Back when hockey was a blood sport and most junior teams had a selection of goons who did their talking with their fists, the Richmond Sockeyes found the perfect blend of skull-denting intimidation and high-octane veteran skill.
Bitter rivalries spilled into fistfights and line brawls, on the ice and in the stands, and at its worst it was the movie Slap Shot brought to life. Much like the Hanson brothers and Ogie Oglethorpe, acts of unrestrained violence against an opponent were not only condoned but encouraged, whether it was to punish an opponent, or in the Sockeyes’ case, beat up on a fish-throwing fan.
But these Sockeyes were nothing like the fictional Charlestown Chiefs and their going-nowhere future. They established a winning habit in Richmond early in the 1986-87 season and took it all the way to the top as Centennial Cup national junior A hockey champions – the reason they are being inducted this summer into the BC Hockey Hall of Fame.
“It was special year and that was a different time for hockey,” said former Sockeyes defenceman Jim Gunn, the Prince George connection from that 1987 championship, who says he’ll never forget that seven-game Doyle Cup series against the Red Deer Rustlers.
“We hosted them first and they had guys going into the stands (to fight Sockeyes’ fans), and when we went out there it was the same thing, violent fans throwing eggs and fish at us," said the 58-year-old Gunn. "(In Red Deer) we were in the stands like three games in a row, it was just crazy.
“It was the constant stuff being thrown at the bench. This was pre-visors days and they were throwing coins and marbles at us, stuff you couldn’t see coming. It was violent. I thought I’d seen it all because I’d played major junior in the dark ages of hockey, and it was stepped up there. It was brutal.”
It got so bad Hockey Canada decided the on-ice officials were too one-sided and incapable of keeping a lid on the brawling and for the series-deciding Game 7 in Red Deer they were replaced with a new crew brought in from another province.
“We had to have police outside of our hotel to make sure we weren’t attacked, it was mayhem,” said Gunn. “It was a one-fight rule (a second fight meant an early shower) but we had so many guys that could step up. We had three of four guys who could put the puck in better than anybody, we had the tough guys and the solid stay-at-home d-man, so we could play any game with anybody and come out on top.”
The Sockeyes breezed through the BCHL playoffs to win the Fred Page Cup, took out the Quesnel Millionaires in two straight Mowat Cup games, beat Red Deer in seven for the Doyle Cup, then advanced to the Abbott Cup finals against the Humboldt Broncos, who had in automatic berth in the Centennial Cup as the host team. That series went to seven games as well with Richmond defeating the Saskatchewan champions 5-4 in Game 7.
Gunn had put his hockey career on ice as a 19-year-old and was contemplating his educational future when he got the call from Sockeyes head coach Orland Kurtenbach, who was assembling an all-star cast of overage juniors at a time when the B.C. Junior Hockey League teams had no restrictions on 20-year-olds.
“A lot of those guys went on to play pro, I’d say eight of them were drafted and lots of guys played NCAA,” said Gunn. “We were put together for one, purpose, to win. Orland and the owner, Bruce Taylor, went out and recruited at least a dozen of us former Western League veterans.
“Orland was an incredible coach, the guy just had that authority. He never needed to raise his voice and honestly, the team was so good I don’t think he had to do a lot of coaching. He just had to handle a lot of personalities.”
The Sockeyes lost 6-1 to Humboldt in their Centennial Cup opener but won their next two and eliminated the Pembroke Lumber Kings 9-2 in the semifinal. They capped their first-ever national title with a 5-2 win over the Broncos.
“The first (loss) was kind of a wakeup call because I don’t remember the (tournament) being that difficult, although it was violent,” said Gunn.
“It was super exciting, a lot of fond memories and a lot of good guys who went on to have good careers. The team was just very talented and well put together.”
In the Sockeyes’ championship season, Gunn, a six-foot, 185-pound defenceman, had four goals and 22 points in 46 regular season games and he led the team with 363 penalty minutes, averaging nearly eight minutes per game. Looking beyond his penalty time, Gunn was a solid defenceman cut from the same cloth as Scott Stevens – an aggressive stay-at-home type with above average skating skills who loved to catch forwards with an open-ice hit.
