Allan Wilfrid Pickard was a Canadian ice hockey administrator, who served as president of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association from 1947 to 1950.
84 Facts About Al Pickard
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When Canada opted out of the 1947 Ice Hockey World Championships and decided not to participate in the 1948 Winter Olympics, Al Pickard felt that Canada was obliged to send a team due to its place as a top hockey nation, and nominated the Ottawa RCAF Flyers who won the gold medal for Canada and lived up to the requirements of the Olympic Oath as amateurs.
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Al Pickard was against proposals by the National Hockey League and the Ontario Hockey Association to semi-professionalize player contracts in 1948, which coincided with calls for the word amateur to be dropped from the CAHA name, and to retire the Allan Cup and Memorial Cup since the trophies were no longer perceived to represent amateur competition.
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Al Pickard sought to maintain the existing professional-amateur agreement, and keep regulations which limited player movement across Canada to suit the amateur needs.
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Al Pickard was opposed to granting exclusive radio broadcast rights to any station for the CAHA playoffs, and wanted to see ice hockey rules more strictly enforced for player safety while condemning the failure players and coaches to respect the on-ice officials.
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Al Pickard previously served a vice-president of the CAHA for five years, was chairman of both the finance and minor ice hockey committees, and annually sought to increase grants for the development of minor hockey in Canada.
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Al Pickard founded a YMCA hockey league in the mid-1920s which evolved into the Regina Parks Hockey League, and later founded the Regina Aces senior ice hockey team in the late 1920s.
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Al Pickard served as president of the Saskatchewan Amateur Hockey Association and the Saskatchewan Senior Hockey League during World War II, where he facilitated the participation of Royal Canadian Air Force and Canadian Army teams.
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Al Pickard later returned as president of the Saskatchewan Senior Hockey League, then became a governor of the Western Canada Junior Hockey League and the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League.
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Al Pickard retired from hockey in 1955 after managing the first CAHA general meeting to be held in Saskatchewan.
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Al Pickard was born and raised in Exeter, Ontario, and graduated from the University of Western Ontario before moving to Saskatchewan.
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Al Pickard oversaw the preparation of its zoning by-laws and development strategy, and later sat on the Ausable Bayfield Conservation Authority.
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Al Pickard was inducted into the builder category of both the Hockey Hall of Fame and the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame in 1958, then was a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame selection committee.
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Allan Wilfrid Al Pickard was born on January 2,1895, in Exeter, Ontario.
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Al Pickard was the second of three sons born to Robert E Pickard and Elizabeth Verity.
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Al Pickard's father owned a farm near Frobisher, Saskatchewan, where Pickard worked during the summers as a youth.
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Al Pickard played minor ice hockey in Exeter, completed secondary school at the South Huron District High School, then played senior ice hockey on a combined team from Exeter and nearby Zurich, Ontario.
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Al Pickard graduated from the University of Western Ontario and moved to Saskatchewan.
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Pickard enlisted the Canadian Expeditionary Force in Regina on June 4,1918, and served in the Canadian Air Force during World War I His younger brother Cecil G Pickard was killed in action in Europe.
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Al Pickard taught Sunday school in Regina and was a Methodist.
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Al Pickard founded a hockey league based at the YMCA in Regina during the mid-1920s, which evolved into the Regina Parks Hockey League.
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Al Pickard became a team representative in the new league, and an executive member of the Saskatchewan Amateur Hockey Association from Regina.
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Al Pickard was unanimously re-elected president in 1942, and the SAHA agreed to facilitate Canadian military hockey teams as much as possible since those teams would be the majority of the league.
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Al Pickard was elected second vice-president of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association in April 1942, at a time when it looked to maintain hockey during the war and reinvest profits into minor ice hockey.
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Al Pickard annually oversaw senior and junior ice hockey playoffs in Western Canada as a vice-president.
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Al Pickard was appointed chairman of the CAHA's committee to oversee and develop minor hockey with more grants.
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Al Pickard was re-elected in April 1944, and continued as chairman of the finance committee and increasing grants for minor hockey.
