IKE HILDEBRAND
Date of Birth: May 27, 1927
Place of Birth: Winnipeg, Manitoba
Date of Passing: August 27, 2006
Sport: Lacrosse
Member Category: Athlete
Mann Cup champion - New Westminster Salmonbellies
Mike Kelly Award - Mann Cup MVP
Western Lacrosse Association, scoring champion
Four-time Mann Cup champion - Peterborough Timbermen
Allen Cup champion - Belleville McFarlands
World Hockey Championship - Belleville McFarlands
While Canada has produced many talented athletes, few can match Ike Hildebrand's claim to fame. He achieved national and international success in both Canada's national winter sport (hockey) and national summer sport (lacrosse) in a career that spanned more than 16 years. A native of Winnipeg, Hildebrand first rose to sporting prominence in the Mann Cup, the Canadian senior lacrosse championship that annually pits the winners of the Western and Ontario Lacrosse Associations against one another to determine the national champion. He was a member of the 1943 Mann Cup-champion New Westminster Salmonbellies as a 15-year-old. A year later, he became the youngest-ever recipient of the Mike Kelly Award as Mann Cup MVP. Before leaving B.C., he was twice led the league in scoring, in 1946 and 1948. Hildebrand also played in Ontario, with Mimico and Peterborough, where he continued his prolific scoring. As a member of the Peterborough Timbermen that won four consecutive Mann Cup titles, from 1951-54, he was league scoring champion twice. In some 16 seasons of competitive senior lacrosse, Hildebrand scored more than 900 goals and added over 700 assists. Thirteen times he was named to his league's all-star tem. When not playing competitive lacrosse, Hildebrand was an outstanding hockey player. He played junior hockey in Ontario during the late-1940s before enjoying two 30-plus goal seasons with Cleveland in the American Hockey League. Hildebrand played 71 NHL games over two seasons in the mid-1950s with the New York Rangers and Chicago Blackhawks. He eventually returned to senior hockey, first with Pembroke and then Belleville. It was while with the Belleville McFarlands that Hildebrand achieved his greatest successes as a both a hockey player and coach. He was a member of the McFarlands team that won the 1958 Allen Cup, earning the right to represent Canada at the world hockey championship. At the 1959 world tournament in Czechoslovakia, Hildebrand both played for and coached the McFarlands. In fact, he scored the game-winning goal in the 3-1 victory over the Soviet Union that clinched the world championship for Canada. Hildebrand continued to coach junior hockey throughout the 1960s.