The following transcript of Red Hamill s interview on Memories and Music. was created by Videoplus Transcription Services in 2013.

Transcription

1 The following transcript of Red Hamill s interview on Memories and Music (broadcast September 5, 1982) was created by Videoplus Transcription Services in 2013.

2 Page 1 00:00:00 Track starts. SCOTT TURNBULL: Good afternoon and welcome to Memories and Music on CIGM FM 92.7 Sudbury. I m your musical host, Scott Turnbull and joining us now with an introduction to today s guest, here s Gary Peck. Today our guest will be Red Hamill. Red Hamill played professional hockey from approximately the 1937/38 season until the 1950/51 season playing for initially the Boston Bruins, latterly the Chicago Blackhawks. And also, Red Hamill has been involved in local sports. And today our guest is Robert Hamill, better known as Red Hamill. And welcome to the program, Mr. Hamill. Thank you. Red, you were involved in professional hockey for a number of years and that s really what we re going to focus on today in the program. But before we actually concentrate on that aspect of your life, would you share with us some biographical information beginning where you were born, when, what general area, and follow through from there? Well, Gary, I was born in Toronto, 1917 and I spent my first 15 years there in Toronto with the family and then I moved north to get a job. That was during the depression years, 34/35 and I went up to South Porcupine. I got the job up there in the mine because I had a little talent as a hockey player. I spent 14 months working in the mine and then Mac Silverman from the Sudbury Wolves approached me to come to Sudbury and play for the Sudbury Wolves. Another fellow, John Godfrey and I came down here and, in fact, that s the same time Murph Chamberlain came to play with-, for the Tigers, exactly the same year. What year would that be? 1936, July the 1 st. I ll never forget it. I think it was back something that they brought Murph Chamberlain to Sudbury. When we got here, we got a job with International Nickel after a few days. And then about a week or so before training camp was to start, we found out that Sudbury didn t have the money to sponsor the team and International Nickel took over as

3 Page 2 sponsor. All the players got jobs at Copper Cliff and we played in the Nickel Belt Senior League, which at that time, in my opinion, was the best league in Canada. We were the only junior team in the league but they had-, they won the Memorial Cup or the Allen Cup that year, Gary. And Copper Cliff went to the Memorial Cup finals and you couldn t wish for anything better than that. What teams were in the league at that time? What were some of the teams? Well, if I can remember right, Frood Tigers, they won it all. Falconbridge Nickel Mines, Creighton, Coniston and Did Garson have a team? No. Garson didn t have a team but the iron-, not the iron-, refinery refinery had a team in the-, I think it was six teams in the in the league. Now, what-, how would you account for it being such a good league? Well, I think the players they brought in here because of the depression. They brought in the best hockey players from Western Canada down in the Maritimes and throughout every province, every hockey player was scouted and I think the best hockey players in Canada came here to form that league. The mining companies were bringing them Well, they were in? involved in, in all the teams. And these, these individuals would not only have an opportunity to play hockey but would also have a position or have a job? Well, I think they came here for the job. Right.

4 Page 3 And I think hockey really was secondary. If you had the talent then you could get a job, no question about it. And that went on for years here in the mining camps. And not only here in Sudbury, but in Timmins and Kirkland Lake, fantastic hockey teams and soccer teams, baseball teams. Built up along with the, with the same idea in mind. Well, we re certainly lucky to have the mines in those days. Now It s a little different today. Pardon me? It s a little different today. There just aren t the jobs available. Now, there would be a number of players that would have gone on to the NHL, I would assume Oh from that, from that period of time? fabulous bunch from the north country and particularly from this league here in Sudbury. Murph Chamberlain, Bingo Kampman, Mel Hill, Pat McReavy. Several players several other players went to the professional ranks and a lot of them to the NHL, directly to the NHL. Now, you played was it one season with that-, in that league? Yeah, I was here with Copper Cliff, just for the one year, and it entailed 14 months when we worked at INCO. That was 36/37? 36/37. In the fall of 37, Mel Hill and I turned pro with Boston. Murph Chamberlain turned pro with the Toronto Maple Leafs and so did Bingo Kampman.