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Al Pickard felt that the CAHA and the government could mutually work together to improve the general fitness of teenaged boys, and that junior hockey would benefit from increased interest in sport.
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Al Pickard was elected first vice-president of the CAHA in April 1945.
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Al Pickard was named chairman of the resolutions committee, which received recommended changes from the rules committee which the CAHA enlarged to include representation from each branch.
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Al Pickard expected a boom in global hockey during the post-war period, and stressed the importance of grants towards building minor ice hockey as a foundation for the expected growth.
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Al Pickard remained in charge of Western Canada playoffs and clarified this ruling by stating that any player still in an active military service, remained the property of the same hockey team.
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Al Pickard was re-elected in May 1946, when the CAHA wanted to renegotiate and improve the financial terms of its professional-amateur agreement with the NHL.
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Al Pickard used the public address system to ask for calm, but spectators continued to litter the ice, and he subsequently forfeited the game in favour of the Toronto St Michael's Majors.
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Al Pickard warned that any repeat of the incident would result in the series being awarded to St Michael's.
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Al Pickard was later criticized by the Ontario Hockey Association for playing the series in Western Canada, but he felt that supporters of junior hockey in Western Canada deserved a chance to see the games despite the recent practice of playing all Memorial Cup finals at Maple Leaf Gardens to bring the greatest profit.
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Al Pickard was elected president of the CAHA on May 5,1947, to succeed Hanson Dowell.
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Al Pickard stated that the CAHA and AHAUS would be assured of autonomy under the agreement which governed relationships between national ice hockey organizations.
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Al Pickard attended the IIHF congress that debated whether ice hockey at the 1948 Winter Olympics would be played according to the strict International Olympic Committee definition of amateur, or whether the IIHF would hold its Ice Hockey World Championships separate from the Olympic Games.
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Al Pickard felt Canada was obliged to send a Canada men's national ice hockey team truly representative of the "greatest hockey country" in the world, and honestly take the Olympic Oath as amateurs.
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Al Pickard stated that Canada would have been misunderstood, "if we had refused to participate because we did not get our own way".
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Al Pickard announced the Ottawa RCAF Flyers were chosen to represent the country and appeal to patriotic support for the RCAF, but still continued to press for international recognition of the CAHA's definition of amateur.
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Al Pickard confirmed that the CAHA would pay the national team's expenses for the Olympics, and provide support to use the best Canadian players available.
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Al Pickard later stated that the national team was highly regarded in Europe and were noted for being gentlemen both on and off the ice.
45.
Al Pickard oversaw the playoffs in Western Canada for the Allan Cup and Memorial Cup.
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Al Pickard supported a resolution where any radio station which broadcast a team's games during the regular season would not pay a premium for the additional playoffs games, and the appointment of Foster Hewitt as the national radio commissioner.
47.
CKFI protested to Al Pickard regarding a $25-per-game fee imposed by Hewitt to broadcast games for the Fort Frances Canadians during the 1948 Allan Cup playoffs, and claimed that no radio station paid fees to broadcast the 1948 Memorial Cup playoffs.
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Al Pickard did not want to grant exclusive radio broadcast rights to any station, and the CAHA decided that only out-of-town radio stations would pay a broadcast fee for final games in the Allan Cup and Memorial Cup.
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Al Pickard scheduled the seventh game of the Western Canada junior final at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, where the 1948 Memorial Cup finals were scheduled.
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Al Pickard responded that any money collected by the CAHA was contributed to the "good of hockey in Canada", and that approximately $78,000 of its annual $100,000 intake was reinvested into future development and covered travel expenses for teams during Allan Cup and Memorial Cup play.
51.
Al Pickard declined to change the referees and the Port Arthur West End Bruins won the series in the fourth game.
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Al Pickard suspended Flyers' player Alf Guarda two years for striking referee Vic Lindquist during game four, and condemned the behaviour of Emms and the team's failure to respect on-ice officials.
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Al Pickard proposed that such professional leagues could have a reserve list not exceeding twenty players from an amateur senior league who were signed to a contract with a reserve clause.
