Late in the 1964 season, the League and I decided I should leave my cozy position as a big-league linesman, and go to the minor leagues to begin my apprenticeship as a referee. When people ask me how I became a referee, I like to tell them that when I started as a linesman they gave me a bag of marbles, and when I lost all my marbles I became a referee. (That was not far from the truth!)
I refereed my first pro game in Saint Paul, Minnesota, in 1964, and my referee buddy Bruce Hood was there to offer moral support. We had an incident in which two players broke sticks over each other and then speared each other with the broken shafts. Bruce said it was just a normal day at the office.
Our staff sent referees to the American League, the Western League, and the Central Pro League that had relocated from the Eastern Pro League in 1964. It was a grand time; you travelled alone and learned to be your own best friend. I remember the year my daughter Lisa was born, in 1965. I left Sudbury on Christmas Eve and flew to Memphis, Tennessee. I was the only guest in the hotel. I returned home January twelfth, having missed Christmas and New Year’s, and Lisa had grown teeth in the meantime!
Ron and linesmen Claude Bechard and Will Norris, ca. 1975.
Three dapper officials!
Manuel V. Rubi
Prior to expansion, most teams played over the Christmas and New Year season — Christmas Day was just another night, and the show must go on. My first boss, Carl Voss, used to tell us to celebrate our Christmas in July with our playoff bonuses — and we did.
The then “Original Six” NHL clubs sponsored and sent their top prospects to the Central Pro League.7 For example, Phil Esposito was a big star with Chicago’s farm team, the St. Louis Braves, and he eventually graduated to the Black Hawks. Some outstanding hockey players came out of the Central League.
Like all teams in the minors, Memphis used local linesmen, and one of them was a lawyer who was part of the local ownership that had helped bring the team to town. When the home team scored its inaugural goal, this linesman applauded the goal. It was all I could do to keep the other team from assaulting him.
The NHL sent down trainee linesmen to work in the Central League. One young French-Canadian linesman was having breakfast with me in Oklahoma City. He asked the waitress for “two heggs, side by each, facing the sun, bacon parallel, and a pair of toast.” I had to translate to the transfixed lady, “eggs and bacon, sunny side up and a side order of toast.”
The American League had some great teams in the 1950s and ’60s. Some players, like Johnny Bower, played there for years before getting a shot at the NHL. Johnny was owned outright by the Cleveland Barons and was content to stay there and play. He was probably making more money and had less pressure than in the big leagues.
The AHL Springfield Massachusetts team had its venerable owner, Eddie Shore, who would get on the PA system and comment on “Mr. Wicks’s work on the ice.” (He also had his players sell programs and work on arena maintenance.) 8 These were just a few of the trials and tribulations of apprenticing as a minor league referee — and I had left all the comforts of the big leagues for this?
Ron as a young referee.
Hockey Hall of Fame
The Western League was a first-class operation. Teams ranged from Victoria, British Columbia, to San Diego, California. It was great to get a two-week road trip out there in the middle of January. The hockey was super — it was just a notch below the NHL, with players like Guyle Fielder from Seattle, who could have been in the big show but preferred the easier pace of the minors. And you can’t play golf in Toronto in January!
7 Some of the teams in the League were Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota; Tulsa and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Omaha, Nebraska; Memphis, Tennessee; and Dallas, Texas.
8 Eddie Shore’s escapades actually were the catalyst to the establishment of the NHL Players Association in 1967. In the mid-1960s, the Springfield players had had enough of his authoritarian conduct and brought in a young lawyer from Canada, Alan Eagleson, to help address their concerns. This was the first time the players had heard of Mr. Eagleson but would not be the last.