Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community - View Single Post - NHL history in a 127 years of bite sized pieces.

Jay Random · 02-24-2024, 11:27 PM

At about this time, my connection to NHL history becomes almost personal.

In 1932, my father was a boy of five, living on a remote homestead in the Peace River country, where he would soon be playing pond hockey with his two brothers. The family were officially Leafs fans, but my father had more than a hint of admiration for the Rangers. I remember him, in later years, telling me all about Bill and Bun Cook, Babe Siebert, and Earl Seibert, who played defence for the Blueshirts at that time. (I'm sure Siebert and Seibert taught a whole generation of hockey fans the importance of correct spelling.)

At that time, each team dressed a maximum of 12 skaters, so there were only 100-odd players in the whole league. My father knew them all by heart – names, faces, teams, and statistics, carefully memorized from hockey cards and newspaper coverage. It was a little later on that the family got their first radio, and he joined the rest of Canada (and ‘hockey fans in the United States and Newfoundland’) in listening to Foster Hewitt call games on Saturday nights.

The teams were still in eastern Canada and the northeastern U.S., but the voice of the NHL was reaching out into new places.

02-24-2024, 11:27 PM	#70
Jay Random Franchise Player Join Date: Aug 2005 Exp:	At about this time, my connection to NHL history becomes almost personal. In 1932, my father was a boy of five, living on a remote homestead in the Peace River country, where he would soon be playing pond hockey with his two brothers. The family were officially Leafs fans, but my father had more than a hint of admiration for the Rangers. I remember him, in later years, telling me all about Bill and Bun Cook, Babe Siebert, and Earl Seibert, who played defence for the Blueshirts at that time. (I'm sure Siebert and Seibert taught a whole generation of hockey fans the importance of correct spelling.) At that time, each team dressed a maximum of 12 skaters, so there were only 100-odd players in the whole league. My father knew them all by heart – names, faces, teams, and statistics, carefully memorized from hockey cards and newspaper coverage. It was a little later on that the family got their first radio, and he joined the rest of Canada (and ‘hockey fans in the United States and Newfoundland’) in listening to Foster Hewitt call games on Saturday nights. The teams were still in eastern Canada and the northeastern U.S., but the voice of the NHL was reaching out into new places. __________________ WARNING: The preceding message may not have been processed in a sarcasm-free facility.