Liam's Lament
No. 59 - Sept 13, 2002

A WEEKEND IN RURAL SASKATCHEWAN.

This past July I had the privilege of being the key note speaker at the "Heroes of Hockey" weekend in Foam Lake, Saskatchewan. I was hired for the event by Shelley Thoen-Chaykoski and what an event it was. Although I had travelled in and out of Regina and Saskatoon for various promotional events, hockey trivia gigs, or on my book tour, I never had the opportunity to see any of the province by car. I did this time as two fine young gentlemen from the community picked me up in Regina and drove me to Foam Lake. I can say this honestly. I have never driven such distances without seeing a single dwelling. Mind boggling. I was thinking about a particular 20-30 minute stretch and was comparing it distance wise to driving through Toronto on the 401. It really is an amazing comparison.

One of the other things I really enjoyed was seeing signs for or driving through some of the Saskatchewan towns. For example we went right through Fort Qu'Appelle, original birth place of the legendary Eddie Shore. Personally I think there should be a sign up on the highway stating that. Shore may have been the greatest defenseman to ever live. Nobody will ever know because virtually nobody would think of any name other than Bobby Orr. Still, I believe that should be marked somehow to honour Eddie Shore. I also saw signs for places like Weyburn. I thought immediately of Tiger Williams. Melville, original home of the legendary Sid Abel and of one of the most fabled junior teams in hockey history. The Melville Millionaires. And then there's Foam Lake. How many of you occasionally read where some of our hockey heroes are from and say to yourself, " wonder where the heck that is?" When I spoke at a luncheon hosted by Mayor Ray King, I stated that I had mentioned this very thing on the air one day in Ottawa after the Senators had signed Pat Elynuik. Imagine a town of 1300 people producing four pro players, three of them NHL'ers and one of which is going to be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame this coming November. What an accomplishment.

Bernie Federko, Pat Elynuik, Dennis Polonich and Ted Hargreaves were the honouree's at this spectacularly organized weekend. A golf tournament kicked things off on the Friday. There was an auction that night that I took great delight in attending for no other reason than to watch one of the locals giving a few lads from Alberta a hard time about not opening up their wallets. We get so used to the French/English thing here or now Ottawa/Toronto in the post season that it was quite refreshing to see how parts of the rest of Canada get worked up about their neighbours. Very entertaining may I add.

Saturday morning began with the traditional pancake breakfast, then a parade through town, followed by the mayor's luncheon, then the unveiling of the four permanent plaques in a wall of honour ceremony and then finally the gala dinner held at the local rink which by the way is the home of the Foam Lake Flyers, defending league champs in the Fishing Lake Men's Senior Hockey League. More on that in a moment.

As most of you know, I've been to many functions of this nature. This was one of if not the most organized that I have ever attended. Shelley and her entire staff did a fabulous job and should be commended for it. In fact I am going to email a copy of this note along with several other poignant comments to Maclean's magazine. Recently Maclean's wrote a rather damaging article detailing the demise of rural Saskatchewan. Like many other parts of Canada, rural Saskatchewan is enduring some tough times, no question. I'll admit an open bias based on what I saw on this July weekend, but I would have to say that due diligence was not done in writing that piece.

Here are some anecdotes and stats on the four inductee's. Bernie Federko is being inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame this coming November. If you have a chance to watch the ceremony listen for him to commend the town that he was born and raised in. Federko was one of the slickest passers in the game of hockey. He was the first player to record 50 or most assists in ten straight seasons. I asked the crowd assembled at the dinner if they knew what this date meant in Bernie's career, February 21, 1988. I wasn't expecting anybody to know, I was just having some fun. In fact Bernie had no idea either. That was the night that Federko recorded his 50th assist of the season for the tenth straight time. St. Louis beat Pittsburgh 5-4 in overtime. Federko assisted a goal scored by Doug Gilmour, Mark Hunter drew the other helper. Federko and Gilmour were also playoff scoring leaders in 1986. This despite St. Louis only advancing to the semi-finals. The next time this oddity happened was this past season with Peter Forsberg of the Colorado Avalanche. Bernie now works the St. Louis broadcasts. He looks like he's still in great shape. His family including his parents and several brothers attended the dinner. One brother, Ken, was a former player who won an Adams Cup with Salt Lake in the CHL in 1981.

