The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

I SOUVENIR EDITION FROM 10 YEARS AGO Little NHL past and future as seen by Gordon I well remember on a cool alternoon In September in the upstairs of the Old Town Hall to some BO young boys of a hockey league that I Intended to organize or the Georgetown boys That was In I do not need to recount the enthusiastic reception of the first Little N by the Georgetown district hockey fans Indeed I might soy we attracted thousands of people to the Georgetown Arena who up to that time were not In the least Interested in hockey We filled the Arena every Tuesday and Thursday nights and on Main Street the whole topic of conversation was Little NHL hockey In fact groups of people met you could be sure the games of the night before were being discussed and in many with much heat The object of the Little NHL is to provide organized hockey for Canadian boys and to teach good sport off and on the ice In order to encourage the boys In their general good deportment and In their school work a Good Behaviour Contract was signed by the School Teacher the Parent and by the player Every boy was taken to the Maple Leaf Gardens to see Someteamswere taken into the dressing rooms to meet the players before a game I think one of the highlights was a game played at Maple Leaf Gardens prior to an NHL game between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the New York Americans This is the only time in the history of the Maple Leaf Gardens that such a game has been played before the big game The two teams from the Georgetown Little NHL were the Maple Leafs sponsored by the Lions Club and the New York Americans of Glen Williams The final series of most successful season was played between the Maple Leafs Lions Club and the Montreal Canadlens Georgetown Legion The best of five scries went six games with Bud James scoring the only goal of he game to win the Championship for the Maple Leafs Little NHL then was organized in Copper Cliff and it soon spread rapidly throughout Northern Ontario Conn Smythe thought so of Little NHL that he told me that I could have the Maple Leaf Gardens once a year from noon to midnight for Minor Hockey Tournaments Thus was born the Minor Tournaments that are so popular today Indeed Georgetown Is famous for Its week tang tournament at Easter LittleNHL isthegrandaddy all tournaments and are held at Easter In centres Ihroughout Ontario In Copper Cliff the Farm Team System was started to include Junior A ages Band American League 10 and into hamlets of to to cities of to a million There are now an estimated boys playing Little NHL hockeyfar cry from the original boys In Georgetown 30 years ago Little NHL has provided untold enjoyment for thousands of young hockey players down through those 30 We arc proud of the boys who have graduated from our Utile N H L to become stars in the L such as Bob Jos Schertxel Tod Sloan George Armstrong Tim Jerry Toppaziinl Sambo Ken Hodge Bob Jack Stanfield Fred Stanfield John Vic Bryan Watson Jim Roberta Jerry Chcevers We are also proud of the thousands of young men who have played Little HL now become successful In the professional and business world would like to pay tribute to the men who have acted on the Little NHL executive for the past 30 years and to the coaches for their many hours of teaching young hockey layers What the past decade has brought and what lies ahead By Rev Gordon Alcott died suddenly in April 1974 after returning from a trip to Spain with his wife Jean It was while In Madid that he rescue everal people from a hotel fire where he was staying The tragedy of that happening was that It appeared that he inhaled a great deal of smoke which affected his heart toot shortly after return to Canada he died very sud denly in Erin Ontario In eel in death he gave his life or those even as he had given it to his fellow man throughout its life Before his death Gordon Alcott had planned this fortieth anniversary He had had meetings and formed his committees These com It tew are the organization In charge of this anniversary As a tribute Gordon Alcott the community of Ha Hon Hills dedicated their new arena in the summer of 1975 to serve the Georgetown area It is called the Gordon Memorial Arena The following prayer of dedication was given by Rev LenSelf May its message ever be true Oh Lord our God we thank thee on this day of dedication of this beautiful centre for the life and work of Gordon Wilmott We thank lheei for his leadership among youth in Christian living and pur poseful activity He taught us life Is a game to be played It will have defeats it will have victories To really enjoy it we must play the rules with its disciplines and then our defeats also become victories and life has real purpose Dear God cultivate within us today for tomorrows living the many virtues Gordon lived and taught while he walked among Dear Lord we give thee thanks today for the youth of Halton Hills and all that wlU use this building for sport and recreation Challenge them we pray thee with a vision of good citizenship sport education and a real love for all fellow Canadians so that they will become true leaders In our nation of tomorrow AMEN During the years of the sixties and seventies an amazing thing has happened among minor hockey associations Spring tour naments have sprung up all over the country patterned after Gordon concept Goderich Lions and the Quebec Winter Carnival Tournament were the first to start Today tour naments are held In every age group from to However there is one essential difference in all these tour from NHL Tournaments I refer to the matter of team selection Every tournament except Little NHL cater only to all star teams from communities H L was started by G for players who never made allstars His purpose was to form recreation house leagues In communities to keep all boys occupied In planned recreation The tournament was to be award to good players In house leagues Either the winning house league team or in the case of small communities an allstar team of house league players travelled to the tournament The emphasis was not on winning but practice patron Although A A rules were basic to tournament play Little NHL rules I introduced shorter games and Little rules to prevent fighting swearing and olhftr ungen tlemanly acts of players and coaches Little NHL has always been noted for tour naments without rough play It Is interesting to note that Utile NHL in the seventies has grown substantially especially among rural villages and communities I because of Its stand on hockey for recreational purposes The surprising fact Is that Utile N has given more fun and hockey to more boys and produced its fair share of NHL hockey greats such as Bobby Years ins sad later is in l Its good behaviour con tracts its continuance with house leagues and the ex clusion of allstars 3 Rigid CARPET BARN 8779896 Gueph Georgetown BEST WISHES LITTLE ON YOUR Anniversary TWO BIG EVENTS You Should Not Miss LITTLE NHL CELEBRATION Gordon Arena Sept To Oct 1st AND First Showing Of The New CHEVROLETS AND 0LDSM0BILES ON Thursday Sept 30th AT Andrew Murray Motors Ltd Mountafaiview N 8776944