Gunn graduated from midget hockey in Prince George with the Toyota Kings and played two seasons in the WHL with the Victoria Cougars and Lethbridge Broncos before he ended up in Richmond.
In Lethbridge, he was reluctantly cast into an enforcer’s role during a time in the mid-‘80s when every team had at least one or two legendary tough guys who went on to long NHL careers, including the likes of Craig Berube, Ken Baumgartner, Tony Twist, Dave Manson, Shane Churla and Mick Vukota.
Practices would end with the Broncos coach John Chapman bringing out boxing gloves and he’d pick two players to go at it with the gloves on. If a player had a beef with a teammate that didn’t get worked out in practice he’d put the gloves in that player’s stall and they would settle their score in the dressing room after the coaches left.
Gunn had a tryout with the Seattle Thunderbirds and in a 1985-86 preseason game against the Spokane Chiefs, Gunn took over for a teammate who was being picked on by Vukota. When the officials stepped in, Vukota told Gunn he wasn’t done with him and the next game he tracked him down.
“He got a hold of me and beat the crap out of me and I just said that’s it, I’m done, this isn’t how I want to play, so I came home and took a few months to gather my thoughts and get a plan together for my future,” Gunn said “Then Richmond called and I could work on my prerequisites to be a firefighter and they helped me out financially with that and that’s the reason I went. I took a bunch of courses that year.”
The Sockeyes will join Prince George Cougars defenceman Dan Hamhuis and ex-NHL centre Shawn Horcoff, among others being inducted in the BC Hockey Hall of Fame class of 2025.
The festivities in Penticton, July 11-12 will be the first time the Sockeyes have been reunited since they won their Centennial Cup title. That was 39 years ago.
“Almost as big as the honour of getting into the BC Hockey Hall of Fame is the chance to get to see everybody again,” said Gunn. “We’re all reconnecting, mostly off of Facebook, and it’s an exciting time for sure.”
All the players are still alive and well , living in Canada and the U.S., and they’re expecting a big turnout. Kurtenbach, 88, the first captain in the Vancouver Canucks’ NHL history and a former Canucks head coach, is still in Vancouver and Gunn is hopeful he’ll make the trip to Penticton.
“I’m super happy Orland is still with us,” said Gunn. “We had so much respect for him. He didn’t need to say anything. He just looked at you and you were like, “’OK, I got it.’”
Born in Calgary, Gunn had parents worked in government and they moved often. He started playing minor hockey in Prince Rupert and played bantam in Quesnel before he moved to Prince George when he was 15. After his 20-year-old season with the Sockeyes he went to Mount Royal College in Calgary and played there for two years, helping the Cougars win the 1988 national collegiate championship.
That second year at Mount Royal he had 111 penalty minutes in just 14 games and Gunn was picked for the university all-star team that faced Canada’s world junior team in exhibition series in December 1987, but he was unable to play because he was suspended.
Gunn wanted to be a teacher but Leroy Manning, his friend from Prince George, had just been hired on with the Prince George fire department and convinced him to apply. Gunn joined the firefighters when he was 24 and retired four years ago after 30 years with Prince George Fire Rescue.
“I decided enough of this school stuff and came back here and became a firefighter, which was no-brainer. It was an awesome career and I worked with a lot of super-good guys and you do a lot of good for the community,” he said.
Gunn chose not to pursue any minor pro offers and he has no regrets. He got out the game missing a few teeth but he body was intact and he’s been able to maintain a high level of fitness for the past four decades. He knows that’s not the case for a few of his Sockeyes teammate now in their 60s dealing with hockey-related chronic aches and pains.
“Those guys that went to the minors, which was part of the reason I decided to come home and see what was coming next in my life, they are beat up - bad knees, shoulders, back - and there was no bank account full of money for those guys, there was just years of getting beat up,” said Gunn.
After he was done with competitive hockey, Gunn got into running ultramarathons with his wife Kelly and they live on a horse farm east of Prince George Airport. He still laces up the blades with the firefighters Tuesday and Friday mornings at Kin 2.
