Al Pickard
Allan Wilfrid Pickard was a Canadian ice hockey administrator, who served as president of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association from 1947 to 1950. When Canada opted out of the 1947 Ice Hockey World Championships and decided not to participate in the 1948 Winter Olympics, Pickard felt that Canada was obliged to send a team due to its place as a top hockey nation, and nominated the Ottawa RCAF Flyers who won the gold medal for Canada and lived up to the requirements of the Olympic Oath as amateurs. Despite disagreement with the International Olympic Committee, he sought for the International Ice Hockey Federation to adopt the CAHA definition of amateur in the face of increasing difficulty in selecting the Canada men's national ice hockey team.
Pickard was against proposals by the National Hockey League and the Ontario Hockey Association to semi-professionalize player contracts in 1948, which coincided with calls for the word amateur to be dropped from the CAHA name, and to retire the Allan Cup and Memorial Cup since the trophies were no longer perceived to represent amateur competition. Pickard sought to maintain the existing professional-amateur agreement, and keep regulations which limited player movement across Canada to suit the amateur needs. In response to alleged exploitation of players by professional teams, Pickard embarked on a campaign to establish hockey as a reputable profession with the co-operation of the Amateur Hockey Association of the United States and professional leagues. He was opposed to granting exclusive radio broadcast rights to any station for the CAHA playoffs, and wanted to see ice hockey rules more strictly enforced for player safety while condemning the failure players and coaches to respect the on-ice officials.
Pickard previously served a vice-president of the CAHA for five years, was chairman of both the finance and minor ice hockey committees, and annually sought to increase grants for the development of minor hockey in Canada. He founded a YMCA hockey league in the mid-1920s which evolved into the Regina Parks Hockey League, and later founded the Regina Aces senior ice hockey team in the late 1920s. He served as president of the Saskatchewan Amateur Hockey Association and the Saskatchewan Senior Hockey League during World War II, where he facilitated the participation of Royal Canadian Air Force and Canadian Army teams. After his time as CAHA president, Pickard served the 1950–51 season as president of the Western Canada Senior Hockey League when the Major Series of senior hockey and the Alexander Cup were introduced. He later returned as president of the Saskatchewan Senior Hockey League, then became a governor of the Western Canada Junior Hockey League and the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League. He retired from hockey in 1955 after managing the first CAHA general meeting to be held in Saskatchewan.
Pickard was born and raised in Exeter, Ontario, and graduated from the University of Western Ontario before moving to Saskatchewan. After working for the Regina Public School Board as a school principal for 30 years, he returned to Exeter and served as the chairman of town's first planning committee. He oversaw the preparation of its zoning by-laws and development strategy, and later sat on the Ausable Bayfield Conservation Authority. Pickard was inducted into the builder category of both the Hockey Hall of Fame and the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame in 1958, then was a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame selection committee.
Early life and move to Regina
Allan Wilfrid Pickard was born on January 2, 1895, in Exeter, Ontario. He was the second of three sons born to Robert E. Pickard and Elizabeth Verity. His father owned a farm near Frobisher, Saskatchewan, where Pickard worked during the summers as a youth. Pickard played minor ice hockey in Exeter, completed secondary school at the South Huron District High School, then played senior ice hockey on a combined team from Exeter and nearby Zurich, Ontario. He graduated from the University of Western Ontario and moved to Saskatchewan.Pickard enlisted the Canadian Expeditionary Force in Regina on June 4, 1918, and served in the Canadian Air Force during World War I. His younger brother Cecil G. Pickard was killed in action in Europe. After the war, Pickard worked as a farmer, then taught school for a year in rural Saskatchewan before moving to Regina to continue as a teacher. He also taught Sunday school in Regina and was a Methodist.
Early Saskatchewan hockey career
Pickard founded a hockey league based at the YMCA in Regina during the mid-1920s, which evolved into the Regina Parks Hockey League. In the later 1920s, he formed the Regina Aces senior hockey team and was its coach and president.The Saskatchewan Senior Hockey League was formed in 1938, when teams from the north and south of Saskatchewan combined to play in one league instead of two separate groups without formal organization. Pickard became a team representative in the new league, and an executive member of the Saskatchewan Amateur Hockey Association from Regina. Due to a shortage of players during World War II, the Regina Aces and the Regina Victorias amalgamated into the same club for the 1939–40 season, with Pickard remaining as team president and Victorias' coach Duke Dutkowski taking over behind the bench. Pickard served as president of the Saskatchewan Senior Hockey League during the 1940–41 and 1941–42 seasons. He was also vice-president of the SAHA for the 1940–41 season, and was elected its president on October 27, 1941, to succeed Cliff Anderson.