Dennis Polonich patrolled the wing for the Detroit Red Wings in the late seventies and early 1980's. He also was a champion in pro hockey winning a Turner Cup in 1986 with the Muskegon Lumberjacks in the IHL. Polonich remains the recepient of the largest insurance payout in hockey history after he was awarded 850,000 due to injuries suffered in a stick swinging incident with Wilf Paiement. Polonich also told me he believes he was the last player to trade punches with Bobby Orr. It happened in one of the last games Orr played while a member of the Chicago Blackhawks. Although there is no record of Orr picking up a five minute major with Chicago it's very possible that his last minor penalty could have come as a result of a brief altercation with Polonich. I'm checking into that. Dennis is a player agent now and resides in Calgary, AB.

Pat Elynuik played for four NHL teams, Winnipeg, Washington, Tampa Bay and Ottawa. He was chosen eighth overall in the entry draft by Winnipeg in 1986. He was a Memorial Cup winner with Prince Albert in 1985 and was part of the infamous Piestany Punchup during the World Junior Hockey Championships of 1987. Pat was a scoring leader in the tournament picking up eleven points in six games and no doubt would have collected a gold medal for Canada had the Russians not started a bench brawl which led to both teams being disqualified. Incidentally, the victory by Finland that year remains their only gold medal in World Junior play. Pat currently lives in Saskatoon and is the President of Camson Investments and River Rock Development Incorporated.

Ted Hargreaves is the only one of the four not actually born in Foam Lake however his eighteen year residency was more than enough for him to call Foam Lake his original home ever since. Ted played several seasons of pro including one year in the WHA for the Winnipeg Jets. He also won a bronze medal for Canada in the 1968 Olympics and he later would win an Allan Cup, symbolic of Senior AAA hockey supremacy in Canada with the Spokane Jets. Ted resides in Nelson, B.C. and became involved in coaching and player development.

I had the pleasure of being driven around town to the various functions by another well known local resident, Harold Sandberg. Simply put, Sandberg is a local hockey legend. He played 27 years for the Foam Lake Flyers, winning MVP awards and scoring titles numerous times. During a stretch of years in the 1960's Sandberg and Les Clark alternated as MVP's. Les is the father of Wendel Clark and played for the senior team in Kelvington. Every person I talked to and there were many, lamented the fact that Harold for whatever reason, did not advance to the show. According to all his wrist shot was incredible and he was virtually impossible to strip the puck off of. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with him and everybody else I met. Imagine farms that are 4500 acres in size? Thanks again to the town and the people for providing me with some tremendous memories. Below is some information on the town as provided on the main website. Take a second and read a bit about rural Canada. Places like this are the backbone of our country.

Foam Lake is conveniently situated between Yorkton and Saskatoon at the junction of Highway 16 and Highway 310 in East-Central Saskatchewan. As the centre of a mixed farming area, Foam Lake offers the basic business and professional requirements for the many surrounding communities. As well, Foam Lake is located approximately 12 miles southeast of the Heritage Marsh which is a large staging area in the fall for thousands of geese, ducks, cranes and swans on their southward migration. The heritage marsh presents an excellent opportunity for hunting, birdwatching and nature enthusiasts.

Foam Lake is a community of 1300 people. The community offers a wide variety of recreational, cultural, spirital and social groups for all ages.

In 1996, after the UN declared Canada the best place in the world to live (for the 5th consecutive year), a research company used the same criteria to locate the best province. It was announced that Saskatchewan won. At that time, the provincial CBC radio held a search for the best place in the province to live. Foam Lake won hands down.

The name Foam Lake was chosen by Joshua Milligan, the first settler to the area in 1882, when he noticed the foam which formed along the shores of a shallow body of water northwest of the Town's present site. Following the Milligans, were a group of Icelanders who settled in the area in 1892. They were looking for a steady source of water and settled in the Fishing Lake area before moving to Foam Lake in 1894. The Ukrainians were next to arrive between 1900 and 1910. They were in search of Freedom and land of their own. In 1872, Parliament passed a Dominion Lands Act, granting each immigrant a quarter section of land for ten dollars.

Liam Maguire
liam1@ca.inter.net