The Legend’s display at Revolution Place recently received a treasure – the last skates Billy wore before he retired from hockey. “I got these new skates, Tackaberries, after returning home after the war and before I got married in 1950. Everyone wanted a pair of Tacks. That was a big thing. My skates were size 6 ½. I had guards sewn on and they were hand sharpened by Andy Neil in his machine shop near the train station. I can’t remember how much I paid for them but it would have seemed like a lot in those days. I never got another pair after these. At the time I was playing for the Key Club, a post war hockey team organized by Max Swallow.” (Billy). I (Stan Neufeld) spoke with Billy at the time he donated his Tacks to the Legend’s display. At ninety-three he has a keen memory. He reminisced about his youth, the war and his hockey experiences upon returning home from the battlefields in Europe where he lost his twin brother Bobbie. He went on to describe what it meant to own a pair of Tackaberry’s. They were the Cadillacs of hockey skates.

At the age of sixteen when I (Stan) began playing senior hockey for the Grande Prairie Athletics. I obtained my first pair of “Tacks” thanks to a deal from my coach, Pete Wright. He owned Wright’s Sporting Goods Store on Richmond Ave. at the time. I suspect he may have lost money on that sale. Pete was good to kids he thought were short of money.

Everyone I knew who played hockey in my era wanted a pair of Tacks. They featured the most up-to-date engineering design to maximize speed, maneuverability, stability, safety and comfort. The boots were made of kangaroo leather (maybe that was intended to give them more jump) – a reinforced toe, an elevated heel and specially designed tubes and blades. Both of my older brothers, Bob and Ron purchased Tacks. When Bob was playing for the U of A Golden Bears he obtained a discount. His skates are also housed in our display at Revolution Place. Given the shortage of money when I (Stan) was growing up those who have never played hockey may have wondered - “What’s the big deal about a pair of skates?” It may come at as a surprise that skates have an impressive history.

What’s In A Skate? - Ancient History to Modern Technology

Wikipedia tells us the Finns, gave us the first iteration of skates in about 3000BC. They strapped animal bones to their feet and used poles for propulsion to traverse the vast expanses of ice that covered their country. Norway and Sweden improved upon animal bones by attaching wooden blades to their feet. Further research reports that in the fourteenth century AD the Dutch were the first to strap iron blades to their boots making it possible to obtain traction without the use of poles. They enabled skaters to push and glide – a movement they called the Dutch Roll. Many kids when Billy was young learned to skate on Bob skates. In my opinion anyone who can master anything more than balancing and skating forward in a straight line on Bob skates might well be the next Barbara Ann Scott of figure skating or the Guy LaFleur of hockey. I failed to ask Billy if he and his brother ever used Bob skates.

This highly condensed version of the earliest account of skates brings us to the early part of this century and Canada’s contribution to the finely tuned skates hockey players currently wear. It is the product of competition between Bauer and CCM for supremacy in the market for skates and hockey equipment today. CCM dominated the skate market in the early part of the century with their “Automobile Skate” (it utilized the material that was used in the manufacture of the Russel Motor car). For a brief period the Bauer Supreme skate took over first place with the introduction of the first skate with the blade already attached to the boot. CCM responded quickly with a boot to match or surpass the Bauer Supreme. It was the Tackaberry - named after Manitoba’s George E. Tackaberry (1874 – 1937). George Tackaberry from Brandon, Manitoba was a maker of orthopedic shoes for people with mobility disabilities. In 1905 Tackaberry’s neighbour, a tough and rugged NHL hockey player, Joe Hall presented Tackaberry with a challenge to which he responded and has made his name famous in hockey circles. Hall complained that the skates he wore could not withstand a full season of the punishment they took on the ice.

The boot Tackaberry designed featured a lower boot, snugly fitting reinforced heels and toes, arch supports he designed, a thicker tongue and moisture-resistant kangaroo hide that would not stretch out of shape. In 1927 CCM took over Tackaberry’s operation and seven years later introduced a skate that featured the Tackaberry boot attached to their new heat-treated Prolite blade made of Sheffield steel – the strongest tube skate that CCM had ever made. NHL super star Conacher endorsed the skate as “light and lively enabling you to skate fast, shift quickly or stop instantly and it fit like a glove.” The competition between Bauer and CCM for supremacy in skate and hockey equipment sales is ongoing. When Billy Bessent, and I (Stan) were still playing the game our preference was the Tack and we were wiling to make sacrifices to obtain them.

Billy was a product of the Great Depression. The Bessents were not poor by standards of the day. Their father Bert owned a car, one of the few in Grande Prairie at that time and he had a good job as a salesman. However, everyone had to pinch pennies to make ends meet and to many, skates were an unnecessary luxury. To make things more difficult for the Bessent family, two of everything was necessary as the twins Billy and Bobby did everything together. During winter in Grande Prairie when Billy and Bobby were growing up sledding, skating and hockey were THE games in town. One could make one’s own sled but skates had to be purchased if you wanted to skate and play hockey. Billy and Bobby loved hockey. They were 5 ½ feet tall and less than 150 pounds – featherweights - but athletic, fast, feisty and mischievous. Hockey was the twins “go to” activity during the winter. Skates were a big deal and there was no way their Dad, Bert could avoid getting involved and equip the twins with hockey equipment. Bert who came from England knew little about hockey until the twins drew him into the sport. He provided transportation and became active in organizing hockey activities and coaching.

The twins graduated to play senior hockey in 1941 and were picked on the South Peace All-Stars. That year they won the Peace River championship against the North Peace.  If we had the Legends program back then Bert probably would have been named as a builder along with the likes of Frank Edmundson. We now honour these legends in a pioneer category.

Billy and Bobby defied age restrictions signing up with the RCAF at age seventeen.

The skates Billy and Bobby used when they enlisted were an important part of the luggage they took to their first postings in Canada - Edmonton, Manitoba and then Quebec. In Souris Manitoba they played on a team that won the Station Championships. Two other Peace River boys, Danny Rycroft and Simon Haakstad played on the same team. It was the last hockey that Billy and Bobby would play together.

They graduated as gunners and in Halifax boarded the Queen Mary for England and active service overseas. As far as we know Billy and Bobby did not play hockey overseas like their buddies, Charlie Turner, Roy Wright and several others. The wartime teams in England did not know what they missed by overlooking the Bessent twins. Perhaps they were considered too small to play the game with the big boys. How wrong they were. Billy and Bobby could hold their own in any company and I would be willing to bet that their skates made the journey overseas with them and they would have been available. Sadly Bobby did not survive the war. Following a bombing mission his plane crash-landed in heavy fog. Except for the pilot and tail gunner the crew perished as the plane burned. The pilot watched in horror.

Max and Billy’s Legacy

Two veterans of WW11 and Grande Prairie ice hockey heroes are still with us here in Grande Prairie - Billy Bessent and Max Henning. Both are decorated war veterans having received the Distinguished Flying Medal of Honour.

Billy was midgunner in a Lancaster Bomber that flew missions to liberate Berlin from the Nazis.

Max was pilot of a B-52 Bomber that drove the Germans out of Vitry France. Both are honorary members of the GP Hockey Legends Committee. Both have played hockey for teams like the Red Devils, D- Company, the Key Club, the Legion, and the Athletics and both have contributed to Grande Prairie hockey history in more ways than we can recount here.

In fact, they planted the seed for the creation of our legends project back in 2002.