photo: George Nickerson
There are not many players in Canada’s long and distinguished hockey history who have won the Allan Cup and medals in both the Olympics and World Championships. Jack McKenzie is one of them, and the 95-year-old was also the captain of Canada’s 1956 Olympic team that played in Cortina d’Ampezzo, where the Olympics are now in full swing some 70 years later.
“The thing that impressed me the most in Cortina,” he recalled recently from his retirement home in Huntsville, Ontario, a couple of hours north of Toronto, “was the quality of the athletes from around the world in all sports. They were the best skaters, the best skiers. It made us all feel special to be part of an event with so many talented athletes.”
McKenzie’s career lasted a decade or so. He played during a time when amateur status was important, and when there was a chasm between the amateur and pro ranks. Born in Brandon, Manitoba in 1930, he developed into a well-rounded player and superior skater, which meant he wasn’t going to be in Brandon very long.
“My first year in junior hockey was with Brandon, but in my second year I went to Toronto and played for the Marlies. Stafford Smythe was the manager, and he recruited me to come east,” he explained.
This was 1949, and at the end of the '49-'50 season he had won his first Allan Cup. But hockey soon took a back seat to a career in teaching, and that led him a little west of Toronto.
“I moved to Kitchener after the Marlboros,” McKenzie continued, “and we won the Allan Cup there twice. I made the move because they had a new rink that looked a lot like Maple Leaf Gardens, and I really enjoyed playing there. The ice was NHL sized, and we had lots of room to skate. But the other reason I went was because I started my career as a teacher nearby in Preston, which is now Cambridge. That was important to me. I had taken a university course to prepare for a career as a teacher. So I was a teacher in the day time and at night I played senior hockey for the Kitchener-Waterloo Dutchmen.”
Indeed, the Dutchies won the Allan Cup in 1953 and again in 1955, and as such they were invited to represent Canada at the 1956 Olympics in Cortina d'Ampezzo. The Canadians won their first three games easily, including 23-0 over Austria in which McKenzie recorded a hat trick. In the medal round, however, Canada won only three of five games and had to settle for a bronze medal. McKenzie scored the game-winning goal in the team's 6-2 win over Sweden in that round.
Canada played all its games at the Olympic Ice Stadium. “We played all our games outdoors," McKenzie recalled. "Because it was so cold, the ice was really hard and fast. You could skate forever on it. I can remember playing almost whole periods and not coming off because the skating was so effortless. I was very comfortable playing on the big, outdoor rinks. You had more room, which suited my game.”
McKenzie not only was an important member of the team—he was team captain. “Management decided that I would be the captain,” he said. “One of our defenceman was Art Hurst, Ron Hurst’s older brother, and he was captain until that year, and then they gave me the “C”.”
Incredibly, he played both forward and defence in Cortina as coach Bobby Bauer sought to get the most out of the smooth-skating McKenzie. “I was always a forward, but in the Olympics I also played defence. I liked that because you got on the ice more often. I’m not sure why they did that except I was out there more, which suited me fine.”
Because it was cold, he and several other players notably wore red toques during the games. Off ice, he enjoyed the atmosphere of the Olympic experience, which is such an important part of the event.
“There was a very colourful main street, crowded with athletes from different countries, and everyone had their own uniforms. I remember meeting some Russians. They were highly regarded. They had a strong team. They had been in Cortina for a month, training in the mountains. We were given a whole bag of Canada pins for trading. When you met athletes from other countries on the street, it’s a way to make an introduction. You met them by trading pins.”
In all, Canada scored 53 goals and allowed 12. Goalie Denis Broduer went on to become well-known as a hockey photographer and the father of Martin. “We had a pretty balanced attack,” McKenzie said of the Dutchmen. “We had some good wingers. Georghe Scholes was a good goalscorer. Ken Laufman was a great playmaker. He had an outstanding junior career with Guelph in the OHA, and we relied on him. He was a great team leader, too. I was a two-way player. I was a bit of a playmaker, but not as skilled as Kenny Laufman. He was outstanding.”
