility should anyone be going through the city, encouraging them to take the time to go see it, as all of the inductees from that evening will be there.
He said the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame was a great help to the organization, helping provide some of the memorabilia they now have on display in the Hall of Fame, and the Saskatchewan Hockey Association has also been a major supporter of the initiative.
“Saskatchewan has an incredibly rich hockey heritage, and you can help us celebrate that,” said Davidson.
• Those who were inducted into the Players category included Orland Kurtenbach, who started in the SJHL and went on to the NHL with the Maple Leafs, New York Rangers and finally the Vancouver Canucks, serving as the franchise’s first team captain; Bob Turner, who first played three years with the Regina Pats before joining the Montreal Canadiens in 1955, winning five Stanley Cups with them; Terry Harper, who also started with the Regina Pats and moving on to the Canadiens in 1963, sharing in five Stanley Cups and playing in four All-Star games, later playing for the L.A. Kings, Detroit Red Wings, St. Louis Blues and Colorado Rockies.
• The first woman player to be inducted to the Hall of Fame was Colleen Sostorics, who said she went to her parents at the age of four to ask if she could play hockey. She started by playing on boys teams in her hometown of Kennedy, and went on to win three Olympic gold medals and three world championships with Team Canada.
• In the Builders category was Dwight McMillan, the winningest coach in SJHL history with over 1,000 wins in coaching the Red Wings for nearly four decades; Ron Rumball, who joined forces with McMillan as the head scout and later general manager of the Red Wings, helping the Wings win eight SJHL crowns and two national championships; and Barry Mackenzie and Terry O’Malley, who were both involved with the Notre Dame Hounds at Athol Murray College for many years.
• The late Jules Swick was inducted in the Officials category, and his son Don was on hand to accept the induction plaque. Originally from Wakaw, Swick began officiating in 1957 and spent 22 years in the Western Canada Junior League, some years in the Senior League, and worked an Allan Cup final and a Memorial Cup final. He was referee-in-chief in Saskatchewan leagues, and was a director and president of the Saskatchewan Referees Association.
• The late Tom Huston of Weyburn was inducted into the Grassroots category, as he had been involved with the Red Wings since its inception in 1961, serving over the years as team president and treasurer, and working tirelessly as a volunteer over the years, right up until his passing in 2007 at the age of 94. His son Roger and daughter Maryanne McDonald were on hand to accept the plaque and jersey.
• The Teams category included the 1983-84 Red Wings who won the Centennial Cup, their first national championship, and the 1956-57 Flin Flon Bombers, who was the first SJHL team to win a national championship, the National Junior Memorial Cup.
Of the Red Wings team, coach McMillan noted there was a lot of talent on that squad, and said, “Coaches don’t win championships, players do, and they win it in the dressing room.”
He noted the leadership of Mark Schneider and the goaltending of John Corrigan were two of the factors, along with the superb penalty-killing and offensive abilities all combined to lead the team to the championship.
