It’s a collection 60 years in the making.
Stew Lloyd been going to Flin Flon Bombers games since about 1956, he says.
“Of course you only used to be able to go to the odd game, eh? Because money was tight,” he says.
But for Lloyd, the money was well spent. “It’s the best thing in town, the Bombers.”
Lloyd’s collection of hockey and Bombers memorabilia fills a room of his basement – walls, shelves, cabinets and floor. It’s an impressive history of the team with items dating back at least as far as 1948.
Lloyd played hockey as a youth, from the age of about 8 to 20. He quit for a year, then went back. He has been a stalwart in the local oldtimers’ league, only recently hanging up his skates for good.
“I played this summer, actually, and I got hurt. So I’m not playing hockey anymore,” he says.
Although Lloyd once tried out for the Bombers, he was never a team member.
“There was so many good players in this town at that time, really good players.”
He says time spent on the ice helped players develop their skills.
“There was nothing to do,” Lloyd remembers. “So you scraped the ice, you went and played on the ice, on the lakes. Sometimes they had bunks, and some people’s parents would make a nice place for you to play hockey.”
Around 1965, Lloyd started buying season tickets to the Bombers. At the time, the team included players that he had come up through the hockey ranks with. “I just followed them since then,” he says.
His collection started of pucks began to grow around the time he and his ex-wife became Bomber billets.
“I was starting to collect pucks, so I asked one of the guys, ‘When you go on the road get me some pucks.’ They started me off and I just kept going from there.”
Even after they left town, former billets would mail Lloyd pucks from all over.
Now his puck collection is so large that the rubber discs won’t fit in the case that fills the back wall of his room.
Lloyd also has a number of scrapbooks with everything from newspaper clippings to pages from the Star Weekly, the now-defunct publication that used to feature full-page photos and stories of notable
players.
Among his collection are programs from exhibition games with the New York Rangers, Detroit Red Wings, Edmonton Flyers and even a Canada-Russia game.
His most prized collector’s item? A jersey worn on the ice by Reggie Leach.
“That’s actually an old Detroit Red Wing jersey,” he says, standing by the case that contains the jersey and Leach’s book. “They took the wheel off it and put the Bomber crest. And this [was] actually Gordie Howe’s jersey, too.”
Lloyd says he keeps the collection in part as a service to the community, so that people have access to the history of the club. Much of the Bombers memorabilia in the Whitney Forum are pieces he puts up so people can enjoy them. He changes the items out periodically.
When asked why he started collecting, Lloyd’s response is simple. “I just love the game so much.”
