Winter Hawks host Salute to Buckaroos today
Saturday, March 14 | 12:26 a.m.
BY PAUL DANZER
COLUMBIAN STAFF WRITER
Over 52 years in professional hockey, Tom McVie has been everywhere and claims to have seen it all.
A Vancouver resident for three decades, the 73-year-old McVie was a head coach in the National Hockey League and the World Hockey Association. He still works as a scout for the Boston Bruins.
For all his travels to ice hockey meccas, McVie remains convinced that one of the best cities for hockey in North America is Portland.
"I do know this, that Portland, Oregon, with the fan base here, is one of the greatest hockey markets around," McVie said.
That was certanly true in the 1960s, when the Portland Buckaroos were the toast of the town. That legacy will be recognized today, when many former Buckaroos participate in the Salute to the Buckaroos at the Portland Winter Hawks game against Seattle.
McVie's connection to the Portland area began in the 1960s when he played for the Buckaroos in the old Western Hockey League. Harry Glickman bought the WHL franchise and brought the Buckaroos to Portland when the Memorial Coliseum opened in 1960. Over their 14 seasons, the Buckaroos won three Lester Patrick Cup championships and eight times had the league's best regular-season record.
Today, Buckaroos' memorabilia will be on display in the Coliseum concourse, and Bucks players will be signing autographs. A new film, "Kings of the Road: The Portland Buckaroos Story," will be for sale, and parts of it shown between periods.
To highlight the event, the Winter Hawks are raising a banner in Memorial Coliseum to commemorate the Buckaroos championships in 1961, 1965 and 1971.
Winning a championship in their inaugural season made the team immediately popular. Prior to the arrival of the Trail Blazers in 1970, the Buckaroos were the region's sports stars. Though most were Canadian, many of them settled in Portland year-round.
Jim Hay was a member of the Detroit Red Wings' 1955 Stanley Cup winners. Now 77, Hay was planning to retire from hockey and go home to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, before he was asked to join the Buckaroos in 1964. He played with the Bucks for most of five seasons and still lives in Portland.
"Everybody wanted to play in Portland in those days," said Hay, a defenseman who teamed with Connie Madigan to form perhaps the league's most intimidating defense pair.
In those days, the NHL had only eight teams, none on the West Coast. The WHL, much like Triple-A baseball before expansion, included many of the best professional players. Many of the Buckaroos had stints in the NHL.
And many of them wound up calling Portland home, in part because Glickman helped find players offseason jobs to strengthen their bond with the community.
"It goes to show you what people think of Portland, Ore., that so many of us settled down here to raise our families," Hay said.
McVie had stints as an NHL head coach for the Winnipeg Jets, New Jersey Devils and Washington Capitals. In 1979, McVie coached the Winnipeg Jets to the WHA championship. But he has called Vancouver home since his playing career ended in the mid 1970s.
He is looking forward to seeing old pals today, and to seeing another banner raised in honor of the Buckaroos.
"I've been in pro hockey for 52 years now, and the happiest of those were the five or six years that I played for the Buckaroos," McVie said.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Portland Buckaroos Documentary To Debut At March 14 Winter Hawks Game print E-mail
ReplyDeleteFans attending the Portland Winter Hawks’ Salute to the Buckaroos Saturday night will have the opportunity to purchase “Kings of the Road: The Portland Buckaroos Story”, a 40-minute documentary about the beloved team.
The movie is a comprehensive history of the Portland Buckaroos, featuring never-before-seen game footage and exclusive interviews with team founder Harry Glickman and former players Jim Hay, Don Head, Andy Hebenton, Norm Johnson and Connie Madigan. Portions of the documentary will be shown before the game and during the intermissions. The DVD will also include the audio of an entire Buckaroos game.
Fans can purchase a copy of the DVD Saturday night at the Winter Hawks team store for $19.60, with the price set in honor of the team’s inaugural 1960 season.
“This movie is a must-have for fans who grew up watching the Buckaroos, and anyone who has an interest in the history of sports in Portland,” said Portland Winter Hawks President Doug Piper. “The Buckaroos paved the way for every team that has come after them here, and this movie captures the love affair between the team and the fans in Portland.”
The movie is being produced by Filmbyframe, a production company started in 2007 by Dan Schaefer. Their first film was last year’s documentary “Mania”, a history of the Portland Trail Blazers that was selected for inclusion in the Northwest Film Festival. Filmbyframe is also in post-production on the film “Figaro”, which follows a group of singers from Kentucky to Poland to perform the opera “Marriage of Figaro”. Schaefer was also an Associate Producer on the Sony film “Deep Winter” released in 2009.
"In the process of creating my film about the Trail Blazers, I read through the history of the Buckaroos and decided that they deserved a film of their own,” said Schaefer. “With three Lester Patrick Cups and beloved players who went on to make Portland their home, this film is a must for anyone who loves the Buckaroos and hockey."
Portland Winter Hawks tickets are available by calling 503-236-HAWK (4295), or online at ticketmaster.com.