The Saint Dunstan's University (SDU) Saints team that won a Maritime intercollegiate hockey title 50 years ago will be recognized Friday in Charlottetown.
The team was 8-0 heading to St. F.X. with a chance to clinch the Maritime championship. There were no playoffs then; the team with the best record won the title.
"It was the most emotional game I ever experienced as a player," said Gordie Whitlock. "It was a hostile environment. They had a small ice surface and chicken wire around it and it seemed like people were hanging from the rafters. It was going to be a tough game for sure."
He said he admired the team for being able to clinch the title on the road under difficult circumstances.
"We had to be disciplined and X was a really tough physical team, but we kept working hard that game and we won 6-5 and won the championship."
At nationals in Winnipeg they came from behind to defeat Sir George Williams 3-1 in the semifinal before losing 9-2 to the University of Manitoba in the final.
It was the second and last hockey championship for Saint Dunstan's University, which had won the Maritime title in 1946-47.
Whitlock remembers the support the team received from the university, students and professors.
"We felt comfortable in the rink and with the crowd behind us it seemed like teams coming in were down by a couple of goals before the puck was dropped," he said. "One of the things that comes to my mind is that there were about 600 students at SDU at the time and 600 students were supporting the team coming to the rink and the professors also came out and supported us."
Whitlock started skating for the SDU in the fall of 1963 after playing a few seasons with the Prince of Wales Welshmen.
"We had a good team at SDU when I started, guys like Dick Tingley were there, and were winning a lot of games in the league. But when Billy (MacMillan) came we were really building toward something."
MacMillan was a star forward who came back home and to SDU after his junior career with St. Mike's Majors.
MacMillan went on to play with Canada's national team, winning a bronze at the Grenoble Olympics in 1968. He played with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Atlanta Flames and New York Islanders. He became an assistant coach with the Islanders, head coach and general manager with the Colorado Rockies and New Jersey Devils.
His play propelled the Saints to the title. He led the league in scoring and was an obvious choice as MVP. He and defenceman Vince Mulligan were first team all-stars and Whitlock was a second team all-star. SDU also had a hard-hitting defence and the solid goaltending of George MacNeill.
"We had a good group of guys led by Billy. Vincey on defence was a heart-and-soul guy and another thing is we had 10 or 11 guys from the Island on the team and other teams had already started bringing in players from outside the region for their team," Whitlock said.
The team will be honoured during the opening faceoff of Friday's UPEI Panthers home game with the St. F.X. X-Men. The 1984-85 UPEI team, which won the Atlantic University Athletics Association title, will also be recognized.
Written by Alf Blanchard
Did you know?
Five members of the 1964-65 Saint Dunstan's University Saints team went on to coach the UPEI Panthers. They were Jack Kane, Jack Hynes, Vince Mulligan, Bill MacMillan and Gordie Whitlock.
