Player Biographies
Frank Fredrickson
Fredrickson turned professional in 1920-21, playing with the Victoria Aristocrats, later Cougars, of the Pacific Coast League. In 1925, he and former Falcons' teammate, Slim Halderson, led the Cougars to an upset Stanley Cup victory over the Montreal Canadians. In 1926-27, Fredrickson signed with Detroit for $6,000, making him the highest paid player in the National Hockey League. He became the league's first player-coach-manager with Pittsburgh in 1929. A knee injury ended his professional career in 1932. He became coach of the Princeton University Tigers in 1933, where he was a friend of Albert Einstein.
He moved to the west coast where he coached the Sea Island Flyers of the Royal Canadian Air Force. He coached the University of British Columbia hockey team for five seasons and in 1949-50 took the team to unprecedented victory over both Canadian and US college teams. Fredrickson was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1958 and the UBC Sports Hall of Fame and Museum in 1983. The Falcons were inducted into the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame and Museum in 1980 and the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame in 2006.
He sat as a councillor for the city of Vancouver and was renowned for bridge and playing the violin. He married Bea Peterson in 1923.
b. Winnipeg 1895 d.Vancouver 1979 |
Harold Slim Halderson
Halderson signed a contract to play professional hockey with the Saskatoon Crescents in 1920. He moved to the Victoria Aristocrats, later Cougars, in 1921 and won a Stanley Cup in 1925 with former Falcons' teammate Frank Fredrickson. In the 1926/27 season, he played for both the Detroit Cougars and the Toronto Maple Leafs. In his hockey career, Halderson was affiliated with the Quebec Beavers, Newark Bulldogs, Kansas City Pla-Mors, Duluth Hornets, Tulsa Oilers, and Wichita Skyhawks. He retired from hockey in 1937 and took a job with the former Manitoba Liquor Commission in Winnipeg. He died in 1965 and as a member of the Winnipeg Falcons was inducted into the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame and Museum in 1980. He married Olive McKay.
b. Winnipeg 1899 d. Winnipeg 1965 |
Konrad Konnie Johannesson
In 1925, Johannesson joined the Winnipeg Maroons of the Central Hockey League. The following two seasons he played for the Moose Jaw Maroons and then the Regina Capitals of the Pro Hockey League. In 1928, he accepted a one-year offer to play professionally in Seattle. From 1929 to 1934, he was manager and chief flying instructor at the Winnipeg Flying Club. During WW II, he operated the Johannesson Flying Service in Winnipeg, teaching Icelandic-speaking students to fly for the Royal Canadian Air Force. Three of these students later founded Loftleidir, now a part of Icelandair.
b. Argyle 1896 d. Winnipeg 1968 |
Robert John Bobby Benson
Benson left Winnipeg in the fall of 1920 to play professional hockey with the Saskatoon Crescents. In 1922, he joined the Calgary Tigers of the Western Canadian Hockey League and remained with the team for three seasons. He played for the Boston Bruins of the NHL in the 1924/25 season, was traded to the Edmonton Eskimos in 1925/26, and to the Saskatoon Shieks midway through the season. Other teams he played for included the Moose Jaw Warriors of the Prairie League, and the Minneapolis Millers of the American Hockey Association. He retired from professional hockey in 1929 to become a carpenter in Winnipeg.
b. Regina 1894 d. Winnipeg 1965 |
Magnus Mike Goodman
Goodman refused numerous offers to play professional hockey, continuing his amateur career with the Winnipeg Falcons until 1921. He was Manitoba's speed skating champion in 1918, 1919 and 1920 and Canadian champion in 1920. He was also the Western Canadian champion swimmer in the mile and was offered a chance to compete in that event at the 1920 Summer Olympics. He turned it down as he could not afford to pay his way to the Canadian finals in Montreal. In 1938, he moved to Florida to found a hockey team, the Coral Gables Seminoles. In his later years, he ran the delivery service for a Miami dry cleaning company. Goodman was honored at the 1988 Olympics in Calgary as the last surviving member of the world's first Olympic gold hockey team.
