IIHF World Championship - Then and Now

The International Ice Hockey Federation World Championship is currently under way in Bratislava, Slovakia. Seventy-three years ago, in a much different world, my hometown Sudbury Wolves won the World Amateur Hockey Championship in Prague, Czechoslovakia. The tournament was part of a two month tour of Europe that ended in, of all places, Crossmyloof, Glasgow. On March 18 the Wolves arrived home in Halifax.

There were no Canadian mass market paperback publishers in Canada in 1938. In February 1949 the Sudbury Wolves represented Canada at the championships for a second time. They won the silver medal. Here are two paperbacks from February 1949 published by Toronto's Export Publishing Enterprises Ltd.

News Stand Library 24

News Stand Library 24 back

News Stand Library 26

News Stand Library 26 back

Ed and the NHL

Ed Fitkin was a mid century sports reporter who ended his career working for the NHL and WHL. Around 1950 he wrote eight books for a publisher called both Baxter Publishing Co. and W. H. Baxter, Publishing (Canada) Co. The imprint was Castle Publication.

The books largely look back to an earlier period in the NHL starting in the 30s. They have that feature common to many sports books written by insiders. All the players, owners, general managers and coaches were the greatest guys you could know. Sure, they may have not been perfect but still you hadda love 'em. Why do sports and nicknames link up so often? The 80s and 90s had the Great Gretzky and now its Sid the Kid. Maybe we like to think of them somehow still as kids. Certainly the management of the NHL clubs in the era of these books did just that.

Here are three of the books.