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PAGE »Jim Sutherland’s• ■* . ■ r * i* * w fDream Too Late.By JACK SVIMVAX CniiilQ Pre« Sports EditortEighteen year* ago, Jim Sutherland started a movement to immortalize Canada’* greats in an International Hockey Hall of Fame at Kingston, Ont. From that day—Sept, 10.1943—Sutherland nourished his dream.In the succeeding 10 years nearly 50 men were elected to the hall and Sutherland -main* tained he would live, to see theBOR ALL1REPAIR JOBSRCO/CHETEIt's tasy !ft work with, IImi*** mi wort* eat* it's occratofyfrfopoctUnod lortailing tfrtngtfc.|pnhr(~!• Simply odd watar, ml*and vit.• For allConc/ftf* , and Mer* Inr npolr tobs.• A*ailoM«at all leading Building Malarial’. Hard-wars and Departmanf Stoni.SutwuHd Ratal I Brfc*25 lb. bag • - - 80c50 lb. bag - - $1.20m Coortt or fine Concrete Mix n4 Mojfar Ml*Ask About REDICKETE WHITE PLASTER MIXshrine a reality. “You can he sure of that,” he said over and over again.But-Jim, a disillusioned 85-year-oid man, died Sept. 16, 1855, and the only tangible sign of a hall was the bric-a-brac collection of sticks, skate* and the honor - roll book he bad stuffed under his four-poster bed and in closets of his old home in Kingston.Now, a memorial likely will be built in the eastern Ontario city, hut hockey isn’t likely to recognize it. Last week, tenders were called for construction of the hall and, if Sutherland's dream becomes a- reality, Canada will have two hockey halls of fame.Just a month’ ago, a $480,000 building financed by the National Hockey League, was officially opened in the Canadian National Exhibition grounds by Prime Minister Diefenbaker. That is the shrine hockey recognizes.REGRETS CONFLICTClarence Campbell, president of the NHL, said the other day: “I think it is regrettable that there should be a conflict of this kind. ...UIt is obvious the Kingston hall will be very limited in scope and I don’t know what the significance of being elected to it will be.” He said the NHL and its member clubs contributed $30,000 - $35,000 of the original fund raised for the Kingston shrine ,.and neve? sought to recover any of it when the hall was moved to Toronto.He added that the NHL would be willing to give Kingston full1961 LOW MILEAGECOMPANY CARpi run a ii ft rrecognition in the-CNE hall as the official birthplace of hockey. The NHL would have preferred that some of the money raised would be used to build athletic facilities for Kingston youngsters rather than a ball of fame.Jack Roxburgh of Simcoe, Ont., president of the Canadian Amuteur Hockey- Association, said that “as far aa I am concerned, and I think I can speak for the CAHA, there is no place in Canada for two hockey halls of fame,”“Jim Sutherland originated the idea of a hockey hall ol fame and it is a tragedy that nothing was done about it in Kingston before he died. As far as we know, the Kingston people made no effort to build a hall until the Toronto site was proposed. Now, it’s too late.” Things rolled along smoothly after Sutherland's first proposal in 1943, made after he visited baseball’s hall of fame at Coop-erstown, N.Y., “to see what it was like.The NHL and CAHA approved a site, after a squabble between Kingston and Halifax over the birthplace of organized hockey, snd donated funds. Money also was given by provincial hockey associations, individuals, corporations and the Amateur Hockey Association ofthe U.S.Construction was to have started in Kingston in 1951. Nothing apparently was done about it. In 1955, shortly before Sutherland died, he was optimistic the shrine would be housed in a 93-vear-old church, a rink-length from downtown central Kingston. Nothing came of that.The CNE, always on the lookout for a crowd-drawing attraction, started talk of a hall on its grounds. The City of Toronto donated the land, the NHL put up the money for the building and the CNE is responsible for its maintenance.
Newspaper Details
Winnipeg Free Press
Winnipeg, Manitoba, CA
Thu, Sep 21, 1961
Page 32
Full Page
Clipped by
Jason P.
USA 24 Aug 2019
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