A piece of hardware that has not been in the valley since 1966 will be back next week at the Chinook Credit Union.
One of Drumheller’s proudest moments was winning the 1966 Allan Cup in the senior men’s amateur hockey national championship. This was only the third time a team from Alberta had won the cup.
Fast-forward 47 years and the cup is coming back.
Bob Rutz, son of Patsy Stokalko, manager of the Drumheller Branch of the Chinook Credit Union, is an assistant coach with the 2013 Allan Cup champions, the Bentley Generals.
They won the cup this season, defeating the Clarenville Caribous. This was their second Championship, winning in 2009.
Rutz is bringing the Allan Cup back to Drumheller for a visit.
“It is a great opportunity to connect with history, because there have only been five Alberta teams who have won the Allan Cup, and it is one of the oldest trophies in hockey history,” said Jason Blanke. “Bob (Rutz) was born and raised in Drumheller and thought it would be a cool opportunity to have it here.”
This year the Allan Cup was won by the Bentley Generals. One of the coaches, Bob Rutz, is bringing the cup to the Chinook Credit Unionin Drumheller on June 21. Some members of the Drumheller 1965-66 season champion Miners will be coming out for the visit.
Tony Kollman was a member of the hallowed national championship team. He says the cup has never been back to Drumheller. It evokes lots of memories for him.
“When you stop to think about it, we were the third club in Alberta to win it in over 100 years, obviously it is not an everyday occurrence,” said Kollman.
It was an exciting season in 1966. After the Drumheller Arena burned, they played the rest of their home schedule in Hanna.
The Miners won their league and went on to face the Oil Kings. At the time, they knew the Miners would be going on to qualify for the Allan Cup, and the Oil Kings would be playing for the Memorial Cup.
“We played the seventh game and it was tied … finally the managers said ‘this is stupid, we both have to play in a couple days and it is not going to amount to anything.’ So they decided it was a tie, and low and behold we won the Allan Cup, and they won the Memorial Cup. It was never to be repeated.”
The Miners went to Calgary to play for the Cup and beat the Sherbrooke Beavers from Quebec, 4-2.
Kollman said this was the biggest game of his life.
“Anytime you win a Canadian Championship it is obviously a big thing,” said Kollman.
While it was amateur, he lists a roster of players who had played, or went on to play professionally, including their goaltender Al Rollins who was a Hart Memorial Trophy winner. Other pros include Sid Finney and Ron Leopold.
Blanke says they will have the Allan Cup at the Chinook Credit Union all day on Friday, June 21.
“We’ve invited some of the old players who played back with the Miners as well as Jim Fisher and Stan Solberg, who were involved with the team,” said Blanke adding that Bob Rutz and possibly some members of the Generals will also be on hand.
There will be a presentation with some of the special guests at 3 p.m.
