Game On!

You're never too old to play! Old-time hockey is alive and well in Caledon

2006-11-27

By David Shoalts

Sideroads Magazine

The Caledon Enterprise & Erin Advocate

Remember that series of television commercials about Eddie and the guys playing old-timers’ hockey? The ones where Eddie was always the last one off the ice because he was working on his shot?

Well, the Bolton version of those little slices of life started about the same time, back in the mid-1970s, thanks to three hockey enthusiasts: Brad Burt, Barry O’Sullivan and Bob Palante. Unlike the TV ads, it is still going strong 33 years later.

And the reasons are the same as the themes of those commercials – camaraderie, fun and a little exercise playing the greatest game on earth.

“Guys have created friendships that last a lifetime,” said local hockey maven Jerry (The Commissioner) Callaghan, who served as president of the Caledon Senior Hockey League for three years and played in it a lot longer. “It was the most fun I ever had playing in a league. I played for 10 years and met friends I still have today.”

Callaghan, though, could be considered to have taken early retirement since he is a mere pup of 61. David Wedgbury, who will step down as league president at the end of this season after eight years in the post, says the oldest player in the league is 69-year-old John Stadnyk and a trio of players, Tom Hubbard, Lou Bell and Jim Schaefer, are just a few years behind him.

“The age range for the league is 40 and up,” said Wedgbury, a prominent local accountant. “It used to be 35 but we’re all getting a little longer in the tooth, so a few years ago we changed it. Some of us are getting into our 50s and 60s, so playing 35-year-olds was not a good idea.”

However, this does not mean there is no sense of competition. No matter how old you get, says one player, you still want to win.

“Yeah, it’s a social thing but it’s still competitive,” said Aldo Buccioni, 59, who fits the operation of Baffo’s Pizza between his stints as a goaltender. “You play for bragging rights and stuff like that.”

In an effort to improve himself and his team several years ago, Buccioni even laid out a chunk of cash in a charity auction for a tutorial from former National Hockey League goaltender Dave Dryden.

“It was a lot of fun and, of course, he gave me some good pointers,” Buccioni said. “I did it just to bring him out to our Monday league and introduce him to the guys. It was all good. I was the best goalie in the league that year.”

The league, which is in its 33rd season, plays every Monday night at the Sheardown Memorial Arena. Some of the guys satisfy their competitive streak after the games during the socializing that is part of every beer league in every hockey-playing country.

While the boys will still go for a cold one or two at the local pubs if they’re playing one of the early games, beer ceased to be part of the immediate post-game festivities a few years ago. The killjoys from the Town of Caledon, undoubtedly because of a fear of litigation, banned beer in the arena dressing rooms.

So the focus shifted to food, which is where the competition comes in, and we’re not talking about the annual dinner and dance that is the highlight of every season. This is one of the few leagues in the world where the players regularly eat in the dressing rooms after games, which is surprising for anyone who has set foot in your average smelly, damp hockey boudoir. But the team reps, the fellows in charge of each team, routinely try to out-do each other on the post-game spread.

 One year, Wedgbury says, one of the teams hauled a barbeque up to the back door of the arena and served up a turkey done on the rotisserie. More standard fare is bun night (veal on a bun) or wings or pizza.

What keeps the league fun, where the ability of the players ranges from those who played some junior hockey to house-leaguers, is that the teams change every year and the goal, just like the National Hockey League, is parity. Every player is ranked as an A, B or C player and before every season a draft is held, where the six team reps chose 15 players each from the three categories.

“The draft is what makes it a really good league,” Wedgbury said. “One year you could be mad at a guy and the next year he’s on your line.”

Fisticuffs have never been a problem because the players get to know each other so well and because the league has severe penalties for any troublemakers.

“Everybody has to get up and go to work the next day so nobody wants any of that,” Wedgbury said. “If you get 12 penalties in one year, you’re gone and if you do it for a couple of years, you’re gone for good.

“If you drop your gloves [to fight], it’s an automatic you’re gone forever. You get the odd shouting match or a little pushing but in my 20 years in the league I’ve never seen it go farther than that.”

One of the fringe benefits of the league is that its games are faithfully chronicled in the Caledon Enterprise by Bill Whitbread, something else few beer leagues can say. Whitbread has created a whole cast of characters with his nicknames and other labels for the players. Rod McVeigh, the dentist who hung up his blades last year, was Dr. Pull. Local chiropractor Mike Shore is Dr. Bend and Al Bennett is The Portly Puckstopper.

Add all of this up and it means there is little turnover in the ranks despite the age of the players. Wedgbury says there is a waiting list of 35 players and only a few are admitted every season.

“We lose very few guys,” he said. “We might have the odd guy leave because he’s too busy with his job or he has a nagging injury.

“The average age is probably in the mid-50s, since we had an influx of guys in their early 40s who’s been on the list for a while.

“I’m 62 and I’d like to play until I’m 70.”