Ron Butlin (ice hockey)

Butlin was friends with NHL president Clarence Campbell, and would get together frequently in the off-season. Butlin was married to Shirley, with whom he had two daughters. He had heart problems and other medical issues later in life. He died on September 24, 2014, at age 89 in Victoria. He had been predeceased by his wife, and a celebration of life was scheduled for October 18, 2014.

The Winter Games were hosted primarily in Wenatchee, with some venues in Leavenworth and Chelan. Butlin acknowledged difficulties in raising funds due to it being a first-time event, and competition from other state centennial events for corporate sponsors. He made agreements with KXLY-TV and KIRO-TV to broadcast the games, which led to other corporate interest. Events were chosen which suited existing facilities to reduce costs. The games had a lower profile due to competition from the 1990 Goodwill Games. Additional television broadcasts by KAPP and KVEW, which helped a budget of $341,000 be raised. Butlin expected 1,700 athletes to attend, competing in 23 sports. He referred to the Centennial games as “a festival of sport, a bringing together of people from all ages and skill levels”.

Butlin discussed with the State of Washington in late 1986 that he was willing to accept a position to coordinate Winter Games and Summer Games in celebration of the state’s centennial in 1989. He left his position in British Columbia when he received a better financial offer from Washington.

Butlin announced Medicine Hat as the location for the Alberta Winter Games in 1978, and expected the operating budget to increase to $200,000 for 50,000 athletes. He also hoped for increased private sector donations, due to new regulations allowing larger contributions by companies.

Butlin moved from Calgary to Victoria in 1977, and was hired as the manager-director of the newly established BC Games Society, which would oversee the BC Summer Games and the BC Winter Games. He stated that British Columbia was the first Canadian province to attempt to host annual summer and winter games starting in 1978. The provincial government provided $180,000 towards the inaugural summer games, with plans to fund a legacy project up to $70,000 in the host location. He stated that event in the summer games would be chosen according to available facilities. A strike by employees at the College of New Caledonia in Prince George, British Columbia led to Butlin finding other accommodations for athletes at the 1981 BC Winter Games. He made regular practice of declaring each version of the games as “the best one yet”. He parted ways with the BC Games Society by mutual agreement after his contract expired in 1987.

No winter games were held in 1975 to avoid competing with 1975 Canada Winter Games in Lethbridge. Butlin selected Red Deer, Alberta as host of the 1975 summer games, and Banff, Alberta as the host location for the first Alberta Winter Games to be held in March 1976.

Butlin became the part-time executive director of Sport Alberta by October 1973, and announced that the first Alberta Summer Games would held in Calgary from August 22 to 25, 1974. He was critical of the Canadian Olympic Committee which later announced its Junior Olympics would be in Edmonton from August 10 to 16, after the Alberta Summer Games had already been announced. In May 1974, he was appointed by Peter Lougheed the Premier of Alberta, to become the first full-time executive director of Sport Alberta.

Butlin was chairman of the CFL All-Star Game festival, hosted at McMahon Stadium in Calgary on June 28, 1972.

In October 1972, Butlin was in attendance at the final four games played during the Summit Series in Moscow. He recalled that upon his arrival at the airport, “We were looking for normal customs people. All we could see were soldiers with rifles. It was a dictatorship in those days”. He found the locals in Moscow friendly despite the security presence. During games at the Palace of Sports of the Central Lenin Stadium, Butlin noted that spectators were very quiet and when Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev stood up, all one could hear was the sound of skates on the ice.

Butlin resigned as WCHL president on June 21, 1971, and was unhappy with how some of the team owners did business. He was cautious about expanding in to British Columbia and stated that several team owners did the negotiations without him. He also stated he wanted to get away from hockey, despite reports that he was interested in operating the Vancouver franchise in the WCHL. He felt he would have received a vote of confidence from the league if he had asked, and had one year remaining on his contract.

A meeting on March 9, 1970, between the WCHL and the CAHA to resolve all differences ended after 15 minutes. Butlin reported that the CAHA insisted the WCHL accept the same conditions as other junior leagues under CAHA jurisdiction instead of recognizing WCHL grievances. He later claimed that CAHA executives wanted to renegotiate every detail, and called the meeting “an absolute farce”.

The WCHL and CAHA came closer to reuniting in May 1970. The CAHA again discussed restructuring its CAHA committee and proposed splitting junior hockey into two tiers, which Butlin stated was interesting to the WCHL. The Alberta Supreme Court ruled in favour of the WCHL being paid $13,200 in development payments from the CAHA, and stated that the teams qualified for the payments based on the wording of the CAHA-NHL agreement. Butlin considered further court action to receive an additional $40,700 from the 1969 NHL draft.

