Ron Butlin obit

Ron Butlin, president of the Western Canada Hockey League and Canadian Hockey Association, has died 

He was not on the list.

He sought to raise the age limit imposed by the NHL and negotiate better financial terms for the junior teams which developed future professional players. He criticized the CAHA for its spending on administration and wanted hockey policy to be determined by the teams instead of elected officials. He negotiated an agreement to reunite the WCHL with the CAHA in 1970, where the WCHL gained direct representation on the CAHA junior council, better financial return for drafted players, and received development grants from the NHL.

Butlin previously hosted a sports radio show, and was a founding member and later president of the Calgary Booster Club. He founded the Calgary Spurs as an independent senior ice hockey in 1964, which joined the Western Canada Senior Hockey League in 1965. After the Spurs were 1967 Allan Cup finalists, he helped establish a senior league based in Western Canada which included the Canada men's national ice hockey team in its schedule. He sold the Spurs in 1968. After his tenure with the WCHL, he was executive director of Sport Alberta from 1973 to 1977, and directed the first Alberta Summer Games in 1974, and the first Alberta Winter Games in 1976. He then became the manager-director of the BC Games Society which oversaw the BC Summer Games and the BC Winter Games until 1987, and then coordinated the Washington state centennial in 1989. He later spent 21 years organizing the annual Santa Claus parade and the Victoria Day parades in Victoria, British Columbia..

Ronald James Butlin was born on August 8, 1925, in Calgary, Alberta. His grandfather James had participated in the westward march of the North-West Mounted Police in 1874. Butlin studied at the University of Alberta, then became a trustee in bankruptcy, and the owner of a business in Calgary. His company was known as Central Liquidation Limited, and helped him earn a personal fortune.

Butlin was a baseball coach during the 1950s, and was elected vice-president of the Alberta Fastball Association in 1953. He and Arthur Ryan Smith hosted a weekly amateur sports radio show on CFAC, and a hot stove league on broadcasts of the Western Hockey League in the late 1950s. Butlin was a founding member of the Calgary Booster Club, served as its president from 1961 to 1963, and was later made an honorary life director of the club.

 

Butlin founded the Calgary Spurs as an independent senior ice hockey team in 1964, after the Calgary Stampeders team had folded. The Spurs were not part of any league and played an exhibition schedule during the 1964–65 season. The team had an average of 3,000 fans per home game which increased when it joined the Alberta Amateur Hockey Association (AAHA) playoffs. Senior hockey in Alberta was consolidated into the Alberta Senior Hockey League during June 1965. The Spurs were invited to join the newly formed Alberta league, and were also invited to join the Western Canada Senior Hockey League (WCSHL) which was based in both Alberta and Saskatchewan. He considered offers from both leagues, and chose to join the WCSHL. The Spurs finished the 1965–66 WCSHL season in first place, but lost to the Drumheller Miners in the league playoffs.

Butlin looked to expand the CHA eastward, and targeted the Western Ontario Junior Hockey League (WOJHL). He made a 20-minute presentation to the league at a meeting in Sarnia, and convinced five teams from the league to join the CHA. He had also courted the Border Cities Junior Hockey League in Southwestern Ontario. The Canadian Press reported that the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League had met with Butlin, and that he attempted to get the British Columbia Junior Hockey League (BCJHL) to join the CHA.

 

The Flin Flon Bombers from the WCHL and the St. Thomas Barons from the WOJHL were the respective league champions, and met in the CHA east-west national final for the Father Athol Murray Trophy. It was arranged as a best-of-four series to begin in St. Thomas, Ontario. The series was the first Canadian national junior ice hockey championship not under the jurisdiction of the CAHA. Butlin also issued a challenge to the CAHA to have the 1969 Memorial Cup champion play against the CHA champion.

 

During the fourth game of the series played on May 5 at the Whitney Forum in Flin Flon, the Barons refused to continue after an on-ice brawl during the second period. The game was awarded to the Bombers who then led the series 3–1 after four games played. The Barons abandoned the series in the interest of player safety, and departed for St. Thomas despite a scheduled game on May 7 in Flin Flon.

 

Butlin claimed that the WCHL was now a $1-million operation and that attendance figures had grown from 429,000 during the 1968–69 season to 530,000 during the 1969–70 season. The league also added the Medicine Hat Tigers as an expansion team and welcomed the Regina Pats who transferred from the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League. He explained that the upcoming WCHL expansion draft was designed that new teams would be competitive in their first year, and allowed established teams to protect only six players before drafting began.

 

In October 1972, Butlin was in attendance at the final four games played during the Summit Series in Moscow. He recalled that upon his arrival at the airport, "We were looking for normal customs people. All we could see were soldiers with rifles. It was a dictatorship in those days". He found the locals in Moscow friendly despite the security presence. During games at the Palace of Sports of the Central Lenin Stadium, Butlin noted that spectators were very quiet and when Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev stood up, all one could hear was the sound of skates on the ice.

 

Butlin was friends with NHL president Clarence Campbell, and would get together frequently in the off-season. Butlin was married to Shirley, with whom he had two daughters. He had heart problems and other medical issues later in life. He died on September 24, 2014, at age 89 in Victoria.

 

Teams of the WHl during his tenure were:  Calgary Buffaloes (1966–67) → Calgary Centennials (1967–77) → Billings Bighorns (1977–82) → Nanaimo Islanders (1982–83) → New Westminster Bruins (1983–88) → Tri-City Americans (1988–present)

Edmonton Oil Kings (1966–76) → Portland Winterhawks (1976–present)

Estevan Bruins (1966–71) → New Westminster Bruins (1971–81) → Kamloops Junior Oilers (1981–84) → Kamloops Blazers (1984–present)

Moose Jaw Canucks (1966–68)

Regina Pats (1966–68, 1970–present)

Saskatoon Blades (1966–present)

Weyburn Red Wings (1966–68)

Brandon Wheat Kings (1967–present)

Flin Flon Bombers (1967–78) → Edmonton Oil Kings (1978–79) → Great Falls Americans (1979–80) → Spokane Flyers (1980–82)

Swift Current Broncos (1967–74) → Lethbridge Broncos (1974–86) → Swift Current Broncos (1986–present)

Winnipeg Jets (1967–73) → Winnipeg Clubs (1973–76) → Winnipeg Monarchs (1976–77) → Calgary Wranglers (1977–87) → Lethbridge Hurricanes (1987–present)

Medicine Hat Tigers (1970–present)

Vancouver Nats (1971–73) → Kamloops Chiefs (1973–77) → Seattle Breakers (1977–85) → Seattle Thunderbirds (1985–present)

Victoria Cougars (1971–94) → Prince George Cougars (1994–present)