John Hewitt – Topic will be “St. Catharines Hockey” and John will be offering copies of his book “Garden City Hockey Heroes”, priced at $20.00 [cash only

City arena had long history with junior A hockey

Rick Kent introduced guest speaker John Hewitt, a former high school history teacher and historian on Junior A hockey in St. Catharines, whose book entitled “Garden City Hockey Heroes” provides a detailed history combined with extensive statistics of Junior A hockey in the city.  John also wrote “The Last Word,” which described the heroics of the 1972 Summit Series.

The focus of John’s message was the history of the St. Catharines Garden City Arena. He noted that St. Catharines did not have an indoor arena or an artificial ice surface, while other smaller nearby towns such as Thorold had opened its arena in 1936. It was during the depression and the city had no money to build one but in the fall of 1937, a vote by the citizens pushed the city to agree to build an arena, provided the citizens could raise half the estimated cost of $80,000.

John said that several influential businessmen led by Harry Carmichael helped to organize a fund-raising event which raised $106,000, more than enough to start construction.  A site was selected and the city hired Newman Brothers to construct the arena.  Construction started in early 1938 and by November the arena was built, but without seating.

A man called Touch Woods offered to pay to install the seating but later wanted his money back. John said that two exhibition games were arranged to cover the cost. First, the Toronto Maple Leafs and then the Detroit Red Wings came to the city to play games against three Niagara Senior teams (one period against each team). The arena’s official opening took place on December 30, 1938.

Over the years many alterations were made to the building and in 1966 a $2.5 million update twinned the area with the Rex Stimers Arena next door and the original building was renamed the Jack Gatecliff Arena. The St. Catharines arena stood for 85 years until it was taken down in 2023.

Junior A hockey came to this city in 1943 when Rudy Pilous established the Falcons as the first team to play in the new arena, followed by the Teepees in 1947-62, the Black Hawks in 62-76, the Fincups 76-77 and, 30 years later, the IceDogs arrived in 2007. The Teepees won the Memorial Cup in 1954 and 1960.

  Many of the hockey players who developed their skills in St. Catharines went on to play in the NHL and elsewhere. Some of the notables included Marcel Dionne, Stan Makita, Bobby Hull, Elmer Vasko and others.  John said that in the 41 years of Junior A Hockey in St. Catharines, a total of 124 players went on to play in the NHL, some with Hall of Fame careers.

Duncan McLaren thanked John for his excellent presentation. John, who was accompanied by Ron Friesen, later autographed copies