Le Colisee, Memories of Getting “Sleighered” and Chatham Minor Hockey
The Pepsi Coleseum in Quebec City – Photo by Dwight Wakabayashi
My first memories of the storied building are from television and watching the vicious old battles between the Quebec Nordiques and the Montreal Canadiens. The Colisee was home to the Nordiques from 1972 to 1995 and after they joined the NHL in 1975, it seemed an annual ritual that the two provincial rivals would meet up in the Stanley Cup playoffs.
It also seemed a ritual that the Nordiques would lose to the Canadiens, winning only one series out of the five that they met on a Peter Stastny goal in overtime of game seven in 1984-85. I think of one of the original characters of the NHL in my time coach Michel Bergeron and his fiery style behind the bench. Dale Hunter comes to mind, as he started his career in this building in 1980.
Ironically, with the UFC in Quebec for the first time in its existence, I also think of one of my earliest experiences watching utter chaos and combat on the ice. The infamous “Vendredi Brawl,” otherwise known as the “Good Friday Massacre” took place in 1984 when after a number of fights, a bench clearing brawl broke out near the end of the second period. Brawls were not all that uncommon in the NHL at the time but this one was especially nasty and violent and culminated with Nordiques tough guy Louis Sleigher knocking out Jean Hamel and virtually ending his career with an eye injury. I was eleven years old at the time and the incident was prominent with me and my elementary school buddies. Whenever the boys at Our Lady of Fatima Catholic School got on each other’s nerves, we threatened to “Sleigher” each other for the rest of that year.
As odd as it may seem, the Nordiques sweater and this building were very prominent in hooking me into being an NHL and a combat sports fanatic. There was no UFC at the time, and my fascination and excitement with the “Good Friday Massacre,” while violent and barbaric by today’s standards, told me I was crazy like that. Raw passion, combined with hockey and fighting, sign me up, I loved every second of it.
When you are a Canadian kid playing competitive minor hockey, it isn’t long before you hear of the famed Quebec International Peewee Hockey Tournament and playing at the famed Le Colisee. It is the biggest, most prestigious tournament in the world for the top eleven and twelve-year old teams and players on the planet. The list of prominent players who have participated in the tournament is endless as 1336 players that played in the tournament went on to play in the NHL.
At the time, there were no triple-A options in Chatham-Kent, and as a double-A center, our teams were never going to be good enough to get the call for that tournament. It was a pipe dream that I wanted for our team, and when I was in Atom, word spread quickly in Chatham that the peewee team had gotten invited and were going to the tournament in February. I could not believe it, but it was the introduction to one of my earliest, local hockey idols, Brian Wiseman. That name needs no real introduction to sports fans in this area.
Wiseman was a young hockey phenom, who was already garnering a lot of attention in the country based on scoring 413 goals in a single Novice season as a nine-year old, breaking Wayne Gretzky’s record. Sure the peewees were a good team, but it was Wiseman that got them the invitation, and I started to watch him play and learn from him regularly from that point on. It is the only team from Chatham to ever get invited and play in the tournament and in this building.
When I think of Le Colisee, it only brings great smiles and sports memories to my head and I have a funny feeling that Chatham-Kent fighter Chad Laprise is only going to put an exclamation point on that on Wednesday night.
Hi Dwight, hope all is well with you. Its been a long time. I loved your article especially when you referenced the only Chatham team to ever be invited to that prestigious tournament. I thought you might find this history of that team interesting. As you stated it was a Triple A tournament and we were a Double A center. We had to apply a year earlier which was at the end of our Minor peewee year.
The fall of our Major peewee year, tournament officials came to Chatham to scout our team before we were granted an invite. The tournament officials granted us an invite to participate based on team play, record and yes our teammate Brian Wiseman. Interesting Brian made the jump to the Maroons the following season (Bantam) and he went on to have a stellar career in the Western Jr B hockey league, then at Michigan and then on to the pros inductged to the Chatham Kent Sports Hall of Fame in 2007.
The rest of us remained with the team, in Minor Bantam we lost in the Ontario Championship to Whitby. In our Major Bantam year we went on to have one the most successful season by any team in Chatham Minor Hockey. We won 3 tournaments including the International Silver Stick ( North Amercian Champions), we won the Ontario Championship and then went on to win the the Ontario Challenge Tournament that had champions from the four major leagues ( Northern Hockey, Greater Toronto Hockey League, the Alliance and the OMHA). That was an exciting time as we fell behind 3-0 to Goulding Park Rangers (GTHL) before storming back to win 4-3, with Kevin Sabourin scoring with 35 seconds remaining in regulation time. Also we toured Sweden that year as well for 2 weeks going 6 wins and 3 losses outscoring our opponents 63-21.In 2008 we were bestowed with another honor , induction into the Chatham Kent Sports Hall of Fame. The only Chatham Minor Hockey Team to do so I believe. I may not be correct on that, maybe you can check that out.
Anyways just thought you could expand on that article someday. looking back on I was very lucky to say I played with Brian Wiseman and played with a great team and great teammates. your articles are a great read. Take care.
Christian Vesnaver
Hey Christian such a long time no see. I hope you are well.Thx for your comment and your team was the standard that our team tried to follow, and we almost accomplished as much. I know you guys had a great team through the years. Remember your team and our team both won the Ontario title the same year with our tourney a week or so before. 1st time a Chatham team had won in years let alone 2 and no one has won since
Thx for reading! and I hope you are doing well and still skating