Former Queens resident recalls 1937-44 Brooklyn rink

During the spring of 1937 the Brooklyn Athletic Association voted to establish a community skating rink. It was decided at that time, due to monetary restraints, that the rink should be open air with an ice surface of 80 feet by 100 feet, with a covered spectator enclosure surrounding the ice surface, with two heated dressing rooms located at the East end, opposite Sam Forbes' Drug Store on Mersey Paper Company property tight up against the Mersey perimetre fence.

Herb Dixon, a Mersey electrician and president of the association, headed up the project. The rink was completed during the fall of 1937 and was opened for skating, hockey and broom ball in early January 1938. The ice surface was well lit and a public address system provided music for public skating.

The rink was an immediate success with area skaters who crowded the ice on regular public skating nights. A broom ball league was organized comprising teams from Brooklyn, Liverpool and Milton. Minor hockey developed quickly and resulted in keen competition in the three communities in organized Pee Wee, Midget and Juvenile teams.

The Liverpool Merpaco Senior Hockey team playing in the South Shore Senior Hockey League and the Liverpool Junior team performing in the South Shore Junior League used the Brooklyn facility for all their home games. During the 1937-1938 season, there was only one classification for seniors and Junior hockey. It was later that the various classifications came into effect: Senior A and B and intermediate, Junior A B and C. At that time amateur hockey teams were permitted to dress a maximum of 10 players: a goalie, three defence men and six forwards.

The first game played at the Brooklyn rink on January 7, 1938 was between the Liverpool Merpacos and the Lunenburg Falcons. The Falcons won by a 7-3 score. Al Young and Carlie Waltherr scored the Liverpool goals. Other players on that team were Bill Crowell in goal and defencemen Herb Dixon, Clary Webber, and Johnny Jollimore. The forwards were Al Young, Joe Waltherr, Carlie Waltherr, Wendell "Punk" Tidmarsh, Bunny Whynot and Earl Whynot.

Liverpool Junior teams using the Brooklyn rink were active in the late thirties and the early forties. During the 1938 - 1939 period and again in the next two years, Liverpool Junior teams advanced to the Nova Scotia semi-finals and on both occasions met with the perennially powerful Halifax Canadians, who regularly won the Maritime Title, and the right to play the Ottawa District champions in the Eastern Canadian semi-finals. The 1938-1939 Junior lineup was Goalie Artie Wells, and Defencemen Dutchie Richards, Roy Surette and Franny Mouzar. Forwards were Don McLean, Burton Young, Norbert Waltherr, Don Kelso, Aubrey Nickerson and Gordon Hirtle.

The 1940-41 lineup was Goalie, Lawrence Clattenburg and Defencemen Brenton Tutty, Bucky Kelly and Junior Ogilvie. The forwards were Lew Benvie, Ledo Tonello, George Oliver, Mickey Smith, Bruce Thorbourne, Don Dagley, Ralph Waltherr, Lloyd McKean, Eddie Dorey and Wallace Sarty. Don Dagley was the team captain and Don McLean the team coach and General Manager.

Brooklyn citizens who were prominent in building and maintaining the Brooklyn rink were Irving "Mink" Gardner, Rev, Harry Bird, Sam Forbes, Clary Webber, George Rice, Harold Emeneau, Roland Spinks, Mike Walsh and Alfred Dagley. Leo Kelly and the youth of the Village of Brooklyn were always willing helpers. Ruth Forbes, spouse of Brooklyn druggist Sam Forbes, was on regular standby to render first aid, which was frequently required.

Also, the Mersey Paper Company provided the site, water and electricity free of charge.

In those days making and maintaining an ice surface on an outdoor rink was not much different from today. Through necessity an aggressive approach toward ice making was initiated. During the first cold snap, usually just before Christmas, ice making was started on a 24-hour-a-day basis. First, the water was fogged on like sleet to seal the bottom. As the seal took effect, the flow of water was increased. The objective was to have skating by the New Year, which was not always achieved. The skating season varied from season to season lasting between six to eight weeks.

Hockey and skating were popular activities enjoyed by the youth of Brooklyn during the years that the rink was in operation. Hockey players of note at that time were: Roland, Doug and Eugene Spinks, Lew and Vic Benvie, Bob Mumford, Lew and Robert Armstrong, Gordon Jaycox, Bud Davison, Mike and Johnnie MacDonald, Bucky Kelly, Billie Rice, Eric Macleod, Jack Newman, Charles Richardson, Laurence Clattenburg, Joe Wall, Tubby Gardiner, Alex Gardiner, Kelly Oickle, Atwood "Put" Dexter and Merle and Don Dagley.

Lew Benvie and Don "Husky" Dagley were the leading scorers for the 1940-41 Liverpool Junior Hockey team. Subsequently Don Dagley played Junior and Senior hockey in Ontario and Western Canada. He served as the President of the Guelph Minor Hockey Association from I961-63. He was also Chairman of the Guelph (Ont.) Arena Commission.

The girls were not to be outdone and the many accomplished skaters included Fay and Alice McNaughton, Grace and Doris MacIntosh, Marion Meisner, Freda and Joyce Kaizer, Gladys Lambe, Lottie Jaycox, Marie Gardiner, Isabel Dexter and Elaine Greek.

The Brooklyn rink remained a popular and going concern until the end of the 1943-1944 season. During the summer of 1944 someone started the rumour that the rink was to be demolished and that people were free to salvage lumber from the premises. Like a flash people moved in, ripping the structure apart. Before they could be stopped vandals had demolished the rink beyond repair. That was the end of one of Brooklyn's finest hours. Sadly, no one was ever required to make restitution and justice was never brought to bear.

We are all indebted to Don Dagley for providing his recollections of a great period in the Village of Brooklyn's history.

Many thanks Don, and I hope that the article pleases you and the many great people who still reside in your old home town of Brooklyn.