SJHL HALL OF FAME FRIDAY

The SJHL Hall of Fame banquet is tonight in Humboldt, and last night was the Hall of Fame Game featuring the hometown Broncos and visiting Melfort Mustangs.

The five individuals and one team all had representatives in attendance during a special ceremony that took place in the second intermission and also for a hot stove (informal group interview session) in the Bronco Lounge.

The best story of the day goes to Bill McDougall, who's plane got delayed in Sydney, Nova Scotia for over two hours due to the fact the load was too heavy.  Therefore, McDougall missed connecting flights in Halifax and Toronto and was late arriving in Humboldt.  He missed the second intermission by about ten minutes.  McDougall, by the way, had the single greatest season in SJHL history in 1986 when he racked up 180 points.  He also set an AHL playoff record in 1993 when he destroyed opposition teams with 26-goals and 26-assists in just 16-games.  One of hockey's greatest mysteries is figuring out why McDougall didn't get more than 28 games in the National Hockey League.

McDougall's SJHL and AHL records are never going to be beaten.  Never. Glenn Hall's string of 502 consecutive NHL games as a goalie is never going to be beaten either.  Never.  Hall played for the Humboldt Indians before filling out an application to try out for the Detroit Red Wings at a camp in Saskatoon.  The rest is history.

Mick McGeough still lives in Saskatchewan, but he has climbed the administrative ladder and is now second in command to Terry Gregson, the NHL Director of Officiating.  Mick is a real nice man and has story beyond story about the personalities he was involved with on the ice during his career as a referee.  During the hot stove, he was very frank about the Curtis Joseph incident when Joseph went a little nuts thinking he got tripped up.  He also told a tremendous one about Mario Lemieux the night he made his return from Hodgkins Disease.

Dr. Terry Henning and Dr. Gerry Rooney are the Humboldt equivalent of Dwight McMillan and Ron Rumball, only they don't have nearly as many long serving years.  I could listen to Rooney for days.  He is such an interesting man.  Henning was a practicing medical doctor while he coached junior hockey in Humboldt.  Henning tried to turn down coaching overtures, but finally gave in five games into a regular season in which the team got off to a 5-and-0 start, but still had to replace the current coach for off-ice reasons.  Henning says they proceed to lose the next eleven before regrouping and advancing to the league final.  Rooney was the manager and part-time coach, who was forced to go behind the bench on nights when Henning was 'on call'.  Rooney jokes, "Whenever we had serious issues, Terry always seemed to be on call."

Bob Beatty was the coach of the 2003 RBC Cup champion Broncos, and he made the trip in from La Ronge for the ceremony last night.  He will not be at the banquet tonight, but it's my understanding a number of players will be.  Russell Gehlen was on the ice with Bob last night.  Russell was a true team player.  He was BJ Sklapsky's understudy in goal and then relegated to number three when Sean Connors was added as a reinforcement for the national tournament.  A lot of guys, especially ones as good as Gehlen, would have their nose out of joint at having to be that extra insurance goalie, but not Russell.  He was good enough to be a number one on a lot of teams that year.

Best wishes to all of the inductees and I hope they have a great time tonight at the banquet in Humboldt.