The style of play was much different from today. Europeans—both players and fans—weren’t used to bodychecking, so when the Dutchmen tried to play physically, it didn’t always go over well.
“The hockey was not very physical. There wasn’t a lot of bodychecking, but as soon as anyone went down, the European crowd would holler for a penalty,” McKenzie said with a chuckle.
Teaching was rewarding for McKenzie, but he can’t help but look back and wonder, even just a little bit, of an alternate life choice. “I was property of the Maple Leafs,” he said, “and they asked me a couple of times to play with their farm team in Pittsburgh, the Hornets. But by that time I was committed to teaching, so I never went. I sometimes wonder, what would have happened if I had gone that route?”
We’ll never know, but the Olympics were not the end of his IIHF journey. Two years later, the Dutchmen loaned him to the Whitby Dunlops, who were representing Canada at the World Championship in Oslo in March 1958. The Canadians ran the table with a perfect 7-0 record and won gold with a lineup that also included Harry Sinden, Sid Smith, and J-P Lamirande.
A year later, McKenzie retired from playing to focus fully on teaching. Nothing but great memories. “I stopped playing in 1959 and started to further my career in education. I found that teaching and playing was getting too strenuous, and I wanted to focus on teaching. The school board in Preston was very kind to me, letting me go on those European tours. I coached high-school hockey in Sudbury for a while, which was a great experience. That level of hockey was very important up there."
That ’56 team also gave McKenzie a lifelong friend in teammate Don Rope. “Don was also a teacher, and we were very close friends,” McKenzie shared. “He was in Galt, and I was in Kitchener, so we lived next door. We saw a lot of the Ropes. Whenever I would go to speak to groups in later years, I would borrow Don’s pictures. He had pictures of everything.”
McKenize is delighted to talk about his career, especially as the Olympics returns to Cortina, but he also follows today’s players and can’t wait for the Games to get underway.
“I’m really looking forward to the games now. I’ll be interested in seeing how Cortina looks today, even though the hockey isn’t there this time. I’ve never been back.”
“The thing that impressed me the most in Cortina,” he recalled recently from his retirement home in Huntsville, Ontario, a couple of hours north of Toronto, “was the quality of the athletes from around the world in all sports. They were the best skaters, the best skiers. It made us all feel special to be part of an event with so many talented athletes.”
McKenzie’s career lasted a decade or so. He played during a time when amateur status was important, and when there was a chasm between the amateur and pro ranks. Born in Brandon, Manitoba in 1930, he developed into a well-rounded player and superior skater, which meant he wasn’t going to be in Brandon very long.
“My first year in junior hockey was with Brandon, but in my second year I went to Toronto and played for the Marlies. Stafford Smythe was the manager, and he recruited me to come east,” he explained.
This was 1949, and at the end of the '49-'50 season he had won his first Allan Cup. But hockey soon took a back seat to a career in teaching, and that led him a little west of Toronto.
“I moved to Kitchener after the Marlboros,” McKenzie continued, “and we won the Allan Cup there twice. I made the move because they had a new rink that looked a lot like Maple Leaf Gardens, and I really enjoyed playing there. The ice was NHL sized, and we had lots of room to skate. But the other reason I went was because I started my career as a teacher nearby in Preston, which is now Cambridge. That was important to me. I had taken a university course to prepare for a career as a teacher. So I was a teacher in the day time and at night I played senior hockey for the Kitchener-Waterloo Dutchmen.”
Indeed, the Dutchies won the Allan Cup in 1953 and again in 1955, and as such they were invited to represent Canada at the 1956 Olympics in Cortina d'Ampezzo. The Canadians won their first three games easily, including 23-0 over Austria in which McKenzie recorded a hat trick. In the medal round, however, Canada won only three of five games and had to settle for a bronze medal. McKenzie scored the game-winning goal in the team's 6-2 win over Sweden in that round.
