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The Game of Hockey

ISSUE 00110 AUG 2026WINDSOR, NS44°59′N 64°08′W

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Dossier A 06 · one Saturday, eight plates

Hockey Day in Canada at Long Pond, 2002

On 5 January 2002 a national broadcast came to the pond, and the site marked it with its fullest page: eight photographs, each with its own caption.

Windsor, Nova Scotia · 5 January 2002

The running order

The day, caption by caption:

  1. 4 January 2002 An unscheduled visit to the farm the day before the broadcast, to see part of the memorabilia collection — including a boxed pair of Starr skates the site dated to the 1800s.
  2. 5 January, morning The official opening on the ice, with the town, the school and the broadcaster represented.
  3. 5 January, during the broadcast Interviews on the ice covering players who came from Windsor and the old rubber pucks the site said were found at the pond.
  4. 5 January, through the day A crowd around the edge of the pond.

The sheet

Eight plates at their published size, with the original captions beneath.

Long Pond frozen over in winter, ringed by bare trees, with a low wooded ridge behind it.
Long Pond, Windsor, Nova Scotia, photographed in winter for the January 2002 broadcast. LP 001

Archived caption Picturesque Long Pond is all set to provide the beautiful outdoor venue for CBC Hockey Day in Canada telecast. Many historians consider Long Pond as the Cradle of Hockey in Canada.

A man in a patterned jacket examining an old boxed pair of skates.
A visitor examining a pair of Starr skates in their original box, January 2002. The dating of the skates rests on the archived caption. LP 102

Archived caption Hockey legend Don Cherry, made an unscheduled and surprise visit to Howard Dill's farm the day prior to CBC's Hockey Day in Canada, to see a sample of Dill's large collection of hockey memorabilia such as a pair of Starr Skates from the 1800's, still in the original box.

Two men indoors leaning over a table of old photographs.
Broadcasters looking through old hockey photographs at the farm, January 2002. LP 103

Archived caption Ron MacLean and Don Cherry looking over some of Howard Dill's old hockey photos.

A line of people standing on the ice facing a camera during an opening ceremony.
The opening on the ice at Long Pond, 5 January 2002. LP 104

Archived caption The official opening for Hockey Day in Canada on January 5, 2002 kicks off from where it all began - Long Pond on Howard Dill’s farm.

Two men standing on the ice mid-interview, one holding a microphone.
An interview on the ice during the live broadcast, 5 January 2002. LP 105
A large crowd standing in snow around the edge of the pond.
Part of the crowd at Long Pond, 5 January 2002. The archived caption put attendance at about 3,000. LP 106
A dense group of people pressing around one figure in a light coat.
Visitors gathered around a broadcaster on the ice, 5 January 2002. LP 107
Two men on the ice with arms raised, snow underfoot.
On the ice at Long Pond during the broadcast, 5 January 2002. LP 108

Who stood on the ice at the opening

Roles are as given in 2002.

  1. Scott Brison, MP for King’s-Hants
  2. David Penaluna, headmaster, King’s-Edgehill School
  3. Ron MacLean, CBC
  4. John Bregante, Windsor town councillor
  5. Lloyd Smith, town crier
  6. Anna Allen, mayor of Windsor
  7. Kevin Lakes, King’s-Edgehill junior hockey coach

What the site said it hoped to do next

The page closed on a plan. Besides owning the pond, it said, Howard Dill held one of the largest private collections of hockey material in Canada, and hoped within a year or two to build a sports memorabilia centre at the farm.

The sentence is the clearest statement of what the site was for: a small operation, run from a farm, trying to turn local enthusiasm into somewhere people could visit. Howard Dill died in 2008.

Adjacent files