STANDOUT GOALIE
Standout goalie Greg Floyd entering Cape Breton Sport Hall of Fame
Greg Floyd entering Cape Breton Sport Hall of Fame.
Greg Floyd might not be entering the Cape Breton Sport Hall of Fame if he wasn’t cut from his school hockey team.
The Sydney native started his playing career as a forward, but when he didn’t make the St. Joseph’s school hockey team, the then-10-year-old decided to change positions.
“I didn’t make it, so the next year I went in nets,” Floyd, 86, told the Post in an interview from his Halifax home.
Floyd was the team’s starting goaltender the next season, and he never looked back in a stellar playing career that saw him tend the twine in senior leagues across Atlantic Canada. He backstopped the Stellarton Royals (1954) and Sydney Millionaires (1957) to provincial titles, and was also recruited by the Buchans Miners to play in the highly competitive Newfoundland Senior Hockey League.
However, it wasn’t all glory — especially back in the pre-face mask and helmet days when goaltenders didn’t have much more protective equipment than the skaters.
“We didn’t wear much of any- thing, to tell you the truth,” he said. “Just a small breast pad that covered your belly. That was about it. And I had a couple of sleeves that you pulled on your arms — they were cotton sleeves.”
While bruises and cuts were a regular part of the game, some- times the injuries were more severe.
Floyd recalled a 1957 playoff game in Glace Bay when a high-rising puck hit him squarely in the face, knocking out most of teeth.
Because teams didn’t usually carry a backup goalie, the game was delayed while Floyd was stitched up by a doctor so he could return to the net and resume playing.
It was also recorded as a save. “The puck didn’t go in — it went in my mouth,” he joked.
Floyd, who will be inducted alongside athletes Amy Cotton (judo) and Carroll Morgan (boxing), teams the 1986 Ashby Pepsi Selects bowling team and 1971 New Waterford Kinsmen Rovers baseball team, and builder Murray (Mackie) MacIntosh, said he was honoured to get the call.
He’s making the trip to Sydney with his wife and four children, and said he’s looking forward to reconnecting with former teammates and friends.
“There’s not too many left — there’s only about three or four of us yet,” he said. “I was quite surprised. I was shocked. I didn’t believe it would happen. It means a lot. It means I must have played half decent when I played.”
Tickets to tonight’s induction ceremony are $35 and available by calling Carol Miller at 902-5620849 or Mackie MacIntyre at 902871-2543.