Let’s begin with a hockey story, one that places us at the heart of amateur sports in Trail in the 1920s. Picture it: Hundreds of high-spirited fans are waiting for the first whistle to blow at the Fruit Fair Building, Trail’s first indoor hockey arena. Two rival hockey teams have retreated to the old Crown Point Hotel on Bay Avenue, built in 1895. Skates and sticks are piled high in the corner of the hotel lobby. There they wait for the game to begin.
In fact, they’re waiting to find out whether or not they will play at all. The teams have long been ready for the opening faceoff, but the Trail team has a problem. One of the visiting players is allegedly being paid to play—making him a semi-professional—and that is taboo. Something has to break, for the game hangs in the balance. Enter Selwyn Gwillym Blaylock.
Handsome, tall, and imposing, Blaylock, wearing a business suit and black hat, swept through the hotel doors to settle the matter. He was in his early 40s