On June 20, 1970, Butlin’s contract as WCHL president was extended for an additional two years. The CAHA and the WCHL signed a two-year affiliation agreement on June 24, 1970. The WCHL gained direct representation on the CAHA junior council, and paid a flat registration fee per team rather than a percentage of gate receipts. The WCHL was admitted as a tier-1 league, qualified automatically for the Memorial Cup final, and would receive $100,000 in development grants for the 1970–71 season. The WCHL would be allowed four over-age players in the upcoming season, then reduced to two. The WCHL agreed to abide by the CAHA residency requirements and be limited to transfer six players between branches of the CAHA west of Ontario, and be allowed to select a maximum of two players from a tier-2 team. The WCHL would be expected to abide by any future CAHA-NHL agreements, and the CAHA agreed to distribute outstanding draft money. The WCHL agreed not to expand or relocate teams into other markets without CAHA approval. The CHA was subsequently phased out.

In August 1970, Butlin announced an affiliation agreement with the tier-2 BCJHL, where the WCHL would place its top prospect players for training and provide financial support and with scouting expertise. He also looked to negotiate similar agreements with other tier-2 leagues in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

Butlin and the CAHA had disagreements over roster movements to the WCHL from other leagues in October 1970, and the WCHL was threatened with expulsion from the CAHA. At issue was the number of over-age players in the WCHL, and players who were formerly on OHA teams claimed by an automatic release. The CAHA did not use automatic release provisions in the 1970–71 season, and Butlin was forced to find alternate arrangements to settle disputes between the WCHL and other teams.

The Flin Flon Bombers from the WCHL and the St. Thomas Barons from the WOJHL were the respective league champions, and met in the CHA east-west national final for the Father Athol Murray Trophy. It was arranged as a best-of-four series to begin in St. Thomas, Ontario. The series was the first Canadian national junior ice hockey championship not under the jurisdiction of the CAHA. Butlin also issued a challenge to the CAHA to have the 1969 Memorial Cup champion play against the CHA champion.

In May 1969, the CAHA released a restructuring proposal which would implement three separate councils for minor ice hockey, junior ice hockey, and senior ice hockey, to be composed of hockey businessmen and team operators; something which Butlin had demanded. On July 30, Butlin and CAHA president Earl Dawson announced a tentative agreement where the WCHL would rejoin the CAHA. Twenty players from the WCHL were chosen in the 1969 NHL amateur draft which increased the amount of disputed draft payments, with legal action on the 1968 draft money scheduled to appear before the Alberta Supreme Court in August 1969. Butlin denied he was responsible for the rift between the WCHL and the CAHA in the war of words that ensued between him and Dawson. As of September 16, 1969, the agreement had not been approved by the CAHA.

Butlin sought to hire a full-time general manager for the Spurs when Marv Vangotsinoven resigned in March 1968, after four seasons with the team. In April 1968, the WCSHL was in danger of folding, and Butlin considered joining the Western International Hockey League whose senior teams were based in British Columbia and Washington. Butlin stated he was leaving senior hockey in June 1968, because he felt junior ice hockey had a better future. He reportedly asked for C$12,000 to sell the Spurs, but an agreement was not reached. A separate group of owners submitted a bid to the Alberta Senior Hockey League in July 1968, for a team to be called the Calgary Stampeders that would use free agent players from the Spurs. Butlin later sold the team after operating it for four seasons.

On June 8, 1968, the Western Canada Junior Hockey League changed its name to the Western Canada Hockey League (WCHL), and affiliated with the Canadian Hockey Association (CHA) which was established as a national governing body of junior ice hockey in opposition to the CAHA, and the National Hockey League (NHL) agreement for the NHL Amateur Draft. Butlin was named president of both organizations, and was kept on a retainer and given expenses instead of a salary.

Butlin continued his verbal attack against the CAHA into the 1968–69 season, whereas the CAHA had mostly ignored him. He stated that the CHA was contemplating expansion into minor ice hockey in addition to junior ice hockey, in an attempt to “change the hockey pattern in Canada”. He criticized the CAHA for accepting the NHL’s lower the age limit that was “a move to put the kids into the money machine faster”. He felt the NHL should be pressured to pay more money for players it drafted, and that the CAHA wasted too much money on administration that could be spent on its teams.

In October 1968, the CAHA released the disbursement of development payments from the 1968 NHL Amateur Draft. The statement omitted payments for players drafted from the WCHL while the league was under CAHA jurisdiction. The CAHA refused to issue the payments as it considered all teams under the CHA jurisdiction to be defunct. In January 1969, Butlin announced legal action against the CAHA to seek development payments from the NHL, which totaled $13,200.

Butlin claimed that the WCHL was now a $1-million operation and that attendance figures had grown from 429,000 during the 1968–69 season to 530,000 during the 1969–70 season. The league also added the Medicine Hat Tigers as an expansion team and welcomed the Regina Pats who transferred from the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League. He explained that the upcoming WCHL expansion draft was designed that new teams would be competitive in their first year, and allowed established teams to protect only six players before drafting began.

