Kitchener’s hockey team loss was Peterborough’s gain
The Kitchener-Waterloo Canucks moved to the Peterborough Memorial Centre in 1956
The Peterborough Petes are embarking on their 63rd season in Canadian major junior A hockey, the longest consecutive run of any junior A team in Canada.
The formation of the original team over the summer of 1956 was unique and unprecedented. The new Memorial Centre was nearing completion and fans seemed equally divided between having a senior A team or a junior A team as the major tenant in the new arena.
In early May, 1956, the Kitchener newspaper reported, “Apparently other centres, bidding for the K-W Canucks OHA Junior A franchise, have asked for player assistance plus $5,000 cash from the Montreal organization.”
The Kitchener-Waterloo Canucks were owned the Montreal Canadiens and word of the day was they were looking to move them. On May 17, 1956 the Examiner reported that six Ontario centres were bidding for the Canucks. Besides Peterborough other cities listed were Niagara, Welland, Galt, Chatham and St. Thomas.
On May 26 Frank Selke and Sam Pollack of the Canadiens were in Peterborough for a luncheon that included the Memorial Centre management committee. Also in the Examiner was an article revealing one wall of the centre, then under construction, needed to be replaced.
On June 15 the Ontario Junior A hockey council announced the transfer of the Kitchener Canucks to Peterborough. They also revealed teams would play a 48-game schedule that included a double home-and-home series with the former Montreal Junior Canadiens, which would play out of Ottawa.
The Petes came into existence as the ninth farm team of the Montreal Canadiens. They were the fifth amateur junior team joining Ottawa, Fort William (Thunder Bay), Regina and St. Boniface along with four professional teams.
The next day the Kitchener newspaper, obviously not giving up on losing the Canucks, reported; “So we may reach a point where the OHA will have to consider ruling that while the franchise belongs here, the players can go wherever Montreal wants to send them. The Canadiens actually own nothing but the pro rights to these players.”
Kitchener returned to the league in 1963 with the relocation of the Guelph Royals.
In June, 1956 the Examiner reported that Peterborough’s Red Sullivan, 26 years old, was traded from the Chicago Blackhawks to the New York Rangers.
On July 11 Ed O’Toole was announced as the first president of the Petes Junior A hockey club.
Plans for the first Petes training camp were announced in July. In other local news, a threebedroom bungalow sold for $11,500, and the Examiner outlined the route of the upcoming Parkway.
Sportswise, Ray Judd was striking out batters in the men’s softball league and the Peterborough Trailermen senior lacrosse team, playing their last season in the outdoor Miller Bowl, was heading for its sixth straight appearance in the Mann Cup final. Gord Beatty, coach of the Peterborough Orfuns Intermediate football team, defending Canadian champions was putting the 1956 teams through its paces at Morrow Park.
The management committee of the Memorial Centre announced seating in the new arena included 2,787 theatre-type seats and
658 bench seats for a total of 3,475. 450 portable seats could be added on the stage and the standing capacity was 1,100 people.
It wasn’t until Oct. 1 that Montreal finally named the first Petes coach, Calum “Baldy” MacKay.
Ten days later on Oct. 10, 1956, 36 players attended the first Petes first training camp in the Civic Arena. It included 15 out-of-town prospects the Montreal Canadiens had sent to the city in early September to start high school.
The Petes have had 180 players drafted to the NHL since the NHL Priority Draft started in 1969, won nine Ontario titles, one Memorial Cup and represented Canada twice at the World Junior Championships.
Don Barrie is a retired teacher, former Buffalo Sabres scout and a member of the Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame and Peterborough and District Sports Hall of Fame. His column appears each Saturday in The Examiner.