By Greg Nikkel
On Saturday evening, four legends of the past stepped out onto centre ice at Crescent Point Place to do a ceremonial faceoff between the Weyburn Red Wings and the Melfort Mustangs.
Three of the four had past connections with the Red Wings, as it was announced that these four (plus a number of others) will be inducted for 2016 to the Saskatchewan Hockey Hall of Fame.
They included legendary Red Wings coach Dwight McMillan, former GM Ron Rumball, and Mark Schneider, representing the 1984 Centennial Cup national champion Red Wings, along with Terry O’Malley, the long-time former coach of Notre Dame, and a former Olympic hockey player.
The Saskatchewan Hockey Association announced that Weyburn will host the 2016 Induction Dinner at Crescent Point Place, on Friday, July 8.
Also to be inducted will be the late Tommy Huston of Weyburn in the Grassroots category. McMillan, Rumball and O’Malley are being inducted in the Builders category, along with Barry McKenzie, also formerly of Notre Dame.
Players to be inducted include Orland Kurtenbach, Terry Harper, the late Bob Turner, and Olympic women’s hockey player Colleen Sostorics. In the Officials category, the late Jules Swick is being inducted, and in the Teams category, joining the 1983-84 Red Wings will be the Flin Flon Bombers from 1956-57.
Asked for his thoughts on the first national champion Red Wings being inducted, Schneider said, “It’s quite an honour. To be inducted but also to have the dinner held in Weyburn, it’s absolutely incredible.”
He is hoping most of the the team members will be able to make it for that event, noting most are able to make it for the reunion and golf tournament when those are held here.
Fellow teammate John Corrigan, who was the goaltender for that squad, said he only found out from a phone call on Thursday from Schneider about the honour.
“I didn’t know we were being considered. To be part of that group, it’s fantastic when you look at the names being put into the Hall of Fame,” he said, noting in particular his former coach Dwight McMillan, for whom he and Schneider played at the midget level as well as at the junior level.
“With everything he’s done for this organization and for hockey, he’s well deserving of that honour,” said Corrigan.
“We were fortunate to have him as kids and when we were with the Red Wings,” added Schneider.
Corrigan noted that Rumball was his Grade 6 teacher before getting to know him as the scout and general manager of the Wings. That Red Wings team was also inducted to the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame in 1995.
For his part, Rumball said he was surprised to be named to the Hockey Hall of Fame, and felt it was special to be recognized in this way by the Saskatchewan Hockey Association.
He was also very pleased that one of the legendary junior coaches in North America in McMillan was also being inducted, noting he was at the helm of the national championship team. He pointed out that McMillan had 1,350 wins, not counting playoff wins, in his four decades of coaching.
“The SHA is to be commended for this project,” added Rumball, noting he was also very happy to see Tommy Huston being inducted.
He recalled working with him in 1967 putting together the playoff tickets for the Red Wings, and noted that Huston worked with Wayne Kartusch to formulate the constitution of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League in 1975, something a lot of people don’t realize.
“I’m very happy and very honoured, and humbled to be inducted in with Terry O’Malley and Barry McKenzie, who was an outstanding coach,” said McMillan.
Of the championship team, he said, “Those guys worked hard to get that. They had character players who wanted it. That’s where you win, it comes from character players. I always said God Himself couldn’t win if you don’t have character players.”
For his part, O’Malley noted he coached at all levels at Notre Dame, where he spent a total of 23 years as coach, teacher and as president of the school from 2003-06.
As a player, he was a member of the Olympic hockey university program initiated by Father David Bauer, and played on Canada’s Olympic hockey team in 1964, 1968 and 1980. He said while he had opportunities to play in Minnesota and Toronto professionally, he opted instead to play in Japan for seven years before coming to the Athol Murray College of Notre Dame.
