Kitimat Hockey
From the start, Kitimat was a strong hockey town with male, female, and minor leagues. Alcan sponsored the Kitimat Works Sports Association (1956) and Shifts A, B, and C organized league sports like hockey.
The Kitimat business community sponsored the Men’s Commercial League. Many all-star teams won championships including the Kitimat Winter Hawks, Kitimat’s senior men’s team that became the 1977 Pacific Northwest Champions. Three Kitimat players made it to the National Hockey League – Mark Fitzpatrick, Bill Riley, and Rod Pelley, and Fred Marsh invented the breakaway net peg now in use internationally.
Over the years, Kitimat skaters and teams have participated in the annual B.C. and Northern B.C. Winter Games. Eventually Kitimat with its amazing volunteer energy would host the 1993 B.C. Winter Games. In 1994, Kitimat hosted the Zone 7 selection camp for the under 18 female hockey team to attend the BC Winter Games in Comox that year. Kitimat players captured 13 of the 18 spots on the team! Most of the girls were from Schooley’s Sports Saints. Schooley’s Sports was a long-time sponsoring Kitimat business for both girls and boys hockey teams.
