Dave Dunn comes home for Blackhawks legends game
January 25, 2022, 8:38 am
Kara Kinna
Former NHLer and Wapella Blackhawks player Dave Dunn was in his home town rink on Saturday, January 15, one of many in the crowd enjoying the Wapella Blackhawks legends game that night.
The game was a Big Six league game played between the Moosomin Rangers and the Wawota Flyers, with the Rangers donning Wapella Blackhawks jerseys as a tribute to the lengendary Wapella Blackhawks players who dominated senior hockey in the 1950s and 1960s. Dunn himself was a member of the Blackhawks, playing in the 1960s, and then again in the 1980s after winding up a career in the NHL.
During the legends game on January 15, Dunn said he was thrilled to see the condition of the Wapella rink.
“I was flabergasted when I walked into this arena and saw what condition it’s in. It’s absolutely beautiful,” he said during a speech after the game. “What the town has done for this rink—we’ve always had pride in the Blackhawks. If you can see how much pride the folks in Wapella have, if you look around the rink, how great it is, there is attention to all the details, and as an ex-Blackhawk, when I walked in, I was floored.
“My history as a Blackhawk ends in 1989 when I was 44 years old and I was playing for the Blackhawks. I played my last full hockey game in this arena. I went to Kipling the next night to play the final game in the Mainline league and blew my knee out, and that ended my dreams of playing in this legends game.”
Dunn said he cherishes his connections to both Wapella and Moosomin.
“My connection with Moosomin goes back further, besides marrying my bride of 55 years, from Moosomin,” he said.
“I got called up to play with the Rangers in Bantam and Midget. We won the provincial B championship in 1962-63 and we won the Midget championship in 64-65. Besides that, my wife’s family came from here, so I spent an awful lot of time in Moosomin playing in your old rink.
“Having said that about my connection in Moosomin, my heart and soul has always been in Wapella.
“And when I played in the NHL, I was known to my teammates as the fella from Wapella. I was very proud of that and when I played I brought Bobby Hull here, the Good Brothers here, I brought my teammates and we raised money. So when I walk into this rink 50 years later and see what shape it’s in, my heart’s just pumping. What a great job the town of Wapella has done.
“So my connections to this rink and what you guys are doing here, creating this legend game, is fabulous. It’s unbelievable. There are very few small senior teams around anymore. So it takes people like you to make it work.”
After the game, the Blackhawks game-worn jerseys were auctioned off in the lobby of the Wapella rink. Dunn bid $2,500 on the jersey with his name on it.
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