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MONTREAL - We published a six-part feature series in The Gazette last week on milestones under the headline: "Remember your first...?"
There were stories about "my first apartment", "my first car", "my first kiss", and "my first cat" among others.
The series reminded me of a sports milestone of my youth: my first pair of Tacks.
If you’re around my age (48) and played hockey as a kid, you probably had a pair of CCM Tacks skates on your Christmas wish list. If you were really good, you might have even wished for a pair of Super Tacks.
If you were really lucky, you got a pair.
CCM Hockey started out as Canada Cycle and Motor Company Limited in 1899 out of Weston, Ont., but it wasn’t until 1905 when the bicycle market started to crash that the company began making hockey equipment. The Tacks began as a boot designed by shoemaker George Tackaberry in 1905 after Hall of Famer Joe Hall felt the boot of his skate wasn’t good enough and went to Tackaberry to design a better one. CCM got the Tackaberry name when the shoemaker died in 1937 and started putting out the Tacks line of skates.
I finally got my first pair of Tacks when I was 13, and was so excited that I wrote a composition about it for my English class. My mother actually found the paper recently while clearing out some boxes at her house (she also found a box full of my old hockey and baseball cards a few years ago. Thanks, Mom!).
My Tacks weren’t under the Christmas tree. As a growing boy, new skates were an annual thing and Tacks weren’t cheap. Like many Canadian kids, I had a couple of pairs of Bauer Black Panthers, including a pair purchased at Howie Meeker Hockey School. They were good skates, but they weren’t Tacks. At the time, most of the players in the NHL were wearing Tacks or Super Tacks.
But before the start of my 1976-77 hockey season, my parents gave me the okay to get a pair of Tacks. After shopping around, I found them on sale in the sports department at the old downtown Eaton’s store.
“There they were,” I wrote in the composition. “The skates I dreamed of. Tacks with the new Tuuk blades. I tried them on and they fit perfectly. I couldn’t believe it ... I finally had the skates I had always wanted. I can’t wait to try them out in a game.”
I remember bringing the skates home and putting them beside my bed when I went to sleep that night so I could look at them again when I woke up.
Jean Béliveau was one of the many Canadiens players I remember wearing Tacks and I called him at home this week to see if he remembered when he got his first pair.
“Probably when I played junior for the Quebec Citadelles,” he said. “When I first started (playing hockey) in my hometown of Victoriaville, I don’t think I had that good of a skate.
“My first pair of skates were a Christmas gift from my parents when I was 3 or 4,” Béliveau recalled, “but don’t ask me what kind they were.”
Béliveau remembers wearing Daoust skates at one point in his Hall of Fame career, saying he did some advertising for the company “and I wouldn’t advertise a product if I didn’t use it myself.”
But Béliveau wore Tacks for most of his career with the Canadiens and was wearing them when he scored his 500th career goal in 1971 and when he won his 10th and final Stanley Cup later that year. Béliveau saved those skates and put them up for auction a few years ago.
“The grace and speed ‘Le Gros Bill’ displayed skating up and down NHL ice surfaces was always done while wearing CCM Tackaberry skates and these can be considered the most significant pair of blades ever offered from the legend’s magnificent career,” is how Classic Auctions described them.
The skates sold for $10,000 as one of 195 items Béliveau put up for auction, bringing in almost $1 million. Béliveau, now 80, chose to sell much of his memorabilia to offer a financial cushion for himself and his wife, Elise, along with their daughter, Hélène, and granddaughters Mylène and Magalie.
Marc Juteau, the president of Classic Auctions, told me his company also sold a pair of Super Tacks that Bobby Orr wore during the 1974-75 season with the Boston Bruins for $10,000. That was the season the Hall of Fame defenceman won his second Art Ross Trophy as the NHL’s leading scorer with 46 goals and 89 assists for 135 points.
CCM Hockey no longer makes the Tacks line and today’s kids are probably dreaming of a pair of U+ Crazy Light CCM skates like the ones Alex Ovechkin wears. Or maybe they want a pair of Reebok 11K Pump skates like Sidney Crosby wears, or a pair of Bauer Vapor skates like the ones Steven Stamkos wears.
But there was a time when most Canadian boys wanted a pair of Tacks.
I wish I had saved mine. They wouldn’t be worth a dime at auction, but the memory is priceless.
Reprinted with the kind permission of Stu Cowan and the Montreal Gazette.
Having introduced its Automobile Skate (so-named because it was made with the same steel as its Russell motor car) in 1905, CCM dominated the Canadian skate market unti 1927 when the Western Shoe Co. of Kitchener, Ontario, owned by the Bauer family, began to produce skates using their own boots and blades from the Starr Manufacturing Co. Introduced as the first skate in Canada to leave the factory with the blade already attached to the boot, the Bauer Supreme had become the country’s fastest selling skate.
It was a challenge to which CCM wasted little time in responding. Looking for a boot to match the Bauer Supreme, CCM turned to the shop of Manitoba shoe-maker George E. Tackaberry (1874 – 1937).
