Post by Jari on Mar 2, 2008 12:08:53 GMT -5
March 2, 2008
Famed Falcons fly againLocals recreate 1920 game
By ROSS ROMANIUK, SUN MEDIA
They turned back the pages on hockey's illustrious past, to a chapter when Winnipeg ruled the world.
And the moment celebrated on the Assiniboine River yesterday is part of a story hoped to become a big seller when the Winter Olympics come back to Canada in 2010.
Wearing replicas of vintage jerseys and newspapers on their legs as pads, a team of local former professionals strapped on old helmets and even older skates to play the parts of the Winnipeg Falcons in one of their biggest victories before winning hockey's first Olympic gold medal in 1920 in Antwerp, Belgium.
"It gives you a feeling for what it was like for those guys -- the magazines on the shins and everything," Peter Jordan, a CBC TV journalist, said after playing for the losers in a re-enactment of the Selkirk Fishermen's defeat at the hands of the Falcons in the Manitoba Hockey League championship game on Jan. 26, 1920.
Yesterday's good-natured match was played in precisely the same place as the game 88 years ago -- on the frozen Assiniboine, a slap shot from the Legislative Building.
"This is where they learned to play their hockey, right here. And they learned on backyard rinks -- and faced discrimination," David Square, author of the new book When Falcons Fly, said of the team that had been kept out of a Winnipeg league because of its players' Icelandic ancestry.
Led by captain Frank Fredrickson, the Falcons eventually claimed the Allan Cup with a win over the University of Toronto Blues. They then made history while representing Canada at the Belgium Games.
Growing media attention to the Falcons' unlikely heroics is expected to make Square's book a hit when the 2010 Games hit Vancouver.
While several media types, including Citytv's Jimmy Mac, played the roles of the Fishermen yesterday, the ex-pros on the Falcons included former Winnipeg Jets Russ Romaniuk, Jordy Douglas and Mike Ford.
"Did you notice the pep talk I gave them? I said, 'We're going to have the wind for the next 20 minutes, so let's turn it on,' " said former Jets, Chicago Blackhawks and Montreal Canadiens legend Ab McDonald, 72, who acted as Falcons coach. "And we did. We were behind and came back. Boom, we win."
Famed Falcons fly againLocals recreate 1920 game
By ROSS ROMANIUK, SUN MEDIA
They turned back the pages on hockey's illustrious past, to a chapter when Winnipeg ruled the world.
And the moment celebrated on the Assiniboine River yesterday is part of a story hoped to become a big seller when the Winter Olympics come back to Canada in 2010.
Wearing replicas of vintage jerseys and newspapers on their legs as pads, a team of local former professionals strapped on old helmets and even older skates to play the parts of the Winnipeg Falcons in one of their biggest victories before winning hockey's first Olympic gold medal in 1920 in Antwerp, Belgium.
"It gives you a feeling for what it was like for those guys -- the magazines on the shins and everything," Peter Jordan, a CBC TV journalist, said after playing for the losers in a re-enactment of the Selkirk Fishermen's defeat at the hands of the Falcons in the Manitoba Hockey League championship game on Jan. 26, 1920.
Yesterday's good-natured match was played in precisely the same place as the game 88 years ago -- on the frozen Assiniboine, a slap shot from the Legislative Building.
"This is where they learned to play their hockey, right here. And they learned on backyard rinks -- and faced discrimination," David Square, author of the new book When Falcons Fly, said of the team that had been kept out of a Winnipeg league because of its players' Icelandic ancestry.
Led by captain Frank Fredrickson, the Falcons eventually claimed the Allan Cup with a win over the University of Toronto Blues. They then made history while representing Canada at the Belgium Games.
Growing media attention to the Falcons' unlikely heroics is expected to make Square's book a hit when the 2010 Games hit Vancouver.
While several media types, including Citytv's Jimmy Mac, played the roles of the Fishermen yesterday, the ex-pros on the Falcons included former Winnipeg Jets Russ Romaniuk, Jordy Douglas and Mike Ford.
"Did you notice the pep talk I gave them? I said, 'We're going to have the wind for the next 20 minutes, so let's turn it on,' " said former Jets, Chicago Blackhawks and Montreal Canadiens legend Ab McDonald, 72, who acted as Falcons coach. "And we did. We were behind and came back. Boom, we win."
