VIPOND o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2006-10-02 published
Ike HILDEBRAND,
Athlete (1927-2006)
Pint-sized competitor may have been a world champion in hockey,
but he happened to be an even better box lacrosse player
By Tom HAWTHORN,
Special to The Globe and Mail, Page S9
Victoria -- Ike
HILDEBRAND led a hockey team from small-town
Ontario to the world championship tournament in 1959. A small,
baby-faced athlete, he was a sparkplug on the ice and a general
on the bench.
His greatest moment occurred as playing coach of the Belleville
McFarlands. The Macs faced a gruelling schedule of exhibition
matches across Europe before arriving in Czechoslovakia for the
round-robin tournament in March of 1959.
A senior club team, the Canadians wore a maple leaf on the chest
of their sweaters. They were defending on Canada's behalf the
world title, won the previous winter by the Whitby Dunlops. Few
hockey fans back home appreciated the difficulty of the task.
The Czechs were no longer patsies, the Soviets were on the cusp
of becoming the dominant force in hockey, and the Americans would
show their skill by winning the Olympic tournament the next year.
Anything but a championship for the Macs would have been regarded
as failure.
The Canadians opened by defeating Poland 9-0, then shut out Finland
6-0 in a chippy game in which Mr.
HILDEBRAND suffered a facial
cut.
The next game featured the undefeated Soviet Union, seen as the
only likely challengers. The Macs gained a 2-0 lead before Mr.
HILDEBRAND
scored what would be an insurance goal in Canada's 3-1 victory.
The Macs mobbed their goaltender and celebrated for 10 minutes
before the end-of-game ceremonies could begin. "They acted as
if they had already won the title," the New York Times reported.
The Macs then defeated Sweden 5-0, before knocking off the United
States 4-1. Mr.
HILDEBRAND, one of five Macs with National Hockey
League experience, scored in each of the games.
The only way the Macs could lose the title would be to lose to
the hometown Czechs by a large margin. After exchanging gifts
of Canadian cheese and Czech chocolate on the ice at Prague,
the local side came out roaring, gaining a 2-0 lead in the first
period. With the score 4-3 for the home side, the Canadian playing
coach ordered his goalie off the ice in favour of an extra attacker.
The move backfired. The Czechs won the game, 5-3, but Canada
claimed the championship.
Surrounded by teammates on the ice, Mr.
HILDEBRAND hoisted a
trophy in the air while still wearing hockey gloves.
Back home, the accolades were restrained. The Toronto Star's
story was headlined: Macs are champs, but… folks will recall
loss to Czechs.
"We were meeting a club that was fresh," the coach explained
to the paper's readers. "I still think we should have beaten
Czechoslovakia, but I cannot begrudge the Czechs this win. They
played well. We did not play a good game.
"It could be that the grind is beginning to catch up with us.
In the last 20 weeks the McFarlands have played roughly 85 games
and have barnstormed through Europe."
He spent another season with the Macs before being fired, an
ignominious end to a solid career at a sport that was not even
his best. For Mr.
HILDEBRAND, a world champion in hockey, was
perhaps the best box lacrosse player of his day.
Isaac Bruce
HILDEBRAND was born in Winnipeg and raised near Grande
Prairie, Alberta. He had never heard of lacrosse until he was
14 and his family moved to New Westminster, British Columbia,
then, as now, a hotbed for the sport.
In 1943, the city's Salmonbellies won the Mann Cup as national
champions with 16-year-old Ike on the roster. The 'Bellies again
qualified for the Mann Cup playoff the next season.
Although they lost to the St. Catharines Athletics of Ontario,
the teenaged phenomenon from New Westminster won the Mike Kelly
Award as the most valuable player in the series. He remains the
youngest person to have won the award.
The same teams met again in the 1946 Mann Cup, by which time
the slick, 5-foot-7, 147-pound attacker found himself a target.
"Little Ike
HILDEBRAND, leading scorer in western competition,
looked like a midget on the big [Maple Leaf] Gardens floor and
he found the going rough and nasty," the Globe and Mail's Jim
VIPOND reported in 1946. The Athletics again won the cup.
Mr. HILDEBRAND would score more than 900 goals and 700 assists
in his lacrosse career, which saw him play in five Mann Cup series.
He was named to league all-star teams 13 times in 15 seasons.
He won scoring titles in 1946, 1948, 1954 and 1955, the last
two coming while playing for the Peterborough Timbermen.
A talent in both of Canada's national sports, he played hockey
in winter and lacrosse in summer.
He had two successful seasons with hockey's Oshawa Generals and
another with the Toronto Marlboroughs, before being invited to
training camp for the National Hockey League's Maple Leafs at
Owen Sound. He practised during the day and then flew to Peterborough
to play in the Mann Cup. The Leafs owner wanted the budding star
to sign.
"Major Conn
SMYTHE called me into his office and here's the deal
he offered me -- $1,000 up front, $3,000 a year if I played in
the minors at Tulsa, $4,000 if I went to Pittsburgh, and $5,000
if the Leafs kept me," Mr.
HILDEBRAND once told Toronto Star
columnist Jim
PROUDFOOT. "I told him I'd have to talk it over
with my mom and dad."
Instead, he telephoned Charlie
CONACHER, the retired National
Hockey League star who had been his coach at Oshawa. His advise
was to ask for $1,000 on top of each of those figures. When Mr.
HILDEBRAND
did so, suggesting the higher salary came as parental advice,
Mr. SMYTHE became furious. "You little so-and-so, have you been
talking to
CONACHER?"
Mr. HILDEBRAND wound up playing for the Los Angeles Monarchs
and would spend five high-scoring seasons in the minors, all
the while studying to become a structural engineer for a career
he would later follow.
