SUMMERSIDE - The City of Summerside and Credit Union Place are joining forces to honour former Summerside hockey teams that have won national and regional championships.
The initiative, led by local historian George Dalton, honours former championship teams with a banner raising in the main arena at Credit Union Place. Banners symbolize an effort to infuse the modern-day complex with Summerside's momentous hockey history.
"You go into some rinks away and they do a great job of bringing the past to the present and that's just getting going here," said Greg Deighan of Summerside, who is a former member of the Summerside Aces.
"It's a big job to gather up history and get people behind it, but when you've got a good history of sports and hockey here it's important that it be remembered."
A banner will be raised on Thursday at the Summerside Western Capitals second home playoff game against the Miramichi Timberwolves to honour the Summerside Aces 1958-59 Maritime champions. The team beat out rival team, the Charlottetown Royals, in front of a crowd of 3,400 in the seventh game of a best of seven series to win the provincial championship.
From there, the team went on to beat Sackville, N.B., in three straight games in a best of five series. The Aces then travelled to Windsor, N.S., to take on the Maples Leafs in another best of five series for the Maritime Championship title. The Aces won three games straight again to claim victory.
"The banner that shows our win gives the kids today something to shoot for. It's been done by people prior to you so why don't you set your sights on winning a championship for the city," said Deighan. "It's a goal to shoot for and (the banner) shows that it has been done in the past, why shouldn't it be done in the future."
The Aces are the second team to be honoured with a banner raising at Credit Union Place. A banner was raised for the Summerside 1964 Junior A Legionnaires in December.
The banners are possible through the support of the City of Summerside. Summerside's director of community services, Gordon MacFarlane, said the initiative will add a touch of history to Credit Union Place.
"There has been many great hockey teams come out of Summerside and it is important to honour those teams and to have something in place to recognize them and for the young people in the community to look up to and to see that part of history," said MacFarlane.
Pictorial boards featuring team photographs, game stories, programs and other pieces of Aces history will be on display at Credit Union Place leading up to the banner unveiling.
