|
Special Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Rod Fonteyne
is being inducted as an athlete for his achievements and
skill in the sport of hockey. It is my special
pleasure to give you a little more insight into this man as
we induct him tonight.
Rod Fonteyne
was born in 1932; if he was alive today he would be
eighty-five years old. He grew up and participated in
sports in Wetaskiwin with many of our Wetaskiwin and County
Sports Hall of Fame former inductees. His particular
era seemed to produce many outstanding athletes and “local
heroes”, and Rod is one of them. Ralph Pocock, a
former inductee, was Rod’s mentor. Ralph made sure that
young hockey players from Wetaskiwin were able to get the
opportunities that were available at the time. It was
Ralph who drove Rod and his brother Val to a hockey camp in
Calgary where scouts for the WHL Medicine Hat Tigers invited
both Fonteyne boys to try out for the team and both made the
team. If they had not played on that junior team Val
might not have had his wonderful NHL career and Rod might
have taken a different life path.
After his
junior career Rod played hockey on the Ponoka Stampeders
with former inductee Ron Emmerling. When he took on the
player-coach job with the Wetaskiwin Colonels he played with
former inductees Ron Emmerling, Bill Gust, Jerry Greene and
Bud Moen, During the summers Rod played baseball in
Wetaskiwin and in the 1950’s the Wetaskiwin Senior Baseball
Club that Rod played on won four or five league
championships, three of them consecutively. The team was
coached by former inductee Al Arner and team members besides
Rod included former inductees Val Fonteyne, Bud Moan, Rodney
Schneck and Ron Emmerling. When Rod played with
the Wetaskiwin Relics Old Timers Hockey Team his team mates
included Val Fonteyne and Ron Emmerling and other former
inductees Ed Ruff, Willie Littlechild, Larry Hodgson, Pat
Barry, Ross MacEachern and Harold Maciborski. Sadly five of
the men I’ve mentioned have passed away but seven of them
are in attendance tonight and you were introduced to them
earlier. I’m sure Rod would be very pleased to see all of
his Wetaskiwin buddies and I bet they all have some Rod
Fonteyne stories!
Hockey became
Rod’s passion and really his life. After junior hockey he
played Intermediate Hockey with the Ponoka Stampeders of the
Central Alberta Intermediate A Hockey League for two years -
he probably would have played for the Wetaskiwin Colonels
but they did not field a team. After his two years in
Ponoka it was Al Arner that persuaded Rod to become
Player-coach of the Wetaskiwin Colonels when the Colonels
had been accepted into the Battle River Hockey Intermediate
“B” League with teams from Daysland, Killam, Hardisty,
Alliance and Camrose. As a player, Rod was the class of the
Battle River Hockey league. He won the league scoring
title and was named MVP of the Colonels. It was noted
in the Wetaskiwin Times after a win in Camrose: “Rod
Fonteyne was the individual star, playing a sparkling
offensive game as well as turning in some nice work on
defence. Time and again he brought spectators to their
feet with his rink length dashes and at times he threw the
Camrose defence into confusion. He beat the Camrose
net minder three times and picked up an assist on Kaiser’s
goal in the third period to maintain his league leadership
in total points.
After a year
as player/coach of the Colonels, Rod tried his game in the
semi-pro and pro leagues and played in Washington, Seattle
and Milwaukee. The first two years in Washington and
Seattle he was cut from the teams and finished the hockey
season playing for the Red Deer Rustlers. In his second year
with the Rustlers, the team won the Western Canadian
Championship and Rod was the leading scorer. Rod’s
longest stint as a pro was with the Milwaukee Falcons of the
International Hockey League when he played fifty-five games.
After another year playing in Red Deer, Rod was at a
cross-roads in his career and on a whim he accepted a job as
player/coach with the Fort St. John Flyers Senior Men’s
Hockey Team……..not even knowing where Fort St. John was!
It was the
1961-62 season when Rod moved to Fort St. John. He was
twenty-nine years old. Rod lived in Fort St John the
rest of his life. He played hockey for another
thirty-seven years retiring from the game at age sixty-six
when his knees gave out! His drive and enthusiasm must
have rubbed off on the Flyers hockey club. In his
first year as player-coach the team won their first of
eleven south Peace league championships. In the twelve years
he coached they also won seven All Peace championships.
After coaching Rod continued playing for the Flyers. In his
fifteen year career with the Flyers he scored over 300
goals, won three consecutive scoring titles and was awarded
two league MVP honours - again he was often the “class of
the field”. Even though Rod lived in the far north, he
did maintain contact with family and friends in Wetaskiwin
and he did play Old Timer Hockey on the Wetaskiwin Relics
team for almost twenty years…from the mid ’70’s to the early
’90's, traveling with the team to tournaments in Canada and
some international events.
Rod’s #12
jersey is enshrined in the North Peace Arena in Fort St.
John where Rod left a formidable, half-century legacy in the
Fort St. John’s hockey community. This hockey season
the Flyers wore a commemorative patch on their jerseys to
remember Fonteyne. After retiring Rod still attended
every home game, he was a 'fixture' in the arena.
At his
Celebration of Life in Fort St John, Rod was described by
the Flyers president as a humble gentleman who gave much of
himself and had an infectious smile. Reading the
condolences on line when Rod passed away, it is evident how
well liked, how well respected, and how much he meant to his
community……he was an icon in the city and the “Face of the
Fort St John Flyers”.
Rod Fonteyne
spent his life involved in a sport he loved….we should all
be so lucky! He was an exceptional athlete and hockey
player and so worthy of induction into the Wetaskiwin and
County Sports Hall of Fame.
Return to
Rod Fonteyne Inductee Page
Read the acceptance speech by Rod's brother
Val Fonteyne
|
