History Of Glace Bay Minor Hockey ...since 1942
The Glace Bay Minor Hockey organization is perhaps one the oldest continuous operating minor hockey organizations in Cape Breton, if not the entire province of Nova Scotia. During the 1942-43 inaugural season the organization was originally named as the Pee Wee Hockey Association.
One of the pioneer founders for this organization was Judge J. Louis Dubinsky who gathered a number of other key community volunteers such as: Art MacKinlay, Allister Morrison, Dr. O.B. Smith, Fr. Nash, Dr. Donald Ferguson, Earl Gratto…(just to name a few) to help launch the program. Soon thereafter, this group changed their name to the Glace Bay Youth Hockey Association, which was retained for many years, until it finally merged into the Glace Bay Minor Hockey Association.
Initially public support for the new organization was lukewarm, but by the season 1944-45 season, the association iced teams in the Bantam, Midget and Juvenile age categories comprising of nineteen teams and over 250 players. During the mid-to-late 40’s it was not unusual to see crowds of between 1000-2000 fans attend a Friday evening of youth hockey at the old Miners Forum. The league provided an excellent brand of competitive hockey which soon developed into some truly fun cross-town rivalries. Players suited up from Glace Bay, Donkin, Port Morien, Birch Grove, Dominion, Reserve Mines and for several years, New Waterford participated in the minor hockey loop.
The association gradually expanded it’s age groups to include Novice and Pee Wee divisions which were very well accepted. In the early 50’s hockey registration and interest began to slump, so in order to help alleviate this downturn, the Glace Bay Rotary Club stepped forward to begin a 14 team Rotary Common School Hockey League for bantam age players. This local school league proved to be very popular, as even to this day, many parents of today’s minor hockey children still vividly remember the excitement which was propelled by the experience of playing for their respective rival schools. In 1952 all 14 teams participated in the first ever Sports Night featuring skills competitions and games, which drew up-wards to 5000 spectators for each annual performance.
In the early 60’s, a local gentleman by the name of Bob (Bugsy) Seward, founded and coordinated the popular Glace Bay Community Hockey Clinic. While this Hockey Clinic continued to operate, eventually the local Common School league wound wind down in the early 1970’s when the local Rotary sponsorship was lost. The bantam division then returned under the Youth Hockey umbrella once again. Meanwhile the Community Hockey Clinic continued its operation until the 1980’s, when it merged the entire novice-juvenile age programs into what we now know as the Glace Bay Minor Hockey Association. During this hockey development era a number of valuable volunteers were instrumental in providing key support to keeping the program active. Although it may be virtually impossible to name every volunteer along the way, we would like to name just a few notables who held key executive positions: Angus MacDonald, John F. MacDonald, Doug Crowe, Warden Joe Wadden, Howard MacKinnon, Robert MacIsaac Angus MacDougall, Robert “Toomey” MacPherson, Ryan Sullivan, Gordon Sheriff, John MacDonald Sheldon Brown, Bernie O’Neil, Margie O’Neil, Tom Snook, Gary King, Brian Aucoin, Lynn Kelly, Nickey Bonnar, Brian Spencer, Linda & Kenny Kennedy, Tom O’Keefe, Barry "Binky" Atkinson and James Edwards who is currently serving as President of the GBMH Association since the 2007-08 season.
In recent hockey seasons our organization continues to enjoy positive growth in attracting new players with our registration base now exceeding 500 players. Divisions range from Tots to Midget and in recent years the association has been experiencing a very favorable growth in female hockey participation.
