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Christians of Iraq
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An Assyrian Coach of the Canadian Beaver Bruins hockey team Moe George was born in Baghdad Nov. 7, 1922, the fifth child of David and Katherine George (their names were Anglicized when they came to Canada). The family, including brother Joseph, sister Khanna and cousin Nina George Backus, immigrated to this country in the fall of 1924 and made their way to North Battleford with a large group of Assyrian settlers. The family originally farmed with Benjamin George on land that later became the North Battleford airport.
Moe was very active in sports during his school years at Connaught School and the North Battleford Collegiate Insititute.
As a teenager he was a tremendous track and field athlete, a junior tennis champion and of course an excellent hockey player.
On the ice Moe played with the North Battleford Junior Beavers, then suited up for the Ft. William (now Thunder Bay) Hurricanes and the Trail, B.C. Smoke Eaters. During the Second World War Moe played with the RCAF hockey club. He married RCAF photographer Katherine Scobey in 1946.
After the war Moe played senior hockey with the North Battleford Beavers, the Prince Albert and Battleford Volunteers and the St. Thomas College hockey club. He became active in umpiring baseball in the early 1950s, during the heyday of the North Battleford Beavers baseball club. Because he always strove to be the best he could be, he even attended an umpiring school in Florida, and he soon became one of the most respected umpires on the Western Canada Baseball League circuit.
Around 1950 Moe joined Scotty Munroe's Humboldt Indians hockey club as chief scout. It was through the Indians that he became involved with the junior A Estevan Bruins and their parent organization, the Boston Bruins of the NHL. He served as the Boston Bruins' director of scouting for Western Canada for more than a decade.
Brought back junior hockey to N.B.
Moe's greatest contribution to Battlefords hockey came through his work to establish the juvenile (later junior-B) North Battleford Beaver Bruins hockey club. The team was founded in 1954, and Moe served as their first coach and general manager. The 'Beaver' part of the name was chosen to honor the former Beavers teams that had gone before, while the Bruins name was added to signify their affiliation with the Boston Bruins organization.
Moe and his supporters made the Beaver Bruins into an entity with which to be reckoned. In fact, in just their first year of existence, the Beaver Bruins were crowned the 1955 provincial juvenile champions.
Moe's keen eye for talent was obvious. Among those players who wore the Beaver Bruins uniform, and who later made it to the pro ranks, were Joe Watson, Ross Lonsberry, Skip Krake, Ronnie Boehm, Lyle Bradley, and Ron Willy. Later, when Jeep George took over the team after Moe's death, players to play for North Battleford en route to the pros included hometown boys Dale Hoganson and Gregg Sheppard, Morris Stefaniw, Speers' Bernie Lukowich, Dave Schultz and goalie Ed Dyck.
In their first years the Beaver Bruins played at the old St. Thomas College Playdium. But the team's success and the large crowds they drew raised local awareness about the need for a newer and better hockey facility. That ultimately led to the building of the North Battleford Civic Centre, which opened its doors in 1963.
After leaving North Battleford to coach the Estevan Bruins for the 1957-58 season, Moe returned home the following year and remained in charge of the Beaver Bruins until 1964. Unfortunately Moe became ill with lung cancer that year, and he handed over the team's reins to younger brother Jeep. Moe George passed away Feb. 5, 1965, at only 42 years of age.
Although he and Kay had no children of their own, Moe's work in hockey lives on through the many younger players he took under his wing. Moe George was inducted into the North Battleford Sports Museum and Hall of Fame in 1996.
Jeep George: a great hockey mind
The youngest sibling of the George clan, Albert Edward 'Jeep' George was born in North Battleford on May 1, 1925. Like his older brother Moe, Jeep attended Connaught Elementary School and NBCI.
Although a good athlete in his own right, Jeep wasn't as interested as Moe in other sports, and he gave most of his attention to hockey.
"Back when they were at Connaught, they were always in fierce competition with Notre Dame School, which was Catholic," recalled Jeep's widow, Joyce George. "And the goalie at Notre dame was Emile Francis.
"Jeep used to joke about how any time Notre Dame was up by a goal and Connaught was putting the pressure on to score, Emile had a knack for flipping the puck over the boards and into the snow. Well, there only was one puck, and they didn't stop the clock when they went to look for it.
"By the time someone found it, the game could be almost over. Of course Emile would probably tell you different."
Lost puck or no lost puck, Jeep and Emile became best of friends, with each serving as the other's best man at their respective weddings.
Jeep played with the North Battleford Beavers in the early 1940s. And despite his small stature (he was just five-foot-five), the left winger played a big game. He was a reliable goal scorer, a fine stickhandler, and a tenacious checker.
During the war years Jeep went to Ft. William, Ont., to work at the Canada Car assembly plant which had been converted for the production of Hurricane fighter planes. He also played with the Ft. William Hurricanes hockey team.
It was during his stay in Ft. William that he earned the nickname 'Jeep' and it stuck for the rest of his days.
"They called him 'Jeep' because he worked hard all the time, whether it was working at the factory or playing hockey or having fun," Joyce George said. "They told him, 'You're just like a jeep. You're always in four-wheel-drive'."
After the war Jeep returned to North Battleford, where he played hockey with the Beavers senior team. He also started a taxi business with brother Moe and J.J. Lamon, called the People's Cab. People's Cab was the first local taxi service to use radio dispatchers.
In 1950 Jeep married Joyce Has, a young nurse in training at the Sask. Hospital. The couple had four children; daughters Joan and Judith, and sons David and Donald. . .
Jeep joined Moe in working with the Beaver Bruins in the late 1950s, serving as manager. And when Moe became ill with cancer in 1964, Jeep took over behind the bench. He led the Beaver Bruins to the Saskatchewan Junior B championship in 1965-66.
He continued as both coach and GM with the Beaver bruins until 1969, when his old friend Emile Francis called from New York to offer Jeep the job as Western Canada director of scouting with the NHL's New York Rangers. Jeep spent more than a dozen years in the Rangers organization, and he later joined the NHL's Central Scouting before retiring in 1983.
The Beaver Bruins team folded after the 1970 season as pro affiliations disintergrated in the wake of the NHL's move to a player draft. But in their time, the Beaver Bruins played a huge role in fostering junior hockey talent, and in paving the way for the Battlefords Barons junior-A team that came into being in 1973.
Although Jeep was busy scouting for the Rangers and didn't get involved with the new team, the George family presence was still felt. Jeep's oldest son David played with the Barons in 1974, and he set a single season scoring record that still stands.
In his so-called retirment from scouting, Jeep did get involved briefly with the North Battleford Junior-A North Stars, who changed over from the community owned Barons to a privately owned entity in 1984. By then David had taken over as head coach, and Jeep came on board as director of player personnel. But interference from the team' ownership made both their stints short lived.
Jeep also briefly coached the Battlefords Beaver Blues senior hockey team in the early 1980s. But not long after stepping down as an NHL scout, he began to show symptoms of illness. He died from cancer on June 1, 1985, at age 60. .