Wee Willie Kyte: The Class of ‘37

In the off season of 1936, the Berwick Bruins management was busy adding hockey players to the roster for the coming season. The Bruins were especially weak on defence and in goal.

In one of the best recruiting jobs ever performed in the little Valley town, Berwick added two of the finest defencemen available and a brilliant young goaltender from Kentville named Willie Kyte.

The signing of Kyte by the Bruins was a big shock to Shiretown hockey fans, who had witnessed his rise to stardom at Kings County Academy and in the senior leagues around Kentville. His last two seasons were spent as the star goalie with the powerful Kentville Wildcats.

“Wee Willie” Kyte was a scrappy 21 years old in 1937. He stood five feet, seven inches and weighed 160 pounds. In his five years as a goalie, Kyte collected a number of awards for his performances.

As expected, the Berwick team, with Kyte playing extremely well, battled with Middleton for first place throughout the 12-game regular schedule. In the final game, Kyte scored his third shutout of the season and won the game 2-0. The winning of this match put Berwick in first place in the league, an honour in itself, seeing as how evenly matched the teams had been.

Middleton and Bridgetown played the semi-finals, with the Maple Leafs winning each game by scores of 2-1 for a two-game total of 4-2. This set the stage for the two-game total goal series between Middleton and Berwick.

In the league finals, the first game in Middleton saws the Bruins outplayed by the home team as though the games with Bridgetown had kept them sharp, while the idle Bruins looked rusty. The 4-1 loss put Berwick in a difficult position for the final league playoff game of the season.

The final game was played in the Berwick arena before a crowd of over 800 people. Berwick started fast and, by the 7:40 mark, had scored two goals and was only one goal down in the series. Hannon scored late in the first period and Estabrooks scored early in the second period, giving Middleton back their three-goal lead. The Bruins fought back and, at 11:43 of the third period, took a one-goal lead as Foster completed a hat trick.

In the dying minutes of the third period, Middleton was awarded a penalty shot. Realizing there were only two minutes remaining in the period, most people knew the destiny of the teams was in the hands of “Wee Willie” Kyte and one of Middleton’s sharpshooters. As Kyte turned the shot aside, pandemonium broke loose and continued to the end of the game.

Following the victory celebrations, hopes were high Kyte would lead the Bruins to a good showing in the Nova Scotia playoffs. With the great support given to the team by the Berwick fans, Kyte was not likely to let them down.