There have always been strong ties between the sporting world and military service. Amongst the inductees of the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame (SSHF), that is no different.
To date, the SSHF has found 124 inductees who have served in branches of the Armed Forces. While they all share the commonality of sporting excellence and service, each of their stories is unique.
Alex Decoteau (image courtesy of the Edmonton Police Service)
Alex Decoteau was the first Saskatchewan-born athlete to compete in the Olympics. After competing in the 5,000-metre run at the 1912 Stockholm Olympic Games, Decoteau — who was also Canada’s first Indigenous police officer — enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force during the First World War in 1916. He was killed in action in the Second Battle of Passchendaele in Belgium on October 30, 1917, when he was shot by a sniper. Pvt. Decoteau put his athletic prowess to use during the war, serving as a communications trench runner.
In addition to Decoteau, SSHF inductees Edward Lyman “Hick” Abbott, Ernest “Ossie” Herlen, and Harry McKenzie from the 1915 Melville Millionaires were all Killed in Action. SSHF inductees Claude Warwick and James Bladon from the 1941 Regina Rangers were Killed in Service.
Some SSHF inductees saw their military service mix with their athletic pursuits. Julien Audette served in the Royal Canadian Air Force before being inducted in the sport of soaring (the sport of non-powered flight). Shooting inductees Joseph Austman, Jim Girgulis, Peter Jmaeff, and Ron Woolgar all served in the military.
Stanley “Cap” Harrison came from England and began Stockwell Stud Farm in Fort Qu’Appelle. When the First World War broke out, he was tasked with selecting and shipping western horses suitably for cavalry purposes. Harrison was well-suited to the task but sending stock to face almost certain death while he was safe at home. In 1916, Harrison left his brother to run the farm and enlisted in the Winnipeg Light Infantry Battalion. He was wounded three times and was once buried in rubble and feared dead. Harrison would survive the war and become a key figure in the growth of horse racing in the prairies. During the war, Harrison also wrote poetry which was later compiled by Grant MacEwan entitled, The Rhyming Horseman of the Qu’Appelle.
Phyllis Dewar
It wasn’t just our male inductees who answered the call to serve. Moose Jaw’s Phyllis Dewar won four gold medals swimming at the 1934 British Empire Games (the forerunner to the Commonwealth Games). She competed at the 1936 Berlin Summer Olympic Games and won another gold medal at the 1938 British Empire Games. Dewar enlisted with the Women’s Royal Canadian Naval Service (WRCNS) where she was stationed in Halifax. The WRCNS was formed in 1942 and featured more than 7,000 enlisted members during the Second World War. Their duties included wireless telegraphists, radar plotters, weapons analysts, range assessors, electricians, air mechanics, clerks, and cooks.
While the list of inductees with military service covers a broad range of sports, hockey has the most representation with 48 SSHF hockey inductees having served in the military.
Included amongst those were five players — Sid Abel, Max Bentley, Johnny Bower, Chuck Rayner, and Harry Watson — who would go on to be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame as well earning their place amongst the game’s all-time greats. Abel, Bentley, Rayner and Watson had all begun their National Hockey League careers when they enlisted during the Second World War. As a teenager in Prince Albert, Bower was part of the local army reserve unit. At 15 he lied about his age to enlist and spent two years in Vernon, B.C. completing his training before being deployed as a gunner with the 2nd Canadian Division with the Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders. Days before the Dieppe Raid in 1942, Bower and eight other members of his unit came down with a respiratory infection that cause them to miss the raid and may have saved their lives.
While the majority of the SSHF inductees who served did so during the First and Second World Wars or the Korean War, Ed Staniowski is a more recent example of an athlete who served in the Canadian Forces.
Lt.-Col Ed Staniowski, a Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame inductee looks at some of the items on display at Play Hard, Fight Hard: Sport and the Canadian Military.
Staniowski starred in goal on the Regina Pats 1974 Memorial Cup-winning team and went on to play 10 seasons in the National Hockey League with St. Louis, Winnipeg and Hartford. After retiring from the NHL, Staniowski served in the Canadian Forces and reached the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in the primary reserves. Staniowski was deployed in eight overseas operations during his 29 years in the Forces.
Below is a list of the 124 SSHF inductees that served their country in the Canadian Forces. Their service and sacrifice will never be forgotten:
Edward Abbot
Sid Abel
Robert Adams
Jack Adams
Dennis Adkins
Sandy Archer
Murray Armstrong
Bob Arn
Julien Audette
Joseph Victor Austman
Harry Bailey
Leonard Bath
Max Bentley
James Stanley Bladon
Garth Boesch
Johnny Bower
Calvin Bricker
Doug Bruce
Angus “Scotty” Cameron
Glen Campbell
Clarence Campbell
Ken Charlton
Harold Clayton
George Coops
Tony Cote
Aurthur Austin Creswell
Gordon Currie
David Dean
Alex Decoteau
Phyllis Dewar
Paul Dojack
Arthur “Art” Dowie
William “Bill” Ebbels
Gaston Eichel
Eldon Elliot
William Forsyth
Norman “Heck” Fowler
Emile Francis
Frank Germann
James “Jim” Girgulis
Anton Glasser
Gordon “Greg” Grassick
Ernest Albert Greenley
David Greyeyes
Ernest Wynne “Joe” Griffiths
William “Bill” Griston
Stanley “Hub” Gutheridge
Dr. Walter Hader
Stanley “Cap” Harrison
Henry “Hank” Hartenberger
James “Sugar Jim” Henry
Ernest “Ossie” Herlen
Alfred Hill
Lou Hough
Rollin Henry “Roly” Howes
William “Bill” Hunter
Dick Irvin Sr.
Peter Jmaeff
Gordon Juckes
Mike Kartusch
J.B. “Kirk” Kirkpatrick
Arthur Knutson
Elmer Knutson
Sam Landa
Jack Leddy
John Leicester
R.C. “Scotty” Livingstone
Victor Lynn
Harry Stuart MacKenzie
Jack Maddia
Frank Mario
Charles McCool
Frederick McCulloch
Robert McCutcheon
Ernie McNab
Tom “Scotty” Melville
Anthony Merle
Don Metz
Nick Metz
Harold Mitchelmore
Alex Motter
Donald Sinclair “Speed” Moynes
Victor Myles
Stan Obodiac
William “Bill” Orban
Charles Otton
David Pearce
Bert Penfold
Claude Petit
Gordon Pettinger
Allan Wilfrid Pickard
Peter Prediger
Kenneth Preston
David Pyle
William Beatty Ramsay
Chuck Rayner
Robert “Bobby” Reid
Robert Reid
Ernest Richardson
Walt Riddell
Alvin Horace “Al” Ritchie
Tom Ross
Alex Sandalack
Lloyd Saunders
Arthur Sihvon
D’Arcy Smith
Ed Staniowski
John “Jack” Stewart
Edgar Wallace “Wally” Stinson
Neil “Piffles” Taylor
Earl “Tommy” Thomson
Robert Van Impe
Peter Vyvyan
H.J. “Johnny” Walker
Clinton Ward
George Ward
Claude Warwick
Harold “Harry” Watson
Ab Welsh
Alfred Stiffles Whittleton
H.J. “Pete” Wilken
Frederick Cornelius Wilson
Eddie Wiseman
Ronald Woolgar