Rare Hockey World Champs Pennant-'55 Penticton Vee's

[baseball tourist]

I found this is pennant in a junk store last week and was inspired by antiquetiger's LSU pennant find and the team back story to also create a thread on this item and team. Hope you don't mind a good hockey story!?






Story taken from: http://www.greatesthockeylegends.com...ticton-vs.html

In 1955 the Penticton Vs were a small town hockey team that belonged to all of Canada.

This "Gas House Gang" from the Okanagan peach country (the team's nickname refers to three varieties of peaches grown in Penticton) was a fairy tale dream come true.

The hard nosed hockey team from a town then of 14,000 went to Germany, conquered mighty Russia and avenged a stinging Canadian defeat the previous year and, for one glorious year, rule the amateur world of hockey.

The Vs had qualified for their trip to the World Hockey Championships in 1954 when they defeated the Sudbury Wolves in one of the most gut-grabbing, nail-biting Allan Cup series in history. At one point in the series the Vs were within 12 seconds of elimination. Yet victory was an obsession for the Vs. Defeat was not an option in their minds. They won their Allan Cup and in 1955 they went to Dusseldorf, Germany for the World Championships.

The boys from Penticton were not just going to Europe looking for a world championship. No, they're task was much more important than that. They were there with the singular purpose of beating the surprise reigning champions from Russia and return amateur glory to Canada where they, and everyone else in the country, felt it rightfully belonged.

They were a rag-tag bunch if there ever was one. The team was composed of former pros and home grown kids. Their hockey was far from a beautiful finesse game, no nothing like that. They played brutally physical hockey, a style that drew much ire from media, fans and teams in Europe.
The crew's task was mindbogglingly enormous, as representing Canada at the Worlds was never more important. The Russians shocked the world by dusting off Canada, the only hockey power at the time, in their very first World Championship, the year prior in 1954. They played an amazing brand of hockey, declaring to the world that they were as good if not better than Canada at hockey, setting up a rivalry that runs to this day.
Both the Soviets and the Vs rattled off perfect 7-0 records, setting up the final game of the tournament, conveniently against each other, as the championship game. The winner won the championship, the loser lost so much more than just a game.

The game itself was no contest. Say what you want about the Vs tactics, but the Soviets were no match for the Penticton boys on this night. The Vs intimidated the Russians with lusty checking checking early in the game, causing the Russians to shy away. "They quit on us, quit dead cold," barked Grant Warwick. "We banged 'em around good and hard and after we jumped into a 3-0 lead in the second period, that was it.

Mike Shabaga scored in each of the first two periods. Bill Warwick also scored twice, with George McAvoy putting the game out of reach with the fifth goal in the third period.

Goalie McLelland took care of everything else, turning aside all Soviet shots for his 4th shutout in the 8 game tournament. His puny 0.75 GAA led the tournament.

Bill Warwick led the way as the tournament's top scorer, tallying 14 goals and 22 points. The V's outscored their opposition by a combined scored of 66-6.

[Writehooks]

Great stuff, Chris!

I got to know the late Billy Warwick during his many years as a publisher and boxing judge in Edmonton, where he passed away a couple of years ago. He was a wonderful gentleman and a terrific story-teller. He never got tired of relating how he and his brothers Grant and Dickie "liberated" the IIHF world championship trophy when it was supposed to be returned prior to the following year's tournament. They had a Penticton silversmith make a duplicate, and sent that one back to Europe instead.
Billy was also the Canadian Professional Boxing Federation's ringside supervisor for the second bout between Muhammad Ali and George Chuvalo at Vancouver's Pacific Coliseum on May 1, 1972. In the video of that fight, if you look closely at the crowd in the ring at the end of the 12th round, you can see Billy chatting with both fighters and giving Ali a congratulatory slap on the back. What a guy!

Murray

[baseballart]

The Warwick brothers were present at many card and memorabilia shows, signing and selling, as I recall. I haven't seen that pennant before, very cool. However, a number of the Warwick Cafe hockey items show up with great frequency.

Max

[baseball tourist]

Thanks for the comments/info Murray and Max! Hope you guys are cheering for the Canucks to go all the way!

[Bilko G]

awesome, love it!!!


oh and ABC, ABC!!!!


(Anyone but Canucks)

[Kawika]

An all-Canadian thread. You gotta love it!

Canucks, winning ugly, all the way!!




"Don we now our gay apparel", a webblog devoted to Don Cherry's suits. Good for a laugh. http://doncherryjacketwatch.wordpress.com/