5 Page 4 All from the same team? No. They were from Same league? Frood Tigers and But from the same league? From the same league. Now, what we re gonna do is we ll, we ll, for the moment, we ll, we ll bypass your career in hockey and pick up what your activities were following your retirement, 50/51. It think that was your last season with Chicago? That was the last season, yes. Then I went to coach their farm team in Milwaukee in the United States Hockey League. And then we saw a lot of Sudbury players, too, in that league that were coming up through different National Hockey League farm systems. I remember the kid line played down there one year, that s Tatter McLellan and Mauno Kauppi and Yakker Flynn. Some of the players, there s-, all the players I think are still living in the Sudbury area. I remember playing-, they were in St. Paul at that time which was a Ranger team. Then we spent the year there. That team folded out of that league because of poor attendance. It was the first time they d ever had a pro hockey club in there and the attendance was terrible. You couldn t give seats away. Maybe it was the way we played, I don t know. But then the next year, I went to the Galt Black Hawks and coached the Galt Black Hawks, which was a Junior farm team for the Chicago Black Hawks at that time. I spent two years in Galt. Then I thought it was time I started looking for permanent employment. At that time, I got attached to a Caterpillar dealer in the province and worked 10 years for them selling equipment and was transferred to Sudbury in What was the company? It was the Caterpillar Company.

6 Page 5 Caterpillar? Yeah. So that s what brought you to Sudbury for the second time then? That s right. In 1954? Coming back, and I ve been here ever since. And are-, you re now retired? Retired and living here in Sudbury. All right. On that note, we ll, we ll take a break. We ll hear from our music host and when we return, I d like to focus in on your, your career in the NHL. Welcome back to the interview portion of Memories and Music. Our guest today is Red Hamill. And, Red, you turned pro, I believe it was in the season of 1937/38? That s right, Gary. And hockey is very-, hockey was different then than it is today in terms of well, one difference, of course, would be the numbers of teams. Well, when I turned pro in 37/38, I played I think 13 games with Boston and I spent the rest of the time in Providence, Rhode Island the farm team along with Mel Hill and Frankie Brimsek and Johnny Crawford, fellows like that. And Johnny Crawford had played the previous year in Kirkland Lake. And then in 1938/39 season, Johnny Crawford, Mel Hill and I all went up and Frankie Brimsek, we all went to Boston. That was the year we won the Stanley Cup. I was on that team and we had Eddie Shore, Jack Portland, Flash Hollett, Bill Cowley, the Kraut Line, Schmidt, Dumart and Bauer, Charlie Sands, Eric Pettinger, Getliffe. We had tremendous hockey players, tough to make that club. And although Shore was on that team, the best hockey player, all around hockey player I ever seen at that time was Milt Schmidt, cause he could

7 Page 6 Playing for the Bruins? do everything, defensively, offensively. He could hit. He could take a hit. He was just fantastic. And they had a great hockey club and they finished first, three out of four years in a row at that time. Bill Cowley was the center of that day. He was the Gretzky of that day. Although he could never skate like Gretzky and the people-, I ve heard-, I never seen Gretzky play hockey, you know, Gary. Right. I ve seen him on TV only. And people say-, I ve heard people say and I ve heard-, read it in the papers, he can t skate. I ll tell you when he gets that puck, there s not too many guys catch him. No. Bill Cowley couldn t skate like that but he could sure do a lot with a puck and a stick. But that 38/39 season was a great season and of course it, it brought me a great thrill, even greater than the thrill the year before when Copper Cliff Redmen went to the Memorial Cup finals against Winnipeg and we lost that series. That was a great thrill to get that far. Then in the following year, we won the Stanley Cup in Boston and then Now, was this a team that was picked at the onset of the year to win the cup? Were you that strong a team? No, I think Rangers were picked that year. I think Rangers were supposedly the dominating team that year. And they had the Colvilles and Shibicky and Art Coulter and Lynn Patrick, players like that. They had a real good hockey club. But I remember that year Boston started out fairly slow as you might say but they hit their peak at playoff time and they had a great series against Rangers and, and then beat Toronto Maple Leafs in the Stanley Cup finals. Then we

