I can’t help but to become nostalgic as I took in some of the recent Silver Stick festivities these past few weeks in Sudbury.

Truth is that for as much as I would never profess to be able to fill in all of the blanks, I certainly have very vivid memories of the holiday season tradition that was the local Silver Stick tournament of my youth, wedged in right between Christmas Day and New Year’s Day.

As a young timekeeper, Carmichael Arena was the place to be (though I am sure others might suggest otherwise).

But with the likes of Silver Stick committee members Adam Borovich, Don Stack and Gabe Guzzo all Carmichael mainstays, we were sure to be well fed – which was a big deal since timekeepers volunteered their time for this event during this era, allowing Sudbury Minor Hockey Association to fundraise the monies necessary to become one of the very first groups anywhere to pay their off-ice officials for regular season games and the like.

Support came from many corners, with Bell Canada heavily involved, even allowing employees to use work hours to help out with the Silver Stick at a nearby rink. And through this period of late seventies into the eighties, I recall clearly the fact that everyone termed the tournament the “Red Hamill Silver Stick” – though I do not recall ever having had the pleasure of meeting the man in person (even though I most surely did).

Almost fifty years later, luck would have it that a long-time hockey acquaintance would make me aware that Al Hamill was still kicking about in the community, one of six children of the man for whom the tournament was first named – the man who helped launch the local chapter of a tradition that now sees teams from right across North America meeting every January to battle for minor hockey bragging rights in “A” and “AA” playdowns.

“Dad was a founder of the (Sudbury) Silver Stick, but before that, he was involved with juvenile hockey,” noted Al Hamill, 72 years young and one of four boys in the lot, with a pair of sisters joining the crew along the way. “He would put together a team of kids who did not make the other teams. He just wanted everybody to play.”

“That was his whole goal – to get kids on the ice.”

And why not.

A native of Toronto, Red Hamill played parts of 12 seasons in the NHL with the Boston Bruins and Chicago Blackhawks, a stint interrupted by two years spent in military service during World War II.

His initial contact with northern Ontario came in his mid-teens, making his way to South Porcupine for two winters before moving to Sudbury and competing with the 1936-1937 Copper Cliff Redmen team that fell in the Memorial Cup final to the Winnipeg Monarchs.

No surprise then that the Bruins would sign the truculent winger – what would now be a power forward – a young man who had no issue dropping the gloves and who very quickly became a favourite of teammate Eddie Shore.

That edition of the Beantowners, with Art Ross as head coach, would capture the Stanley Cup (1938-1939), with Hamill traded in 1941-1942 to the Blackhawks. Long before Sudbury’s favourite son (Nick Foligno) donned the “C” for Chicago, Red Hamill was given the honour.

The war may have interrupted his NHL career, but not his love of sport.

“There were a lot of hockey players there, so they played, a lot,” stated Al. “And dad was a boxing champion (among the soldiers).”

Work would bring him to Sudbury in the mid-fifties, settling in New Sudbury (the boys all played hockey at Barrydowne Playground) and eventually serving as branch manager for Crothers Limited (later Toromont).

To suggest that hockey coursed through the veins of this family might be an understatement.

The eldest son, Bob, earned a scholarship at the University of Denver, suiting up with the Pioneers of the NCAA from 1961 to 1964, where his teammates included Sudburian Dominic Fragomeni.

Next to dad, Frank Hamill boasted the most impressive hockey resume, a 20-goal scorer with the Memorial Cup winning Toronto Marlboros' crew that featured future NHL’ers Brad Park, Mike Pelyk and Brian Glennie.

But these days, this might not stand as the biggest claim to fame of the 75 year old sibling who has called Binghampton (N.Y.) home now since the seventies. Enjoying a taste of minor pro hockey with the Broome County Dusters, Frank Hamill was recruited, along with a couple of teammates, to appear in a hockey movie that nobody thought much of at the time.

But for all those locals who have now watched “Slapshot” multiple times over, you can certainly take civic pride in the scene where the Hanson Brothers converge on an opponent in the corner, pummelling him to the ice, a scene that Frank Hamill acknowledged left him slightly bruised following a multitude of takes.

Back in Sudbury, his father had made a name for himself, in business and in hockey.

“When he got transferred to Sudbury, there were only maybe 90 guys playing in the NHL in any year, so he was an NHL name,” noted Al. “Plus he was a really good public speaker. He would go to banquets, he would go to Burwash (Penitentiary).”

Afflicted with a handful of ailments of which little was known at the time, Red Hamill would have one leg amputated (below the knee) in 1972, losing his other leg several years later. Visitors to his room at Sunnybrook Hospital included Bill Gadsby and one Gordie Howe.

Al still recalls his early involvement with the Silver Stick as his father and John Heffern and a handful of others started a snowball that continues to roll a half decade later. “I used to help out with some of my friends, some of the Kirkwoods – but when my dad was gone, I kind of left too,” said Al.

And somewhere along the line, so too disappeared the tournament name that was the Red Hamill Silver Stick in Sudbury.

(while this is unconfirmed officially, it would appear that as the International Silver Stick grew in prominence, they requested that regional events stay true to simply the “Silver Stick” name, in order to maintain consistency across the numerous chapters that exist from coast to coast in both Canada and the United States)