The East York Lyndhursts Senior B hockey team held a special place for a 10-year-old boy growing up in East York whose ankles had grazed the same East York Arena ice while he wore a skirt-length house league hockey sweater. They were our team and they were representing Canada. A boy's loyalty can be unconditional and no doom and gloom headlines could change that, even in retrospect.
The boy attended the Lyndhursts' final game in East York before their European tour began and he was grounded two weeks for coming home late. It wasn't the boy's first misconduct, but it was the only one for patriotism. The grounding wasn't so bad -- he had blown his allowance at the game.
By modern standards, the Lyndhursts weren't well prepared when they departed by train for New York, where they would board the Queen Mary for the trip to Europe. But they did take a supply of ear muffs and Vaseline for their faces to prevent wind burn on the outdoor rinks. In The Globe and Mail's send-off story, Rex MacLeod wrote that the Lyndhursts might not be the best team Canada had sent abroad, but no doubt would be the slipperiest.
The 10-year-old boy and his friends taped clippings of newspaper stories to the walls of their rooms ("Swiss, Norwegians fall to East Yorks") and sometimes to the walls in the hallway.
By the time the boy had turned 11, he was there with a few hundred others for the ceremony outside the East York municipal offices after the Lyndhursts returned from the world championship. The Lyndhursts were cheered warmly as they were introduced. Coach Greg Currie, choked with emotion, said, "I'm sorry we lost."
The boy felt there was nothing to be sorry about.
The team that left for Europe in January of 1954 consisted of goaltender Gavin Lindsay, substitute netminder and trainer Larry Kearns, defencemen Tom Campbell, Russ Robertson, Harold Fiskari and Doug Chapman, forwards Earle Clements, Norm Gray, Moe Galand, John Petro, Bob Kennedy, John Scott, Don Couch, George Sayliss, Vic Sluce and Reg Spragge. Currie was the coach and Don Preston the manager.
Joining them later were goaltender Don Lockhart and forward Eric Unger from the Niagara Falls Senior A team, defenceman Tom Jamieson from Sarnia, a team that had folded earlier in the year, and forward Bill Shill, a Lyndhurst player who had been unable to leave earlier.
Larry Millson was a fan of the Lyndhursts during the early 1950s.