The young men and boys of Princeton were both ambitious and athletic and for a group of small town kids they had big dreams. Many of them had spent their Saturday night’s sitting around the big old battery operated radio in the outport kitchen’s waiting for the moment when Foster Hewett’s voice could be heard announcing "It’s Hockey Night In Canada" and the game began. This was before the days of electricity and television and they would listen as hockey was broadcast weekly over the radio.

Hockey had always been played on the pond or the bay ice but around the 1950's the Princeton boy’s decided to become more organized and take the game to another level. The boy’s held a meeting and they decided a rink was needed in the community. They all agreed to start raising funds for the rink and they also agreed to cut about ten logs each to get the required lumber. To raise the funds they held times/dances in the community and charged a small admission fee and they placed donation boxes in various shops and locations so people could donate to their project. The boys cut the logs and they took them to a local sawmill to be sawed into lumber. To pay for the sawing they cut twice as many logs as required and when the lumber was sawed they took half and the sawmill owner took the other half as payment for his work. The site they choose for the rink was on land owned by Andrew Quinton located near the railway crossing on the main road through Princeton. They used some of their funds to hire local carpenters to help with building the rink. They also purchased team jersey’s that were white and green with the name Princeton and beneath it the motto "work will win." It was a very proud team who skated out on the rink that winter.

It took a lot of work and cooperation to keep the rink in good condition for the games and the whole community helped in many ways. The kids would clean the snow from the ice with wooden hand made scrapers and flood the ice surface with water to make it smooth. There was no roof over the rink and this had to be done after each snowfall. The team played many games in the night time and they would borrow coleman lanterns from people in the community and the girls would help out by pumping up and fueling up lanterns. Vera (Quinton) Curl was a young girl back then and she remembers helping with this many times. During the games young and old alike would go to the rink to watch and this created much excitement in the community. In addition to the hockey game itself there were lots of fund raising activities taking place as well and it was a wonderful time in Princeton.

By this time the team started to play games against other communities both in and away from Princeton. Karl Quinton remembers his first game outside Princeton and it was with the community of Musgravtown. The Princeton boys contacted the Mustgraveton players and scheduled a game for the weekend. Lloyd Quinton from Princeton who had a son playing with the team gave them a ride to Musgraveton in the box of his pick up truck. This was in the dead of winter and quite cold but nothing could dampen their spirits. After a fifteen mile trip in the box of a open truck the Princeton team played the game and won. There was no stopping them after that and they scheduled games with the towns of Bonavista and Catalina. There were no telephones back then and they would go to the post office and send telegrams to people in other towns to schedule the games and they would receive the reply back by way of telegram. Even the post mistress would be kept busy sending and receiving telegrams.

Another game against Bonavista stands out in the mind of Karl Quinton. Bonavista came to Princeton for the game and it was a windy cold day with the rink exposed to a vicious norwester. The Bonavista rink was near the area where the FPI plant stands today and that team had a building near their rink that they used for a dressing room but here in Princeton there was no dressing room facilities and the players had to sit out in the open to put the skates on and get ready to play. Karl remember the wind blowing and the snow drifting as both teams, Princeton and Bonavista laced up the skates. The Princeton boys were quite used to not having a dressing room and the Bonavista boys were tough enough to take it and the game went ahead. It was a tough and rough hockey game and it ended in a victory for Princeton. It was so cold that they all frost burned their ears and Karl remembers the days that followed and it was easy to recognize the players who participated in that game because they all had blisters on their ears for quite some time. In spite of the harsh conditions the win made it all worthwhile.

Other games were played with Catalina and several other communities but it was the victories over Bonavista and Catalina that stood out for the Princeton players because both Bonavista and Catalina were much larger towns with well organized teams. Beating those teams encouraged the Princeton team to challenge what was suppose to be the best on the Peninsula. The town of Clarenville was the first to have a stadium on the Bonavista Peninsula and they had a better hockey organization at that time then any of the smaller communities. Stan King who was one of the best players on the Princeton team had his sights set on playing Clarenville and prior to the opening of the new Clarenville stadium Stan was trying to get a game set up with that team. The stadium was set to officially open with a game between Clarenville and the St. John’s Guards and the Princeton boys figured that someday they would get to play in the stadium but for now they would have to wait. The wait was a short one. Something happened and the Guards couldn’t make it and Clarenville needed a team to play on opening night. Because Princeton had shown interest in playing against Clarenville they were invited to take the place of the Guards that night.

