|
|
|
|
Can you think of the theme song to "Hockey Night in Canada"? Does the name Don Cherry ring a bell? Hockey is the national sport of Canada, and a key ingredient in our national identity. It's also a major event of the Winter Olympics, and during the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, as millions of Canadians sat glued to their TV sets, it all came together for Canada.
First, the women's hockey team beat the Americans 3-2 to win the gold, a victory many had thought unlikely considering the Canadians had been dominated by the U.S. team all year and had lost to them at the 1998 Olympics in Nagano. Then, the Canadian men's team triumphed in a 5-2 win over Team USA, putting an end to Canada's 50-year gold medal drought in men's ice hockey.
The double gold medal win made history, and across the country millions of Canadians celebrated. In Salt Lake City, the celebration included a ceremony that honoured the success of another great Canadian hockey team-the Winnipeg Falcons.
That's right, the Winnipeg Falcons. Never heard of them?
The Winnipeg Falcons hockey team was made up of Icelandic-Canadians who learned to play hockey in the backyard rinks of Winnipeg in the early 1900s. Looked down on by the more established Anglophones, the Falcons were often discriminated against because they were the children of recent immigrants. The established teams wouldn't play with these "rag tag immigrant kids," so the Falcons formed their own league made up of Scandinavian teams.
During the First World War, many of the Falcons enlisted and fought overseas for Canada, but this didn't change how they were treated when they returned to Winnipeg. Still excluded from the established hockey teams, the Falcons and a number of other teams from outside the city formed the Manitoba Hockey League.
The Falcons' victories took them all the way to Canada's senior hockey championship, where they faced off against the University of Toronto. The Falcons easily beat the favoured Torontonians in a two-game, total goal-series, winning the Allen Cup and the right to represent Canada at the 1920 Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium — the first Games to include hockey as an Olympic event.
Most of the Olympic teams the Falcons played against were no match for them, with the exception of the Americans, against whom they could only score two goals. But, as it turned out, two was enough, and they beat the U.S. team 2-0. The final game against Sweden was a breeze and the Falcons came out on top, 12-1. The "rag tag immigrant kids" returned home as the Olympics' first hockey champions and received a hero's welcome.
However, as time passed, the legend of the Falcons faded-until the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.
The "Falcons Forever" Mural that officially resides in the Betel Waterfront Center in Gimli, Manitoba.
Thanks to the efforts of the Falcons Forever committee, the story of the Winnipeg Falcons was resurrected and celebrated at the 2002 Winter Olympics. During an emotional ceremony, the legend of the Falcons was honoured with the unveiling of a Falcons Forever mural, dedicated to the memory of their accomplishments as the first winners of the Olympic Gold medal in hockey, and one of the great hockey teams in Canadian and Olympic history.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
