Unforgettable

It’s been 40 years since Jim Dunlop coached a team of Wellington boys all the way to Switzerland.

How a team from Wellington defended Canada’s hockey greatness in Switzerland in 1976

For the Swiss, this was serious business. Hockey has a long tradition in the alpine nation. Particularly in Davos. Since 1923, the city had hosted the Spengler Cup tournament which had attracted teams from around the world. Until 1978, the tournament was played outdoors. The Swiss took the game of hockey seriously.

It was there, on that very ice, that 16 boys from Wellington found themselves 40 years ago this month. Most of them had never been on an aircraft before. They had never been overseas. Yet there they were, 15- and 16-year-olds from Prince Edward County on the sacred ice surface in Davos. Their coach, Jim Dunlop, had just turned 30. He was the old guy.

Forty years have come and gone since that exceptional midget team, led by Dunlop and managed by Mac Greer, earned the opportunity to play hockey in Switzerland.

The story of how this unlikely cast found their way to the Davos arena remains a remarkable, if improbable, tale.

“We had won the Ontario championship in Peewee, Bantam and then Midget,” explained team captain Bob Snider. “We were a D centre but we were playing in A tournaments across Ontario and we won. We had done pretty much everything.”

Still in the glow of the Canada-Russia Summit Series of 1972, the desire by European teams to test their mettle against Canadian teams was intense. The Ontario Minor Hockey Association (OMHA) was invited to send a team to Switzerland to participate in an international exhibition series. Based on their outstanding record, it was the midget team from Wellington team that was selected to represent Canada.

They would, however, have to fund their own way there and back. The OMHA didn’t have the money to make this happen. Altogether, the Wellington team had to come up with $20,000. It was a lot of money back in 1975. Particularly in Prince Edward County.

The community jumped in to support the team. Foster Bailey sold raffle tickets on a head of beef Don Baitley had donated for the cause. The boys picked tomatoes in donated fields and sold them to the cannery. Many other families and individuals stepped up to enable the boys to go. Foster sold so many tickets, he earned his own ticket to Switzerland.

Snider says it wasn’t an easy decision for his parents, both schoolteachers, to let him go.

“I wasn’t that great at school and this trip meant we were going to miss more than two weeks in January,” said Snider.

But the dream of hockey greatness was too strong. Snider was a goal scorer and a leader. Scouts with clipboards came to watch his team perform. It was heady stuff.

Yet nothing that had happened before then, compared with the moment he stepped onto that ice in Davos that January day in 1976. The mountains. The bright blue sky. The cold, crisp air. The forearm to the jaw.

The Wellington boys faced off against much bigger and older players. One of the teams they faced was the Swiss National Junior Team.

“Remember, we were only 15 and 16. They were 18 and 19. It was their best team,” recalls Snider. “We thought it was just exhibition.”

But the 19-year-old elbows and body checks demonstrated just how serious this was for the Swiss.

Yet this scrappy group from Wellington prevailed, winning four games—losing just two. According to Snider, Dunlop rode his second year players hard in the series.

“I remember about five or six of us played a lot,” recalled Snider. “Terry Greer was one, Ronnie MacDonald was another. And we had a really good goaltender, Donny Maycock.

“It was a pretty phenomenal experience for a 16-year-old,” said Bob Snider.

Despite the hard-nosed play on the ice, Snider says their Swiss hosts were immensely generous and gracious.

“Our host town was Dubendorf,” said Snider. “The people were so nice. They fed us wonderfully and they entertained us. Of course, the drinking age was 16 over there— so we had good time.”

Every decade or so since, Dunlop has hosted a reunion of this special team. All the boys were from the area. Most are still here or maintain a connection to the County.

“Ron MacDonald is in Belleville and Robin Selman is in Brighton,” said Snider. “Rick Dainard is in Toronto, but has a summer home on Sheba’s Island. Punk Miller works out at the mushroom farm. We are still fairly local.”

Sadly, the team has lost two members in recent years, Sandy Rutherford and Brad Stacey.

Dunlop wants to see the team and their achievments recognized in the Prince Edward County Sports Hall of Fame. He’d like it to happen before another decade goes by.

Snider credits Jim Dunlop and Mac Greer for making this opportunity possible.

“Jim was able to ground us—to keep us focused on the goal at hand—no matter what obstacle we faced,” said Snider. But it goes further. According to Snider, “Imagine the undertaking—organizing a group of kids from Wellington to play hockey in Switzerland. You have no idea what goes into that. He was the driving force.

“Quietly, he has been doing this all his life,” said Snider.

“We have a great arena in Wellington. A great deal of the credit for this amazing facility belongs to him. He has been an incredibly important part of this community. That man should be in the Hall of Fame.”