The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
This story is about the life and hockey career of Paddy Ginnell. The facts and statistics were given to us by Wanda Ginnell, whereas the embellishments in the story belong to the writer! Paddy Ginnell was born in Dauphin on March 3, 1937, the youngest of six kids to Irish immigrant parents. As a young boy he learned to play hockey and the game became his life long passion. Paddy was a very caring and outgoing person. One day shortly after he arrived in Flin Flon (summer of 1956), he was wandering along the beach when a young woman caught his eye (as often happened to Paddy), and he asked her for a bite of her hot dog. Her name was Wanda Leary and Paddy was awestruck! He was completely bald at the time because he was working at a radar site and the bugs were so bad that all the workers simply shaved their heads. That was the beginning of 33 years of a roller coaster ride that had many happy memories. When the fall rolled around, Paddy wanted to play for the Flin Flon Bombers but as Wanda stated, "In those days teams were sponsored by the NHL and the players had to sign 'C' cards." Apparently at that time Flin Flon belonged to the New York Rangers and Paddy had already signed with Detroit Red Wings. However, after a lot of negotiating, Paddy got to play with the Flin Flon Bombers and they won the Memorial Cup that year. See 'Found' P.# Con't from P.# "The players on that team and their wives have been like family ever since!" stated Wanda. The following fall Paddy went to Detroit's training camp and his favourite memory was "being elbowed by Gordie Howe". From there he was sent to the semi-pro team in Edmonton. The following year Paddy played for Troy, Ohio and Seattle. In 1960 Paddy and Wanda were married in Cloverdale, British Columbia and Paddy played hockey in Victoria that fall for only two months when they moved to Portland, Oregon where Paddy played again for only two months. The family then moved to Omaha where Paddy played with the Omaha Knights and won many awards. Paddy and Wanda's first son, Kevin was born in December and the family stayed for two more seasons in Omaha. In 1964 the family moved to Des Moines, where Paddy broke his leg and decided to move his family back North. On their way back they ran into a terrible snowstorm in St. Cloud, Minnesota and actually had to abandon their car, with Paddy on crutches, Wanda pregnant with Dan, and Kevin only three years old. They caught a train and arrived safely in Winnipeg. Their son Dan was born July 3, 1965 and with Paddy's leg healed they set off once again for Des Moines. In the spring Paddy and Wanda decided to leave Des Moines and take a coaching job in Flin Flon. Paddy was 29 at the time and they bought a home for $7,000. Paddy had finally found his niche. He was a great success as a junior hockey coach and, with many local players on his team, in his first year of coaching they won the Manitoba Championship. On September 9, 1968 their third son Erin was born. Wanda filled out the paper to register him as Aaron but when Paddy found out how she had spelled the name, he quickly changed it to the Irish way of spelling Erin. Paddy was a leading force in developing the WCHL along with people like Bill Hunter and Scotty Munro. In the 1968-69 season this team from Flin Flon went on to win the Father Athol Murray Trophy which was the Dominion Championship. In 1974 during Christmas, Paddy did some negotiating with the owner of the Victoria Cougars and bought into the franchise. He flew off to Victoria to get things set up and the rest of the family headed West with a German Shepherd dog and a U-haul to boot. They made it to Regina the first night and to Calgary the next. Paddy was to meet the family at the New Westminister Towers the following night. "We arrived on time but the U-haul got stuck at the overhead entrance," said Wanda. She told the boys not to be concerned because their Dad would be inside to help them out, only to find that Paddy wasn't registered. Wanda got a couple of people who were in the bar to help them out. The family got settled in the hotel and then Wanda phoned Victoria to find out what happened to Paddy. It turned out that Paddy was drinking with a dentist in the bar who told Paddy that there was no way a woman could drive that far and be on time! Well, when the air had cleared, Paddy was on the first ferry to New West the very next morning! Paddy coached for many very successful years in Victoria and then decided to try his hand at running his own business. Paddy and Wanda bought and ran "Paddy's Place by the Sea" and it was quite successful. However, within four months the Lethbridge Broncos were after Paddy to coach for them. Once again the family packed up everything they owned and were on the road again, destination Lethbridge. That year Lethbridge won the East Division Championship. During that season, George Mazur, the owner of the Medicine Hat Tigers started coming to the games in Lethbridge and it wasn't long before he made Paddy an offer "he couldn't refuse" smiled Wanda and off they were again. In Medicine Hat the team ended up 3rd in the East Division for two seasons. Every year after the hockey season was over the Ginnell family always headed for Flin Flon. Wanda stated, "The fishing was always good and the people and friends were great!" Eventually Paddy started scouting for the St. Louis Blues and worked with his teammate and long time friend, Ted Hampson. "Paddy was very proud of his association with the Blues and was proud of his job," said Wanda, who is his ex-wife. Paddy later re-married. Paddy was well thought of in the hockey world as was shown at his funeral service by the many floral tributes from NHL teams around the league and by the number of ex-players coaches and scouts that attended his funeral service. The following is a tribute of his many achievements in the hockey world, as a Manager/Coach: 1966-67 Manitoba Championship with the Flin Flon Bombers. 1967-68 1st place WCHL with Flin Flon Bombers 1968-69 1st place Western Canada Championship with the Flin Flon Bombers, Dominion Championship (Memorial Cup, except there was a problem with the league at that time and it wasn't called that) with the Flin Flon Bombers 1969-70 1st place Western Canada Championship with he Flin Flon Bombers 1970-71 2nd place Western Canada Finals with the Flin Flon Bombers. 1971-72 4th place playing with seven local Midgets, Flin Flon Bombers 1972-73 2nd place Semi-finals with the Flin Flon Bombers. 1973-74 2nd place When Paddy bought into the team in Victoria at Christmas, the Victoria Cougars had only three wins and an average of 800 fans and by the time that season was over, there were 4,500 fans a game and they ended up in 2nd place! 1974-75 Victoria Cougars won the West Division with 99 points overall in the league. 1975-76 4th place in the semifinals of the WHL with Victoria Cougars. 1978-79 East Division Championship with the Lethbridge Broncos. Finalists in WHL 1979-80 3rd place with the Medicine Hat Tigers in East Division Finals. 1980-81 3rd place Medicine Hat Tigers East Division Final Other Awards for this incredible Coach/ Manager: - Voted WHL coach of the year six times - Voted the Canadian Junior Hockey League Coach of the Year - Coached World Junior Tournament (Canadians won the silver medal). - WHL's third all time in most games coached with 963 games and won 518. - Voted Coach of the Century for the Flin Flon Bomber franchise! His memory will always be alive in the fantastic memories he left behind.