8 Page 7 Who was your coach and general manager? The general manager and coach was one guy, Art Ross and he comes from Naughton, just outside Sudbury here. He was born there and spent a-, quite a few years in that area. But unfortunately, Mr. Ross and I didn t see eye-to-eye on a lot of things. He complained about my weight all the time. And I was always fair-, a fairsized kid. We didn t get along that well and we exchanged words several times. I asked to be traded and I waited four years to be traded. But Mr. Ross had his own ideas and I guess as a coach should and I ve probably done the same thing when I ve been coaching. But my instructions are to be a defensive forward to always back check. I was put out against the big right-wingers or the top scorers on the other teams, whether it be right or left wing. And I objected to that many times and asked to be traded and finally I got my wish and I went to Chicago in When you started playing in the NHL, how many games would you play a year? How long was the season? The first year I played-, there are 48 games. We played, I think, three or four years of 48 games. In 1941, I think it went to 50 games. Gradually been moving up. You mentioned that you, you really-, you were a defensive forward. Well You were a checking forward. Did you that s what Mr. Ross said I was. Right. That s what you were designated as Yeah. on the team anyhow.

9 Page 8 Right. Who are some of the people that-, some of the, the more prominent names that you had to check? Well, in those days, they had-, geez, I m going back, Gary, beyond my memory I think. In those days, Montreal Canadiens had that famous name and still have it, the Flying Frenchmen. And they had some guys on that team that could really go. And I remember having to switch from right wing to left wing to play Rangers in Montreal. I used to have to check Hextall when he was with New York Rangers. And he was a left-hand shot playing right wing and I would move over to left wing to check him and then we d go against Canadiens, I d have to go over to the other wing. And these are things that I object to... because I wanted to play one position. I didn t mind the defensive end of it as much as getting moved around all the time. Yeah. And you were also interested in scoring though? Well, sure. Right. That s why-, I was a scorer when I was a Junior hockey player. How many minutes would you play a game? What was the, the length of your involvement per game on the average? Well, the first few years that-, well, the first three years with Boston I wouldn t get more than eight minutes a game. That would be the maximum in any game. Then in the last year when Roy Conacher broke his wrist and they had nobody else, they brought me up to play with Cowley. I came up from Hershey. And I scored six goals in

10 Page 9 seven games playing with Cowley. Of course, I always did say anybody that couldn t score 20 goals playing with Cowley shouldn t be playing. And I got 13 points in the, in the 7 games with Cowley. Cowley and Mel Hill and myself were on a line. And then when I went to Chicago, they, they said well I want you to score goals and that s what you re here for. And with the help of the Carse brothers, I, I scored 18 goals in about 24 games, in 25 games. Then I came back the following year with Chicago and we had Mush March was moved onto a line with Bobby Carse and myself. And that year, I scored 28 goals and they, they were pretty good years in those times when you were There were a lot more checkers in those days than there are today, Gary. I don t think there s enough defensive hockey players today. More freewheeling today. Now, on the, on the Chicago team, who was, who was the manager, who was the coach during that period? Well, when I first I imagine it varies from year to year, right? When I first went there-, well, they had more coaches, I think, than anybody in those days. They re like Detroit today. They had 11 or 12 coaches in 10 years prior to my going there. But they had Tiny Thompson s brother was the coach and he was there for two years that I was there prior to going into the service and when I came back, Johnny Gottselig was the coach. Now, both these guys were-, had been offensive hockey players. They scored goals and they said, well, you know, let her go. You re a forward, we want you to score goals. But I didn t have the years after the war that I had before, of course, and although I did have a couple

