Achieving Their Goal

Back in the 1930s, a hardworking Prairie family worked together as a team to make their hockey-related dreams come true.

The dream of six aspiring hockey players began in 1937 on a farm in Grassy Lake, Alta. Their ultimate goal was to become a renowned hockey family, enjoying the winter sport they cherished.

In 1937, making a living on a dryland farm made it difficult to feed ten children, never mind outfitting six sons with hockey equipment. I had six brothers and three sisters; I was the youngest, and not yet old enough to play.

With our meagre living conditions, my brothers knew they could not afford the necessary hockey equipment, so they talked our mother into making it on her Singer sewing machine. Using her creativity and sewing skills, she fashioned elbow and shin pads, hockey pants, gloves and a set of goalie pads, all out of canvas. She then stuffed the protective pads with straw and Eaton’s catalogues.

With such a large family to care for, the only time Mom had to sew was after bedtime, usually well past midnight. Imagine how difficult it must have been, sewing this hockey equipment by the light of a coal oil lamp; who knows how many needles she must have broken sewing through canvas and padding. After Mom completed her work, my six brothers—rex, Lloyd, Pat, Bert, Jerry and Jack— pooled their money together and bought Toronto Maple Leaf sweaters from the Eaton’s catalogue.

Due to the limited number of hockey rinks in the small Alberta towns of Grassy Lake, Burdett and Bow Island, my brothers, along with our dad, decided to make their own hockey rink on a coulee on our farm. Using horsepower and a slip scraper, they levelled the earth for a rink. They then hauled water from a free-flowing artesian well, three miles away, using a wooden-wheeled water tank. It took eight trips to make a single sheet of ice.

In those years, temperatures on the Prairies could drop as low as -40°F, but the boys persevered and hauled water over a number of days. If a warm southern Alberta Chinook blew in, the process would have to be started all over again.

Once the rink was built, the boys realized they needed a shack to change in. With Dad’s help, they found an abandoned 15-by-20-foot shack and, after lifting it onto skids, they used horses to haul it rinkside. Overcoming all odds, the Knibbs family began to realize their hockey dream— my three sisters, our mom and I became the fan base.

It didn’t take long for word of the coulee rink to spread to nearby communities. The Knibbs “Leaf” hockey team began challenging other teams from surrounding towns to games, with hockey players arriving by horse- drawn sleigh, car or on horseback. Every weekend, the sound of clashing hockey sticks and bodies echoed through the hills, while cheering fans surrounded the rink.

The Knibbs “Leaf” team lineup was determined by their abilities. Jack, the sixth son, was in goal and Rex, the eldest, and Jerry, the fifth born, manned the defence. The forward line consisted of Lloyd, Pat and Bert, sons number two, three and four respectively. Our father, Jack, was the referee for the weekend hockey games, but showed no favouritism to- wards his sons. He taught us the values of determination, sportsmanship and honesty. When a penalty needed to be called, Dad did it immediately and never hesitated to send one of his own sons to the penalty box.

Unfortunately, the Knibbs family coulee hockey dream only lasted for two years, from 1937 to 1939, due to the onset of the Second World War. Rex, Lloyd and Pat were drafted into the army in 1940 and sent overseas. By the grace of God, all three returned home safely.

Although the hockey dream had ended for the older Knibbs brothers, Bert was selected to play for the Lethbridge, Alta., Maple Leaf hockey team, which represented Canada in the 1949- 1950 World Hockey Championships in Paris. The team came home victorious after winning the trophy and, thanks to Bert’s success, the Knibbs family fully realized their hockey dream.

Bert became an inspiration to many of his nephews and other young players in southern Alberta. Throughout his life, he coached many of the youths in the town of Bow Island, where he lived. One young player named Troy Loney, who Bert mentored, was later drafted into the National Hockey League.

Throughout the years, our six brothers were an inspiration to my sisters and me. I was only three years old back in 1937, but the memories of those days and our family’s coulee hockey team are an important part of my past. The lessons learned remain with me to this day. n