Newest hall of famer, Don Gale, reflects on the journey here

By Ken Johnston
Editor

One of the newest inductees into the Northwestern Ontario Sports Hall of Fame (in Thunder Bay), Don Gale, has no regrets choosing the path in life that brought him to Rainy River over four decades ago.
Gale grew up in Port Arthur in the 1950s and 60s. Learning to skate at a young age, he like so many Canadian kids dreamed of playing hockey in the National Hockey League. So many dreamed and so few made it.
He on the other hand would have an opportunity to tryout for his favourite team, the Montreal Canadiens! Twice in fact!
However, the road that lead to those opportunities saw him travel towards another career that in fact has benefited so many people in and around Rainy River.
Gale played junior hockey with the Fort William Canadians, as a goal tender; at the time a farm team for the Montreal Canadiens.
As his junior career was reaching an end, Gale began exploring college hockey. He sent letters to several American schools and three replied back. Michigan Tech, Denver College and Colorado College. The first offered only a partial scholarship and the latter two offered a full ride.
Before he had time to make up his mind, this avid athlete who had also made a name for himself on the football field and ball diamonds growing up, broke his leg badly playing fastball. When he learned Colorado College would not claw back his scholarship and welcome him still, he decided to jump in with both feet in the fall of 1965, even if one was in a cast!
“They looked after me. They got me healthy! I had two orthopedic surgeons down there!” A steel rod was placed in his leg and they carefully monitored his progress. His cast came off in December, but Gale would not stand between the pipes that season. He did skate later and said, “I developed quite a shot playing out.” He said they were worried about him getting the pads on too early and getting re-injured.
However, as a freshman, even if healthy, he would have only seen limited action. So he did not feel like he had missed much action.
Early in his first year he met John Amundsen of Rainy River, Ontario, who ended up being the captain of the team Gale was playing on. “We became great friends and are still so today!”
Once Gale took to the ice he was stellar.Today he is still one of the all time saves record holders there. He showed the Record a list of top saves from a few years ago and he was then ranked 5th all time with 2,194. “All the other ones above me played a year longer than me!”
As he was in college, sports was not the only ticket he was punching. Gale was working equally hard at his academics. As that was coming to an end he asked Amundsen what he was going to do when he was done. “He told me he was going to teach in Rainy River and that I should check it out.” Gale corresponded with then Principal Jim Crackel and in the fall of 1969 he started his 30 year career as teacher at Rainy River High School.
However, it was also in 1969 when the offer of a lifetime came his way for the first time. “I was invited to tryout as a goalie for the Montreal Canadiens.” Gale said he had just started teaching and he and his wife Kitty had just had their first baby, Scott. “I turned them down, writing Sam Pollack personally.”
Invited to the tryouts at the same time as Gale was Ken Dryden, Roggie Vachon and Tony Espesito, as well as about a half dozen or so more. All of which went on to have big careers throughout the NHL.
Gale did play a couple of seasons for the Fort Frances Canadians when he started teaching at RRHS. Then came a second offer to tryout for Montreal. He again turned it down.
But today he says he has no regrets. If he hadn’t turned them down quite possibly all the things that lead to the Northwestern Ontario Sports Hall of Fame would not have happened.
Gale began coaching hockey at RRHS, passing his goalie skills to the next generation. Gale said that he did not have a mentor. “I was self taught and felt strongly about helping others to learn.” Time and time again as a coach of various sports he said, “If I show them something and they do it better, that made me feel good.”
One of those sports that he had not really been into as a kid was curling. “Kitty was into it so I went out and played it. It, like hockey just seemed natural to me.” So he began coaching high school teams. That lead to RRHS first ever trip to the All Ontarios in 1981! Little did he know that one of those curlers would some day go onto win the Women’s World Championships! Dianne (nee Wolanicki) Adams did that less than a decade later.
Gale also was instrumental in getting a golf program going at RRHS. He coached the kids and connected with the US league just across the border. “We couldn’t go to the state level but we were able to play in many tournaments in the States.” Some of the golfers that stand out in his mind from those years are Oliver Gibbins, Danny Armstrong, Dave McDougall, just to name a few.
Other athletes that he remembers well are:
Diane Adams in curling.
Ray Fadden in hockey. “As a goalie he was unbelievable for is size and quickness.”
Also in hockey Ryan Usiski, Mark Amundsen, Rob Johnson and Troy Ricci stand out in his memories.
For Gale the pinnacle of his hockey coaching career came when his long time friend John Amundsen asked him to help coach the goalies for a new international sports coop that saw Rainy River kids play with Baudette kids. The two towns went from being arch rivals to teammates. The season started good and got better! “I knew if we kept playing at that level we would go somewhere.” They ended up going all the way to the state finals and coming in 2nd, losing in double overtime in 1993.
At the NWO Hall of Fame ceremony two weeks ago, Gale said he didn’t know that Adams was going to surprise him and be sitting at his table. “It was great! She inspired me to do more (as a coach), seeing what she could do. And she said I inspired her!”
Also sitting at his table were his two daughters who flew in, as well as his wife Kitty and a long time childhood friend Grant McKenzie, whom he played hockey with.
Sitting at the next table was another curling legend, Al Hackner and co. “It was so exciting and fun to be sitting next to them,” said Kitty. “We joked back and forth!”
As the ceremony went, introductions and videos of each inductee were done on center stage. Gale said it was very humbling to see all the other inductees list of accomplishments. He was very honoured to be among them.
When it was his turn to be honoured he was brought up on stage and presented his award by former Rainy Riverite Phil Jarvis who is the president of the hall of fame!
Gale thanked the hall of fame, his kids for letting him practise new coaching techniques on them and his wife for letting him gallivant off to exotic locations across Northwestern Ontario.
He retired from teaching in 1999 and says he is mostly just a sports fan now. “I travel and watch my grand kids play sports now.”
He recently travelled back to Colorado Springs and visited the arena there. On a wall there, a history of hockey is painted in mural form with players from across the decades. One of them in the mural, unbeknownst to him was himself! “I didn’t know I was on the wall there. It was quite amazing!”