HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Exeter Times-Advocate, 1973-06-28, Page 78Norval, Jim and Bob Jones
Have trucks, dozers, backhoes, gravel, sand
. . . WILL HAUL, DIG, PUSH
PLOW, PULL, SPREAD or DUMP
NORVAL JONES & SONS
4
Hockey enthusiast
is in hall of fame
Section 3, Page 26 THE EXETER TIMES-ADVOCATE JUNE 28, 1973
HOCKEY HEYDAY - Hockey in Exeter was in its heyday after the new "Dome rink" was built in 1911. In their
flashy uniforms above are the members of the Exeter hockey team in 1914. In the back row left is C.V.
Pickard, right wing; "Tiny" Torrance, sub-goalie; Clarence Hoffman; Al Pickard, left wing; and Bert Rivers,
defence. In the front row from left is Cecil Pickard, who lost his life in World War I; Earl Southcott, centre;
Derry Boyle, manager; Bill Kydd, goalie; and Morris Senior.
Competition was keen
T-A May 1, 1958
Alan W. Pickard, 62, former
Exeter puck star who has become
known as "Mr. Hockey" out west,
has been named to the Canadian
Hockey Hall of Fame.
Pickard was one of seven
"hockey builders" who, along
with 14 famous players, were
added to the original list of 42
names by the selection com-
mittee which met for the first
time in six years in Toronto,
Sunday.
Now living in Regina where he
is a school principal, Mr. Pickard
won recognition for his out-
standing leadership in the
Canadian Amateur Hockey
Association, of which he was
president for two years.
The respect in which he is held
in the game out west is indicated
by the fact that he runs the
Westwen Hockey League as a
one-man committee. He has
made all the decisions for the
organization during the last three
years.
Although it was as a "hockey
builder" and not as a player that
Mr. Pickard won his Hall of
Fame recognition, he is still
remembered by the oldtimers in
this area as a star of the Exeter
team when hockey thrived in the
old dome rink here. He played
forward on the club, along with
his brother Clare.
He was not a member of the
famous Exeter-Zurich team
which highlighted early hockey
history in this area but he could
have been. He went west in 1920
and, although officials here wired
him several times to come back,
he never did.
Out west, he played for a
number of top teams and later
became a success as a coach. His
first coaching position was with
the Regina Aces, a senior club.
In 1945 he became vice-
president of the Canadian
Amateur Hockey Association and
two weeks later was elected
president.
At that time, the Regina
Leader-Post paid him the
following tribute: "The real Mr.
Hockey, most centres have their
own Mr. Hockey but the real one
is in Regina. Alan W. Pickard is
president of the C.A.H.A. and
controls more hockey players
than any man in the world. The
Regina school principal rose
through the ranks as player,
coach and executive to attain the
highest honor amateur hockey
can pay."
He represented the C.A.H.A. at
international amateur hockey
conferences in Europe.
JOTTINGS BY J.M.S.
May 2, 1958
Last week The Times-Advocate
paid tribute to' a former Exeter
boy Al Pickard, of Regina, Sask.,
who has been named to the
Hockey Hall of Fame.
It was in the old dome rink that
Al and his two brothers, Clare
and Cecil, as members of the
Exeter hockey team got their
introduction to hockey.
The Dome rink was erected in
1912 by the late Wm. Leavitt on
the property now ocupied by the
Exeter Legion. During the next
few years Exeter boasted of one
of the best teams in the district.
Hockey in those days was
confined to the neighboring
municipalities as transportation
was by horse-drawn vehicles and
weather conditions entered into
the picture.
The hockey season started
around the beginning of the year
when the weather was cold
enough for forming natural ice
and at the end of the season the
games were sometimes played
with considerable water on the
ice.
In those days it was customary
for the players to provide their
own equipment, including hockey
sticks. Often there were only
sufficient players to make up a
team and there would be no
substitutes so the players played
the full sixty minutes. This
required lots of stamina and fine
physical condition.
There were seven players to a
team, , goalie, right and left
defence, rover, centre, and
wings. So enthusiastic were the
players that often they paid the
money themselves to rent the
rink for practice.
It was during the year 1915 that
Exeter and Zurich formed a team
and entered wider competition.
On the team were "Babe" Siebert
and the Hoffman brothers from
Zurich, who became quite
famous players, the former with
Montreal and the latter two with
Stratford at a time when Howie
Morenz, an all-time great from
Stratford, was beginning his
famous career.
The Pickards that year had
Exeter Times-Advocate,
February 14, 1948
For the first time in the history
of Exeter, photos were sent by
wire from this village to appear
in a Toronto newspaper, A Globe
and Mail photographer took
pictures on Monday — they were
developed in Jack Doerr's studio
and a machine was set up to
transmit them to Toronto,
moved to the west where Al
continued his interest in the great
national game right up to the
present.
At the time the Dome rink was
opened January 15, 1912 the
Exeter Advocate had this to say:
"The formal opening of the
skating rink took place in the
form of a carnival. Reeve W.J.
Heaman and Rev.. D.W. Collins
were present and delivered
inaugural addresses in which
they referred to the enterprise
and worthy citizenship of the
proprietor, William Leavitt, in
erecting such a magnificent
place of amusement for •those
who enjoy the exhilarating
pastime of skating or the
"roaring" game of curling. The
rink was 80 x 180 feet part of
which was used for curling and
the rest for skating and hockey.
Following were the prize
winners: mile race. Oscar
Anderson, Owen Atkinson; half
mile race, Morris Senior, Harry
Parsons; gent's costume, Ernest
Harvey, Indian chief, and
Latimer Grieve, squaw; ladies'
costume, Olive Treble; comic
costume, Leon Treble.
+ + +
In February of that year The
Exeter Advocate had this to say:
"Referring to the hockey
match last week in Exeter bet-
ween Hensall and Exeter juniors
the special correspondent of the
Hensall Observer must have been
possessed of a distorted
imagination and an unfortunate
disregard for the truth when he
wrote: In the first half Hensall
played the Exeter team to a
standstill, score being 4-1. This
was a sore touch to Exeter and
seeing they could not win by
playing hockey they started to
rough it and if a Hensall player
got hold of the puck in the second
half he was lucky to come out
without a few broken bones.
"This is usual with the Exeter
bunch who are noted for being
poor sports. The spectators
wanted to get out and fight with a
few 16-year-old kids but they
were a false alarm. They only
beat our juniors by the score of 5-
4. The crowd of Exeter sports
managed to swipe quite a bunch
of caps and gloves and
everything of value left in the
Hensall boy's coats.'
The Advocate said: "It is
regrettable that the Hensall
fellows could not take a defeat
without passing all kinds of dirty
insinuations in which there is not
a particle of truth."
HOCKEY GREAT - Al Pickard, right, a former Exeter resident, was one of 21 hockey greats selected for the
Hall of Fame at a meeting in Toronto in April 1958. He is seen here with three other renowned men of the
game, Red Dutton, Lester Patrick and George Dudley. He retired to Exeter in 1960 and became chairman of
Exeter's Planning Board for a number of years until his resignation in 1968.