Chipperfield honoured by Hall induction

Ron Chipperfield nearly didn’t become a Brandon Wheat King 55 years ago. As it turned out, the 71-year-old Vancouver resident from Minnedosa did pick the team he grew up idolizing, set records in the process and was named to the team’s Hall of Fame on Thursday.

“Deep down, that’s where I was going to be,” Chipperfield said on Friday afternoon. “It was closest to home and when I was a kid, I was on that radio listening to Henry Stothard. The Wheat Kings were my team.”

“I got to go to Brandon occasionally to see a game. I was in love with the Wheat Kings. Billy Fairbairn and Juha (Widing) and Ray Brownlee and Jack Borotsik were my guys. I never missed a 12:20 sporting show with Henry Stothard because I wanted to know if there was a game that night and would have my radio on and listening at my bedside.”

As a youngster, he also attended hockey schools held by former Wheat Kings defenceman and future coach Dunc McCallum, who Chipperfield calls a mentor.

Chipperfield actually came to Brandon originally at 14 at the behest of the Wheat Kings and joined a Junior B team with fellow Minnedosa product Frank Taylor and Oak Lake’s Don Larway. After three months, they went home because he could get more ice playing on multiple teams in Minnedosa.

The next season, the three 15-year-olds joined the Manitoba Junior Hockey League’s Dauphin Kings for the 1969-70 season, and Chipperfield finished near the top of the MJHL in scoring with a league-high 39 goals and 40 assists in 34 games as Dauphin defended its league title.

That made him a highly sought-after commodity, and he was contacted by teams from across Western Canada. But that summer, Wheat Kings coach Gerry Brisson vigorously recruited him, and he eventually agreed.

When he joined the Wheat Kings, they were playing in the Manex Arena, the team’s temporary home after the Wheat City Arena was demolished in 1969.

“You have no idea,” Chipperfield said. “It was like we had died and gone to heaven.”

The team had a tiny dressing room up some stairs in the Manex, and while Chipperfield noted everyone did the best they could to make it comfortable, they noticed the difference everywhere else.

“We did the best we could, and nobody really complained,” Chipperfield said. “When we were on the road and going into other arenas, we could go ‘Oh.’ The move to the new arena was amazing.”

The Wheat Kings played their first game in the facility on Oct. 14, 1972, thumping the visiting Winnipeg Jets 13-1 in front of 5,032 spectators.

He last set foot in the Keystone Centre about a decade ago, and while it was in the summer and there was no ice, it was a nice chance to look around.

Chipperfield, who has spent a lifetime inside rinks, could tell the facility had been kept up and was happy to see it’s still in great shape.

“The city knows what it has here,” Chipperfield said. “It’s a piece that pulls the community together in so many ways. It’s good the people who were in a position to look after have done it. I’ve seen it in a lot of buildings. Some are kept up and do last. They’ll last as long as the people who are in a position to make sure they’re maintained properly.

“If you have a period of negligence, a year is maybe not a problem, but if you have somebody in there who doesn’t do anything for five or 10 years, you have a problem.”

RECORDS SET

His career certainly hit another level in Brandon.

Chipperfield is second all-time in WHL history for goals scored with 261, one behind Glen Goodall of Seattle, who played 147 more games in the league. He’s tied for 11th in career points with 470.

In the 1972-73 season, during his first of two seasons as captain, he set a team record with 72 goals in just 59 games. As it turned out, the best was yet to come.

In 66 games as a 19-year-old during the 1973-74 season, Chipperfield scored 90 goals and added 72 assists to become the only Wheat King in modern history to lead the team in scoring for four consecutive seasons. He also won the league scoring crown and was named MVP as he scored an incredible 12 hat tricks.

He was rewarded for his success in the spring of 1974 when he was selected 17th overall by the NHL’s California Golden Seals and 20th overall by the Vancouver Blazers in the WHA’s secret amateur draft. He was the first Wheat Kings to be selected in the first round of the NHL draft in the WHL era.

He chose to go to a better team in the upstart WHA, and in five seasons in the league, piled up 330 points in 369 regular season games.

He joined the Edmonton Oilers for the 1977-78 WHA season, and was there a year later when a 17-year-old phenom named Wayne Gretzky joined the team for the WHA’s final season.

When the Oilers switched over to the NHL for the 1979-80 season, Chipperfield served as the franchise’s first captain.

After a trade to the Quebec Nordiques that didn’t work out well for him, Chipperfield headed to Italy for what he thought would be a year.

Following three seasons in Europe with HC Bolzano — he had 307 points in 84 games — he hurt his back and took over as head coach for the 1984-85 season.

He married his wife, Cristina, in Italy and started Optima World Sports Agency, which brought North American hockey players to Europe.

The family moved to West Vancouver with daughter Alexandra in 2003 to give her a chance to be educated in English. Chipperfield is now retired.

COMING HOME

Chipperfield, who doesn’t have any family in Minnedosa anymore, was last in the area two years ago because the 1973-74 Wheat Kings squad still meets up at Clear Lake for a biennial reunion. The last one drew 18 or 19 players.

“We have a blast,” Chipperfield said. “It’s so good. I can’t believe we still have 18 guys on that coming back. That’s amazing. It really is.”

The Wheat Kings Hall of Fame was launched in 2024, with former player, three-time coach, manager, director, part owner, and league governor Glen Lawson inducted along with legendary forward Bill Fairbairn. Last year, Brian Propp was added.

Chipperfield learned he was being inducted into the Hall of Fame six weeks ago, and worked out all the many details to attend with Brandon Wheat Kings Foundation executive director Robbie Zetariuk.

“It caught me off guard,” Chipperfield said. “I was so surprised and honoured to be considered. I told them right away I was coming.”

While Chipperfield has spent a lifetime in the game as a player and later an agent, his paths have never crossed with fellow inductee Ray Allison, who played his first games with the Wheat Kings the year after he graduated.

Allison had a scheduling conflict and couldn’t attend, but Chipperfield plans to connect with him soon.

Chipperfield was officially inducted during the Black & Gold Gala at the Manitoba Room on Thursday evening. He and his wife, Cristina, were impressed by the event, which replaced the old Sportsman’s Dinner.

“I’ve been to a lot of banquets, and that was top class,” Chipperfield said. “That’s what the NHL puts on, that kind of stuff. I didn’t expect anything like that, to be honest with you. I knew Brandon was capable, but I wasn’t sure what type of event it would be.

“It blew me away. Those people did a bang-up job top to bottom. My wife too, we were talking about it last night and again this morning about how great it was.”

Chipperfield, who was named one of the 50 best players in WHL history in 2016 by the league, said the Hall of Fame honour took him right back to his very start with the club.

“I have a lot of gratitude to all the people who helped me get there because it’s a long journey and there is a lot of adversity in junior hockey,” Chipperfield said. “It’s a pretty up-and-down time, and there are struggles. You can’t do it alone, you have to lean on people, and I had the people around me to support that.”

pbergson@brandonsun.com