11 Page 10 of 20-goal years after I came back. And then the last four years that I played, strictly to kill the penalties. And I played maybe four or five times a game, maybe 10 minutes a game. Well, there wasn t-, it wasn t all that many years ago, certainly prior to expansion when a 20-goal season was, was a very good season for a hockey player. And you were mentioning that you had some years when you had certainly over 20 goals. Yeah. I had over 20-, I had And that would be during a reduced season in comparison. Yeah, 20 or over 20 for four consecutive years, two prior to going in the army and two after. But they considered 20 goal a year was pretty good in those days, you know. I would think so. Now, would that be reflected in one s salary? How often would your contract be? Yeah. Or was it opened up? Was it closed for an extended period of time? How did that work? There weren t too many people in those days playing hockey that had a one-way contract. They stayed in the NHL and mostly in two-way contracts because they had the American League and a lot of those hockey players in the American League could have played in the National Hockey League if there were more teams.

12 Page 11 And even some of them could have played at that time. But it depended on, I guess, on a club s likes and dislikes or where they wanted the player to play. I can recall one guy that was good enough I saw down in that league to play hockey in the National League and couldn t play because he d lost an eye, Tommy Burlington. And you weren t, and to this day, I don t think you re allowed to play No, they still cannot. in the National Hockey League with just one eye. But there were lots of good hockey players there and in that league and they would send you down and they threatened you all the time. And you signed a two-way contract. If you don t get X number of goals or you don t do this or do that, down to the farm club. They held that over your head. They can t do that anymore. Now, I understand they can t even send you down unless you re on a two-way contract and Yeah, they re certainly not as, not as many of those you re suggesting as they were when you were playing? Not, not near as many. Now Now they get (inaudible) contracts. You retired in 50/51? 50/51 season, right. Could you describe your feelings, what, what it was like to get out of active hockey, playing hockey after a fairly extended period of time? Well, in my case, Gary, it wasn t hard because I wasn t playing that much. Charlie Conacher was coaching the team there in 48/49-, 47/48, 48/49. And they made that big trade with the Toronto Maple Leafs and they gave away Max Bentley and a kid by the name of Thomas we never hear about. And they went to Toronto for Bodnar, Poile and Stewart, Ernie Dickens

13 Page 12 and Bob Goldham. Now, we were-, Chicago were getting five pretty damn good hockey players. But the crowd, you know, they were just in love with the Bentley brothers. Yeah. And breaking up that, that twosome of the-, Max and Doug Bentley, well the crowd just didn t go like-, go for that at all, regardless of who they were getting. But they got-, they didn t just quantity, they got quality when they got those fellows, although they did trade them away a couple of years later. Bodnar went to Boston. Goldham went to Detroit right in the prime of his life and went on to win Stanley Cups with Detroit and become an All-Star. But things were different in those days. Chicago fans are a tough crowd and they are maybe today, too. They-, if they feel that their team is not giving out a hundred percent, they just stay away. Whereas, in Toronto, people go there, they fill that arena every game, every day of the year that they play hockey there. Yes. And but I think probably that s because fans are not all Toronto fans. No. It s often said New York was a difficult city as well. Was it at the time you were playing? No. New York were drawing their No? 17,000. Boston were drawing 16, 17,000. They were-, in the same rink, they re only drawing 13,999 now. But they had a-, they had a fire loss since Yeah.

