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The Video - 1946 Tourney Footage
February/March 2020:
The video - as this has aptly been named with many local Minnesota hockey enthusiasts, and high school hockey fans alike that 'RARE footage maybe had surfaced to be preserved of likely never before seen EARLY State Tournament footage' from as described by phone as "from the 1945-1946 State Tournament".
The story of how this was acquired begins ironically with an Ebay Stewart's hockey photo, where long-time Eveleth friend and collector Craig Figgy Ritacco messaged us to say a Stewart's Hockey photo was on Ebay that we maybe would be interested in acquiring for our archives. Figgy, an Eveleth, MN native and hockey player himself from the range said - "those bastards always had good teams, and beat us". Immediately the photo was placed in our saved items folder [no surprise here to many, but many historical Minnesota hockey items make their way to Ebay for purchasing].
Following the purchase of said photo, we received a message from the seller stating: "we know about you, your website, and we have something that you likely would really be interested in, in an old reel-to-reel sitting in a box that I [Dale] also purchased on Ebay from a Donald Wilkie in Bloomington, MN some 15+ years ago of what was then listed as; State High School Hockey Tournament footage from 1945-1946 on a reel".
I personally couldn't believe what I was reading, that something of this magnitude exists, is in possession of someone in Minnesota, and NEEDED SO DESPERATELY to be preserved as this is likely the only footage of this early tournament to exist - that again has been sitting in a cardboard box for over 15 years since it was purchased, then who knows prior where since 1946!
My mind raced, and was desperate for a message back that I had sent to Dale to 'please, please let us assist you in preserving this, and I have a great resource that I have used in the past for other archival hockey projects for many across Minnesota'.
Dale Johnson with reel-to-reel
Mr. Dale Johnson, long-time Duluth collector of ALL things Duluth history, Duluth hockey, Duluth really anything phoned me directly and we chatted for easily 2+ hours about his collection, mutual acquaintances known in former NHL Warren Butch Williams, our website and history that we have assisted in preserving in the past, and our personal commitment to Dale to not only drive to Duluth (1.5 hours from Monticello, MN) to pick-up, but also to return to him once the digitization was completed.
Dale was elated that "this would be preserved finally", and we felt honored that he entrusted us in having this completed for not only him, but anyone else whose Grandfathers, Fathers participated in the 1946 Tourney, and also the State High School League who could potentially utilize this for future purposes?
Following an early February drive to Duluth to pick-up the reel-to-reel, we tweeted that this was secured for digitization, creating a stir across the State of Hockey landscape that something of this magnitude even exists, with many saying 'my Grandpa participated in that tournament, and I cannot wait to see this footage'.
Almost exactly 1 month later after dropping the reel off to be preserved, and finally picking it up on a nice 10GB digitally preserved USB stick, the approximately 28 minutes footage was watched and to our elation, the typed synopsis that accompanied the reel is SPOT ON to what was on the footage. The reel was labeled 1945-1946 State Tournament, but upon watching, appears to be solely of the 1946 Tournament - which was the first under MSHSL operations, and features notable future Hockey Hall of Fame inductee as referee - Moose Goheen donning his AHA sweater as official, footage of Tourney founder Gene Aldrich smiling for the camera, and of course the Tourneys first noted super star in Roseau's Masked Marvel Rube Bjorkman in action, and a close-up with the shown All-Tournament team.
Until watching this video, we were unaware of the noted face-off approach with the puck not being dropped by a referee, but with the puck being placed on the face-off dot, then a fight ensued for possession at presumably a referee whistle (as shown in the shown footage that even originally had no sound).
This footage is owned by our newly found friend, and long-time collector - Dale Johnson of Duluth, and we are SO, SO elated that he allowed us to have this footage digitized, preserved, and watched for so many to enjoy on the pages of Vintage MN Hockey.
3 page type-written document that accompanied reel (describing scene-by-scene synopsis):
