The Icelandic Canadian - 01.12.2002, Blaðsíða 23

Vol. 57 #3
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
107
tie waged fast and furious. The crowds
were like armed camps, on opposite sides
of the rink, voicing their enthusiasm and
partisanship in no uncertain manner. There
were no seats in the old Brydon and
McIntyre rinks but the fans stood jammed
up against the fence surrounding the play-
ing surface. The IAC supporters were sup-
plied with narrow cordwood sticks out of
the rink woodpile, to be used as noise-
makers. When they slapped the fence with
these four-foot sticks you can imagine the
din! Old folks and young folks, men and
women, crowded to these games and on
occasion a spectator was liable to get out on
the ice to forcefully give a goal umpire or
referee a “piece of his mind.”
It was the seven-man game and the play-
ers who started the game usually stayed on
for the full sixty minutes. Unless a player
was injured to such an extent that he could
not return to the ice, a substitute or spare
man did not often have a chance to get into
the game. No substitution was permitted
after half-time and the boys went two thir-
ty-minute periods. It was a case of getting
your second wind and staying with it to the
finish. To relieve the strain on the for-
wards, “lifting” was sometimes resorted to
and this became a fine art. Some of the
defencemen of that day could lift a puck
from one end of the rink to the other, the
ICELANDIC ATHLETIC CLUB
Circa 1898-1902
Back row: Dr. Jack Snidal, r. wing; Fusi Byron, centre; Swanny
Swanson, def. 8c fwd; Jack Swanson, r. wing. Middle row: Tom Gillis,
executive; Dr. O. Bjornson, president; Paul Olson, executive. Front
row: Percy Olafson, def.; Harry Sivertson, goal; Zabatius Johnson.