SYDNEY, N.S. — Editor’s note: In recognition of the inaugural Lebanese & Syrian Heritage Hockey Game that will take place Saturday at Centre 200, Cape Breton Post reporter David Jala was tasked with finding out why hockey has been such a big part of the history and heritage of the area’s Lebanese community.
SYDNEY — Kevin Morrison was never hesitant about dropping the gloves.
But the Sydney native, whose career highlights include assisting on Wayne Gretzky’s first professional goal, pauses when asked why the small, predominantly Lebanese neighbourhood where he grew up has produced so many outstanding hockey players.
“I don’t know — I know that some of the boys have always said there must be something in the water,” said the now 70-year-old Morrison, whose 20-year career included rubbing shoulders with hockey greats such as Gordie Howe, Bobby Hull, Marcel Dionne and Lanny McDonald.
On Saturday, Morrison will gather with several generations of Lebanese and Syrian families and friends in Sydney to celebrate the community’s rich culture and history. And, of course, the highlight of the one-day gathering is the inaugural Lebanese & Syrian Heritage Hockey Game, a match that will feature some of the community’s finest players. The two sides will be coached by Morrison and well-known local hockey figure Blair (Bearcat) Joseph, an assistant coach with the Cape Breton Eagles for 10 years. The game is slated for 5 p.m. at Centre 200 and will naturally be followed by a “social” at the Cedars Club.
Kevin Morrison
Morrison, a driving force behind the reunion, was drafted by the New York Rangers in 1969 but would wait until 1979 to make his NHL debut with the Colorado Rockies. In the interim, he spent four years in the minors before he signed with the upstart World Hockey Association. He spent six seasons in the WHA with the New York Golden Blades, San Diego Mariners and Indianapolis Racers. Although a skilled player who once scored 81 points with the Mariners, Morrison also earned a reputation as a tough guy, indeed, as one of the toughest ever to play the game.
One minor league fight against Bob (Battleship) Kelly is one of hockey pundit Don Cherry’s favourite all-time bouts. Another AHL fight against Tony Featherstone left both players so exhausted they couldn’t stand up.
“After that was over we nodded at each other and we both said ‘never again’,” laughed Morrison, who earlier in his career took on the responsibility of protecting an under-aged — and eventual Hall of Famer — Marcel Dionne while playing junior hockey with the Drummondville Rangers in the mid-1960s.
“Nobody touched Marcel — if they had, they would have had to deal with me,” he said.
Following his playing days, Morrison returned to Sydney and now resides in the same George Street house in which he was raised. The old house sits at the edge of downtown in a neighbourhood sometimes referred to as the “Gaza Strip” because of the many Lebanese families of Lebanese that settled the Townsend Street area in the early 20th century.
John (Junior) Hanna
The list of renowned hockey players from that area of Sydney is impressive and includes former Original Six-era player John (Junior) Hanna, who was the first player of Lebanese descent to play in the National Hockey League.
In fact, the feat is acknowledged on his 1958 hockey card. While the front shows him in his New York Rangers uniform, the back of the card includes a caricature of a Hanna, described as a “compact backliner”, attired in traditional Arab clothing, including a shemagh, or traditional head scarf. The caption reads: “John is only NHL player of Syrian extraction.”
Hanna’s son, John Hanna Jr., who was an outstanding player in his own right, said the 62-year-old hockey card is a product of its time.
John Hanna Jr.
“It really sums up some of the attitudes of the day — I just couldn’t imagine it today, but my dad, even though he was Lebanese and not Syrian, was always proud of that and would show it off to people,” said Hanna Jr., who spent much of his childhood in places far away from the "Gaza Strip," including a four-year stint in Seattle where his father played for the Totems in the old Western Hockey League.
“But once I moved home I began to understand what dad meant to the community — he was always a great ambassador, not only for the game but for the Lebanese community and he was always very proud of the fact he was part of that community.”
Hanna Jr. enjoyed a successful five-year major junior hockey career that included stints in British Columbia and Ontario that was highlighted by winning the 1984 Memorial Cup as a 17-year-old with the Ottawa 67s. He then played one year of university hockey with the Capers before joining the 1988-89 Cape Breton Oilers, recording 16 points in 20 games. Then he retired.
“I figured I was going to bounce around the minors for a bit and I was worried about what I would do after that so I went back to school and ended up teaching at Riverview High School —that was my best move,” said the father of 26-year-old Mitchell, a former Redmen hockey player who is now a dentist, and Becky, 24, a former Cape Breton Capers soccer star.
Impressive list
John (Junior) Hanna may have been the first local player of Lebanese descent to make his mark off island, but he certainly wasn’t the last. The list of highly skilled players from the neighbourhood is impressive. Morrison, whose Lebanese lineage is through his mother, Mary Haddad, came along after Junior Hanna and was in turn followed by the likes of the well-known Blair Joseph, the talented Barkley Haddad, former Canadian National team captain and two-time Olympic silver medallist Fabian Joseph and the Memorial Cup-winning John Hanna Jr., to name but a few of the more prominent players. There was certainly no shortage of really good players, a list that also included Dougie Abbass and the late Adrian Morrison.
More recently, Haddad’s son, Joey starred with the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles before spending five seasons of minor pro hockey in North America. Haddad the Younger, now 31, still plays and is in his sixth season with the Cardiff Devils of Great Britain’s Elite Ice Hockey League (EIHL).
But hockey excellence wasn’t the exclusive pursuit of youngsters of Lebanese descent.
“Junior Hanna was certainly a huge influence and inspiration for us young guys growing up, but let’s not forget there were other guys from around here who weren’t Lebanese,” said Morrison.
