Congratulations to the Clarenville Caribous… your 2011 Allan Cup champions!
Unless you are from Clarenville, Newfoundland, you have probably been too immersed in the Stanley Cup playoffs to realize that one of the most important titles in hockey was recently contested in Kenora. Clarenville is only the second team from the Rock to win the Allan Cup, emblematic of Senior AAA hockey supremacy in this country.
First awarded jointly (it’s a long story as to why) to the Ottawa Cliffsides and Queen’s University in 1909, the Allan Cup has since become the prized possession of many a team from small town Canada. Surely you have heard of the Trail Smoke Eaters, the Toronto Granites, the Drumheller Miners, the Galt Hornets, or the Calgary Stampeders… of the hockey variety! How about the Ottawa Senators, who last won in 1949? The Truro Bearcats? Or the Lloydminster Border Kings? From Quebec, there have been powerhouses like the Saint-Georges Garaga, the Drummondville Eagles and the legendary Quebec Aces.
Ironically, the Allan Cup, donated by Sir H. Montagu Allan, Q.C., was created because of issues with teams cheating to win the Stanley Cup. While Lord Stanley’s mug was originally created to reward the best amateur teams in the country, rising gate receipts and team winnings created an environment where teams started paying players under the table. Thus, as the Stanley Cup drifted towards being the de facto professional crown, a void existed to reward truly amateur teams. Hence Sir Montagu’s donation filled an important void in Canadian hockey history.
Originally contested on a “challenge” basis, the Allan Cup championship reached its heyday in the middle of the century as Senior A hockey boomed across Canada. Many of you are probably too young to remember how good Senior A hockey was. But as a kid growing up in Simcoe County, the Orillia Terriers and their epic battles against the Barrie Flyers, the Galt Hornets and the Brantford Alexanders were a close second to me to the Leafs versus the Habs.
Back in the era of three stations on our black and white TV, the Orillia Terriers vividly kept a boy’s love for the sport alive. Originally known as the Orillia Pepsis (yep, we had a big bottling plant in town), they became the Terriers in ’69 and rose to become a powerhouse!
Between 1969 and 1973, the Terriers were a North American powerhouse and finally captured the Allan Cup in 1973. Our home side was led by Claire “The Milkman” Alexander. Alexander was not only our star defenceman, but he was also a local milkman. True story. He performed home delivery of cow products in the daytime and went to practice and played at night! He piled up 46 points in 41 games, which caught the attention of the Leafs. After a year in the minors, Alexander played 42 games with the Leafs in ’74-75, as a 29-year-old rookie.
Alongside Alexander was Jimmy Keon, brother of the Leafs’ Dave, and Blake Ball, who went on to be a star in the movie Slap Shot.
Behind Alexander was Louis Levasseur, our star goalie. Levasseur was my first goaltending hero – being a puck dodger myself – and he too went on to professional glory, winning WHA All-Star status with stops in Minnesota (with the Fighting Saints), Edmonton, Hartford and Quebec. He too has a Slap Shot connection, as he was apparently the inspiration for the Lemieux character.
But what I loved most about the Terriers was their uniforms. Their crest featured a beagle flying on a puck, his ears twisting in the wind! The Terriers had an identity that was both fun and feisty. If you have ever owned a beagle, you will know what I mean.
In the late ‘70s, the Terriers as I knew them folded. Much of Senior hockey suffered as Junior hockey rose in popularity, the NHL expanded again and again, the WHA grew, and more and more great amateurs were sucked off to play pro hockey. But for me, the decline of the Orillia Terriers was more symbolic. Somehow the team ownership agreed to outfit the club in discarded Maple Leafs uniforms. Well, you can imagine what happened to our fortune when we did that.
Bye bye Snoopy. Bye bye championships!