History Who We are

The Crowchild Twin Arena Old Timers Tournament (“CTAOT”) dates back to 1993 and has always been played out of the beautiful Crowchild Twin Arena. CTAOT was initially created to thank Dads who coached Crowchild Hockey teams and to thank old timer teams for their patronage at the Crowchild Twin Arena. In the early years the tournament pitted local teams such as Scenic Acres Oldtimers, Brew Crew, Coaches, and Varsity Velocity against each other in games where the competition was always fierce.

In 2007, the tournament was restructured as The Summit Series where Teams Canada, Ukraine, Finland and Sweden would vie for hockey supremacy. It was at that time we moved to the ‘equalizer dispersal draft’. No longer would teams enter the tournament but instead we registered individuals whose hockey skills were rated, followed by a dispersal draft of those individuals to create four balanced teams. The new format was so successful that in 2009 we expanded to a B division with teams from Spain, Ireland, Australia and Italy joining the challenge for global supremacy. Operating on the age old adage that “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”, the tournament has run continuously in the same format since that time. That is our official historic recap of the tourney. Now for a dose of reality:

CTAOT takes a bunch of has beens (or never weres), who are mostly old and fat and are poster children for failed weekend warriors. The character traits most of us seem to share are a love of beer, hockey and healthy competition. While a competitive spirit definitely is front and centre for the entire tournament it is always amazing to see the camaraderie and sportsmanship, both on the ice and in post-game festivities. Our rating system gives all players the opportunity to participate in a fun, competitive, real game/tournament which is otherwise out of reach for many of our participants. Regardless of which team you are playing for, each of our players gets excited about putting on national team colors and playing for bragging rights with both old and new friends.

CTAOT is designed for the over 35 crowd but we have a core group of younger guys who have helped keep the competitive spirit alive. By being a part of this tourney, players get an opportunity to play with buddies, make new friends and maybe relive a little bit of the old glory-although some guys seem happy enough just to be chanting “we’re not the worst” when they win the D final on Sunday morning. Everyone, even those on the losing end, will look back knowing they had some great exercise, competition and made some amazing memories. The two things most players think about after CTAOT is….. can’t wait till next year and where is the A535. An often heard comment is “this is the most fun hockey I have ever played”.

The organizers thank management of Crowchild Twin Arena for their longstanding support of our tournament and we look forward to running CTAOT for many years to come.