Mysterious hockey photo stirs the pot
The playing days of Gerry ‘The Rocket’ Mcleod revisited
It was a couple days after Christmas and I couldn’t have been happier. I was sitting at the kitchen table of a Lower Truro home talking hockey with a 91-year-old former player.
It was a follow-up after I had stumbled on a unique hockey photo taken more than 71 years ago. A real treasure, the photo featured the 1947-48 Lower Truro Maple Leafs. Opening a cardboard box, surprisingly, there was the early-day Truro District Hockey League team. But, how it came to be in my possession was a mystery?
Immediately, I thought of Mike Sandeson, the son of former Maple Leafs player and manager Al Sandeson.
Part of me wanted to believe the two of us had talked about this team at one time. I telephoned Mike’s home number and left a message asking to be called. If Mike had loaned me the photo, it’s kind of scary for it may have been 10 or 15 years ago?
Arriving at the Lower Truro home of the former Maple Leafs player, some outstanding hockey reminiscing followed.
“I’m not certain but 1947-48 might have been the year we played off with Mcclure’s Mills in the league finals,” Gerry Mcleod said as he studied the photo. “I had never won the cup playing in the district league, that was the closest Lower Truro ever came to winning it. I kind of think Foster Mackenzie got the big winning goal for Mcclure’s Mills.”
Mcleod said he had never seen the photo and was interested in getting a copy.
“There’s Mert Crowell,” he said. “Mert was a crackerjack of a player; he could skate like the wind. Mert was one of the best players in the league. Stu Mingo was some hockey player too; he played senior hockey later for Truro Bearcats.”
Looking closely at the players pictured, Mcleod commented on his Uncle Ted Clark, George Dickie, Don Dickie, Lonnie Weatherbee and Bus Yuill.
“I played left-wing on a line with Don Dickie at centre and George Dickie at right-wing. Junior Black was our goalie, our sub goalie was Cyril Mclellan. Frank Buchanan was our coach, Al Sandeson managed the team.”
Before playing in the district league, Mcleod learned his early hockey playing on the marsh. Around 1943 or 1944 at age 15 or 16, he first suited up with Lower Truro in the TDHL.
“The fans loved the league, there were big crowds watching district league games at the Truro Forum,” Mcleod recalled. “I really enjoyed checking, I’d knock some good players down, they’d come back and get me later. Body checks were a big part of the game, I enjoyed checking as much as anything.”
Joining the Royal Canadian Navy at age 19, Mcleod continued playing district league hockey.
“I drove my motorcycle from Stadacona up to Truro to play hockey on some pretty cold winter nights; it was as cold as 20 to 25 degrees below zero. I wore a flight suit to keep warm. After most games I’d drive back the same night, I had to report to work the next morning at eight o’clock.”