Old-timer hockey tourney scheduled
For fans of the hockey movie “Slapshot,” the idea “Old-time Hockey” has a certain reverence.
Toe Blake and Eddie Shore, icons of the old days of the National Hockey League, are invoked to inspire the Charlestown Chiefs before their championship game.
Neither icon is coming to Spokane, but there are still a few names from the old days of Spokane hockey around for this weekend’s 26th annual Old-timers Tournament at Eagles’ Ice-a-Rena.
Fans of the Western International Hockey League and the old Spokane Jets or Spokane Comets or Spokane Spartans from their glory days in the late, lamented Spokane Coliseum will find more than a few reminders at the tournament.
“Right now, we have 34 teams coming in for the three-day tournament,” said tournament organizer Tom O’Brien. “… We’re going to have 47 games going on two sheets of ice.”
In fact, he said, the tournament has been sold out for months, with more than 10 teams turned away for lack of space.
The Old-timers Association, which skates twice a week, year around, was founded by Spokane hockey legend Vern Kneeshaw, who first skated in a Spokane uniform as a member of the 1947-48 Spartans.
“He’s the grandfather of the group,” O’Brien said. “We have the Masters division, which is 45 years of age and older, and the Grinders, which is for guys 35 to 45.”
Old-timers games are divided into two 25-minute periods. Checking is prohibited, as are slapshots.
Among the more than 500 skaters in town for the tournament will be more than a few recognizable names, O’Brien said.
“A lot of these guys I recognize and know by their nicknames,” he laughed. “But there are a lot of guys who used to play here in the old days.
“Don Scherza and Dave Cox still play. Don ‘Mugsy’ McGowan plays. Dwight Carruthers is still in terrific shape.
“There are a lot of guys from Canada that will be here, too. We have teams coming down from Trail and Kimberley and Cranbrook – towns that were all part of the old WIHL.”
The tournament also will draw teams from Oregon and Montana as well as Canadian teams from as far as Vancouver and Calgary.
Returning division champions Eugene Ice Hawks, Sandpoint Fusion, Castlegar Old-timers, Siksika Deerfoots (Alberta), and Spokane Penatrators all will play.