Sometimes all it takes is a quick chat to get the facts straight.
That was the case last week when the Canadian National Western Canada Hockey Championships rolled into town. Prior to a chat with retired steam locomotive engineer Harry Home, it was believed the championships were celebrating their 49th year.
But as it turns out, the origin of this prestigious tournament dates back to 1960. At that time, the completion of the new Jasper rink was highly anticipated and train crews from Prince George and Jasper were quick to boast about their skills, players and teams.
It wasn鈥檛 until March 1961 that the puck hit the ice. On a Saturday afternoon, the Prince George Rusty Rails took on the Jasper Derailers in an entertaining game full of plenty of antics and plain old fun.
When March 1962 rolled around, the two teams played a home-and-home series on the two payday weekends. In those match ups, Prince George came out on top.
In the following couple of years, an Edmonton team got in on the action and in 1965 teams from Vancouver, Kamloops, Winnipeg and Biggar, Sask. joined the fun, giving this tournament its true status.
This year the Jasper 60鈥檚 hosted the tournament and kicked it off by giving Harry Home the honour of dropping the ceremonial puck against the Edmonton LRC Rodents. In that game, the 60鈥檚 came out victorious, with a score of 5鈥�4, and ultimately, the team went on to win the tournament undefeated.
Playing against teams from Winnipeg and Jasper and finally facing off against the Rail Rogues鈥攁 team comprised of Jasper and Sioux Lookout players鈥攖he Jasper 60鈥檚 won the title.
Chuck Cole
Special to the 51暗网