“I’m talking about Parker MacDonald, who grew up across from Kay’s Kozy Korner and was a star with the Detroit Red Wings, Norm Ferguson who I played with in San Diego in the WHA, and Al MacNeil who, of course, was a great defenceman and also won a Stanley Cup with the Montréal Canadiens as their head coach.”
The Andreas
According to Blair Joseph, who at 74 years of age still maintains a full head of his family’s trademark thick hair, the connection between Cape Breton’s Lebanese community and hockey extended beyond Sydney’s “Gaza Strip.” He mentions North Sydney’s Paul (Jigger) Andrea and Glace Bay’s Dougie Sulliman, both former NHLers.
Andrea left home in 1958 at the age of 17 and played for the Guelph Biltmores along with future New York Rangers stars Jean Ratelle and Rod Gilbert. He broke into the NHL with the Rangers in the mid-1960s before finding full-time work with the Pittsburgh Penguins after the league’s 1967 six-team expansion. Andrea played more than 800 professional games including 150 in the NHL with the California Golden Seals and the Buffalo Sabres, and another 135 in the WHA. He would later coach Fabian Joseph at the midget level.
Sulliman, born in 1959, starred with the OHL’s Kitchener Rangers before moving on to an 11-year NHL career with the Rangers, Hartford Whalers, New Jersey Devils and Philadelphia Flyers, accumulating 160 goals and 328 points in 631 NHL games.
Four brothers
Joseph said one his favourite stories about Cape Breton’s Lebanese hockey players dates back to early 1960s when four Andrea brothers (Father Jake, Tony, Leonard and Bernie) all played for St. Francis Xavier University.
“They played at St. FX at the same time, so that’s quite a thing — I remember the broadcaster at one game was a young Al Graham, back when he was a student and long before he became a senator,” recalled Joseph, who played competitive contact hockey through his mid-30s before turning his attention to coaching.
“Anyway, I guess at one point the four brothers were all on the ice at the same time killing off a penalty and he said it was a broadcaster’s nightmare, he said ‘It’s Andrea to Andrea over to Andrea who passes to Andrea, Andrea shoots, Andrea scores’.”
The old Sydney Forum
Cape Breton sports historian Paul MacDougall is a lifelong Sydney resident who bore witness to many of the hockey successes that came out of the "Gaza Strip" neighbourhood.
“It’s an amazing accomplishment,” noted MacDougall, who recalls being dazzled by the skills of players like Barkley Haddad.
“Part of it is due to the Lebanese and Syrian community’s proximity to the old Sydney Forum (mid-1930s to 1987) and it became the thing to do for the young guys to go there and work as rink rats — almost all of those guys had an almost unlimited access to the ice when it wasn’t being used.”
MacDougall also noted that may of the neighbourhood’s young players developed a “real competitive nature” and that when they weren’t at the old forum they were playing on frozen surfaces like Wentworth Park and even Sydney harbour.
Blair Joseph remembers growing up in the family home near the triangle at Townsend and Inglis streets. He acknowledges that the old forum was a centrepiece of the neighbourhood.
“Every one of us were rink rats, we did it for the ice time; I remember sneaking out when dad and mom were sleeping and skating around under the old centre ice clock at about two in the morning,” said Joseph, who despite a 20-year age gap remains very close with youngest brother Fabian.
Fabian Joseph
The younger Joseph, born in 1965, starred along with fellow Sydney native Jack MacKeigan in both the Western (Victoria Cougars) and Ontario (Toronto Marlboros) major junior hockey leagues. Fabian then went on to become a household name across the country when he captained Team Canada to a silver medal at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway. He also played on Canada’s 1992 silver medal-winning team in Albertville, France.
Prior to his Olympic experiences, Joseph spent three seasons in the AHL, including two with the Cape Breton Oilers. He spent three seasons in Europe and two more with IHL’s Milwaukee Admirals, where he began his coaching career after retiring in 1996.
“I’ve always been proud to be from such a close-knit family and community — I come from a big family and as the youngest I always had the support of everybody, I’m very proud of my roots,” said Joseph, whose coaching career also included seven years as the head coach of the Dalhousie University Tigers and seven seasons as an assistant coach with the Moncton Wildcats of the Québec Major Junior Hockey League.
Memories
Like others from his neighbourhood, a lifetime in hockey has left the now 54-year-old Fabian Joseph with a deep reservoir of memories, many that are told and re-told at gatherings of family and friends. And for Sydney’s Olympic hero, some of his most cherished memories happened at home in Sydney.
“I always thought it was great that my brother Blair and I were able to coach against each other in the QMJHL when he was with Cape Breton and I was with Moncton,” recalled Fabian, a Moncton resident who is married with two adult sons and a 14-year-old daughter.
“I have to thank Kevin Morrison, who was one of the toughest guys ever to play the game, for taking me and John (Hanna Jr.) to hockey school in Sussex, New Brunswick, when we were kids — looking back now, the times we spent with Kevin and his family in the trailer were invaluable moments.”
Hockey has taken Fabian Joseph around the world. But he stresses that he hasn’t forgotten where he came from.
“The Lebanese community has been a huge part of my development, not only as a player but as a person,” he said.
“And growing up we didn’t have a lot, but at the same time, and for all of us in the neighbourhood, the rink and hockey gave us the desire and the will to get an identity in the community.”
Identity achieved — after all, when looking at the heritage and history of Cape Breton’s Lebanese community, it’s difficult not to acknowledge that hockey has been an inter-generational thread for the better part of a century.