In 1954, he finally broke into the National Hockey League when
the New York Rangers put him on a line with Don (Bones) Raleigh
and Nick Mickoski, a fellow Winnipegger. He scored two goals
and added three assists in his first five games.
Despite the terrific early success, Rangers coach Frank Boucher
juggled lines, placing Mr.
HILDEBRAND with rookie winger Billy
Dea and centre Max Bentley. The goals stopped coming and the
Rangers sold him to the minor-league Vancouver Canucks before
being flipped to the National Hockey League's Chicago Black Hawks.
He soon rediscovered his scoring touch, but his season came to
a sudden end after he broke a leg in a game in Toronto in February
of 1954. He wound up with just seven goals and 11 assists in
a 41-game National Hockey League career.
As a coach, he had success behind the bench at both lacrosse
and hockey, as he handled junior and senior Ontario teams in
Pembroke and Orillia. He led Belleville to an upset Allan Cup
championship over the Kelowna Packers in 1958, earning nomination
as Canada's representative to the world championship the next
March.
In 1985, he was inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame in
Toronto. He had earlier been enshrined in the Canadian Lacrosse
Hall of Fame at New Westminster and the sports halls of fame
in the Ontario cities of Peterborough, Belleville and Oshawa.
Even so, being a small man in a roughneck sport like lacrosse
was not the most dangerous job Mr.
HILDEBRAND ever held. As a
young man in New Westminster, he painted bridges along the wind-swept
Pacific Coast.
Ike HILDEBRAND was born on May 27, 1927, in Winnipeg. He died
on August 27 in St. Albert, Alberta. He was 79. He leaves his
wife Barbara, two sons, three daughters, four grandchildren,
a sister and a brother.
V... Names VI... Names VIP... Names Welcome Home
VIPOND o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2006-10-19 published
STEWARD/STEWART/STUART,
Gene
Peacefully and valiantly, passed away on Tuesday, October 17,
2006 at Toronto General Hospital. Loving husband of Sue
JOEL.
Adored father of Janet (Bruce
WISE,) and Geoff. Dear brother
of Marjorie
STEWARD/STEWART/STUART,
Margaret
VIPOND, Martha
LAWRENCE and Elizabeth
ELLIS.
Much loved brother-in-law of Peter and Joan and son-in-law
of Rae. Dear uncle of Danielle, Kerry, Penny, Chris, Anne, Ted,
Kim and Ian. Gene was a Church Warden, engineer, publisher, businessman,
traveler, scholar, philosopher and a wonderful friend. He was
a true renaissance man, who brought joy, vitality and love to
all who knew him. The family would like to express Gene's and
their sincere gratitude to Father Mark Andrews for his love and
support. The family will receive Friends at the Humphrey Funeral
Home - A.W. Miles Chapel, 1403 Bayview Avenue (south of Eglinton
Avenue East), from 7-9 p.m. on Thursday, October 19th. The Funeral
Mass will be held on Friday, October 20th at 11 o'clock in Saint
Thomas's Anglican Church (383 Huron Street). If desired, donations
in Gene's memory may be made to the Toronto Humane Society, 11 River
Street, Toronto, Ontario M5A 4C2. The family will receive Friends
at home on Saturday, October 21st from 7-9 p.m. and
on Sunday,
October 22nd from 2-5 p.m.
V... Names VI... Names VIP... Names Welcome Home
VIPOND o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.toronto_star 2006-01-23 published
CONWATH,
Agnes
Gertrude
Quietly passed away, at York Central Hospital, on Thursday, January
19, 2006. She was born in New Waterford, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia,
on January 22, 1928 and came to Toronto over 50 years ago, where
she met and married the late George William
CONWATH.
Agnes is
survived by her loving daughter Georgina (John)
DANIEL, sister
Irene (Ralph)
McCARTNEY, brothers William (Marie) and John Joe
(Maryann) McMULLEN, step-sons Edward and Ralph (Dianne)
CONWATH.
She was predeceased by her sisters Florence, Betty, Patricia,
and her step-daughters Eleanor (Bill)
VIPOND and Madeleine (Dave)
BARTLETT.
She was a devout Catholic, good friend and neighbour.
Lovingly remembered by her grandchildren, great-grandchildren
and numerous nieces and nephews. Family and Friends may visit
at the Highland Funeral Home, 3280 Sheppard Ave. East (west of
Warden), 416-773-0933, on Thursday, January 26, 2006 from 10
a.m. until the Memorial Service in our Chapel at 11 a.m. Reception
to follow the service with interment at Highland Memory Gardens
following the reception. Donations may be made to the Canadian
Cancer Society. A Mass will be dedicated on February 24th 8: 20
a.m. at Saint Margaret's of Scotland on Avenue Road.
V... Names VI... Names VIP... Names Welcome Home
VIPOND o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.toronto_star 2006-02-10 published
VIPOND-
RIDDING,
Kathy
At Royal Victoria Hospital, Barrie on Thursday, February 9th,
2006, Kathy
VIPOND-
RIDDING of Barrie. Beloved daughter of Helen
VIPOND of Richmond Hill. Dear mother of Becky and Chris of Barrie.
Dear grandmother of Aaron, Dawson, Alexx and Kathryn. Sister
of Carole and Lesley. A memorial service will be held at the
Paul F. Kent Funeral Home (Hwy. 27 north) Cookstown on Sunday,
February 12th, 2006 at 1: 00 p.m. Memorial donations to the National
Service Dogs or the charity of your choice would be appreciated
by the family.
V... Names VI... Names VIP... Names Welcome Home
VIPOND - All Categories in OGSPI