Arthur Thomas Potter (August 8, 1909 – January 19, 1998) was a Canadian ice hockey administrator. He was president of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association (CAHA) from 1962 to 1964, and oversaw the establishment of a permanent Canada men's national ice hockey team after he decided that sending the reigning Allan Cup champion to international competitions was no longer the answer. He felt that Canada needed discipline to handle Cold War tactics and propaganda at the Ice Hockey World Championships, sought to give its best players to develop as a team, and supported a plan by Father David Bauer to assemble a team of amateur student athletes to complete at the 1964 Winter Olympics.
Potter was against the increasing influence of the National Hockey League (NHL) into amateur hockey, and blamed minor league professional teams for the decline of senior ice hockey and loss of prestige for the Allan Cup. He wanted to keep players in junior ice hockey as long as possible, and favoured the revised NHL Amateur Draft agreement to financially support junior hockey which ended the direct sponsorship of teams by the NHL. He had multiple disagreements with coach Hap Emms during two Memorial Cup finals, suspended radio announcers for comments that he felt were detrimental to the game, sought rules to sanction teams and individuals who abused on-ice officials or the CAHA, and advocated using a three-man officiating system to reduce incidents.
Potter was an executive for the Alberta Amateur Hockey Association from 1943 to 1959, including seven years as vice-president and four years as president. He was known as "Mr. Hockey" in Edmonton, where he was a lifelong volunteer to organize minor ice hockey, which included serving as president of the Edmonton and District Hockey Association. He was elected to four terms as chairman of the Edmonton Recreation Board, assisted in the planning and construction of the South Edmonton Sports Centre, and was inducted into the Edmonton Sports Hall of Fame. He received the Canadian Centennial Medal in 1967, was inducted into the builder category of the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame in 1968, and was part of the inaugural class of inductees into the Alberta Hockey Hall of Fame in 1982.
Early life and Edmonton hockey
Arthur Thomas Potter was born on August 8, 1909, in Ramsgate, Kent, England. He was the youngest of five children to Annie and George Potter, the latter who worked as a blacksmith. They departed Liverpool aboard SS Laurentic on April 30, immigrated to Canada at Quebec City on May 8, 1910, then settled in Edmonton, Alberta.
As an 18-year-old in 1927, Potter began coaching the Edmonton Elites junior ice hockey team. He also volunteered as a convenor for the Edmonton Junior Hockey League in which the team played.; During three seasons in the league, the Elites won the city's playoffs championship in 1928, and were playoffs finalists in 1927 and 1929.;
For five seasons from 1929 to 1933, Potter managed the Edmonton Poolers while Barney Stanley coached the team. Their team included future National Hockey League (NHL) players Mac Colville, Neil Colville, Louis Trudel and Art Wiebe; and won the juvenile age group championship for minor ice hockey in Alberta in 1930.
Potter remained involved as the director for the midget and juvenile age groups in Edmonton, and served continuously in the role until the 1942–43 season. The age groups played all of their games on outdoor ice rinks, had grown to exceed 200 players by 1941, and Potter hoped to further expand the groups be encouraging participation from the towns surrounding Edmonton.
Potter was elected vice-president of the Edmonton and District Hockey Association (EDHA) in October 1943, then served as its president for four seasons beginning in October 1944. The EDHA grew to include teams from Red Deer in junior hockey, and expanded its minor hockey program to include a bantam age group. Potter and the EDHA sought to have a greater influence on hockey in Alberta, and perceived a lack of organization of hockey in Southern Alberta due to the failure to meet deadlines for provincial playoffs.
Potter was named a director of the Edmonton Junior Hockey League for the 1945–46 season. He and fellow league executives hired local baseball executive John Ducey as a public relations director to promote junior hockey when senior ice hockey was growing in Edmonton. The junior league suspended operations after the season, and the EDHA established a new city league including a combination of senior, intermediate and junior hockey teams.
Potter sat on a committee to establish a sports and recreation council for Edmonton, and felt the proposed body should aim to support and promote sports organizations rather than be simply a neutral administration. The council supported a proposal for a C$100,000 artificial ice rink for minor ice hockey, and Potter sat on the committee to have the facility designed and built. He retired as EDHA president in September 1948 to focus on organizing hockey at the provincial level.
Alberta Amateur Hockey Association Vice-president
Potter was elected vice-president of the Alberta Amateur Hockey Association (AAHA) in May 1948.; He served seven one-year terms until 1955; and oversaw the Northern Alberta playoffs each season for intermediate level senior hockey, and the bantam, midget, juvenile age groups in minor hockey. The AAHA sought to increase registration in minor hockey and began paying the travel costs for teams during provincial playoffs, and reached its greatest number of players registered by the 1952–53 season.;
At the 1949 general meeting, the AAHA contemplated combining the best players from the Edmonton Junior Hockey League into a Western Canada Junior Hockey League (WCJHL) team. An Edmonton team was formed for the 1950–51 season, but was denied entry since the WCJHL had already made its schedule. In response, the AAHA threatened not to sanction the other four Alberta-based teams in the league, but recanted and sought exhibition games for the Edmonton team.; ; When players from Edmonton were added to the rosters of WCJHL teams, Potter stated that the players had not been released and faced suspension for not honouring commitments. After the players returned, Potter announced the team would be known as the Edmonton Oil Kings and play an exhibition schedule versus WCJHL teams.
