SPORTS FLASHBACK 1983: Banquet honours first Habs team

The very first coach of the La Broquerie Habs senior hockey team was joined by more than 100 players, coaches and former members of the Club Sportif executive at a banquet in their honour, as part of the community’s centennial celebrations last week.

Long-time “Voices of the Habs” Oscar Gagnon and Gilles Normandeau were masters-of-ceremony for the evening, which featured half a dozen speakers, including centennial committee chairman Alfred Laurencelle, Gerry Tetrault, a player from that first team, current Club Sportif president Roland Gauthier, Joe Mireault, one of the builders of the first arena and Habs coaches Ray Gariepy and Roy Seidler.

Gauthier gave the official welcome for the evening, saying that the banquet had been planned to recognize the people who had founded the Club Sportif and those who had kept it alive for 32 years.

Centennial Committee chairman Laurencelle recalled a number of humorous incidents, from area hockey games in the early years, and concluded his remarks by congratulating the players, coaches and managers for their efforts over the years.

Gerry Tetrault, a player on that first La Broquerie team, also recounted some of the happenings during his years with the team. At the outset he apologized to those in attendance who didn’t speak French. He had asked Alfred Mezebrowski, he said, and Alfred had told him to go ahead and talk French, for his English was so bad no one would understand him anyway.

In the early years of the team, Tetrault said they had only six players most of the time and when they were playing without spares, nobody complained about not getting enough ice time.

Joe Mireault, also a member of the first hockey team, told the people at the banquet how the arena came into being, and recounted the hard work and enjoyment he and other volunteers had in getting the necessary lumber out of the bush.

Most of the hockey players had never been to the bush before, and a miserable storm at the outset almost had them abandoning the project before it began. But, as was the case both on and off the ice, these boys weren’t quitters and the job got done.

During the next winter, another 40,000 feet was cut, with the group of volunteers growing from 10 to 16.

Those 86,000 feet of lumber cost the La Broquerie group only the $800 fee for the timber permit and that was raised by raffling off a car.

In the winter of 1951-52, final arena plans were drawn up by an architect and the Club Sportif borrowed $3,000 to get the actual building underway.

Once the work on the arena started, an average of 30 volunteers showed up every day to work as carpenter’s helpers. The arena was officially opened by Manitoba Premier D.L. Campbell, January 31, 1953.

One of the most warmly received speakers at the banquet was former coach Ray Gariepy. When Gagnon introduced the former coach, he commended him for spending hundreds of hours on coaching duties for the Habs, even if most of the time it was at the expense of the City of Winnipeg.

Gariepy had many good things to say about the players who had played for him over the years, a few less than polite remarks about some members of the opposition, and many stories to tell about the games over the years.

Roy Seidler, the Habs’ current coach, was the final speaker of the evening and he told the crowd that after hearing about the early years, he felt very much like the new kid on the block.

He said he could see how the Habs would have to try even harder in the coming seasons if they wanted to uphold the history of the team as winners on the ice.

Seidler thanked the Club Sportif for their support, for it was actually that group that kept things going in La Broquerie.

While hockey had the spotlight at the banquet, the accomplishments of the Club Sportif sponsored baseball teams were also outlined during the course of the evening.