Herb Pinder Jr.

Athlete (1994)

Hockey

Herb Pinder Jr. was born in Saskatoon in 1947. He attended elementary school in Saskatoon, joined the Kinsmen Peewee Hockey League and played for the Blackhawks. He played for Aden Bowman when they won the provincial midget championship in 1962-63.

Herb joined the Saskatoon Blade Bees, who were the Prairie junior B champions and moved up to the Blade juniors in the Saskatchewan League in 1965-66. He also starred on the 1966-67 Blade team and he was selected as one of the team captains during the Saskatchewan League's all-star game.

He was recruited to join the 1967-68 Canadian National Team and would be part of a strong Saskatchewan influence on the team. Jack McLeod was the team's coach and Brian Harper, Ted Hargreaves, Gary Begg, Fran Huck, Gerry Pinder, Morris Mott and Marshall Johnston were other Saskatchewan players on the team.

Canada lost to Finland early in the tournament, rebounded to beat Sweden and then Czechoslovakia but lost 5-0 to the Russians in a crucial game. As a result, the Russians won the gold and the Canadians settled for the bronze. It was the last medal Canada won at the Olympics until 1994.

Herb suffered an ankle injury, had surgery three times and had a promising career cut short. He became a lawyer and a prominent player agent and today represents 24 players in the National Hockey League.

Golf was always a summertime pastime for Herb, who won the Saskatchewan junior championship in 1965 and played on the provincial team at the Canadian championships.