Potter led initiatives to organize the Northern Alberta Intermediate Hockey League in 1948, and became secretary of the Western Canada intermediate hockey committee to organize inter-provincial playoffs. Intermediate hockey teams in Alberta included the Edmonton Mercurys who won the 1950 Ice Hockey World Championships,; and the Lethbridge Maple Leafs who won the 1951 Ice Hockey World Championships. Potter chaired the committee that organized the victory parade in Edmonton for the Mercurys. Alberta had been without top-tier senior hockey since 1950, after its two Western Canada Senior Hockey League teams joined the Alexander Cup Major Series, then became professional. Potter blamed the increase of minor league professional hockey for the decline the senior hockey in Alberta. In October 1951, he and the AAHA upgraded the intermediate teams to A-level and B-level senior teams, which allowed the A-level teams to compete in the national Allan Cup playoffs.
President
Potter was elected president of the AAHA on November 14, 1955. and served four seasons in the position. He wanted to see more children playing the game for fun, advocated for shorter schedules, and felt that the game in general had become too physical. He wanted to see more temporary outdoor ice rinks constructed to meet the seasonal demands of minor hockey and recommended that rinks be located at schools if public parks had no available space.
Potter felt that "professional money [had] ruined amateur hockey", and that the NHL changed the game into a big business. He wanted to spread out junior hockey talent and see fewer players controlled by professional interests concentrated on a small group of teams. He also urged for smaller towns to focus on producing their own talent through minor hockey, instead of trying to import better players by offering money.
Potter aired several grievances of the AAHA at the 1956 Canadian Amateur Hockey Association (CAHA) general meeting. He was opposed to the NHL making professionals out of players who were still eligible for junior ice hockey. He argued that the loss of best players in Western Canada exacerbated the imbalance of Memorial Cup competition against stronger Eastern Canada teams, and that fewer talented players led to decreased attendance and ticket revenues in Alberta.
In September 1956, Bill Hunter claimed that he could rightfully sell players as the owner of the Medicine Hat Tigers. Potter disagreed that any junior team owned its players, nor had the right to sell them to another team, and compared it to slavery. He warned that proper transfers must be completed to change teams, and that players could be suspended if an agreement was not honoured to play for a team.; He was also opposed to any amateur sport club which attempted to restrict its athletes from playing an additional amateur sport. He stated that the athlete had the right to choose, and would be supported by the AAHA and the CAHA.
Alberta was without any senior hockey level teams in 1956. The AAHA then divided its intermediate hockey level into tiers to allow for the inclusion of teams from smaller towns and leagues composed entirely of industrial employees. In August 1957, Potter appealed to the CAHA that Allan Cup competition be opened up to intermediate level teams strengthened by additional players. He wanted to see more branches of the CAHA to enter teams, rather than only the senior teams in Ontario in British Columbia. As of the 1958 Allan Cup, the CAHA allowed intermediate level teams outside of Ontario in British Columbia to add six players to their rosters to enter the national playoffs.
Potter stepped down as president in November 1958, and had continuously served on the AAHA executive from 1943 to 1959 as either a director, the vice-president or the president.
Canadian Amateur Hockey Association Vice-president
Potter was elected second vice-president of the CAHA on May 21, 1959. He oversaw the distribution of $80,000 in grants towards development of minor hockey in Canada, and the implementation of mandatory goaltender masks. In January and February 1960, he chaperoned the Soviet Union men's national ice hockey team on their tour of Western Canada. He credited the team for being able to beat Canada in hockey and described the players as, "smart, clean-living and interested in finding out more about Canada". He oversaw scheduling for the 1960 Allan Cup in Western Canada, ruled that Saskatchewan too late in declaring a champion to participate in the playoffs, then changed his mind and scheduled an abbreviated series.
Potter was elected first vice-president in May 1960, and served two one-year terms. He was in change of the 1961 Memorial Cup playoffs in Western Canada and the final championship series. During the Western Canada final between the Winnipeg Rangers and the Edmonton Oil Kings, Potter assessed 10-minute misconduct penalties to five players and ordered them to begin the third game of the series in the penalty box. The Winnipeg Free Press described the decision as "an unusual scene" and that it had resulted from an on-ice stick-swinging brawl during game two of the series. He scheduled the championship series at the Edmonton Gardens, which became the first time that Edmonton hosted the Memorial Cup finals.