For many Canadians, it’s easy to mark the passage of time by counting hockey seasons. On the grand scale, the sport is interlinked with the national identity–who are Canadians if not great lovers of the game? But on the small scale too, hockey can be used to measure a childhood into adulthood. Memories become associated with games played and friends made– and that is perhaps no truer than for the skaters of the Ranchmen Hockey Club.
On June 14 the Cochrane Ranchmen will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the club’s founding. As an organization, the Ranchmen are old enough to measure generations, and generations of players will gather in Cochrane to remember a time seasons long past.
In 1975 the Ranchmen played in their inaugural season at the Cochrane Arena, which members of the team helped to build, and which they shared with a team from Bearspaw. Thirteen years later, Charlie Crutchfield joined the squad for his first of 35 seasons.
“[The team] is something that has evolved,” Crutchfield said. “Over the years there have been a lot of friendships made, it’s been a lot of fun and we’ve done a lot of things together.”
In 2022 Crutchfield hung up his skates, putting a cap on what became the longest tenure of any Ranchmen hockey player. Crutchfield is now responsible for helping to organize a celebration of the team’s history, and said that close to 90 people–50 of which are former players–will gather again in Cochrane to commemorate half a century of hockey history.
For the first thirty years of the club’s existence there was only one ice rink in town, making the options for teams to play on fairly limited for local men. The Ranchmen were able to keep their team together year after year, decade after decade, because for a lot of the players, it was more than just a hockey team.
“Right from day one I was welcomed and I just felt like a part of the team and I knew that it was something that was going to continue,” said Crutchfield. “It’s not just on the ice, it’s a great group of guys to call teammates…we’ve enjoyed each other's company and it’s just something that has evolved over time.”
Back in the day, the Ranchmen used to play somewhere close to 60 games a year. Today, the team still plays out of the SLS Centre, but they don’t play nearly as many games as they once did.
For a lot of Ranchmen players, past and present, the club has become a family affair. Crutchfield said he credits the club for many of his closest friendships, and said that the wives and girlfriends and extended families of the players throughout the club’s history have also developed deep ties.
Crutchfield added that former players will be travelling from all across the country for the occasion this weekend, some who he hasn’t seen in 30 years.
And what’s the secret to keeping a hockey team for men aged 35 and up going all these years? “I don't know,” said Crutchfield. “The guys just like to play together.”
