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Instilling the passion

Broadcast Date: April 30, 1962

A group of young boys listens intently as their coach imparts words of hockey wisdom in the dressing room. But this is more than just a simple hockey lecture, says the narrator in this 1962 TV special. Locker-room sessions like this one are the training ground for making Canadians into "the world's most sophisticated hockey audience." As Canadians, "we know the game. We played it. We were lectured on strategy. And like sparrows on a fence, we listened and cared."

Instilling the passion

• Hockey coaches can be very influential figures in a young player's life. "It has been said that a team assumes the personality of its coach. No one can expect you to be perfect but just as you have high standards for your players, so too must your standards be set at a high level. Remember, your team is looking at you all the time." (Source: Chevrolet's Safe & Fun Hockey coaches' guide.)

• The Canadian connection to hockey remains as strong today as it was at the time of this 1962 clip. In a 2006 Halifax Chronicle-Herald article, Mark Starowicz, executive director of Hockey: A People's History, said: "Hockey's the national language. It transcends language itself. It transcends French-English, it transcends region, it transcends class and unifies the country. There's not a corner of the country that isn't touched by hockey. Even if you're not a hockey fan your life is touched by hockey in one way or another."

• This TV clip is from a 1962 episode of the show Camera Canada that was titled "Hockey: An Affectionate Look." It was written by Scott Young, who was a renowned Canadian sports reporter and writer. Scott Young had a passion for hockey. In the 1950s and 60s, he wrote a trilogy of popular youth novels about the sport.

• Canadian actor (and hockey-lover) Mike Myers has said that the first book report he ever wrote in school was on one of the books in Young's hockey trilogy, A Boy At the Leafs' Camp.
• Young was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame as a media honouree in 1988.
• For more on Scott Young, see the CBC Archives clip Scott Young, dean of Canadian sports writing.

• The narrator in this clip is Johnny Wayne of the famous Canadian comedy duo Wayne and Shuster. According to a 2002 Toronto Star article, "Wayne was an incurable hockey fan."

Instilling the passion

Medium: Television

Program: Camera Canada

Broadcast Date: April 30, 1962

Narrator: Johnny Wayne
Writer: Scott Young

Duration: 2:47

Writer: Scott Young

Last updated:
Sept. 9, 2010