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.
One of the many hockey prides of Snow Lake recently received his due at the 26th Annual Induction Ceremony for the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame. On November 5 at the Canad Inn, Polo Park in Winnipeg, former Flin Flon Bomber Ken Baird was honoured for being a part one of three Winnipeg Jet teams that won the World Hockey League's (WHL) Avco Cup back in the mid and late 1970's. Baird, 54, now lives along with his wife and daughter in Snow Lake, where he is employed as a Group Leader in HBMS's Snow Lake Concentrator.Ê He has worked for the company for 23 years.Ê However, he once patrolled the blueline and logged time on the wing for such teams as the NHL's Oakland Seals, Oklahoma City Blazers of the Central League, the WHL's Alberta Oilers (changed to Edmonton Oilers in 1973), Duisburg, Germany in the European League, and the Winnipeg Jets of the WHL. Three separate Winnipeg Jets teams were inducted into the hall during the November ceremony Ð the 1975-76, '77-78, and '78-79 editions.Ê Baird was a part of the '77-78 team whose roster included such notables as Bobby Hull, Ted Green, Ulf Neilsen, and Anders Hedberg. Baird attended the ceremony with wife Uschi, daughter Amber and her boyfriend, Tyler Samborski.Ê The Hall of Fame picked up the costs of the ceremony and accommodations for the players and their wives. Baird noted it was quite an affair. "It wasn't just hockey, there were a number of other notable athletes inducted," he said.Ê "As well as the three Jet teams, there was weightlifter Theresa Brick, football player Leo Lewis, swimmer Marjorie Simpson and several others."Ê Unfortunately, due to prior commitments, only eight players from the three Jet teams were able to make it. Baird sat with original Winnipeg product Bill Lesuk and his family.Ê Besides Lesuk, Joe Daley, Duke Asmundson, Lyle Moffat, Peter Sullivan, Mike Ford and Norm Beaudin were also in attendance. Reminiscing Baird spent the evening reminiscing with Lesuk about the good times they enjoyed in the old Winnipeg Arena.Ê He had a chance to sit and talk with many of the others over a two-day period. "The topic of conversation usually centered around how old and fat we all are now," said Baird.Ê However, the former Jet noted that although no slouch himself, he was neither the oldest nor the fattest in attendance. Baird says he has a lot of excellent memories from his time with the team notes that the guys he played with, in a large part, form many of those memories. "It was quite an experience to play with Hull, Hedberg and Neilsen," said Baird. "I even managed to get on the same line as them a few times Ð by accident," he added with a chuckle. Baird got his start in minor hockey in Flin Flon, and when his family moved to Snow Lake in 1962, the 12-year-old continued playing at the midget level. ÊIt was in Snow Lake that he made up his mind to pursue a career in hockey.Ê He played two years at the Junior level, most of it with the Bombers, but there was also a one-game stint with the Estevan Bruins. He set a record with the Bombers for points by a defenseman, with 75 during the 1970-71 campaign.Ê He also made the 1970-71 WCHL All-Star Second Team. That second year of Junior must have impressed NHL scouts, as he was selected in the second round of the 1971 draft, 15th overall by the Seals. "After the draft, I played with Oklahoma and got called up a couple of times that first year," said Baird. "I played 10 games with the Seals in 1971 and the next year I jumped to the WHL with the Alberta Oilers and spent five years with them." In his move from Junior to the pro ranks, Baird moved frequently from defense to the left wing.Ê He picked up a couple of assists in the NHL, but never did score a goal. However, it was a different story In the WHL.Ê He got 14 goals in his first season, 17 in his second, and picked up 30 in his third Ð all the while averaging 130 penalty minutes a season. Injuries Injuries and sickness played a part in Baird's career starting in the 1973-74 when he missed several games with an inflamed sac around his heart. In 1975-76, he missed the final 33 games of the season as a result of a serious knee injury and subsequent surgery. In 1976, the then 26-year-old got sick and was diagnosed with diabetes.Ê He missed pretty well the whole year; however he returned to the pros in 1977 with the Jets. There's a story that circulated in Snow Lake years ago about how Baird made the Jets.Ê He states it is a bit of a fallacy. Legend has it that he was down for his tryout and potted three goals in his first game.Ê They promptly signed him to a contract. However, Baird states that the three goals he scored were nothing other than reassurance for the Jets, as he actually signed his contract the day before that memorable game. Baird left Snow Lake in December of that year and played over fifty games Ð regular season and playoffs Ð with the Jets. Another highlight was a trip to Japan the team made to play a series of three games against the Russians. "We lost all three games," Baird said. "We flew back to Winnipeg; so did they, and we played them again in the Arena. We beat them there 4-3. We were actually the first North American pro team to beat the Russians. It was quite an accomplishment, because they were considered the elite of hockey at that time." Baird says that originally he wasn't going to go the recent induction ceremony, but his wife talked him into it. "I guess now I'm kinda glad I went," he said.
