Following my retirement from the NHL, I had the opportunity of refereeing NHL Alumni games for about twenty years. We travelled all over Canada playing games, from Newfoundland to Vancouver Island. I bunked with my old pal Billy Harris of the 1960s Leafs, and later, Peter McDuffe, an outstanding goalie. It was a treat to watch a couple of golden oldies like Andy Bathgate and seventy-year-old Norm Ullman tiptoe around the ice. I called it poetry in slow motion. Occasionally, I would have a microphone on the ice and would have a chance to broadcast the play and zing the players. Now I could get even!
Keith McCreary and Ron.
Author’s Collection
During one of the Oldtimers games in Buffalo, I was informed by the Buffalo team that they were expected to win. The Toronto Oldtimers went ahead 4–0 in the first period, and I was chuckling to myself as Buffalo came roaring back and tied up the game. The game ended up 8–8. They were just like two old heavyweight champs: both left with their pride intact.
NHL Oldtimers ca. 1995.
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Keith McCreary ran our NHL Alumni Hockey team for many years, and it was during this time we found out that our hockey pensions were not as good as we had been told they were. Keith, Andy Bathgate, Eddie Shack, Carl Brewer, Allan Stanley, and several other players approached the courts and eventually won a large pension enhancement for the players.39 Bruce Hood and I represented the officials, and the officials received a deserved pension increase also. It was a long, tough fight but well worth the battle.
Left: Father Les Costello, Frank Mahovlich, and Ron.
Right: Flying Fathers plaque.
Flying Fathers
One of the highlights of our Alumni games was playing against the “Flying Fathers,” a fun-loving group of priests, including Father Les Costello, the former Maple Leaf, who, incidentally, was from Timmins.40 I remember as a nine-year-old watching him skate away from fame to join the priesthood. Their team played benefit games in Canada, the United States, and Europe, and their antics kept everyone in stitches. They had a priest dressed up as the “Flying Nun” on a horse, who rode into the arena in Brampton. The horse fell on its ass, and the “Nun” skidded to centre ice, breaking the fans up.
One of my treasured memories was being inducted as an honorary member of the Flying Fathers, who raised over four million dollars for charity during their years on tour.
Having been involved with hockey for about fifty years (it seems like yesterday), I have rubbed shoulders at various hockey events and charity golf tournaments, and been lucky enough to have met numerous athletes from other sports, including: Fergie Jenkins, Kelly Gruber, Laurie Graham, Don Moen, Russ Jackson, Meadowlark Lemon, Marilyn Bodogh, Ed Werenick, Donovan Bailey, Bobby Bell, Vida Blue, Reggie Jackson, George Chuvalo, and Angelo Mosca. While I have enjoyed the company of all the athletes, the public’s consensus is that hockey players are the most accommodating athletes around.
Guy Lafleur, Ron, and “RCMP officer” — speeding ticket.
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I have met numerous politicians, and am quite fond of Brampton’s Bill Davis, the former premier of Ontario. During a federal election campaign, I enjoyed meeting the current Canadian prime minister, Stephen Harper, who is a big hockey fan. Mr. Harper asked me if I refereed in the 1970s. When I replied, “Yes,” he said, “God, I hated those Flyers.” I responded, “So did I.”
I refereed NHL Alumni games with The Hockey Legends All Stars, primarily in Western Canada. We generally played teams made up of Royal Canadian Mounted Police constables, a great way to raise funds for charity. I recall after a game in the aluminum-mining town of Kitimat, British Columbia, a knock came at our dressing room door. I answered the knock, and it was a young French-Canadian miner holding a souvenir chair he had purchased when the Montreal Forum closed. The chair seating number was G–10. Guy Lafleur, whose hockey sweater number ten has been retired by the Montreal Canadiens, was sitting right beside me. Guy invited the fellow into the room, autographed the chair, and had his picture taken with the ecstatic young man, who left the arena more thrilled than if he had met the pope. This really displayed what a class act Guy is.
NHL Oldtimers, Rotary Club fundraiser, Gage Park in Brampton, Ontario.
Brampton Guardian
The Toronto NHL Oldtimers were always available for charity events. We have a lovely outdoor skating trail at Gage Park in Brampton, and I was able to hustle up Andy Bathgate, Keith McCreary, Billy Harris, and Eddy Shack for the event. Proceeds went to the Rotary Club Easter Seals fund. I love nothing better than to skate there on a crisp, sunny day in the winter.
Christopher Stephenson benefit hockey game, ca. 1995.
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When Jim Garvie, a lawyer pal of mine, and I organized The Christopher Stevenson Benefit Hockey Game in Brampton, we saw one of the finest displays of volunteering of services I have ever witnessed. We hustled up numerous ex-NHL hockey players, like our old standbys Andy Bathgate, Keith McCreary, Ron Ellis, and others. We played against a bunch of local amateurs, including the then mayor of Brampton, Peter Robertson, and Mississauga’s mayor, Hazel McCallion.
Christopher Stephenson was an eleven-year-old who had been killed, in June 1988, by a convicted rapist who was out of prison on parole. The funds raised eventually assisted in the implementation of Christopher’s Law, Ontario’s sex offender registry. Christopher’s parents, Jim and Anna, are fine people who have dedicated themselves to putting this law into effect.
All the amateurs each paid one hundred dollars to play in the game, and I recall informing Mississauga’s feisty lady mayor on the opening faceoff that she was allowed one free shot at the Brampton chief magistrate. She brought her stick up (none too gently) into his groin area and this action brought down the house!
