Sask. hockey player, 90, honoured for co-founding seniors league that's 'the envy of any league in Canada'

One of the men who founded what some believe is the best hockey league for seniors in Canada was honoured in Saskatoon on Wednesday.

As he has for the past three decades, 90-year-old Stan Halliwell went to a local arena to play a game with other 60-and-over players — not realizing he would be recognized after the game for co-founding the league 31 years earlier.

In an on-ice ceremony following the game at Schroh Arena, in front of friends, family, fellow players, dignitaries and a much larger than usual crowd for a Wednesday morning seniors game, it was announced that Halliwell and the league's co-founder, the late Reg Morrison, would have sections of the league's recent dressing room expansion named after them.

A new Saskatoon 60+ Hockey League award for volunteerism is also being named in their honour.

Halliwell's recent 90th birthday was also celebrated at the occasion.

While appreciative, Halliwell kept his remarks during the ceremony brief, saying he was "speechless."

Halliwell later told reporters he had no idea this was being planned, but was wondering what was going on when he saw people filtering into the arena from his place on the bench.

"I gradually caught on that it was something special. But nothing like this," he said. "This is tremendous."

WATCH | He turned 60, then played 1,800 hockey games. Now he's 90: 

He turned 60, then played 1,800 hockey games. Now he's 90.

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Stan Halliwell, a co-founder of Saskatoon's 60+ hockey league, was honoured after a game Wednesday with a surprise 90th birthday celebration and a ceremony recognizing his work as a league pioneer.

'Let's play hockey during the day'

Halliwell stopped playing hockey when he was 22 years old, but got the urge to resume when he was 56. Morrison also rediscovered a passion for playing in his 50s.

After meeting while playing hockey at the old Saskatoon Exhibition Stadium, and later becoming teammates in the city's league for 50-and-over players, Halliwell and Morrison pioneered the 60+ league in 1993 in the same rink. A couple of moves later, it eventually settled at the Schroh Arena, which league members at the time helped build.

"The 50-plus were playing in the evenings, Sundays and late at night," Halliwell recalls. "So the ice was available in the mornings. Our guys are all retired. Let's play hockey during the day."

The league's dressing room at Schroh Arena has 213 assigned stalls, including nearly 100 in the new expansion, and includes name plates alongside league and NHL team banners. There is also complimentary skate sharpening and spraying down of equipment.

"What we have here, nobody else has … their own dressing room," Halliwell said. "Guys I know in other cities are still lugging their equipment in the trunk of their car between games. So that makes a really big difference."

The dressing room is also part museum, with a plaque recognizing deceased former players opposite a wall of photos of alumni and special guests.

Halliwell said there is now league play five days a week, with up to six games a day.

He is the only player involved in the league's very first game that is still playing — and he plays twice a week.

"I don't take any pills, nothing like that," he said.

"I still feel good. Hopefully, I'll play for a few more years yet."

'Way more than a hockey league'

There were 26 players divided into two teams in 1993. Now, the league has 18 teams and room for 180 players at any one time — although it has about 350 members, including spares and alumni. It also sends teams to tournaments across the country.

League president Ken Crump said there's a waiting list to get in and they're turning guys away.

"This league is the envy of any league in Canada," Crump said. "There's nobody else who's got this many players playing at [age] 60 to 90 in a dressing room with 213 stalls.

"Nobody's got it. I guarantee it."

Crump said there's a lot of laughter and camaraderie — and it's also therapy for a lot of people.

"There's a lot of the guys in this league that have lost their wives and they need the out," he said. "It's way more than a hockey league."

The league's growth is not lost on Halliwell's wife, Laurette, who was also present for Wednesday's ceremony.

"All of a sudden it just really mushroomed into … it's unbelievable. It really is," she said. "And everybody loves it. I think it keeps these old guys healthy."

Morrison was 86 when he died in 2018.

That same year, he and Halliwell were inducted into Canada's 80+ Hockey Hall of Fame in the "builder" category.