The Icelandic Canadian - 01.12.2002, Qupperneq 27

Vol. 57 #3
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
111
with an indomitable spirit it never seemed
to slow him down.
Early Neighbourhood Life - As men-
tioned before, the Icelanders of Winnipeg
of that time were sharply divided into two
rival camps. The North-enders resided in
the neighhourhood of Jemima Street (Elgin
Avenue) while the South-enders bailiwick
was in the wide open prairie to the west of
Sherbrook Street in the neighbourhood of
Nellie Street (Ellice Avenue).
Dairies were scattered all over the
prairies. To the west of Nellie and
Sherbrook was much low land, which was
generally under water during the whole of
the spring. Just back of Maryland and
Ellice there was the famous “Cat” Island, a
large round knoll which resembled a
saucer. The bigger fellows would wade out
to the island and the younger ones would
be carried on their backs. Here all kinds of
games, battles and contests took place.
Nearly every youth of the neighbourhood
took to the sport as ducks to water.
There was ol’ Kelly Valgardson’s dairy.
Around and around his huge haystack the
boys would race. It made an ideal race-
track. When he could stand the din no
longer he would kick open his front door
and roar at the top of his voice, “You
young —, get — of my property!” The
boys used to get a great kick out of his
yelling and we fondly imagined his voice
carrying right down to the far away river
bank.
Where the John M. King school now
stands was the site of our skating rink. We
hauled water in barrels on small sleighs
from the corner of Ellice and Sherbrook. I
will always remember an ancient old man
with a flowing white beard which made me
think of St. Peter or Methuselah who came
daily to the pump on a sleigh drawn by a
huge St. Bernard dog. He would climb
slowly up out of the little sleigh, pick up his
axe and chop the ice which formed in large
quantities around the pump.
Some IAC Stars - On the Icelandic
Athletic Club’s teams of that time one
recalls “Old Faithful” John Eggertson,
goalie’ Minty Stephenson who later starred
on the Monarch defense; Connie Benson,
the second of this strong rear guard (he
turned professional with Phoenix,
Rossland and later starred with Portland);
and Billy Benson, a colourful rover. On the
forward line there was Baldur Olson (since
a noted physician), Alf Albert, and round-
ing it out, the clever Steve Finnson.
Chris Olafson, Allan Johannesson, who
starred at centre and Emil Goodman were
another great trio. Manny Johnson, he of
the powerful shot, Gales Johnson and his
brother John brought this name well before
the public at that time. The genial Stony
Stone played a strong game, while Leifur
Oddson was also seen with the IAC in the
nets as well as John Eggertson, the old
timer.
Both IACs and Vikings had practice ses-
sions on the old Brydon an McIntyre rinks
while the youngsters played on outdoor
surfaces, generally in the neighbourhood of
the General Hospital or at Ellice near
Sherbrook for the South-enders. At that
time there was undulating prairie and base-
ball in summer, and lacrosse most of the
time, with hockey in winter—and all took
place in the great sports area. Little did the
curious knots of spectators realize that
some half dozen of the boys were going
through a period of development from
boyhood to the component parts of the
greatest hockey machine of the time, and
one of the really outstanding teams in the
history of amateur sport in Canada.
It was here and then that Frank
Fredrickson came onto the hockey hori-
zon. A pretty small fellow but with a
determined chin, and an able ability to con-
John Harvard, MP
arleswood St. James-Assiniboia
Chair, Northern &
Western Caucus
jj 3050 Portage Ave.
Winnipeg, MB R3K 0Y)
Ph: (204) 983-4501
Fax: (204) 983-4728
/ www.johnharvard.com
Room 774 Confederation Bldg. • Ottawa, ON K! A 0A6
Ph: (613) 995-5609 • Fax: (613) 992-3199
harvaj@parl.gc.ca