The Heritage Sports Wall of Fame at the Cowichan Lake Sports Arena gained two new plaques Saturday, June 16.
Ken Calder and Tony Feltrin are the newest inductees to the wall, which celebrates people who have added lustre to the Lake area’s sports efforts, either by their own success, or as builders.
Calder played all his minor hockey in Lake Cowichan, then went on to play minor pro hockey before returning to university.
Emcee Doug Callsen said, “I met Kenny the first few months I was here in Lake Cowichan in the fall of 1970 before the arena opened. It was just being finished, and of course everybody was getting very excited about hockey in Lake Cowichan and forming a rec league and my friend, Jim Cameron, he organized a bunch of us guys who just dropped in here from Saskatchewan. We go down to Fuller Lake to practise, to get ready for the rec league.
“We were the Island Shake and Shingle Packers, and on that team there was Jimmy Calder, Dave Calder, Al Calder, Jim Cameron…but anyways, we went down to Fuller Lake…and out on the ice was this kid who was about 12 years old, and man this kid was the smoothest skater. He could shoot, he could do it all. And that was Kenny Calder. That was the first time I remember ever seeing him and I remember thinking: that kid’s going to be a good hockey player.”
Calder went to the Kelowna Buckaroos, making the BCJHL all stars as the Buckaroos best defenceman.
“During this time, in Kelowna, radio play-by-play announcer, Jim Hughson, current Hockey Night in Canada announcer, nicknamed Ken ‘Caz’ for casual, because of his smooth and effortless skating and playing ability. That name has stuck with Ken for all these years.”
Moving to Nanaimo, he continued to shine, and eventually went to the NCAA Western Michigan University Broncos hockey team. His further hockey career took him as far as Germany before he returned to Spokane, WA.
After finishing his studies, he returned home to Lake Cowichan where he has been involved in sports for many years.
Calder then thanked everyone for the honour, talking a little about himself and his career.
“One thing I remember is we had five us of in the BC Junior Hockey League all at the same time when I played. And I thought that was pretty sweet for the size of our town.”
While Calder was playing at Kelowna, his coach was Larry McNab.
“He tried as hard as he could to get me that scholarship, and I thank him for that,” Calder said.
Feltrin was not from the Cowichan Lake area originally. Born in Ladysmith and brought up in Nanaimo, he later met and married Kelly Peterson and moved to the Lake.
His own career in hockey started well, with stints at the Pittsburgh Penguins and the New York Rangers, but an eye injury put an end that. However, New York manager Phil Esposito offered him a job as a scout, and he’s been scouting for NHL teams ever since.
In fact, Feltrin was in Russia, scouting amateur talent, when Lake Cowichan Mayor Ross Forrest phoned to tell him he’d been selected for the Wall of Fame.
But even before he met his future wife, Feltrin knew Lake Cowichan and its arena.
“My first recollection of Lake Cowichan was coming up to this brand new arena in the spring of 1971, Dad bombing up that new Highway 18 to play in a peewee pup tournament coached by my long time friend, Mike Johnson’s dad, Neil.”
During his 35 years of living at the Lake, Feltrin has met many of the Wall’s inductees, including: Brad Palmer, with whom he played junior hockey in Victoria; Brian Lundberg, with whom he played some pro hockey “including playing with him during his NHL debut in Toronto — a pretty neat experience”.
He’s also played against Richard Hajdu, scouted Stephen Lundgren, and “had a great friendship over the years” with legendary golfer Dawn Coe-Jones.
After the ceremonies in the curling rink, everyone went out to the arena foyer, where the plaques were unveiled.
