Murray “Moe” Smith – a Windsor NS hockey legend

Murray “Moe” Smith was a legend in Windsor hockey. He was a member of the Nova Scotia champion Windsor Academy Juvenile team of 1942, and is best known for his decades long coaching tenure. Smith died in 2014 at the age of 87.

Moe was not long-winded. in fact, he was kind of a loner. But he understood sports and he understood us. He’d skate us hard during practices and teach positional play, basic skills and responsibilities away from the puck. Otherwise, Moe just let us play. He rarely scolded or screamed at a player and we worked our butts off for him. During games he’d keep his instructions simple: ‘turn it up,’ or ‘let’s go boys,’ or ‘pick it up now,’ or ‘stay out of the box.’ Stuff like that.

Moe let me hang around his family’s sporting goods store downtown where he often gave me any stick I wanted. Other than an occasional errand, I don’t remember doing much to earn those sticks. If I was there and he was eating, then I was eating, too. I wasn’t the only kid he treated this way. On his teams the skates were always sharp and the sweaters clean and mended. Never a charge.”