Cup-winning goal was a career highlight for Attwell
Bob Attwell will always hold a special place in Peterborough Petes history.
His overtime goal against the Brandon Wheat Kings in Verdun, Que., in 1979 gave the Petes their lone Memorial Cup championship in 64 seasons.
Attwell was one of 20 players and staff from the 1979 team honoured prior to the Petes’ Saturday home game against the Windsor Spitfires. The team is celebrating its 40th anniversary of that championship. The organization also welcomed alumni from all eras for the inaugural Petes Homecoming Weekend.
While he went on to play pro for a decade, including 22 NHL games, it was the highlight of Attwell’s career.
“It’s very special,” said Attwell. “It’s not a joke but funny amongst my teammates. It’s one goal, a very important goal, in Petes’ history and I was lucky enough to score that goal. It carries a lot of weight. There is only one Memorial Cup in Peterborough and I was lucky enough to score that winning goal. It means the world to me.”
Attwell said it’s only funny amongst teammates because they all know how much everyone contributed to the championship. “We had a great team led by Gary Green who brought us together and just knew how to make us all feel important in the roles we played,” said Attwell.
Chris Halyk captained the team and was one of three players, along with Tim Trimper and Billy Gardner, to score 100 points that season.
“That Memorial Cup and that team was just special,” said Halyk. “The ability for us to all come together. We weren’t a group of superstars. We were really a team that understood our roles and where we needed to be. Some of them went onto great careers, like Larry Murphy, and 13 or so went on to the NHL but it really was a special group of guys who understood what we needed to do.”
They took down a great team in Brandon led by the high scoring trio of Ray Allison, Laurie Boschman and Brian Propp and defensive star Brad McCrimmon.
“Most of the playoffs weren’t easy,” said Halyk. “In the Ontario final we were down three games to one against Niagara Falls. That was a real tough one to come through. Obviously, the final game was unbelievable. I remember it being atrociously hot in the building. When Atts finally scored that goal I’m not sure any of us understood exactly what he had done. I think we all sat there stunned for a period of time.”
Jim Wiemer, who went on to play 325 NHL games, was a rookie in 1979. Ironically, he attended the 1978 final when Peterborough lost to the New Westminster Bruins in his hometown of Sudbury. “It was incredible hockey and I thought, I wish I could play in that one day,” said Wiemer. “Then I got drafted by Peterborough and started playing in that. It was incredible. I remember jumping over the boards and saying, ‘We’ve won the Memorial Cup.' Everything after that is a blur.”
Stuart Smith played on all three Petes teams which reached the Memorial Cup final between 1978-80. He says coming back to the Memorial Centre reminds him of the arena’s unique square corners.
“I was a defenceman and the other defencemen and I said we had a home-ice advantage. We made the best of it because we were a good home-ice team,” said Smith.
Green gets a lot of credit as the coach/GM but he said Dick Todd also deserves a lot of credit. His title was trainer but in those days teams didn’t have assistant coaches. “Dick was not only a damn good trainer,” said Green. “He was my associate coach, my associate general manager, and associate in marketing and public relations. We were a two-person team with a part-time trainer in Frank Gurney and Karen Brown was our part-time secretary and bookkeeper..
“Dick has never got enough credit for that ’79 win because he was an integral part. There wasn’t anything Dick and I didn’t talk about whether it was the line-up or strategies or the opposition. It very much showed in Dick becoming a legendary coach.”