Everyone on the ice is 80 or over at this hockey tournament for the ages | |
Published on Feb 25, 2013 Globe & Mail 02/23/2013:: The Hall of Fame plaque is off to the engravers. The application is ready to go to the Guinness World Records. Sunday at 2 p.m. at the University of Ottawa's sports complex, a puck will drop between two players standing at centre ice: Larry McNabb and Doug Palmer. It will be but one of hundreds, perhaps thousands of minor- and beer-league hockey games played in Canada this weekend, but this one will be profoundly different. This will be the one that proves the dream never dies. "If somebody had told me when I was 50 years old, even 60," Mr. McNabb says, "that I'd be buying new skates in my 84th year, I'd have had them committed." Organizer Maurice Marchand, 75, of Gatineau (his friends call him Moe), came up with the idea for the 80-plus "tournament." Mr. Marchand noted the large number of players well past retirement age still playing, and he and two colleagues began gathering information from the area. | |
Over 80 and still chasing pucks Link | |
This will be the one that proves the dream never dies. “If somebody had told me when I was 50 years old, even 60,” Mr. McNabb says, “that I’d be buying new skates in my 84th year, I’d have had them committed.” At a regular-season game held this week by the Elder Skatesmen, the defence duo of Bobby Vezina and Paul McTaggart had 161 years years between them, 82 and 79 respectively – Mr. McTaggart will be eligible for “rookie” status next year when he turns 80. There are, not surprisingly, distinctive rules in such games. If two players get into a scrap or an argument – “Hey,” says Mike Etherington, 66, “it’s hockey!” – next game the combatants are put on the same line to ensure they get along. If a player goes down, a shout of “Hold it!” goes up and the game stops until the player is back on his skates. When one of their more popular players, Ottawa lawyer Jim O’Grady, died of a stroke at 72 in 2008, the teammates who served as pallbearers wore various O’Grady jerseys from over the years. | |
Paul McTaggart | |
Gallery 2013 | |
Hi Everyone; My good friend Larry McNabb age 85 the one taking the face off in white sweater and is the one taking the penalty shot. This event may be in the Guinness Book of Records, only game on record where all the players were 80 plus. The goalie in the white team still plays in the RA 50 and over league, his name is John Kohli and he is good. Please check out the link to Youtube, where there are 3 television reports, English and French. Enjoy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5M86yezB5Wg Thanks, Bert |