A large photocopy of a Sudbury Star story penned by Ray Krznaric provides a confirmed account of the event, if not the exact date.

The consensus, as I walked in to join a room of a dozen or so fine gents aged between perhaps 80 and 93 years, all gathered in the basement of former Levack mayor Bob Parker late in August (2024) suggested the near upset for the ages occurred in the winter of 1959-1960.

To be sure, the Sudbury Wolves existed at that time, and as noted in the article, were indeed participants in the Eastern Professional Hockey League, a loop they called home from 1959 to 1963.

For those who follow high-level hockey lore in this city, the names of Sam Bettio, Keke Mortson, Real Chevrefils, Cummy Burton, Gene Ubriaco and so many others will live on forever – though this particular night in question was clearly a forgettable one, at least from the standpoint of the favoured side.

With some 1800 or so fans packing the long-forgotten Levack Arena of that era, the Intermediate “B” Huskies would play to a 3-3 draw with the gents they so admired, backstopped by an incredible performance between the pipes from netminder Al Bignucolo.

Throw in a three-point effort from future NHLer Frank St Marseille and one has the makings of an evening that was still being talked about, with at least some measure of consistency to the stories, some 50 plus years later.

“I went in to see Nick Evanshen (Sudbury Sports Hall of Fame member) to buy some hockey sticks,” recalled Levack coach Laddie Kavluk, referencing the sports store attached to Sudbury Arena that later became Larry’s Cycle & Sports and Taylor Sports. “Murph Chamberlain (coach of the Wolves) popped in and that’s how this game came to be.”

“We talked initially about switching goalies,” added Kavluk, a Maritimer who arrived in Sudbury with Wally Morrison and who can still recount his very first breakfast in town, enjoyed at home of the father of Conrad Bonhomme (grandfather to future Olympian Tessa Bonhomme), enjoying the company of one, Al Arbour.

As I circulated the room with the men who later formed the core of the Huskies team that captured NOHA Intermediate titles in 1968-1969 and 1969-1970, the stories bounced between the game in question and general recollections of that era – along their involvement in a multitude of sports – with countless names of yesteryear thrown into the mix for good measure.

A native of Copper Cliff, Ron Corelli is now 84 years old and has called Mindemoya home for quite some time. And for as much as the historic deadlock was his first ever game with the Huskies, his mind wandered over to the other popular sports of those times nearly as much.

“Hockey was my serious sport, but I loved baseball too,” said the fellow who contemplated NCAA scholarship offers at Michigan State and St Lawrence but chose to remain home for work – and to play juvenile baseball with the Gatchell crew and Hall of Fame NHL goaltender Eddie Giacomin.

“I was a pitcher, and when I wasn’t pitching, I played the infield,” said Corelli. “Football was my secondary sport – but I was kind of small for football.”

One of three brothers in a hugely sports-minded Garson family, Gaylord Cull remains local, to this day, though his hockey dreams would take him away for a very short stint late in his teens.

“In juniors, I was scouted by George DeFelice (who did some work with Detroit Red Wings organization) and went down and played with the Burlington Hallidays,” said Cull. “Nick Polano and I were roommates.”

Ironically, they lined up on opposites of the Wolves – Huskies showdown, Polano sharing his bench space with the likes of Leo Labine, Gerry Foley, Ed Stankiewicz and Dennis Kassian on that night.

“I liked hockey – but I loved baseball too,” added Cull, acknowledging that his brother Garrett was likely the best athlete of the three boys, a troika that also included Gord.

“Ya, but Gaylord won the batting title and he could play anywhere,” chimed in Manitoulin mainstay Mickey McKinny, baseball/fastball coach and sometimes hockey talent – and also member of the Sudbury Sports Hall of Fame (2013).

“We would travel from Sudbury, me, Stan Price (brother of NHLer Noel Price), a couple of other guys – four of us in my car,” stated McKinny, bouncing between sports. “I was a better ball player than a hockey player – but it was easy to play defense for this guy (Al Bignucolo). He would yell at me: get out of the way, Mickey.”

Born in Sudbury but raised in Chapleau, Bignucolo returned to Sudbury when he was 19 or so, though he was somewhat awestruck by his puck-stopping exhibition versus the team that lost in the EPHL finals in 1959-1960.

“You don’t get enough work playing with a team like this in the intermediate league,” Bignucolo suggested to reporter Krznaric a half-century ago. “So you get cold and can’t play well. That’s why I think I played my best game ever tonight. I was busy all the time.”

Netting the second Huskies goal of the game, squeezed between tallies from Pat Tremblay and Chucker Regan, Ray “Poopsie” Parker remained with the Levack Intermediates for the better part of a decade or so, a key contributor to the NOHA banners that would later come their way.

And still, the 87 year old who was born in Coniston found time to squeeze in a short hockey stint in Woodstock, teammates with a fellow named Walter Gretzky. Yet it is home where his heart and his mind still wander.

“I played all of my youth hockey outdoors in Coniston,” said Parker, detailing his high-school years spent at the Coniston Continuation School, what was effectively the secondary school in the town until 1962.

Remaining in Levack once he came out both to work and play hockey, Parker actually dressed for three EPHL games split between the Philadelphia Ramblers (where Moe Bartoli was playing at the time) and the Huntington (West Virginia) Hornets and picking up points in each and every encounter.

Tasked with defending, at the other end of the rink, stalwart blueliner M.J. Blimkie was more than up for the challenge, the native of Renfrew having fine-tuned a key component of his game that is not nearly as prevalent in hockey circa 2024.

“Today, the hitting isn’t the same,” opined Blimkie, playing some junior hockey back home but accepting an offer from Inco in 1959 before returning to the Ottawa Valley some five years later.

“I learned how to hit because when summers came, I was out with the Sudbury Hardrocks (football team). You’re not tackling, in hockey, but you learned to use your hips.”

The arrival of Clarence Vowels to the team comes after the matchup with the Wolves, though he patrolled the back-end for the Levack Intermediates for the next decade or so, more than a tad familiar to the venue that was torn down to be replaced by the I.J. Coady Memorial Arena in the early seventies.

“The old arena was kind of rough,” said Vowels with a laugh. “We didn’t have too many dressing rooms. But this town is a really good hockey town.”

Host and organizer of this gathering, Bob Parker should know.

The man who moved to northern Ontario from White Rock (Nova Scotia) would go on to become mayor of Levack for some 14 years. “I came out here and just loved it,” Parker exclaimed. “I loved hockey and fishing and the outdoors – and everything liked that.”

Still, when it came to the fabled 3-3 tie, he was not a whole lot different from most who can still recall the contest.

“My connection with this team is no more than being a fan,” said Parker.

But for one night at least, that was far more than enough.