Canada played all its games at the Olympic Ice Stadium. “We played all our games outdoors," McKenzie recalled. "Because it was so cold, the ice was really hard and fast. You could skate forever on it. I can remember playing almost whole periods and not coming off because the skating was so effortless. I was very comfortable playing on the big, outdoor rinks. You had more room, which suited my game.”
McKenzie not only was an important member of the team—he was team captain. “Management decided that I would be the captain,” he said. “One of our defenceman was Art Hurst, Ron Hurst’s older brother, and he was captain until that year, and then they gave me the “C”.”
Incredibly, he played both forward and defence in Cortina as coach Bobby Bauer sought to get the most out of the smooth-skating McKenzie. “I was always a forward, but in the Olympics I also played defence. I liked that because you got on the ice more often. I’m not sure why they did that except I was out there more, which suited me fine.”
Because it was cold, he and several other players notably wore red toques during the games. Off ice, he enjoyed the atmosphere of the Olympic experience, which is such an important part of the event.
“There was a very colourful main street, crowded with athletes from different countries, and everyone had their own uniforms. I remember meeting some Russians. They were highly regarded. They had a strong team. They had been in Cortina for a month, training in the mountains. We were given a whole bag of Canada pins for trading. When you met athletes from other countries on the street, it’s a way to make an introduction. You met them by trading pins.”
In all, Canada scored 53 goals and allowed 12. Goalie Denis Broduer went on to become well-known as a hockey photographer and the father of Martin. “We had a pretty balanced attack,” McKenzie said of the Dutchmen. “We had some good wingers. Georghe Scholes was a good goalscorer. Ken Laufman was a great playmaker. He had an outstanding junior career with Guelph in the OHA, and we relied on him. He was a great team leader, too. I was a two-way player. I was a bit of a playmaker, but not as skilled as Kenny Laufman. He was outstanding.”
The style of play was much different from today. Europeans—both players and fans—weren’t used to bodychecking, so when the Dutchmen tried to play physically, it didn’t always go over well.
“The hockey was not very physical. There wasn’t a lot of bodychecking, but as soon as anyone went down, the European crowd would holler for a penalty,” McKenzie said with a chuckle.
Teaching was rewarding for McKenzie, but he can’t help but look back and wonder, even just a little bit, of an alternate life choice. “I was property of the Maple Leafs,” he said, “and they asked me a couple of times to play with their farm team in Pittsburgh, the Hornets. But by that time I was committed to teaching, so I never went. I sometimes wonder, what would have happened if I had gone that route?”
We’ll never know, but the Olympics were not the end of his IIHF journey. Two years later, the Dutchmen loaned him to the Whitby Dunlops, who were representing Canada at the World Championship in Oslo in March 1958. The Canadians ran the table with a perfect 7-0 record and won gold with a lineup that also included Harry Sinden, Sid Smith, and J-P Lamirande.
A year later, McKenzie retired from playing to focus fully on teaching. Nothing but great memories. “I stopped playing in 1959 and started to further my career in education. I found that teaching and playing was getting too strenuous, and I wanted to focus on teaching. The school board in Preston was very kind to me, letting me go on those European tours. I coached high-school hockey in Sudbury for a while, which was a great experience. That level of hockey was very important up there."
That ’56 team also gave McKenzie a lifelong friend in teammate Don Rope. “Don was also a teacher, and we were very close friends,” McKenzie shared. “He was in Galt, and I was in Kitchener, so we lived next door. We saw a lot of the Ropes. Whenever I would go to speak to groups in later years, I would borrow Don’s pictures. He had pictures of everything.”
McKenize is delighted to talk about his career, especially as the Olympics returns to Cortina, but he also follows today’s players and can’t wait for the Games to get underway.
“I’m really looking forward to the games now. I’ll be interested in seeing how Cortina looks today, even though the hockey isn’t there this time. I’ve never been back.”