14 Page 13 then. All right. We re gonna have to take a break at this point. When we return we ll continue with perhaps providing you with an opportunity to talk about some of the All Stars in the league at that time and maybe make a few comparisons in terms of the league then as compared to today. Welcome back to the interview portion of Memories and Music. Red Hamill is our guest today and we ve been talking about professional hockey back during the 1930 s, 40 s, up to the season 50/51. Red, when I think of the NHL today, I suppose, one dominant characteristic is the fact that there are now so many teams. It s difficult to even keep track of-, begin to keep track of the players. When you were playing, there were six teams. What are your thoughts on the expansion, for example? Well, Gary, it s pretty hard to compare the hockey now and when it was when the six-team league was in operation. The hockey has changed. Today, it s wide open. I think Orr brought this on, 19-, when he came out of Junior with Oshawa. He was a rushing defenseman and he scored over a hundred points, what five or six years, leading scoring defenseman of all time. They used to say he ll replace-, or make you forget about Eddie Shore. I think he s done that. There s-, him and Shore s are different era. Shore carried the puck, too, but nobody carried the puck like Bobby Orr. So every defenseman that coming into the game since then with very few exceptions has it in mind that if you re gonna share in the trophy they give away at the end the year for a defenseman, you gotta be a forward. And everybody s after points. Now, you wouldn t compare a Bobby Orr and Eddie Shore. They were different eras, different styles? Well Both very talented. Is that

15 Page 14 Shore was a real tough nut as a hockey player. And he would get a piece of you and try to-, I wouldn t say try to hurt you but he would wanna let you know that he was around didn t matter what part of his body or what part of his equipment he used. But he wasn t the finesse player that Orr was. Orr could skate miles, miles, game in and game out. And I-, they re pretty hard to compare those two. They were both great talents, both great talents in two different eras. So I don t think you can really compare them. All right. Some of the other hockey players of that period of time who would have been the great scorers. Today we think of Wayne Gretzky, for example, during the Well, you ve gotta think of Richard when it comes to scoring goals and you ve gotta think of guys like Elmer Lach, John Beliveau. You gotta think of Gordie Howe, Sid Abel. Mel Schmidt? Mel Schmidt, Bill Cowley. I guess it was Cowley s record that Gretzky broke last winter in percent of points per game played. Woody Dumart was a great scorer. Roy Conacher was a great scorer. In those days, 26, 28 goals in a season was a lot of goals. Brian Hextall. The Now, 28 goals in a season, you had-, what was the maximum number of goals you had? Twenty-eight was the best season I ever had. So you had a very, very good season then at 28 goals?

16 Page 15 Yeah. I m thinking that was 42/43 was-, I think that was the 42/43 season. I think I was third in the league. In terms of total points? In terms of goals. Goals. In terms of goals? Who would In terms have been up there at the top then? Lynn Patrick Bouchard? I think was in the Patrick? lead that year. Now, let s focus on someone such as Schmidt. He played a different style because the game was played differently than Gretzky today. Oh, yeah. Have you ever-, I suppose you ve often thought what it would have been like for some of those players if they d been turned loose, had the opportunities to score that are there today. Well, Gary Their totals might have been considerably higher. Gary, let s put it this way, I can t compare Gretzky really No. because I have never seen him play on the ice, other than on the tube. And on the tube, I don t see anybody checking Gretzky. Now, he s got great talent, I know that. He can do a lot of things with that puck. Yeah.

17 Page 16 And he can score goals, and he can set up players but I don t know where he gets these opportunities. I m saying when the six-team league was in effect, somebody would be on him. The only team that I think that checks him is that Boston club. They put a guy by the name of Kasper, I think it is, and he checks him. Cashman? No Is it Kasper. Kasper? I think his name is Steve Kasper. And he checks him. And he keeps those points down and he keeps a good watch on Gretzky. But I see Gretzky lots of times when he s got the puck and every time he nods his head, people are moving away from him. So I don t know but I think the game s more wide open today and I would wonder what Elmer Lack would do or Bill Cowley or Mil Schmidt would do if nobody checked them. And I don t think they re checking Gretzky. I seen him get hit once last year, the first game that Toronto played on TV in Edmonton. The rookie with Toronto, Stewart Gavin, I believe his name is, hit him a body check. And that s the first time I ever seen him hit. So it s pretty hard to compare because of the two different styles of hockey. Very few checkers in the game today and I don t think the goaltending is as good today as it used to be. Who were some of the strong goaltenders when you were playing? Well

