Links - History of the Morell Rink and Hockey in the Morel - North River Minor Hockey Association

History of the Morell Rink and Hockey in the Morell AreaHistory of the Morell Rink and Hockey in the Morell AreaAs told by the late Reg MacAdam (1992) Chairperson of the Morell Rink Committee It seems there was always a rink in Morell The first closed in rink was built in 1914 near where the pharmacy and doctors offices are currently located This had to be a very major undertaking for a community the size of Morell as there would not be more than 45 families living in the community proper but with the help of the surrounding districts the rink became a reality A lot of lumber was sawed in local mills powered by water and constructed in a manner that did not have great horsepower for the sawing of the large logs for the main trusses this must have created a lot of ingenuity The rink opened its doors to a well advertised skate The ice maker at the time Art Eldershaw would not have the skate until he had a foot of ice A red hot poker was used to indicate the thickness of the ice When a foot of ice was reached the doors were opened A special train came from Charlottetown (about 30 miles) with a band and they skated all night There was great excitement and a good time enjoyed by all It was stated that when the skate was over the red Island clay began to show through the ice Special trains and bands coming to Morell from other areas apparently was a common occurrence as there were only a few closed rinks on the Island at that time There was always a lot of hockey interest in Morell In the early days Morell had an eight man squad that was the talk of the Island This team was led by Ignatious Murphy whom the older people say was the best hockey player they ever saw play the game Large centers like Charlottetown and Summerside could not beat this Morell team I understand that this team drove by horse and sleigh to St Peters a distance of about 14 miles return in minus 20 degree Fahrenheit and high winds The team after playing their game and still sweating and I understand with lots of booze they got an awful freezing coming home As it also began to snow they lost their way several times and Murphy came down with pneumonia and died a few days later In the old days skating was a very popular pastime and they had an hour skate after every hockey game this custom continued well into the sixties when it was finally discontinued Skates are now held on Sunday afternoons The lights for the first rink were supplied from a small gasoline engine The engine was not powerful enough to run both the lights and the water pump so floods were always done in the dark with the aid of a gasoline lantern Flooding was performed by connecting a 1 12 inch pipe from the pump to a large tank at centre ice and use buckets to cover the ice from this centre source The first rink was not used only for ice related games it was utilized in the summer for tea parties dance...