The Princeton boys had looked at Clarenville as some kind of super team and it was quite the honor for them to get the opportunity to be part of this game. It was a thrill for them to play in a real stadium against a popular team and they had very little hope of winning against such experienced players. The Princeton team and their fans had managed to get enough people with vehicles in the community to get them to Clarenville for the game and players and fans were bursting with pride when the boys skated out in their green and white sweaters.

The Princeton team gave it their best and into the first period Stan King took the puck and scored the first goal which was also the first to be scored in the new stadium. The whole team went crazy and this goal was just what they needed to get the momentum going. Shortly after Stan scored another on followed by two more goals by Karl Quinton and one by Leaman Prince making it a five to nothing lead for the Princeton Team at the end of the first period. The boys could taste victory as the headed to the dressing room during the first intermission. During the second and third periods Clarenville got a little tougher and managed to score six goals but the Princeton boys hung on to the lead and won the game with a final score of eight to six.

The Princeton gang piled into the vehicles and headed home where everyone was anxiously waiting to hear the outcome of the game. There was a great deal of celebrating in Princeton and the surrounding communities. There was much to celebrate since they had won the first game played in the new stadium as well as scored the first goal there in addition to beating a team that they had considered to be much better then they were. Unfortunately the game was never recorded and this victory was not acknowledged at the Clarenville Stadium. Sometime later the Clarenville team played the Guards and this game was the one that was considered to be the official opening game for the new stadium. The Princeton boys kept on playing and enjoying their games and although their victory was not publically acknowledged they knew they were the better team on the ice that night. About forty or more years later during renovations on the Clarenville stadium the workers found a broken hockey stick with the name or initials of Karl Quinton written on it and the stick was returned to Karl. This was the stick he used the night of the big game with Clarenville.

As time went on younger players replaced the older guys and hockey in rural areas changed along with the national game. People started to treat the game more seriously and the Princeton boys formed another team known as the Princeton Black Hawkes and they played in the Trinity Bay League. For many of the players the game changed. What was once a game played for fun by those who loved the game had turned into a game about winning. The sponsors who funded the games wanted publicity and victory and the coaches tried to plan strategy and game plays to achieve this victory. It was no longer acceptable to skate out, play well and enjoy the game. The last people from Princeton to play hockey played under the name of a beer company. Back in the old days it didn’t matter if someone couldn’t play really well they were still part of the team. It was all about team spirit and playing together as a community. Communities have always looked to the NHL players as their idols and its no wonder that community hockey has become what it is today. The NHL is no longer what it was back in the early years when all the great players of the day played because of their love of the game and not because of money. Many of todays NHL players are in the game for financial reasons and the kids now don’t have the idols that they had back when Princeton started their team. During winter when the pond is frozen a few kids can still be found playing hockey in Princeton but the dedication to the sport has declined.

As the older generation watch the little kids play on the pond they look back with fond memories of their hockey days and think of one of their own great players Stan King who passed away at a young age. Stan was an excellent player and he moved with great speed and had a knack for putting the puck in the net. He scored many goals and helped his team to victory time and time again. Many believed that with the proper training he had the potential to make it to the NHL. Like many young men at that time Stan left Princeton to find employment in St. John’s. While there Stan became ill and was hospitalized. It was discovered that he had polio and he was put in the iron lung which was a machine used to treat the disease. He passed away in November 1959 at the age of twenty-one. The community mourned his passing along with his parents Frank and Elizabeth (White) King. Stan is laid to rest at the Anglican Cemetery in Princeton and to this day whenever people of the community talk about hockey Stan’s name is always mentioned.

For the first Princeton Hockey Team it was the team spirit and community support that made it all worthwhile and for those who remember it was some of the greatest times of their lives.

Written By: Geraldine Prince