Eddie Dorohoy leaves us

Eddie Dorohoy, one of the legendary figures from the early days of the WHL, has died.
Dorohoy, who was born in Medicince Hat, was 80 when he died earlier in the week. A celebration of his life will be held Thursday (June 11), 2 p.m., at the McCall Funeral home in Victoria.
Dorohoy coached the Winnipeg Jr. Jets for two full seasons (1967-69) and part of 1969-70. Overall, his coaching record in Winnipeg was 67-77-7.
He came to the Jets from the Brandon Wheat Kings, who at that time were a junior A team. He coached them in 1965-66 when they were in the Saskatchewan junior league but made quite a name for himself the next season when the Wheaties played in the Manitoba junior league.
Led by the offensive exploits of Juha Widing, who was born in Finland to two Swedish parents and was brought to Brandon by the legendary Jake Milford, and Bill Fairbairn, the Wheat Kings went 47-9-1. Widing put up 144 points, including 70 goals, while Fairbairn had 142 points, 60 of them goals. The roster also included defencemen Larry Brown and Bill Mikkelson, both of whom went on to play in the NHL. Mikkelson's son Brendan, a defenceman like his dad, played four seasons in the WHL and is an Anaheim Ducks' prospect.
Dorohoy was the MJHL’s all-star coach, although Brandon went on to lose the MJHL’s best-of-five final to the Flin Flon Bombers, 3-2. The Bombers, led by a couple of gunners named Bobby Clarke and Reggie Leach, and coached by Pat Ginnell, had gone 42-6 in the regular season. Flin Flon played 48 games that season, 10 of them worth four points each, and finished with 104 points. Brandon played 57 games and had 95 points.
As a player, Dorohoy dazzled with the Lethbridge Native Sons in 1947-48. He got into 16 games with the Montreal Canadiens in 1948-49 but never played another NHL game.
Jon C. Stott, in his book Ice Warriors (The Pacific Coast/Western Hockey League 1948-1974) writes: “Dorohoy saw little ice time in the 16 games he played for Montreal When the team got off to a slow start, coach Dick Irvin called a meeting. Here, Eddie became involved in another legendary incident, one that revealed his verbal rather than athletic dexterity. ‘He was going down the lines asking each player why he wasn’t scoring. When he got to me, I told him that I’d need a very long stick to score from where I was sitting on the bench.’ “
It wasn’t long after that when Dorohoy found himself with Dallas in the USHL.
By the next season, Dorohoy was in the Pacific Coast league, which later morphed into the WHL, and he stayed there until retiring after the 1964-65 season.
Dorohoy obviously had a quick wit.
In reporting on the death of Coley Hall, who was the original owner of the Vancouver Canucks of the Western Hockey League, writer Tom Hawthorn noted that Dorohoy had once said: “Coley Hall is so cheap, he wouldn't give you the sleeves off his vest."
As did most players in those days, Dorohoy had a nickname and, no, it was Dory. It was Pistol.
As Dorohoy explained to Stott:
"When I was with Dallas, a wealthy fan invited us to his house and showed us around. Hanging from each post of his bed-head was a gun belt with a pistol in each holster. I picked the guns up and started twirling them around my fingers. He told me to be careful because they were loaded. The next day, one of the players started to call me Pistol and it stuck."
Yes, those were the days . . .