Sweaters and stars at Morrison tournament
Posted By Terrance Gavan
Posted 5 months ago
At the sold out dinner for the second annual Scotty Morrison Charity Hockey Tournament the man of the hour stared across the room.
Scotty Morrison, who makes his home here in the Highlands took some time to thank all of the people who came out to the event and then launched into a few stories.
It is, after all, what the people had come to see. You see, Morrison has, in a long and stellar NHL career, amassed quite a few stories and anecdotes.
Morrison, a member of the NHL Hall of Fame (in the builder category), is a former NHL vice president of officiating and in 1986, he was appointed him to the position of vice president, project development and president, Hockey Hall of Fame.
So Morrison comes with an impressive list of credits. But on Friday night, at the charity dinner held at the Haliburton Curling Club, he reserved the bulk of the kudos for his special guests, Mark Napier, Ron Ellis, Hall of Fame linesman Ray Scapinello and Hockey Hall of Fame curator, Phil Pritchard.
Morrison had to pause to wipe back a tear as he remembered his good friend Scapinello, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame after a long career in the NHL. Morrison hired short Scapinello over the recommendations of the league, who wanted to foster the hiring of larger officials. Morrison, the head of officials at the time just said no and hired the scrappy "Scampy" who went on to prove that it's not the size of the man but the size of the heart that determines the true worth of an NHL arbiter.
Morrison relies on the help of these old friends to bring notoriety and donations to this tourney.
All proceeds go to Community Care Haliburton, a not-for-profit entity that supports elderly and disabled clients with home-visits, meals on wheels and other crucial support functions.
The dinner was sold out, and the tourney drew 20 teams. All a tribute to the man who wears his heart on a well-worn sleeve.
In his own opening remarks Morrison, as usual, kept the room rocking with some vintage stories. He had the room in stitches recalling the sequence of events that prompted him to become the youngest referee ever to work in the NHL.
He says he's often asked what made him decide to become a ref back in the 1954.
"They ask, 'how did you become one of the youngest referees [at age 24] to work in the National Hockey League? '" says Morrison. "And I tell them, 'well, one of the greatest players to ever play the game made that decision for me.'"
"I played with one of the teams in the Montreal Canadiens junior ranks, and it was the semi-finals of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League playoffs. We were playing the Quebec Citadelles, who were starring big number 4, Jean Beliveau. And my coach made a brilliant decision. He said, 'Scotty we want you to go on the ice when Jean goes on the ice, and get off when he comes off, and just pester him all night, because we want to keep him off the score sheet."
Scotty was a good skater, but a diminutive, 5'7" and 160 pounds with skates and full gear. Beliveau tipped the scales at 205 pounds and stood 6'3" in sneakers.
"Well, that night I think Beliveau got a hat trick and two assists and I decided that if I'm going to be in hockey it sure as hell wasn't going to be as a player," says Morrison.
The crowd in the curling club erupts.
He's truly smitten with his gig at Community Care. Hilary Elia and Brigitte Gebauer the two Community Care workers who fostered the idea, and first approached Scotty with the idea back in 2008, are amazed at just how much he brings to the table.
Through his contacts at the Hall of Fame Scotty was able to bring the Stanley Cup to Haliburton last year. This year he again approached Pritchard, who carried six original six sweaters, and four trophies (The Vezina, Art Ross, Hart and Calder) to Haliburton.
With silent auctions and donation jars available at the Minden and Dysart arenas and a charity game between the OPP and the world champion Canadian National Amputee team on Saturday evening the event will again raise thousands of dollars to a very worthy cause.
