His hockey memories are perhaps not unlike those of men and women all across this hockey-crazed nation.
Most recently, though, Wright has been living the memories, and the dreams, of hockey enthusiasts in the O’Leary area. He’s spent the past 13 months penning a book about hockey in this West Prince community.
The book had been in the works for three years before a group of determined volunteers took charge of the project and arranged for Wright to bring it to print.
Hockeytown P.E.I., The Story of Hockey in O’Leary, will be officially launched Monday, November 24, 7 p.m., at the O’Leary Legion.
“We think this book is like a typical rural community in Canada,” said project committee member Bill MacKendrick.
But it’s much more than that, he adds. “It’s the first community hockey history on P.E.I.; the first book written on a community’s hockey legacy.”
And O’Leary has a rich hockey history, readers will discover, from the frozen ponds to the first rink, right up to the present day Sports Center. It covers hockey – minor, women’s, community, competitive and, of course the Maroons – the players, the organizers, the builders and the dreamers.
“It’s a book based on hockey, but there is a lot of community history in it, too,” MacKendrick said.
“It’s a story, not a history,” committee member JoAnne Wallace confides.
She said Wright’s contributions makes the book extra special. “He’s a brilliant writer,” she states.
Many of the stories are from people’s memories, she said. “It’s a book you want to pick up and read.”
Hockeytown P.E.I. was born out of an Island Narratives Project four years ago. There were 15 such projects across P.E.I., all tasked with compiling a digital history. O’Leary’s project was focused on the community’s hockey history. It went through a series of starts before Wright came on board. He used information already gathered and conducted numerous interviews of his own.
It was an interview with longtime O’Leary Maroons goaltender Gordon Rodgerson that brought the book’s title to life. Numerous times throughout the interview Rodgerson mentioned, “She’s a hockey town,” in reference to O’Leary.
The name just seemed to resonate, said Wallace, adding it also fits in well with O’Leary just becoming a town this year.
Although O’Leary prides itself as Hockeyville, P.E.I., Wallace said that was never considered as a title for the book. O’Leary made it to the final round of the first Hockeyville national competition eight years ago, and Wallace said that still remains a source of pride in the new town. Hosting NHL training camps is another milestone covered in the 14-chapter book.
MacKendrick draws a comparison between the book and the antique farm machinery at the museum: It was in the backfields. “If it wasn't taken in and displayed it would be forgotten about,” he said. “A lot of these people, some of the main characters in this book, have passed away during the writing.”
Hockeytown P.E.I. features 200 pictures. It shows nearly 1,100 faces and mentions about 1,500 names.
Community members’ hockey memories are embedded throughout the book.
“Hockeytown is a metaphor for every community that has a time and a place, when the only game in town is hockey,” suggests the book’s author.
It’s nostalgic, Wright added.
