Birthplace of hockey hosts National Hockey Monument model

The Birthplace of Hockey has one more bragging right to add to the list this month. The Hockey Heritage Centre is hosting the National Hockey Monument during October as part of the sculptures cross-country tour.

The 10-foot wooden model arrived in Windsor, Monday Set. 29, and will remain on site for the next month as a tribute to the area’s contribution to the national sport. Sculptor Tim Schmalz said he could think of no more appropriate local to visit then where the game all started.

“This is exactly what I wanted; it’s so symbolic,” Schmalz said. “To be here working on the monument at the original birthplace of hockey is phenomenal.”

Schmalz began his tour at Signal Hill National Historical Site of Canada Sept 21 and plans to continue working on the model as he makes his way east to west.

The finished piece will be a 30 to 50-foot high sculpture cast in bronze.

“This sculpture, hopefully will be the largest in Canada and truly become ‘The People’s Monument,’” Schmalz said.

It was while designing the National Veteran’s Memorial in Ottawa that Schmalz came to learn there was no permanent tribute to the original Canadian sport any where in the country. He’s since taken it upon himself to change that.

No official sponsor

To date, Schmalz has no official sponsor other than donations from hockey fans he meets along the way. And for him, that’s just fine.

“I’m building this to give Canada an official hockey monument, but the sculpture is not only a national monument because of what is represented within the work of art itself, but will also become national by the very process in which the monument is built.”

He noted, “the real inspiration for me it knowing that it will be built by Canadians, by the hockey fans -- and no one can top that.”

The tour really picked up steam when the model was unveiled at the 2008 Memorial Cup in Kitchener, Ontario. Since then, Schmalz says, public response has been phenomenal.

“Hockey is such a great and integral part of life for so many Canadians and has been for generations,” he noted. “It is for this reason that a sculptural monument should crown the sport, a tribute of honor and status the sport has

unofficially held for decades.”

Special presentation

“The National Hockey Monument has, in many respects, existed for years; this project gives physical form to what has always been in every Canadian's heart,” Schmalz said.

To commemorate his visit to the Birthplace of Hockey, Schmaltz presented Windsor Mayor Anna Allen and Wilfred Jackson, chairman of the Halifax Committee of the Black Ice Hockey Hall of Fame, with replicas of the monument.

Allen said seeing the model here on the streets of Windsor was a great tribute to hockey’s heritage in Windsor and of the town itself, “This is very appropriate.”

Hockey Heritage Centre curator Carole Peterson was thrilled. “I’m very excited, it’s wonderful that he chose Windsor as the Nova Scotia stop. It’s a real honor.”

The model will be on display at the Gerrish Street Centre until Oct. 29 and tours are available for bookings.

For more information about the monument go to www.hockeymonument.com.