​​Dick Irvin on the Patricks in Nelson

In January 2007, CBC-TV brought its annual Hockey Day in Canada festivities to Nelson, BC, where the Patrick family had moved a century earlier.

Veteran broadcaster Dick Irvin filed a nice feature about the Patricks, as well as a second feature on Nelson’s broader hockey history, that included brief clips of historians Eric Zweig and Craig Bowlsby.

Irwin was uniquely qualified to talk about the Patricks, since his father, Dick Sr., had played in the Pacific Coast Hockey Association in 1916-17 and later in the Western Canada Hockey League. As an eight-year-old, Irvin also met Frank Patrick when Frank was serving as business manager of the Montreal Canadiens and Dick Sr. was the team’s coach.

A DVD was produced of highlights from the CBC broadcast, including the Nelson hockey history segment. However, the Patrick segment was omitted for some reason. I’ve posted it below, although years spent in a cold storage locker weren’t kind to the VHS tape, and you’ll have to bear with a few dropouts and some questionable picture quality.

I also had a chance to briefly interview Dick Irvin that week during the opening of an exhibit on Nelson’s hockey history that I co-curated at Touchstones Museum. The portion where he discusses the Patricks — including his father’s longtime feud with Lester Patrick — can be heard below. The photo was taken by Alistair Fraser.