NHL Oldtimers goalie, Peter McDuffee, and Ron.
Author’s Collection
Danny Gallivan, who was the legendary voice of the Montreal Canadiens for over thirty-two years, passed away in 1993. We held a hockey tournament in Sydney, Nova Scotia (his home province), the summer he died. In his honour we put together The Danny Gallivan Cup featuring hockey legends of the Original Six teams. The participants included Darryl Sittler, Lanny McDonald, Steve Shutt, Billy Harris, Rick Middleton, and “Tiger” Williams. All told, about eighty ex-NHL players participated in a five-day tournament taped for television.
Legendary coaches, such as Milt Schmidt, John Ferguson, and Pat Burns took part. NHL Hall of Fame referee Red Storey, who had been a great pal of Danny’s, was the commissioner. Dan Shulman did the broadcasting, and a young tenor, John McDermott, sang “Danny Boy” prior to all twenty-or-so games. Bruce Hood and I refereed, and we all enjoyed ten days of wonderful “down east” hospitality. Our charter flight was not scheduled to return back to Toronto until several days after the tournament, and I was “forced” to spend several extra days touring the Cabot trail with Billy Harris and John McDermott. In fact, John and I both sang together at one of the local watering holes. I knew John had a future in the music business, and he is now an international, world-class tenor. John sings the National Anthem at Leafs games and has sung with the Irish Tenors. He is a fantastic person.
Billy Harris, who was coaching the Leafs Alumni team and had played on three Stanley Cup-winning teams in the early 1960s, mentioned that once the puck was dropped, the competitive juices began to flow. The only problem was that the players ranged from thirty years of age to sixty-three, and as my dad used to say, “The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.”
I was fortunate to have spent some time with Danny Gallivan at charity golf tournaments in the summers. He was a quality guy. The Danny Gallivan cup was a great time had by all; a wonderful testimony to one of the finest people you could ever meet.
I always felt fortunate to travel with the NHL Oldtimers Alumni teams because we got to meet some wonderful people, all over the country. Fans would literally take you home after a game. I recall a game in Fort Vermillion, Alberta, when we played the local team, which was comprised of mainly aboriginal players. Stan Jonathan was one of our players and he was of aboriginal descent. He was a big hero to the native people across the country, and after the game Stan was invited out to the chief’s home for a “nightcap.” I remember we had to hold the bus up in the morning, as Stan was a bit slow at getting his wake-up call!
Athletes at any stage in life have their pride, and one of the most telling cases was several years ago, when I refereed a benefit game in Smiths Falls, Ontario. Two NHL Alumni teams were involved; players from the Leafs Alumni against players from all the other NHL Alumni teams. Bragging rights were on the line, and I got caught right in the middle of it! The Leafs Alumni team got their noses wiped pretty well, and the other pros were rubbing it in. I was chuckling inside. It was funny to see former top pros duking it out on the ice. I tried to “help” the Leafs squad get back into the game but my efforts were in vain because the other team would have no part of it. They wanted to win, and they did!
I spent a lot of time on the buses with the Oldtimers, and we shared many stories and great times. One thing I found was that they did not pull any punches. If they liked you, fine. (You must remember that I was the referee!) For the most part, we all got along well.
I roomed on one trip with former Leafs player Jim Dorey, who wore cowboy boots. I recall falling over these boots when I came back to my room late in the evenings following our games. (He always tucked in early because he did not want to miss curfew.)
Dennis Hull is a great storyteller and gifted banquet speaker. He loves to zing his older brother Bobby about being the best man at all of Bobby’s five weddings. Dennis’s top salary might have been one hundred thousand dollars per year. One day he was playing golf with Bobby’s son Brett, who was a five-million-dollar player. Brett asked Dennis what he would have done with a five-million-dollar salary, and Dennis replied, “I would have quit at Christmas!”
For several years in the 1990s, former Toronto Maple Leafs Ron Ellis organized a 7:00 a.m. hockey “Oldtimers Training Camp” for a bunch of us middle-aged Bramptonians. Bobby Breen, a golf-pro pal and a pretty fair hockey player, and I, were his assistants. We all had a great time learning hockey skills from the top-notch NHL player. Ron put us through our drills, and then we would finish the practice with a scrimmage, mostly centred on trying to get the puck off Ron. A couple of buddies of ours, Gord Raine and Primo Visentin (both avid Leafs fans), figured by the end of the camp the Leafs would be calling them up!
One year our wrap-up game was great, because Ron brought out Paul Henderson of Team Canada 1972 fame to play in the game. One of our Oldtimer goalies figured he was pretty good and bet Paul that he could not score on him. We had a shootout that had a little side bet attached to it (a two-four of Molson X). Paul was a fairly good sniper. We all cheered like heck as Paul scored ten in a row over the goalie’s glove hand. I reminded the humbled goalie (as he was buying the beer) that Paul had scored three winning goals in Canada’s victories in Moscow.
39 Andy Bathgate, Keith McCreary, and Carl Brewer were very instrumental in helping secure deserved pension increases for their fellow players.
40 To show you how tough these fellows were, Father Les once got lost in the bush, froze his feet, and lost seven toes, but even that didn’t stop his return to playing hockey games. He died at age seventy-four as a result of a head injury suffered in a fall on the ice during one of the benefit games he was playing in. Father Les’s funeral mass was celebrated on the ice at the MacIntyre Arena in Schumacher, a fitting tribute to a wonderful man.