b. Winnipeg 1899 d. Florida 1992 |
Kristjan Chris Fridfinnson
Fridfinnson continued to play amateur hockey in Winnipeg until 1929 when he was hired to coach the University of Alberta varsity hockey team. He was dubbed the "Miracle Man" for turning the Alberta team, a perennial loser, into a winning squad that advanced to Edmonton's city final in 1930/31. Due to poor health, he returned to Winnipeg in 1931 to pursue a career as an accountant. In 1937, he entered a Winnipeg hospital and never left, passing away two years later at age 40. He was inducted into the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame and Museum in 1980 as a member of the Winnipeg Falcons.
b. Baldur, Manitoba 1899 d. Winnipeg 1939
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Alan Charles Huck Woodman
Woodman took a job at Eaton's, an opportunity offered to all the Falcons in recognition of their Allan Cup and Olympic victories. In 1922, he became captain of the Kenora Thistles, a senior team in the Thunder Bay Amateur Hockey Association. Woodman worked as Branch Manager of the International Paint Company in Winnipeg for 25 years until he retired in 1960.
b. Winnipeg 1899 d. Winnipeg 1963 |
Walter ‘Wally’ Byron
Wally Byron continued to tend goal for the Winnipeg Falcons until 1923. Considered one of the best goalies in amateur hockey in Canada, he honed his catching skills during the off season as a baseball player. He was intrepid between the pipes. During the 1920 Allan Cup series, he received a laceration to his face from the edge of a puck that required nine stitches. At the Antwerp Olympics, he broke a finger when he reached out to catch a shot from a U.S. player that would have resulted in a sure goal. He registered three shut outs in the Allan Cup and Olympic tournaments. He later worked for North Star Oil in Prince Albert and Anglo-Canadian Oil in Brandon.
b. Winnipeg 1894. d. Winnipeg 1971. |
Frederick George Steamer Maxwell
Maxwell continued to coach amateur hockey until 1928 when he accepted a professional contract from the Maroons of the American Hockey Association. In 1930, he turned down a lucrative offer of $1,500 to coach the Toronto Maple Leafs. Maxwell won a second amateur hockey world title in 1935 when he piloted the Winnipeg Monarchs to the championship in Davos, Switzerland. Steamer also loved baseball and was a strong promoter of the Goldeyes, a baseball team organized in Winnipeg after WWII. He was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1962.
b. Winnipeg 1890 d. Winnipeg 1975 |
Herbert Hebbie Axford
Axford continued as president of the Falcons for many years after the team's Olympic victory. He had an exceptional war record. His heroic dogfights over France and Belgium in the Royal Flying Corps in WW I earned him the award of a Distinguished Flying Cross and a promotion to captain.
b. Glenboro, Manitoba 1893 d. Winnipeg 1974 |
Frederick Fred Thordarson
Thordarson was on the executive of the 1920 Olympic world champion Falcons. He played on earlier Falcon teams and continued to work in an executive capacity for the club until its demise in the late 1930's. Thordarson wrote "The Romance of the Falcons", originally published in Canadian Sports and Outdoor Life and in the 1996 and 2002 issues of The Icelandic Canadian. His memorable saga of the Falcons preserved the history of the team for future fans. Thordarson worked for the Royal Bank in Winnipeg for 44 years.
b. Winnipeg 1890 d. Winnipeg 1966 |
William Bill Fridfinnson
Bill Fridfinnson played a major role in amalgamating Winnipeg's early Icelandic teams - the Athletic Club and the Viking Club - into the Winnipeg Falcons in 1910. Fridfinnson was appointed secretary of the Falcons for the 1910-11 season and remained in that position for many years. He escorted the team to the Antwerp Olympics where one of his main responsibilities was to chaperone the excited young players.
b. Bru, Manitoba 1890 d. Winnipeg 1941 |
Gudmundur Gordon Sigurjonsson
Gordon Sigurjonsson, trainer of the 1920 Falcons, was an exceptional athlete who demonstrated the sport of glima (wrestling) at the London Olympic Games in 1908 as a member of the Icelandic team. Soon after, he moved to Canada and in 1916 went overseas to fight in Belgium and France. At the Antwerp Games, the Swedish hockey team was so impressed by Sigurjonsson's ability as a trainer they hired him to develop their track and field team at the Summer Olympics in Antwerp.
b. Sudur-Thingeyjarsysla, Iceland 1883 d. Reykjavik, Iceland 1967 |
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