Salive returns and brings gift for Leamington

By Mark Ribble

Horse racing Hall-of-Famer and Leamington native Frank Salive was honoured at Leamington Raceway on Sunday, September 8, as he called several races from his old booth atop the grandstand.

The nostalgic visit was  held in conjunction with Caretaker’s Day at the track and Salive made the trek to his hometown and brought several items with him.

Those items include a pair of goalie skates, a Russian hockey trophy and a Horse Racing Hall of Fame placard, which was donated to the Southpoint Minor Hockey Alumni Group, who promised to get it into the trophy case at the Nature Fresh Farms Recreation Centre for all visitors to the arena to see.

Salive, now semi-retired from his job as one of horse racing’s most prolific announcers, spoke from the heart when addressing the crowd in Leamington.

“The intersection of hockey and horse racing for me, began in Leamington,” he said. “I got my start here and it’s fitting that these items come back home.”

The goalie skates and trophy are both from the very first World Junior Ice Hockey Championships, held in Leningrad, Russia in December of 1973.

Salive — a standout goaltender who rose through the ranks of Leamington Minor Hockey — was cut by the Leamington Flyers in the fall of 1972, but found a home with the Peterborough Petes of the OHL as a walk-on.

“Coach Roger Nielson took a chance on me,” he said. 

The brand new World Junior Championships was about to take place in December and at that time, Canada sent actual Junior teams to represent the country as opposed to a national team picked from all the junior standouts. The Petes were chosen based on their previous season’s results.

Peterborough had lost in the OHL finals but the Toronto Marlboros, who had beaten them in 1972-73,   had another commitment, so the Petes were sent to Russia to represent Canada.

Salive was named top goaltender in the tournament and received a fancy silver teapot as a trophy. The Russians went unbeaten to take the title. Canada tied for second with Finland in the six-team tournament.

On Sunday, Salive arrived with a box of hockey artifacts including that teapot trophy, his goalie skates from that season, a program, several pins and banners and a horse racing placard.

Ron Sellon and Steve Tuffin were there on behalf of Southpoint Alumni Group, and Sellon reacquainted himself with Salive, who grew up down the road from him.

“Ron and I go way back,” said Salive. “His brother Brian and I were close friends as kids.”

After leaving hockey, Salive got into broadcasting and was actually chosen to do the radio broadcast of the 1976 World Juniors which was broadcast live back to Canada.

His broadcasting career flourished and he spent some time on television before opting for the horse racing business, where he has called over 150,000 races in his illustrious career, earning him the nickname “The voice of Canadian harness racing”.

After the presentation, Frank hung around and talked to old friends who had come out to see him and reminisced about the good old days in Leamington, both in hockey and harness racing.