Written by Nick Fonda
Filming the Game: An Illustrated Story of Hockey It’s a book I’ve been aware of and anticipating for a couple of years.
Its author, Don Weekes, lives in Montreal but spends a lot of time in the towns, and has been doing so since the late 1970s. When he married his wife, Caroline, it was in Knowlton with the reception held at Owl’s Head. In the summer, you might meet him kayaking on Lake Broome or cycling around it, while in the winter you might meet him in Sutton or Orford, likely on a tour marked by a double black diamond.
Beyond the towns, statistically minded hockey fans know that Don Weekes is the author of 34 books including Hockey Hall of Fame Trivia Book And The 100 Greatest Players in Hockey: The Game’s Greatest Goals.
“I learned to skate when I was four or five years old, and I started playing hockey around the same time,” Don says. At first, these were pick-up games, but I played three years of organized hockey until I was 15 years old. After that, I started downhill skiing. But I still play a couple of minor hockey games every winter.
At 17, Don considered becoming an architect and studied civil technology at Dawson College, which led to him spending four summers with surveying crews in the Yukon. However, when he started his studies at Concordia University it was in psychology. However, his real interest was in student radio, and along with others at the station, his work was publicly recognized by the university.
With an award, he got a summer job at CJAD Radio.
“It was baptism by fire,” he says. “I was assigned to work on a show called Sounds Like Montreal. The midday show ran from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., it was an open show, and we always had seven or eight guests. I had to rush.”
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