The impending end to the 2006/7 Senior Oldtimer hockey season was marked by the Fourth Annual Oliver tournament in mid March. Of the ninety hockey players attending four were in that august group of being over 80 years old. To highlight that event we decided to focus on a senior hockey playing octogenarian of a mere 82 years who has been associated with and playing hockey for the past 75 years.

Jack Robson's family immigrated to Canada during the 1926 mining strikes in England when his father decided to take advantage of the government sponsored cheap Canadian Pacific rail fares to homestead in Calgary near the Ogden stockyards.

Learning the art and skills of Canadian Ice Hockey started in earnest when Jack's father was employed in the 'work for relief' programmes building the Calgary Arena. Joining the Canadian Navy in 1943 Jack served in the North Atlantic on HMCS Levis and was stationed in Halifax where his hockey education continued. Released in post-war 1947 Jack decided that there had to be a better way to live one's life and was fortunate enough to find a willing spouse in Eileen who agreed to marry him if he would settle down and mend his wicked ways. The partnership flourished with the production of four children. Now a family man Jack became a railway mechanic and eventually a machinist working in Calgary.

Jack rejoined the Canadian Navy in 1952 ending up in CFB Esquimalt where he retired the first time in 1974. He was then employed by the Provincial government in steam plants. Jack ended his formal working career in Victoria in 1986 when he lost a kidney and decided to retire for the second time. In 1999 the Robsons moved to Kelowna where Jack continues to enjoy playing hockey regularly with the Kelowna Ogopogos. Congratulations Jack. You are indeed a sterling example of an active senior participating in an active sport.

2007-04     Jerry Flaman       This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it