The Telegram (St. John’s) February 08, 2014 by Shannon Duff - telegram@thetelegram.com Mourning the loss of a senior hockey legend He was born in Reserve Mines, N.S., in the late 1930s to a large family — a family as close knit as any can be. — Submitted photo <>Frank and Elizabeth Finlayson were married for more than 50 years. He left a legacy of love for his family and for the sport of hockey. Elizabeth died two years ago. Frank died last month. Frank Finlayson will be remembered for many things, but perhaps what he will be remembered for most are his two loves: family and hockey. Frank moved to Buchans a hockey import in 1959 to play for the Buchans Miners. It was there he met the love of his life, Elizabeth Snow. A year later they married and over the course of the next 50 years raised seven children together — five boys and two girls. Jane Finlayson is Frank’s eldest daughter. She has nothing but love and pride in her heart for her dad. “My dad was a very quiet man, very unselfish,” she said. “He always wanted everyone to be happy and cheerful. He was always helpful, looking out for the other guy, anyone who needed anything. “I remember one time he met a boy outside our home who he thought some other boys were bullying. My dad stepped out of the house and said, ‘Hey, hey! What are you doing? You want someone to beat up, you beat up me.’ He told me this story and said the mother called him later to thank him for helping her son that day. And that was the kind of man he was.” Jane says her dad was gentle and while he spent hours at the rink, he never wanted to see his girls there. “I wasn’t allowed to go there,” she laughs. “‘Little girls could get hurt,’ I was always told. I always thought that was funny. But from what I’ve heard and what I’ve read, he was a great hockey player.” When Frank was 17 he moved to Toronto and was picked up by the Montreal Junior Canadians and also played with the Dixie Killer Bees. Jane says she’s glad he never made the big leagues. “I remember when he told me the story of how he tried out for the NHL, I said, ‘Dad, y’know if you had made it, none of us would be here!’ We were all very proud of our dad and we loved him dearly, and he loved us.” Jane remembers years ago hearing her dad telling hockey stories whenever anyone dropped in to the family home. “It was a joy to hear them talking.” Hugh Wadden could well have been one of those visitors. He played hockey with Frank and has happy memories of being on and off the ice. The pair shared a kinship as imports from Nova Scotia and both worked for the same company mining coal in the Buchans Mines. Wadden came to Newfoundland a few years before Frank and remembers when Frank first joined the team in 1960, the same year the company they worked for, Serco, built the town’s first stadium. Wadden remembers Frank’s performance on the ice during that inaugural game. “Frank scored the first goal in the new stadium, I remember that. He proved to be our outstanding player. He was our team leader for years. When I became coach in 1963, I appointed Frank as captain of the team and he never let the team down.” Wadden says whatever Frank lacked in brawn, at approximately 5-7 and weighing less than 150 pounds, he certainly made up for with his stealth on the ice. “He was a pretty crafty fella. He never had any injuries. He was a very, very good hockey player, let me put it that way.” Wadden says during Frank’s 11 years with the Buchans Miners he scored important goals for the team that helped secure the coveted Herder Trophy on more than one occasion. Sports stories from the newspaper in those days often included headlines like “Finlayson scores four for Buchans.” In the 1970-71 season the Buchans Miners dropped out of the Newfoundland Senior Hockey League due to a lack of players. “So, Frank then went to Grand Falls and played with the Cataracts,” Wadden recalls. He played with them for several seasons (1970-73) before moving on to Wabush. In 1996 Finlayson was inducted into the Newfoundland and Labrador Hockey Hall of Fame. Tanya Finlayson, the youngest of the clan, came along after her dad had retired from hockey, but she remembers how proud she and her siblings were on that day in 1996 when he was inducted into the hall of fame. “That was such a proud moment, especially for Mom and all of us in general. He was a spectacular hockey player back in the day.” Frank’s wife, Elizabeth Finlayson, was one of the many brave women to tell her story about botched breast cancer treatment during the Cameron Inquiry. Elizabeth’s testimony as the last inquiry witness stunned people when she revealed that she heard about the lab mistakes on the television news. Jane says her dad stood steadfast by his wife’s side through it all. “My mother was angry, we were all angry, but I must say my father didn’t speak that way,” Jane recalls. “He just did what he had to do and moved on. After she died and we would talk about it, he would say, ‘That’s enough now.’ Maybe he was angry deep down, but he didn’t show it. He didn’t show anger. He never raised his voice.” Despite his attempts to hide his feelings, Jane believes a piece of him died with Elizabeth two years ago. Finlayson shared his passion for sports with all who knew him. He volunteered his time and knowledge as a coach and mentor, and it’s clear his love of hockey and other sports has been passed down through the generations. Frank Finlayson Jr. plays hockey in Harbour Grace, one of Frank’s grandsons in Calgary is a goalie, and a 10-year-old granddaughter plays in a hockey league. Frank Finlayson died Jan. 25 at the Capt. William Jackman Memorial hospital in Wabush after a brief but courageous battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 75.