Born in Dresden, Ontario, Tackaberry had apprenticed as a shoemaker in Ontario before heading to <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 />
After carefully measuring Hall’s feet, Tackaberry used a combination of innovative design and meticulous craftsmanship to come up with an answer to the player's problem. Using moisture-resistant kangaroo hide that wouldn’t stretch, Tackaberry lowered the top of the boot nearly two inches and added a snugly-fitting reinforced heel and toe as well as an improved arch support and thicker tongue.
Said to “fit like a glove,” word of the boot quickly spread among the players in Tackaberry’s hometown including up-and-comers Lester Patrick and Art Ross. Patrick, a gangling youth from Westmount, Quebec had come to Brandon in 1904 after starring for McGill University and became Tackaberry's second customer. Meanwhile Art Ross, who joined the Brandon Elks in 1905, quickly followed suit. Before long word of the high quality skate was the talk of dressing rooms across
The mate for the Tackaberry boot arrived in 1934 when CCM general manager J.W. Gibson announced the company was producing a new “heat-treated” blade made of
“We’ve been working on this new skate for the past three years,” explained Gibson, “and we are sure that CCM is making a real contribution to the hockey world with the ‘Prolite.’ As a result of the extensive tests we have made we know that the new ‘Prolite’ is the strongest tube skate CCM has ever produced.”
To unveil its new Prolite blade, CCM enlisted the help of NHL star Charlie Conacher.
“Being leading scorer is partly luck, I guess, but skates have a lot to do with it. Split seconds count, so you must have skates that are light and lively enabling you to skate fast, shift quickly or stop instantly. CCM’s Prolite helps to make these things possible,” declared Conacher.
With its combination of Prolite blade and Tackaberry boot CCM had found its answer to the Bauer Supreme and before long its CCM Tacks returned the company to the forefront of skate manufacturing in
Swansea Historical Society
Swansea Town Hall
95 Lavinia Ave.
Toronto, ON
Wednesday, March 7
7:30 p.m.
North York Historical Society
North York Central Library
5120 Yonge St.
Toronto, ON
Wednesday, March 21
7:30 p.m.
Riverdale Historical Society
Royal Canadian Curling Club
131 Broadview Ave.
Toronto, ON
Tuesday, March 27
7:30 p.m.
Weston Historical Society
Westminster United Church Hall
69 William St.
Weston, ON
Wednesday, April 4
7:30 p.m.
West Toronto Junction Historical Society
Annette Library
145 Annette St.
Toronto, ON
Thursday, April 5
7:30 p.m.
New Toronto Historical Society
LAMP Community Centre
185 Fifth St.
Etobicoke, ON
Tuesday, April 10
7:00 p.m.
Below is a request from a production company in Montreal called Cinelande. It is legitimate. They are currently doing a documentary and are in need of 1937 CCM. Although I have bikes from the 30s, I do not have one that meets their criteria. So we are putting it out to the CCM community to see if anyone is interested in helping out by either renting or selling them the required bike. If so, please get a hold of Eric using the contact info below.
Wanted: Blue 1937 CCM juvenile bike to rent or buy for a documentary
We are looking for a CCM juvenile bike to rent or buy as a prop for an upcoming documentary shot in Montreal.
We are also open to buy the bike parts separately in order to reassemble the bike.
We are flexible with the details (other dates and colors are possible) but ideally the full bike should be:
· 1937 juvenile bike for a 10 year old
· Blue with a gold trim
· Have a leather toolbox that fits to the saddle
· Have a rear rack
· Needs to be in working condition
The pricing and terms of the rental or purchase can be discussed to best suit the owner. In general the rental is 30% of the price.
The production company will be responsible for the transportation and will buy a special case to protect it. We will be extremely careful with the bike, however it will be fully insured. It should be noted that there will be no stunts with the bike; it is needed for ordinary riding down the street.
We will need the bike by February 20th 2012.
Please contact Eric Barbeau at 514-971-1570 or by email ericbarbeaulala@hotmail.com
There are, as far as I know, four known examples of the CCM motor cycle. The one belonging to Ron Miller in Nova Scotia, the one in the museum in St. Marys (see below), one in a museum in Burnaby, B.C. and the one restored by Dave Brown (see the article below).
Motor cycles were made by Canada Cycle & Motor during 1910 and 1911. They were not forerunners of motorcycles, but rather a hygrid that combined features of both a bicycle and a motorcycle. Listed as a "Lightwieght Motorcycle" or a "Motor Bicycle," they weighed less than 90 lbs. and had a 2 hp. motor that could reach a speed of approx. 30 mph. The one cylinder engine was made in Switzerland; the seat was made in England and everything else was made in Canada, including the wooden rims. They sold for about $200.00, a substantial price at the time.
For the thrill of the ride
May 1, 2009 by Joni Miltenburg
(reprinted by kind permission of the Observer Xtra in Elmira, ON)
David Brown has spent thousands of hours and dollars restoring a motorbike he’ll never ride, and probably never even start. The bike in question is a CCM motor bicycle, built around 1909, and one of just four still in existence.
