It was a heated end to a Monday night game in the Trail Memorial Centre 62 years ago when tempers flared and fisticuffs broke out on the ice during playoffs for the B.C. senior ice hockey championship.
“Brawn and brilliant hockey were always guaranteed at Smoke Eaters games while they played on their home ice,” Addison Oberg, from the Trail archives, said. “But sometimes too much brawn occurred!”
This photo was taken in the Cominco Arena on March 28, 1960. Being game 5 of the Savage Cup tournament, this was a high-stakes matchup, with Trail going on to win the coveted trophy.
Hundreds of Smoke Eaters fans were packed into the stands to witness the action. The playoff became so physical that the RCMP had to go on to the ice to break up a scrap between the Trail team and the Kelowna Packers.
The Trail Smoke Eaters were Savage Cup winners from 1926 to 1933 consecutively, 1937, 1939, 1940, 1945, 1947, 1948, 1951, 1959, 1960, 1978, 1982, and 2003.
The Savage Cup is the trophy awarded to British Columbia’s senior ice hockey champions. This trophy was first presented in 1912 and 1913 to the ice hockey team fielded by the Vancouver Rowing Club. Historically the Savage Cup winner advanced directly to the Allan Cup playoffs, with the first playoff game against the Alberta champions.
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