City arena’s namesake said to exemplify hockey
HUMBOLDT Everyone in Humboldt seems to have a story about Elgar Petersen.
“I remember going to the old arena in Humboldt, going to public skating, and Elgar would be hanging around. He’d tie your skates for you,” said Rob Muench, who was elected mayor of the city east of Saskatoon two years ago.
“He enjoyed working with kids and had time to help out. He loved to help out wherever, even with rec hockey teams at midnight — and then back at the rink the next day,” added Aaron Lukan, who spent 10 years covering sports for the Humboldt Journal.
Petersen, who has an intellectual disability, was born in Annaheim, Sask., in 1936 and got involved in minor hockey in the 1960s. He would routinely spend all day at the rink and walk home late at night only to return the following morning.
When the Humboldt Broncos were established in 1970, Petersen — of course — volunteered. He was a constant presence behind the bench, handing out water bottles and towels — whatever the players needed.
“He’s been the one fixture, the one person, that’s been involved in that club since Day 1 and is still involved. We’ve had new coaches and new players … but Elgar’s been that one fixture. Forever,” Muench said.
In 1999, a city employee suggested naming the Broncos’ home
— then called the Uniplex Arena — after Petersen. Humboldt City Council voted in favour of the proposal a year later, and the rink has borne his name ever since.
“I think everybody was just thrilled,” Lukan said of the decision.
Broncos President Kevin Garinger, who has emerged as the face of a shattered community, said Petersen’s love of the Junior A hockey club and personal strength are an inspiration to others.
“This community has been indebted to him for a long time. To name the arena for him was just another way we could give back,” Garinger said of the volunteer trainer’s decades-long tenure with the team.
“Most people don’t understand: ‘Why isn’t your rink named the blank-corporate centre or whatever?’ Well, no. It’s named the Elgar Petersen Arena, and there’s a reason why,” Muench added.
When news of a horrific bus crash involving the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League team started to spread on April 6, people knew without being told to gather at the Elgar Petersen Arena.
Sixteen people died and another 13 were injured, some of them critically, when the Humboldt Broncos’ bus collided with a semi on a highway between Tisdale and Nipawin.
As the full scope of the tragedy became clear, it did so against the backdrop of the same arena. Petersen’s name was broadcast around the world.
The following Sunday, Muench was preparing to address the thousands of people — including the prime minister and premier — at a vigil. He had no intention of mentioning anyone there by name.
Then the mayor, a bastion of quiet dignity in the face of incomprehensible loss and sadness saw Petersen sitting just a few rows in front of him and knew his plan wouldn’t work.
“I looked down and I saw him in the crowd and I thought, ‘I’ve got to say something about Elgar, because he’s so important.’ You can’t think about the Humboldt Broncos without thinking of him.”
Petersen continued volunteering with the Broncos, and every other level of hockey, until deteriorating health forced him to stop a few years ago. But the arena still bears his name, and memories of him persist.
Lukan, who now works for the city’s housing authority, said Petersen would do anything to support the team, and in return, the hundreds of players who suited up in green and yellow and white would do anything for him. He recalled when the players, normally so disciplined, became enraged after a fan gave Petersen a hard time. They came to his defence, “to make sure that Elgar was protected.”
Muench, meanwhile, recalled an old story about Petersen being barred from the bench during a championship series in Selkirk, Man. — and not having any of it.
When the Broncos scored an empty-netter, Muench said, Petersen looked at the Zamboni driver and said in his gruff voice, “You might as well shut off the (ice) plant. You’re not going to need it again this season.”
Petersen, 82, lives in a care home and wasn’t available for an interview.
The 2017-18 season is over for the Humboldt Broncos. But there will be another. And on Tuesday, a sense of normalcy began returning to the Elgar Petersen Arena. The media room emptied and the school next door filled up.
Memorials used for the vigil remained on the half-covered ice surface. Petersen wasn’t there, but three teenagers on skates passed a puck around, the sound of hockey once again echoing up to the rafters.