Blood on the ice: The irreverent reverends of the Flying Fathers hockey team and their traumatic 1981 visit to Anchorage. The latest Histories of Anchorage column by ANC_Historian
Father Les Costello handles the puck in a photo from a souvenir program for the 1981 Flying Fathers hockey team.on Alaska history by local historian David Reamer. Have a question about Anchorage or Alaska history or an idea for a future article? Go to the form at the bottom of this story.
The Flying Fathers originated in the Ontario town of North Bay. In 1963, Father Brian McKee learned that one of his altar boys had badly injured an eye during a hockey game. His family could not afford the necessary surgery, so McKee organized a charity hockey match of priests versus the local amateurs. In his youth, McKee had been a standout athlete who rejected an offer to play in the Canadian Football League in favor of entering the priesthood.
The team members were their usually bawdy selves, to the shock of area news organizations. Team captain Tim Shea told everyone he could that the team had earned its undefeated record that year. Said Shea, “We’re 20-0 because we cheat. We cheat like the devil.” Accordingly, during their Anchorage games, the devil, a man dressed like the devil at least, appeared on the ice and tied opposing players to their goal.
Father Vaughan Quinn, the Flying Fathers non-horse goalie, told the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, “We’re always saying to Smitty ‘Stay away from the machine.’ He always checks the machine, but obviously, the ones up here are built different than the ones back in Ontario. And, of course, we came into Anchorage late, and he didn’t check it.”
Smith was rushed to a hospital where doctors labored for hours in an unsuccessful attempt to reattach the fingers. The priest met with Pickens the next day, shared a beer, and assured him that the accident was not his fault. The demonstrably earthy Smith told his friends, “What the @#$%, I can still count to eight.”