18 Page 17 Some of the ones who Glenn Hall has played in Detroit and Mike Karacas, Frankie Brimsek, Old Turk Broda, one of the best and Bill Durnan. Well, you ve certainly mentioned a number of the major players, you know, at the-, of that period of time. Now, other changes in terms of the game, certainly it s much easier to follow six teams than it is the large number we have today. Yet, I suppose, the advantage is today is that there are more teams in different geographical areas. The interest in the United States is much greater than it Oh, yeah. ever was. It s a real business. They re making all kinds of money. It wasn t that strong in the States when you were playing, was it? The American players for example were very, very few if many at all. Well, we had one in Chicago. Yes. We had Johnny Mariucci. Well, we had more than that but we only had one in any one year. We had Cully Dahlstrom at one time, too. In fact, when Major McLaughlin owned the team, he tried to have all Americans on the Chicago team. They couldn t get-, not only win a game, they couldn t score a goal. But Rangers drew a 17,000 in those days. Boston drew a 16. I played in 1947 in Chicago there was 20,000 in 4 paid. Detroit drew well. They drew the capacity of the house. Toronto always did. Montreal has been a great drawerer over the years, but they ve been winners. But they re only a few clubs this, presently, that can t win or can t be a contender right now.

19 Page 18 They re the ones that are losing money. The rest of them should be making money. They re filling the house. But I think that the fans have changed. I don t think the fans are enthusiastic today as they used to be. I don t In what way? What-, how would they demonstrate their enthusiasm I don t know why they say-, why I more so than today? say that, Gary, because I m thinking about the old days where they threw everything on the ice you could think of. Right. Which wasn t good. I don t think you can name a canned good or I ve seen.38 revolvers. Thrown on the ice? On the ice. Salt, bags of salt, playing cards, chicken, rabbit, fish. A dead rat. Maybe it was just as well You know that s changed. I can recall, not that many years ago, during the playoffs, I think it was Detroit and Chicago where they would throw the octopus out on the Octopus ice. yeah. And that was, you know, 10 or 15 years ago. I think that was an annual affair in Detroit. It became a tradition Yeah. didn t it? Yeah. They did that every year, I think, in the playoffs.

20 Page 19 Well, we re going to take a break and when we return, we ll talk about your involvement in this area in terms of amateur sports. Welcome back to the interview portion of Memories and Music. Red Hamill is our guest today. And, Red, once you retired from professional hockey in the seasons 50/51, it wasn t that many years until you were back in Sudbury and I think you became involved and have been involved over the years in terms of amateur sports. About-, was it around 54 when you came back? I came back here in 54, Gary. I coached in Galt in 51/52 and 52/53 season. And after-, and they got-, and that was in the Junior A at that time. Now, when I left Galt, I went to work for equipment company, sold Caterpillar equipment and I was transferred to Sudbury, and very happy to come back here where I played junior hockey. And that was in May of 54, I moved back here. That s a long time. That s 28 years ago. And when I came back here, I got involved with the kids at the playground coaching the Bantam and the PeeWee teams and you gotta remember I had four boys of my own, too, playing hockey. And Trevor Boyce wanted to start a Junior A league along with Red McCarthy from Espanola and Bumbacco from the Sault and Pete Palangio from North Bay. So we got-, all got together and we formed the Junior A league and later on took in Chelmsford. That league was a pretty successful league, created a lot of rivalry. The old rivalry came back between the four major towns. Then we got into the playoffs those years with the South who were Junior A teams and they just walloped this league up here. And just they didn t have enough competition or enough good hockey players in order to compete for the Memorial Cup. And then they changed that to the Major Junior League and they re still operating here in Sudbury and North Bay now are in the Major Series, and the Sault. So the rivalry would be back in the north country. But after the-, I got out of that hockey, Junior hockey with Garson and that was only because my job

