Minnesota State Championship
Grant was born and raised in Leonidas, Minnesota. He was the son of an immigrant father who had worked in an open-pit ore mine since he was a young man, and had become a superintendent for U.S. Steel. Grant learned to skate on an ice rink that his father made by flooding a small grassy area near their home. Nicknamed "Cedar Legs" because of his bowed legs, Grant attended nearby Eveleth High School, where he was the left wing and captain of the hockey team that won the first Minnesota state hockey championship in 1945. Eveleth outscored the competition 30-3 in the inaugural tournament. Grant played most of the game in the finals against Thief River Falls and scored the game-tying and game-winning goals within a span of 61 seconds in the third period.
Interviewed in 2001, Grant said the 1945 state championship still blinked in his memory like giant neon billboards. He told a reporter, "I remember my father was behind the net at the other end. He was cheering us on. ... Dad wasn't a man known for emotional displays. He was very aloof, but you knew he was proud after we won."
Eveleth, Minnesota, a city of fewer than 5,000 residents in Minnesota's Iron Range, is the site of the United States Hockey Hall of Fame and has produced a string of college, Olympic and professional hockey stars, including Frank Brimsek, John Matchefts, John Mayasich, Willard Ikola, Sam LoPresti, Wally Grant, Oscar Almquist, Serge Gambucci, Mike Karakas, John Mariucci, Mark Pavelich, and Connie Pleban.
Read more about this topic: Wally Grant (ice Hockey)
Famous quotes containing the word state:
“To the rulers of the state then, if to any, it belongs of right to use falsehood, to deceive either enemies or their own citizens, for the good of the state: and no one else may meddle with this privilege.”
—Plato (c. 427–347 B.C.)