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8THI BRANDON ttUN, Wsdntsdey, May If, 1HIBy THE CANADIAN PRESSThe onslaught again* the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association’s decision to peg the age limit for junior players at 19 got under way in earnest Tuesday, with Western Canada's top junior league heading for a direct showdown with the CAHA.The nine-team Western Canada Junior Hockey League announced its governors have agreed unanimously on an age limrt of 21. The CAHA at a meeting in Windsor. Ont.. last week authorized an age limit of19.There was also ai outcry from Terry Fraser, general manager of Moncton Alpine Seak of the Maritime JuniorHockey League, who said the fledgling league may be in jeopardy because the CAHA limit will cause a scarcPy of players.And city council in Kitchener, Ont., took the first step in what may evolve into a formal complaint to the Ontario government over the CAHA move.Prior to last week’s Windsor meeting, the CAHA recognized as Junior any player who was under 20 on May 31 of the yearfollowing the start of the season. The new rule moves the deadline up five months, to Dec 31 of the same year. The Western League moves seven months in the other direction, to Dee. 31 of the year following.The Western move is a direct challenge to a short-lived peace pact with the CAHA. Several teams forming the WCJHL during the 1966-67 season played outside CAHA jurisdiction as the Canadian Major Junior Hockey League after the CAHA vetoed proposals for a draft of players from other juniorleagues. The league reached accord with the CAHA for last season.The WCJHL also announcedTuesday plans to offer four-yearscholarships to players 18 or younger at universities and vocational schools. Players studying continuously for the fouryears w-ouki keep junior eligibility for the duration of thear courses.But Bill Hunter, owner of Edmonton Oil Kings and chairman of the WCJHL board of governors, told an Edmonton newsconference the league will make no move to declare its independence.Then Gordon Juckes, CAHA executive director, said vn Winnipeg that adoption of the higher age limit by the WCJHL would automatically force the league outside organized hockey.In Windsor, Ont., CAHA presi dent Lloyd Pollock said if the league operates under the newregulations the league and its players will be suspended by the CAHA, and players probably will not be allowed to return toa CAHA-sanctioned learn a! a later dateHunter argued that the CAHAage limit would reduce theWCJHL to “an all-star juvenileleague” and would cut gate receipts in half The lower limit also might encourage raiding by 1 nited Status colleges offering hockey scholarshipsWCJHL clubs are Saskatoon Swift Current, Estevan. Wey-bum. Winnipeg. Brandon, Flin Flon, Calgary and Edmonton The same clubs, minus the three Manitoba teams and withtlie addition of Regina, played in the rebel CMJHL in the \m67 season In Moncton, Fraser said close to 100 players in the Maritime* will tie affected by the age limit. He said at the CAHA meeting junior hockey officials “from coast to coast” favored an increase in the age limit.“By decreasing the junior age limit, the CAHA is only hurting the calibre of junior hockey— the only classification of hockey left in Canada that can stand on its own two feet ”In Kitchener, a council committee authorized a resolution condemning the CAHA age limit to be drawn up for consideration by city council next week If it’s passed, it will be sent to the Ontario government and the Ontario Hockey Association Alderman Joseph Mattson, pointing mil the city provides $5,000 a year for minor hockey and has a stake in the issue, had aJdermen approve in principle their view of the “impropriety of the CAHA action which would prevent a junior hockey player from playing in his own area after he was 19 ”
Newspaper Details
Brandon Sun
Brandon, Manitoba, CA
Wed, May 29, 1968
Page 8
Full Page
Clipped by
Jason P.
USA 25 Apr 2019
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