21 Page 20 wouldn t allow me the time to spend in it, I started in 1962, a fellow by the name of John Heffern came and asked me if I would help him promote the Silver Stick Hockey Tournament here with the winners going to Port Huron and Sarnia. So I offered to help him and John was a great organizer. He got all kinds of people to do the work and John just sat back. So eventually, a couple of years later, John left. And fellows like Rod Kirkwood and Tucker Smith now passed away and Don Storatini(ph) and fellows like that kept it going and it s been going now for, I think, their 13 th or 14 th year coming up. It s an annual tournament. How many teams when you started? When we first started, Gary, there was-, the first tournament we had 37 teams. And we had four of them from the American Sault. And that was the first from out of the country that we ever had here. And the last few years, they ve been-, they ve had 84, 85, 90 entries here in Sudbury. And that brings in a couple thousand kids to play hockey. Very popular event, isn t it? Very popular. And it s a continent-wide affair. There s teams all over the United States and Canada that play in these tournaments and they-, all end up in Sarnia and Port Huron for the finals. And what are they competing for now? Are they-, a trophy itself? Well, they compete for a trophy, yes. And they compete for individual trophies here, like a tournament held in Sudbury. There s a Silver Stick trophy and a Bell Canada trophy. Bell......Canada s a co-sponsor. And then when they-, the winners of this tournament go on down to Sarnia and they play... Well, Sweden had a team down there in the final last year and teams from all over the United States and all parts of Canada.

22 Page 21 Yeah. Is one of the trophies named after yourself, or... No. No? No. But the tournament... Tournament is named after me. The tournament is? Yeah. All right. Now, you re still involved with the tournament? No, I m not. No. I haven t been the last couple of years. Probably still watch the games or at least try to retain an interest in it? Oh, yeah, I do retain an interest......in it. Been-, a little hard getting around now. Yes. Especially in the wintertime. Now, before we end the program, there s one question which I should have asked earlier. There have been so many good hockey players coming out of Northern Ontario, and you were really helping to explain at the onset why a number were in this area, the association with the mining companies during the depression and the opportunity of employment. Right. How would you account for so many excellent hockey players coming out of Sudbury area and other communities in Northern Ontario? Would that be the main reason that Today? Well, in the past and... Well, in the past, I think they-, there weren t that many actual Sudbury players.

23 Page 22 They d all been imports......for the different mines in the area. And they d come from east coast and west coast. And then they were all teamed up here and the competition in Sudbury made them better hockey players and they went on... The competition was good in this area? The competition was tops. There s nothing better, nothing better. And they went on to the NHL from here. Although, they weren t Sudbury boys, they had played hockey here. So really a fair amount of credit should be given to the mining companies... Oh, I would definitely......for providing those opportunities....say so. Like I think INCO sponsored five teams the year that I played here. And one was-, the other one was Falconbridge. So they did a lot for sport. Then all of these hockey players that are coming out of here now, of course, are going through the same thing. Sponsors of all the minor teams......and the money that these big companies put into the sport here allows kids to play hockey and you can t progress unless... Yeah....you get the ice time.

24 Page 23 We often have a tendency to take for granted the sponsoring of teams but that s a very important component, isn t it? I ve always said that. Exceptionally important... Yeah....component. They probably do as much as anyone else as far as coaching. They probably do more than the coaches do, cause they give you the place to play, or at least responsible mostly for the rinks that are built around here. They provide the catalyst? That s right. All right, Red, we re gonna have to end the program on that note. And on behalf of our listening audience, I would like to thank you very much for sharing with us your memories of hockey during an earlier era, during a period of time when there were six teams and certainly it appears to have been an exciting period of time in hockey. So on behalf of our listening audience, thank you very much. Well, thank you, Gary. SCOTT TURNBULL: And on behalf of myself, I d like to thank Red Hamill for dropping by. I really enjoyed that program. It s nice to hear about not only the roots of Sudbury, but the roots of hockey being such a big fan. I hope you ve enjoyed Memories and Music for this Sunday afternoon, first Sunday of September. And I hope you ll be back again with us next Sunday afternoon here at one o clock. This is Scott Turnbull. Have a pleasant afternoon. 00:36:17 Track ends.