The Winnipeg Falcons

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Most people know that cohesion is essential for team success, but it's rare for adversity to create the roots for such bonding. Except that is exactly the story of Canada's first Olympic Games Hockey Gold medalists, the team from Winnipeg - the Falcons. At the turn of the 20th century, Winnipeg was a city made up of people from many different cultures and it was tough for newcomers to integrate into the largely British community. One cultural group was from Iceland and the fair-haired, fair-skinned and larger-than-average Icelandic people stood out so that few people wanted to mix with them. When a group of young Icelandic boys, desperate to compete in hockey were denied entry into local hockey leagues, they formed their own. Winnipeg's loss was the local Icelandic community's gain, as a small group of boys from the same school and church, played hockey, skated and bonded together, more closely than anyone could ever imagine, winning the Independent Hockey League in 1915.

The leader of this particular group of players, the Winnipeg Falcons was Frank Frederickson who also captained the University of Manitoba's hockey team. When Frederickson enlisted in the 223rd Scandinavian Battalion to serve in the First World War, given the close bonds of the group, all of his team-mates joined him. Before the troop was shipped overseas, the former Falcons all obsessed with hockey, squeezed in as much practice on local lakes as possible. Once in Europe, they joined the Royal Flying Corps and served in England, France and Cairo, all places where it was impossible to play hockey. Sadly, two of the men died in action and as a remarkable coincidence, in an area of mass graves were buried only eight gravestones apart.

Returning from the war, the team continued where they left off as the most successful team in western Canada, winning the Allen Cup in 1920. With little preparation, the Canadian Olympic Committee felt there best chance of success was to pick a team for the Antwerp Olympic demonstration event from a team that seemed so close, and they asked the Falcons to represent Canada. Playing 'like a well-oiled machine' in their four matches they gave up only one goal and the goalie, Wally Byron, spent large portions of the games sitting down watching, just like the audience! Before returning home as heroes to a ticker-tape parade in Winnipeg, in full realization of the horrific experiences in the First World War and out of respect the Falcons took tours of the battlefields of nearby Flanders.

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