WAPELLA — Don Purdy is likely the oldest living alumni of the Wapella Blackhawks. He turned 100 years old on Sept. 16, and at age 20, was one heck of a goaltender beginning in the 1944 season.
Hockey looked a lot different back in the 1940s.
Goalie masks were nearly two decades away from existence when famous Montreal Canadiens netminder Jacques Plante first donned one on Nov. 1, 1959. And shin guards? Well, those could be improvised with a couple Eaton’s catalogues held up with canning rings if one’s legs were spindly enough. This was the hockey world Don Purdy found himself in where the pucks weren’t any slower than they are now, and some of those Wapella powerhouse hockey names still live on.
Doug Purdy explained his father was unable to enlist when other young men his age were heading off to serve in the Second World War, due to a hunting mishap as a young teenager.
“Unfortunately, when my Dad was just 14 years old, he was going to go shoot some gophers, which were a real plague around gardens,” Purdy explained. With .22 caliber rifle in hand, young Don mounted his bicycle when the gun slipped off.
“Unbeknownst to him, it discharged the shell into his shoulder,” Doug explained. Due to the injury bleeding profusely, the immediate assessment was to amputate the arm, but the young man eventually ended up in the operating room instead. Doctors were able to save the arm and Don retained full function of the limb, but he wasn’t able to serve his country overseas when the time came in later years.
“The shrapnel that was left in his body made my father ineligible as a health risk to join the Canadian Armed Forces,” Doug explained.
“At 19 years old, he was crushed because all of his friends, everybody in town, left to fight for Canada.”
Instead, Purdy took to the ice, playing goal for the Wapella Blackhawks in a veritable golden age of rural hockey. Perhaps the injury of his youth actually saved his life, even if it meant temporary disappointment.
Small guy in net
Don Purdy wasn’t an imposing figure between the posts, standing at 5’9” and weighing 119 lbs, so he had to rely on his quick wits and even faster reflexes.
“He tells me the story about how his mom used to double knit the mitts for being the goalie, and he was pretty proud of himself, because he would have quick reflexes at that smaller size,” Doug said. “And he did it out of survival. They didn’t have the blockers back then like they do today, and he just had to be good enough to catch that puck in the air. He was successful, and if there was a scrum, you’ve got your job—keep it out of the net.”
There were still a lot of big guys strapping on the skates in those days, but one saving grace was that Purdy ran with—not against—the famous Holloway boys, a name that still remains synonymous with highly-skilled hockey players from Wapella.
There were no goalie masks back in Don Purdy’s day, but Doug remembers his Dad tell of a harrowing moment in net wearing something else on his head.
“So he’s playing with a baseball cap on, and sure enough, if there wasn’t a scrum,” Doug recalls. “A big guy gets knocked over and the skate splits the brim of his baseball cap!”
The realization quickly set in that had that blade been a few inches in a different direction, the impact would have caused serious damage to the young goaltender, perhaps even cutting his hockey career short.
“He says, you know, just a few inches more, and a raw blade could have just opened up my head or my throat, and I could have been a goner right there,” Doug recounts.
Some other fond memories harken back to the innocent days of using a frozen-over slough (imagining it were Maple Leaf Gardens) and a never-ending supply of road apple pucks courtesy of numerous workhorses.
“A lot of these boys, the story goes, is that they got good just using sticks on the ponds and using horse turds as their first hockey pucks,” Doug said. “The farm boys would beat the city kids because they had more hockey pucks to deal with!”
Don Purdy would end up playing five seasons with the Blackhawks, expertly minding the hometeam’s net until the age of 25. From there, Don embarked on a full life of work, marriage, a family, and retirement. But remembering those hours spent on the ice as a young man will always remain clear.
