In Hershey, he was Papa Bear
St. Catharines native Ellard (Obie) O’Brien enshrined in AHL Bears’ Hall of Fame
You can take the hockey player out of St. Catharines, but you can’t take St. Catharines out of the hockey player.
Ellard (Obie) O’Brien played professionally from 1950 until 1962, including two games in the National Hockey League with the Boston Bruins.
But he spent eight seasons living in eastern Pennsylvania, long enough to make a lasting impression and receive induction into the Hershey Bears Hall of Fame.
Yet every spring, as soon as the pucks stopped flying, the St. Catharines native would return to his hometown.
“He loved St. Catharines. He said, ‘This is where I was born, this is where I am going to stay, this is where I’m going to work and this is where I am going to give back to the city,’” said Ellard O’Brien Jr. of his father, who died at age 81 in 2011.
Instead of resting on such laurels as capturing back-to-back American Hockey League Calder Cup championships in 1958-59 as Bears captain, Obie O’Brien rolled up his sleeves and got right back to work.
“It’s not like the guys today. In those days, you had to come home and work during the offseason.”
Molson first hired O’Brien as a summer rep for the region. The brewery offered him a full-time position after he spent the 196162 season in the Eastern Hockey League as player-coach of the Philadelphia Ramblers.
“He retired from hockey and
worked for 26 years with Molson,” said O’Brien Jr.
O’Brien remained active in hockey, though strictly from the sidelines.
He coached Jr. A and Jr. B teams in the St. Catharines Blackhawks organization for a time, beginning in 1963-64.
The younger O’Brien remembered spending the winter months in Hershey, Pa., until he was five years old. One of his earliest memories of his father was attending a team practice at age three.
“One time, I got my leg caught in one of the seats. They had to stop practice to get me out,” the son, now 70, recalled with a laugh.
The brevity of O’Brien’s NHL career — only two games in 1955-56 — had more to do with Boston’s budget than with the six-foot-three defenceman’s ability to block shots and score goals.
“After he was called up, they (the Bruins) called him in and they wanted him to sign a pro contract,” the son said.
“He read the contract and said, ‘I make more money in Hershey.’”
Boston couldn’t match what O’Brien was making in the American Hockey League, where he was on a bonus system with the Bears.
“They weren’t making a whole lot of money than in the NHL.”
Hershey swung a deal with Boston that saw the Bruins get a couple of prospects in exchange for letting the Bears keep O’Brien.
For a time in Hershey, one of his teammates was Don Cherry.
“They didn’t want to let him go,” the son said of his father. “You have to remember, there were only six teams in the AHL at the time, too. It didn’t bother him. He said, ‘If I can’t play in the NHL, the best place to play is in Hershey.’”
O’Brien said his father would feel honoured to be inducted into the St. Catharines Sports Wall of Fame and would credit his legendary minor hockey coach, the late Vic Teal, for playing a significant role in making that happen.
O’Brien played for Teal at the bantam level in 1943-44, as a midget in 1945-46 and juvenile the following season.
“All three of those teams won the Ontario championship under Vic Teal, and he was the motivator for Dad. He made him work hard,” the son said. The 2019 St. Catharines Sports Hall of Fame induction class will be enshrined in a ceremony Wednesday at Meridian Centre.