Brown has been collecting and restoring antique bicycles and motorcycles for years; he has a small fleet of bicycles that date from the turn of the 20th century, including a high-wheeled penny-farthing. The collection of bicycles in his garage and basement are only a few of the many cycles he’s restored and sold over the years. After years of hunting down or painstakingly recreating missing pieces, Brown’s CCM motor bicycle is 95 per cent complete.
Brown got a lead on the CCM bike five years ago, when a friend walked into Elmira’s W.C. Brown & Sons menswear store and told him about a pair of bicycles listed for sale in Toronto. Brown called the seller and enquired about the bicycles. One was a Massey-Harris bicycle, the man said, but he didn’t even know what the other one was. He described it, and Brown was intrigued; it sounded like a CCM motorcycle, which he’d spent years searching for.
"I said I’d be down in a week or so to look at it. And geez, that night I couldn’t sleep,” Brown chuckled. “I phoned him up the next day and said ‘I’ll be down tonight.’”
CCM only made motor bicycles for three or four years, and they’re accordingly rare. The other three remaining bikes are all in museums: the science museum in Ottawa, a motorcycle museum in Vancouver and a little museum in St. Mary’s, Ontario. When Brown saw the bike, he realized it was exactly what he had been looking for and bought it on the spot, not bothering to haggle over the price. What there was of it was in decent shape, but it was missing a number of parts, including a motor. It took Brown a year to lay his hands on an engine for the bike; the man who sold it to him finally decided he had too many projects on the go to have time for this one.
The motor is called a moto sacoche, or “motor in a bag,” and sits in a subframe that can be removed as one piece. Brown has a friend in Denmark – another motorcycle enthusiast – who built the subframe for him. The control levers were made in the Czech Republic by a man who does custom millwork, and Brown himself spent one winter making the oil pumps on an antique metal lathe. The part that was hardest to come by was the magneto, an ignition system that uses magnets to power the spark plugs. Brown bought several of them, from Holland and from Germany, but neither was the right fit. He made it a habit to check eBay for magnetos, and eventually he stumbled across one that looked right. Bidding was sitting at $25; Brown thought that was absurdly low, so he bid $215 and waited on pins and needles to see how high the bidding would go.
“About two minutes before it was over, I put it up to $500, hoping I wouldn’t have to pay that,” Brown said. “And I didn’t; I only paid $42 for it. Nobody bid on it.”
Brown said he got lucky because the listing didn’t specify what it was for; if people had realized what it was, the part could easily have gone for more than $500. After five years, the motorbike is 95 per cent complete. The only parts still missing are the scooped metal covers for the motor, which Brown made a stab at replicating, but found too intricate. A friend of his found a pair in Switzerland, so he’s keeping his eyes open. The bike is probably capable of running, but Brown has never tried to start it, saying the engine should be taken apart and completely rebuilt first.
“I would hate to fire it up and blow a rod and have a big pile of scrap,” he said.
If he can get the bike fully restored, Brown might see if a museum is interested in acquiring it. For him, the fun is in the restoration, not the finished piece. In that, he said, he’s like any antique collector:
“It’s the hunt. Once you’ve got it, what are you going to do with it?”
At the height of his career there was simply nothing in Canada comparable to the spectacle of Torchy Peden and his CCM Flyer on a Saturday night at Maple Leaf Gardens. With motor cars lining the curb, Toronto's finest attempted to bring order to the crowd headed in to catch the last night of the six day race and the magic that was Torchy.
It was a curious mix as various members of the city's elite waited in line with a veritable who's who of the Toronto underworld.
"Women, painted and prim, men, sober and drunk, dolls, mobsters, and businessmen, walkers in every street of life in Toronto, thrust and push and fight their ways beyond the corridprs and through doors and runways leading to the clattering, insane tumult beyond."
As the throng streamed through the turnstiles, they were hit by the aroma of cigarettes and hot dogs and a swarm of familiar faces.
"Doc Morton, grizzled and lean as whipcord from endless bike toil, shuffles along. There is Fred Bullivant, mother, father, doctor and advisor extraordinaire to bike riders and officials.....Cheek by jowl with these are men and women of note in the city and others who seldom appear in daylight."
As the big clock in the centre of the arena ticks off the last hour of the race, Willie Spencer orchestras the scene from above with a field phone linked to his race director on the floor.
"Tell Peden to chase. Tell the Germans to ride like they've never rode in their lives before. See so and so in his bunk and tell him to get out there or this is the last bike race he will ever see from the infield."
Spencer turns his head, swallows a glass of orange juice and hollers into the loudspeaker: "Six.....six laps to go!"
As Spencer's voice calls out above the din, Torchy abandons the pack to claim the finish line, much to the cheering delight of those now too exhausted or intoxicated to stand.
* All quotes from: Andy Lytle, "Star Sport Rays," Toronto Star, May 13, 1935.
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