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Al Pickard proposed that senior leagues agree to a salary limit and a player draft by professional leagues.
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CAHA life member and former Allan Cup trustee William Northey, wrote a letter to Al Pickard which recommended that both the Allan Cup and Memorial Cup be retired since they no longer represented amateur competition, and that the CAHA should drop the word amateur from its name.
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Al Pickard favoured renewing the existing professional-amateur agreement signed in 1947, and stated that the proposals "would have a profound effect on the future of the CAHA if accepted".
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Al Pickard stated they would be tabled for further consideration, and Campbell understood that it would not affect the existing agreement between the NHL and the CAHA which included the annual grant.
58.
Al Pickard was re-elected president in April 1948, despite speculation from the Canadian Press that he would be replaced.
59.
Al Pickard attended the IIHF congress in Zurich in July 1948, and sought for the adoption of the CAHA definition of amateur in an effort to ice an international team truly representative of Canada.
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Al Pickard wanted to see the rules more strictly enforced for player safety, but denied that rules were tailored to professional play in the United States and stated that the rules were made by mutual decision between the CAHA and the NHL.
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Al Pickard supported the Maples Leafs in the dispute, but would not suspend Lewicki from junior hockey since the player was only aged 17 at the time and had not yet signed or been offered the professional contract.
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Al Pickard sought to maintain the existing regulations which limited player movement across Canada to suit the amateur needs.
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Al Pickard conceded that Edmonton was not the strongest choice since it played at the intermediate level of senior hockey, but amateur requirements made it difficult to send a top flight team to the Ice Hockey World Championships.
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Al Pickard felt it was not interesting to spectators and noted that players were being injured along the sideboards.
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Al Pickard believed that changes would eventually be made, despite difficulties in agreeing on rule changes to prevent the issue but not cause other problems.
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Al Pickard refused to accept the motion and deferred it until a proper notice of motion was submitted to update the constitution.
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Al Pickard did not seek a fourth term as president and expected to return to senior hockey in Saskatchewan.
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Al Pickard was succeeded as president by Doug Grimston on June 10,1950.
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Al Pickard became governor of the Western Canada Junior Hockey League in September 1951 to succeed Red Dutton, and welcomed the Edmonton Oil Kings as a new entry to the league.
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Al Pickard was asked by the QAHA to be an intermediary with the CAHA for its successful application for reinstatement in May 1953.
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Al Pickard was in charge of senior and junior Western Canada playoffs in 1954, and was chosen to present the 1955 Memorial Cup which was played in Regina.
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Al Pickard was named a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame inductee selection committee in April 1958, and remained on the committee until June 1964.
73.
Al Pickard retired in 1960, after working 36 years for the Regina Public School Board.
74.
Al Pickard served as a principal for 30 years, and worked at six schools which included Benson, Strathcona, Davin, Kitchener, Connaught and Herchmer.
75.
Al Pickard was a member of the Wascana Golf and Country Club in Regina and served one term as its president.
76.
Al Pickard soon became involved in civic duties in Exeter and served as the chairman of town's first planning committee.
77.
Al Pickard oversaw the preparation of zoning by-laws and a development strategy, approved by the Government of Ontario in 1965.
78.
Al Pickard later represented Exeter on the Ausable Bayfield Conservation Authority.
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Al Pickard died at the South Huron Hospital in Exeter on April 7,1975.
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Al Pickard never married and was interred in family plot in Exeter Public Cemetery.
81.
Al Pickard received the AHAUS citation award in 1950, for contributions to the game in the United States.
82.
Al Pickard received the Ontario Hockey Association Gold Stick Award in 1953, for service to the game in Canada.
83.
Al Pickard was made a life member of both the SAHA and CAHA, was an honorary president of the Manitoba Amateur Hockey Association, and was inducted into the builder category of the Hockey Hall of Fame on April 27,1958.
84.
Al Pickard was inducted into the builder category of the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame in 1967, and was posthumously inducted into the builder category of the Regina Sports Hall of Fame on October 7,2004.