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Why should your team/community win the title of
HOCKEYVILLE 2006?
Melville has a 100-year tradition of hockey; it is known over much of
the world as the “Millionaire” hockey town.
“Melville?? Oh yes that’s the hockey town – Millionaires, right?
Is the reply to “where are you from?” When we have traveled across
the continent; even while visiting the pyramids of Egypt, people whom we
met there knew about Melville as hockey town. Even the name
“Millionaires” has a unique origin……
Carey Pillar, Melville resident
Goldie Smith, coach of Melville’s team who won the 1915 Allan Cup,
recruited his team from Manitoba and Ontario. While pulling on the new
matching sweaters, someone remarked, ‘If this team is going to cost
that kind of money, let’s call them “The Melville
Millionaires.”’
In 1952 the senior team lost to Edmonton in the western finals. However,
two members of the Melville Millionaire team, Tom Pollock and George
Abel were selected to play with the Edmonton Mercury’s in the 1952
Olympics in Oslo, Norway. Canada won the gold medal in this series. It
would not be won again until 2002, 50 years later.
Besides the Olympic gold in 1952, our Melville teams have won
numerous Provincial Titles, Provincial Championships and League
Championships over the past 100 years in the categories of
Juvenile, Intermediate, Senior, Midget, Pee Wee, Bantam and
Atom.
With an area population of about 8,000 people, our Melville Minor
Hockey community presently has 175 children playing in all
divisions in Melville. We have 2 indoor rinks and 3 outdoor rinks
all maintained by the City of Melville as well as a skating oval
and numerous back yard rinks.
Over the years the Millionaires have produced several talented
players who have gone on to successful careers in pro hockey.
Yes, Melville is definitely Hockeyville! Many prairie communities
have suffered through a lot of pain to try and remain viable,
however not many can boldly say, “We are the oldest name in
hockey”! That’s right, Melville the community whose namesake
lost his life on the Titanic, a rail centre who, despite all odds
has somehow remained a part of the “National Dream”. A
community who gave a number of its generations to the two world
wars, but yet still played their role in world affairs. A
community whose outlying rural residents were ravaged by the
depression and every dip in world agriculture commodity prices,
but somehow still remained a prominent part of society. Through
all this, this community called Melville has somehow, someway,
kept the passion for hockey alive year in and year out. Many
communities can mould their application to suit the program,
however as we rolled out this promotion in our community, over and
over we heard people say, “This HOCKEYVILLE promotion was made
exactly for Melville.”
 Land Owners Guide Draw
Project
A meeting held at Stockholm on March 15th, 2006, with
representatives from a number of Rural Municipalities and small
towns in attendance, as well as representatives from SERM,
Yellowhead REDA and South Parkland REDA. The thought process by
this group is to allow owners of land an ability to provide access
to their property to out of province/country hunters. There would
be an opportunity to provide some economic spin-offs to a region
from White tail hunters that doesn’t now exist.
We are awaiting direction from the provincial government and most
especially SERM.
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