In May 1967, Butlin proposed a major senior hockey league for Western Canada, and expected the higher-level league to begin operation for the 1967–68 season. He invited the Canada men’s national ice hockey team based in Winnipeg, and the United States men’s national ice hockey team based in from Saint Paul, Minnesota, to play in the league along with teams from Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatoon and Regina. He sought a long-term commitment from the national teams, and wanted to strengthen rosters of the other club teams for balanced competitive play. He proposed for the league to use international ice hockey rules and act as a talent pool for the national teams, and later invited the Finland men’s national ice hockey team to play a series of exhibitions games in the proposed league. In June 1967, the league diverged into two separate senior leagues which both kept the WCSHL name.

Butlin offered the Calgary Spurs for sale in August 1967, and intended to accept a position as president of the new league. He acted as spokesperson for the new league, and hoped for multiple European national teams to play games against the league. Later in August, Butlin decided to remain owner of the team. He signed a new ice agreement with the Corral, brought in partners to help operate the team, and switched to player salaries instead of dividing end-of-year profits. Butlin later chose not to accept the league president position, but he felt that Canadian would show interested in the use of international rules of play and three on-ice officials for games.

During the 1966–67 WCSHL season, the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association (CAHA) upheld a protest by the Saskatchewan Amateur Hockey Association (SAHA) that the Spurs had used ineligible players registered after the December 31 deadline. Butlin responded by taking legal action against the AAHA, who according to him had given permission for the signings. The Alberta Supreme Court upheld the original AAHA decision that both players were eligible, but CAHA secretary-manager Gordon Juckes enforced the suspensions since no court order had been issued against the CAHA. The Spurs finished the season in first place, won the T. B. Patton Cup as senior champions of Western Canada, but lost in the 1967 Allan Cup final versus Drummondville Eagles for the national championship. Attendance for the season in Calgary exceeded 100,000 fans.

Butlin previously hosted a sports radio show, and was a founding member and later president of the Calgary Booster Club. He founded the Calgary Spurs as an independent senior ice hockey in 1964, which joined the Western Canada Senior Hockey League in 1965. After the Spurs were 1967 Allan Cup finalists, he helped establish a senior league based in Western Canada which included the Canada men’s national ice hockey team in its schedule. He sold the Spurs in 1968. After his tenure with the WCHL, he was executive director of Sport Alberta from 1973 to 1977, and directed the first Alberta Summer Games in 1974, and the first Alberta Winter Games in 1976. He then became the manager-director of the BC Games Society which oversaw the BC Summer Games and the BC Winter Games until 1987, and then coordinated the Washington state centennial in 1989. He later spent 21 years organizing the annual Santa Claus parade and the Victoria Day parades in Victoria, British Columbia.

Butlin founded the Calgary Spurs as an independent senior ice hockey team in 1964, after the Calgary Stampeders team had folded. The Spurs were not part of any league and played an exhibition schedule during the 1964–65 season. The team had an average of 3,000 fans per home game which increased when it joined the Alberta Amateur Hockey Association (AAHA) playoffs. Senior hockey in Alberta was consolidated into the Alberta Senior Hockey League during June 1965. The Spurs were invited to join the newly formed Alberta league, and were also invited to join the Western Canada Senior Hockey League (WCSHL) which was based in both Alberta and Saskatchewan. He considered offers from both leagues, and chose to join the WCSHL. The Spurs finished the 1965–66 WCSHL season in first place, but lost to the Drumheller Miners in the league playoffs.

Butlin was a baseball coach during the 1950s, and was elected vice-president of the Alberta Fastball Association in 1953. He and Arthur Ryan Smith hosted a weekly amateur sports radio show on CFAC, and a hot stove league on broadcasts of the Western Hockey League in the late 1950s. Butlin was a founding member of the Calgary Booster Club, served as its president from 1961 to 1963, and was later made an honorary life director of the club.

Ronald James Butlin (August 8, 1925 – September 24, 2014) was a Canadian ice hockey executive. He was president of the Western Canada Hockey League (WCHL) from 1968 to 1971, when the league separated from the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association (CAHA) due to grievances arising from the National Hockey League (NHL) agreement for the NHL Amateur Draft. He also served as president of the Canadian Hockey Association from 1968 to 1970, which was formed as a national governing body of junior ice hockey in Canada, in opposition to the CAHA. He sought to raise the age limit imposed by the NHL and negotiate better financial terms for the junior teams which developed future professional players. He criticized the CAHA for its spending on administration and wanted hockey policy to be determined by the teams instead of elected officials. He negotiated an agreement to reunite the WCHL with the CAHA in 1970, where the WCHL gained direct representation on the CAHA junior council, better financial return for drafted players, and received development grants from the NHL.

Ronald James Butlin was born on August 8, 1925, in Calgary, Alberta. His grandfather James had participated in the westward march of the North-West Mounted Police in 1874. Butlin studied at the University of Alberta, then became a trustee in bankruptcy, and the owner of a business in Calgary. His company was known as Central Liquidation Limited, and helped him earn a personal fortune.