Garry Newport鈥檚 earliest hockey memory dates back to the day in 1952 when arrived at the rink without his pants.
Hockey pants, that is.
鈥淢y dad was in the air force, so we lived in Europe,鈥� Newport recalled.
鈥淚 showed up for a championship game with no (hockey) pants. I think I was seven or eight years old and you used suspenders back then, so I looked pretty funny (playing) with a pair of jeans, suspenders and socks.鈥�
The pants incident occurred in the formative years of Newport鈥檚 marriage to the sport, which has spanned nearly seven decades, as both a player and a coach.
And from day one, Newport hasn鈥檛 strayed far from his side of the ice.
鈥淚鈥檝e played right wing since I was three years old,鈥� said the 73-year-old, who is the oldest player in the Adult Ice Hockey Club (AIHC) based out of the 黑马磁力 Sportsplex.
The highest level Newport played was junior B in Goderich, Ont.
And while his aspirations eventually fizzled, his love of the sport has kept him on the ice for decades.
鈥淥h, I wasn鈥檛 good enough,鈥� Newport said, reflecting on his brief junior hockey career. 鈥淚鈥檓 too small.鈥�
He took a two-year hiatus from recreational hockey about 12 years ago for health reasons but re-entered the game after seeing an ad for players put out by local league manager Brian Brown.
鈥淚 phoned him up and he said, 鈥榊ep, you can be on this team,鈥欌�� Newport said. 鈥淗e gave me the name of the guy who was running the team and the rest is history.鈥�
For the past two winters, Newport has run the co-ed Golden Bears, who play in the AIHC鈥檚 Monday Night Oldtimers Division.
鈥淚 think it鈥檚 a great mix of people and a variety of skills,鈥� Newport said. 鈥淢y philosophy now is I鈥檓 up the ice and back up the ice one more time and get off. I鈥檓 a 45-second guy and that鈥檚 more than enough.鈥�
The games are an hour long. The clock doesn鈥檛 doesn鈥檛 stop when the whistle blows, and Newport encourages his players to share precious ice time with others.
鈥淚 preach to everybody that you don鈥檛 have to be out there for three or four minutes, and you鈥檙e not doing anybody any good when you鈥檙e out there that long. I鈥檝e run this team for two years now and they鈥檝e all bought into, 鈥楬ey, a minute max, and get off the ice.鈥欌��
The games are 鈥渧ery competitive,鈥� said Newport.
鈥淚t鈥檚 the nature of the game, you know, the competitiveness,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a players鈥� league, where all the guys respect the girls and some of the girls are really good hockey players. We鈥檙e all playing for something. There鈥檚 always a means to an end and everybody likes to win. That never goes away.鈥�
The camaraderie, coupled with the fact he鈥檚 still able to keep up with the play, are what Newport finds most appealing about the game.
鈥淚n the league I play in, yeah, I can keep up with pretty much anybody who鈥檚 out there,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 scored a couple goals in the playoffs.鈥�
Brown, who likens Newport to the player-coach Reg Dunlop, played by Paul Newman in the iconic hockey movie Slapshot, mixes players of different levels on teams within the division for the sake of parity.
Playing in a higher division 鈥渨as getting to be too much for some of the guys,鈥� said Newport.
鈥淪o we started this other four-team league and a lot of the players that I played with on the previous team came over and were dispersed among the teams that play in this league,鈥� he said. 鈥淪o I knew lots of the players.鈥�
While he retired just seven years ago from the structural steel business, Newport doesn鈥檛 plan to hang up his skates anytime soon.
鈥淎s long as my health will allow me to,鈥� Brown responded, when asked how long he plans on playing. 鈥淚 do it for the exercise, to get the cardio going, and now that spring is here I golf, so I get my exercise that way, too.鈥�
And while the pace is slower than the days when he played in the top-level rec leagues, Brown said he still gets the occasional bumps and bruises that come part-and-parcel with the sport.
鈥淵ou still get knocked around out there once in a while,鈥� Newport said.
鈥淵ou go home at night with a few aches and pains.鈥�
