St. John's Minor Hockey
Introduction
The St. John's City Minor Hockey Program was first initiated in 1955 by Lorne Wakelin, manager of the new St. John's Memorial Stadium, under the sponsorship of Branch #1 Royal Canadian Legion. A pee-wee league for boys aged 10, 11 and 12 years was formed and put into operation at the Stadium in November of 1955. This league was later expanded and a bantam league for boys aged 13 and 14 years was formed in 1957, and sponsored by the Elks Club. By the 1957-58 season, 420 boys were registered and playing in the St. John's Minor Hockey Program, and the number of boys increased until 1966 when over 1,000 boys were playing and looking for additional ice time. About this time, members of the Canadian Legion became disenchanted with many of the problems involved with minor hockey, not the least was the ratio of the small number of hours of ice-time available to the large number of boys seeking a game of hockey. Legion Branch #1 did a most remarkable job of running an open minor hockey system during the first decade of minor hockey in the city. When one records the achievements of good people and groups involved in a great cause, there is always a risk of overlooking someone or an outstanding accomplishment. However, my investigations suggest that the following gave freely of time and energies to the cause of minor hockey during the Legion era: Joe Kearney, Bob Dawe, Herb Wells, Fred Williams, Wilson Butler, Charley Murphy, Andy Joy, Dee Murphy, Hal Ball, John Doyle, Max Keeping, Edgar Squires, Gordon Duff, Duey Fitzgerald, Hubert Sharpe and others.