Hockey

When a close friend of Floyd (Butch) Martin's visited his house in Waterloo, Ont., a few years ago, he wanted to see Martin's Olympic silver and bronze medals.

Martin then produced a jar that housed the keepsakes.

The friend, a local jeweller named Murray Dunnette, thought this was no way to showcase a pair of Olympic medals, so he built his friend a plaque to display the awards. "I think he thought I was going to lose them," said Martin, who turns 80 next month.

Martin, a luxury automobile salesman (he still puts in a few days a week), was a two-time Olympian as a member of the Kitchener-Waterloo Dutchmen.

The Dutchmen won the 1955 Allan Cup, emblematic of the Canadian senior hockey championship. One of the perks of the title was to represent Canada at the next men's world championship or Olympic Games.

When the Dutchmen arrived for the 1956 Winter Games at Cortina d'Ampezzo, they weren't prepared for the magnitude of the event and never got on track. Still, the Ontario squad advanced to the medal round (which was then a six-team round-robin format) along with the United States, Soviet Union, Sweden, Czechoslovakia and Germany.

Canada won three of its medal-round games but dropped a 4-1 decision to the U.S. (silver medal at 4-1) and 2-0 to the gold-medal winning Soviets (5-0) and had to settle for third place.

Four years later, when the Dutchmen were asked to travel to Squaw Valley for the 1960 Games because the defending Allan Cup champion Whitby Dunlops had declined to participate, the team felt more confident about its chances.

"We really had a good team in Squaw Valley," Martin said. "I think we had the best team. We just lost that one game by one goal."

That game was when the U.S. upset Canada 2-1 in the medal round on the strength of a 38-save performance from goalie Jack McCartan, who wound up playing senior hockey in Kitchener the next season. McCartan, who was on loan from the U.S. Army, made 20 stops in the second period.

Former Boston Bruins president, general manager and head coach Harry Sinden was then on loan to the Dutchmen for the Olympics and recalled that McCartan was the difference.

"McCartan played well in goal, much like Jim Craig did for the 1980 [U.S.] team," Sinden said. "It was shocking to us. We were probably favoured by seven goals against them."

The 1960 Dutchmen squad was coached by Kitchener legend Bobby Bauer, a member of the Bruins famed Kraut Line with Woody Dumart and Milt Schmidt. In that pivotal game against the Americans, Bauer watched his team fall behind 2-0 after two periods after Bob Cleary jammed in a rebound and Paul Johnson intercepted a pass for a breakaway goal.

Some game reports indicated that Canada hit the post or crossbar seven times in the game. They couldn't beat McCartan until Jimmy Connelly converted a pass from Martin, who wore No. 15, with less than 10 minutes remaining in the third period.

"Beating the Canadians in hockey is like Canada beating us in baseball," said U.S. player Bill Cleary, brother of Bob Cleary.

U.S. coach Jack Riley was diplomatic about the upset victory. "If we played the Canadians 10 times, they'd win nine of them," he said.

Martin said another factor in that first Miracle on Ice was the U.S. team received a lift from the boisterous crowd. "The rink wasn't that big, maybe 6,000 or 7,000 seats. They were a young team with a lot of college kids and the crowd really pushed them."

With the Olympic champ then determined by the team with the best record from the round-robin medal round, "we figured that we'd still win because we felt the Americans would lose some games," Martin said.

"I remember we went to their game against the Russians the next day and they got down to them, but the Americans came back [and won 3-2]."

Neither the Americans (gold) nor the Dutchmen lost another game, including Canada's 8-5 win over the Soviet Union (bronze) to claim the silver medal. Martin scored six goals and six assists in seven games.

Martin was born in the village of Floradale, Ont., just outside of Waterloo. His hockey career began with the junior B Waterloo Siskins and junior A Guelph Biltmores. He later joined the Dutchmen, only to stop playing because of his Mennonite upbringing (he couldn't play on Sundays.)

The decision also caused a contract he signed to be with the New York Rangers of the NHL to be cancelled.

Martin later returned to play for the Dutchmen and, after his two Olympic appearances, played pro for the Johnstown Jets of the Eastern Hockey League and briefly for the Pittsburgh Hornets of the AHL.

After a stint at player-coach with the Jets, Martin returned home to become the second head coach of the Kitchener Rangers. In his one season with the major-junior club, he helped develop future NHLers Walt Tkaczuk and Mike Robitaille.

Of course, the 1977 cult classic movie Slap Shot is about Johnstown's fictional player-coach Reg Dunlop.

(What does Martin think of the character portrayed by Paul Newman? "The movie wasn't too far off the mark," he said.)

Martin continued to play old-timers hockey into his early 70s and still plays golf a few times a week at the Westmount Golf and Country Club. (Martin was asked if his handicap was still under 10. "No. When your age increases, so does your handicap," he said.)

A single-digit handicap golfer when he was younger, Martin was one of the closest friends of the late Canadian golf legend Moe Norman. Norman was known for driving from tournament to tournament across Canada in his Cadillac that often doubled as his sleeping quarters. It was Martin who arranged for Norman's car every two years or so.

Just like Norman's passing hurt when the golf legend died in 2004, Martin admitted it took time for the sting of the 1960 Olympic disappointment to heal.

The curiousness of his grandchildren, when they ask about Martin's two medals that are on display, has helped him deal with the discontent.

"You know what? They don't care if we won the gold or not," he said. "All they care about is that I was part of an Olympic team.

"I wouldn't change a thing."