Before the 1942–43 season, Pickard met with Lionel Conacher who indicated potential teams from the Royal Canadian Air Force which expected to operate teams based in Saskatoon and Yorkton, and the Canadian Army which might have teams in Regina and Moose Jaw. Pickard and Conacher met with local rink managers to discuss securing ice for games. Pickard was unanimously re-elected president in 1942, and the SAHA agreed to facilitate Canadian military hockey teams as much as possible since those teams would be the majority of the league. During the season, Pickard and the SAHA received complaints that boys as young as age 14 were being signed up by hockey clubs and offered $50 per week to play hockey instead of attending school. The SAHA responded with required proof of age and parental signatures for all players aged 14 years and older. Pickard was succeeded by J. H. Abbott as president in October 1943.
Canadian hockey vice-president
Pickard was elected second vice-president of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association in April 1942, at a time when it looked to maintain hockey during the war and reinvest profits into minor ice hockey. He annually oversaw senior and junior ice hockey playoffs in Western Canada as a vice-president.Pickard was re-elected in April 1943, and named a trustee for the T. B. Patton Cup, the championship trophy for senior hockey in Western Canada. He was appointed chairman of the CAHA's committee to oversee and develop minor hockey with more grants. The CAHA supported the war effort with a C$5,000 donation to the Government of Canada and purchased $10,000 in Victory bonds.
Pickard was re-elected in April 1944, and continued as chairman of the finance committee and increasing grants for minor hockey. In February 1945, the physical fitness branch of the Canadian Ministry of Health announced plans to become a liaison between sports organizations and the Government of Canada. Pickard felt that the CAHA and the government could mutually work together to improve the general fitness of teenaged boys, and that junior hockey would benefit from increased interest in sport.
In 1944, the CAHA sought to establish a closer working relationship with the Amateur Hockey Association of the United States and the British Ice Hockey Association. The CAHA approved severing its relations with the Ligue Internationale de Hockey sur Glace which had become inactive due to the war, and recognize the International Ice Hockey Association instead as the authority of global hockey since it was still active during the war. The International Ice Hockey Association was led by past CAHA president W. G. Hardy, and negotiated professional-amateur agreements with the National Hockey League on behalf of the CAHA. Pickard named to the corresponding negotiating committee.
Pickard was elected first vice-president of the CAHA in April 1945. He was named chairman of the resolutions committee, which received recommended changes from the rules committee which the CAHA enlarged to include representation from each branch. He expected a boom in global hockey during the post-war period, and stressed the importance of grants towards building minor ice hockey as a foundation for the expected growth.
The CAHA resumed the national Allan Cup championship for senior hockey after a hiatus in 1945 due to travel costs during the war, and increased travel allowances for teams which reached the inter-provincial playoffs for the Allan Cup and the national Memorial Cup championship for junior hockey. The CAHA declared that any player from a defunct military hockey team would now be a free agent and could register to play where he resided post-war without requiring the usual transfer. Pickard remained in charge of Western Canada playoffs and clarified this ruling by stating that any player still in an active military service, remained the property of the same hockey team.
Pickard was re-elected in May 1946, when the CAHA wanted to renegotiate and improve the financial terms of its professional-amateur agreement with the NHL. The CAHA sought a $2,000 fee per player signed to a contract in the NHL, and $1,000 per player signed to a minor league contract. The CAHA rejected the initial flat rate offer of $20,000 by the NHL for any number amateur players signed as a professionals. The flat rate was later accepted with the stipulation that a junior-aged player could sign a contract at age 16, but remain in junior hockey under CAHA jurisdiction until age 18.
During game three of the 1947 Memorial Cup played at the Queen City Gardens in Regina, Moose Jaw Canucks defender Jim Bedard was assessed a penalty which spectators protested by throwing bottles onto the ice surface. Pickard used the public address system to ask for calm, but spectators continued to litter the ice, and he subsequently forfeited the game in favour of the Toronto St. Michael's Majors. He warned that any repeat of the incident would result in the series being awarded to St. Michael's. He was later criticized by the Ontario Hockey Association for playing the series in Western Canada, but he felt that supporters of junior hockey in Western Canada deserved a chance to see the games despite the recent practice of playing all Memorial Cup finals at Maple Leaf Gardens to bring the greatest profit.