Tom McVie

Tom McVie was born on June 6, 1935, in Trail. Like most children in Trail, he participated in local sports and activities. Tom McVie Sr., his father, who worked at the Cominco Smelter for 40 years, told young Tom that “success is finding something you love to do and getting someone to pay you for it.” He tried many sports. He represented Trail at the BC Interior Games in Kelowna and won the 3-metre diving championship when he was 16 years old. This was exciting, but like most Canadian boys, his dream was to play professional hockey.

He left home at the age of 16 and played junior hockey in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. He was gritty and hardworking, but was not a very gifted player. He just wanted a chance to play with a team. Tom got his big chance at age 21 with the Toledo Mercuries of the International Hockey League. Initially, they wanted to send him home, but he worked so hard that they kept him on the team for two seasons. He began to get a reputation as a tough left-handed right-winger and earned the chance to play in a better professional league, the Western Hockey League (WHL).

With only six National Hockey League (NHL) teams, Tom was honoured to play in the Western Hockey League. He hoped that he could keep up with these impressive pros. He not only kept up, but played 15 years in the Western Hockey League. He played six years with the Seattle Totems, where they won the WHL Championships in 1958-59. He also played six seasons with the Portland Buckaroos, where he was second in league goal scoring two times, first in 1961-62, and again in 1964-65. He scored five goals in one game, which was a record that was never broken. Tom also helped lead the Buckaroos to the championship in the 1964-65 season. He also played two seasons with the Phoenix Roadrunners, and one season with the Los Angeles Blades.

Tom had a celebrated professional career in the WHL with more than 1,100 games played, more than 450 goals scored, and more than 1,000 total points accumulated. Tom was selected as a first team all-star twice and second team all-star once.

During the early years of professional hockey, the players earned a fraction of the high-priced salaries of today’s pros. In the hockey off-season, Tom played another game he loved, box lacrosse. He played 10 seasons in the Canadian Senior Lacrosse Association, with one year in Portland, Oregon; seven years in Nanaimo, BC; and two in Vancouver, BC. In 1965, Tom (the captain and first team all-star) led the team to play for the Canadian National Championship.
With his playing career ending, Tom still had a strong passion for hockey, and in 1971, he took an assistant coaching job in the International Hockey League with the Fort Wayne Comets. This job was the beginning of a coaching career that would span 27 years, and seven leagues. In the 1972-73 season, Tom was the player and head coach of the Johnstown Jets of the Eastern Hockey League.

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