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The medal for hockey at the 1948 Winter Olympics

The medal for hockey at the 1948 Winter Olympics

The front of the 1948 gold medal for hockey at the Winter Olympics.
The front of the 1948 gold medal for hockey at the Winter Olympics.

Well, this is a bit off-topic but still neat. My colleague Drew Snider from the TransLink media relations team sent along two photos and this story:

So I’m just finishing an interview with Ron Bencze of Global and this guy comes over and says, “Wanna see a gold medal?”. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a little presentation box and inside – there it is. The medal for hockey at the 1948 Winter Olympics in St Moritz, Switzerland. His dad was Reg Schroeter, and he was playing for a commercial league team in Ottawa when it was announced that Canada would not be sending a team to the Games that year (which would have been the first Games since 1936, because of The War). The Prime Minister’s office was flooded with letters from outraged Canadians (imagine: Canadians getting passionate about hockey!) and when the PMO said there was nothing that could be done, a doctor with the RCAF stepped up and said, “I can put a team together.”. Which is what he did, pulling players like Reg from local teams. And they won the gold medal. And there it is.

The back of the 1948 medal.
The back of the 1948 medal.
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