DRESDEN NATIVE SKATE INNOVATOR

"Tacks" were worn by hockey's best
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Most every kid who ever laced up a pair of hockey skates and batted a puck around an ice pad in the last 100 years has aspired to someday owning a pair of "Tacks'.  For the benefit of the uninitiated, Tacks were the best hockey skates that money could buy and all the pros wore them.
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Much to my surprise, and others from my hometown of Dresden, there is a significant piece of information hidden away in a collection of biographical profiles compiled by the Manitoba Historical Society.* The world-famous skate was the work of Brandon shoemaker George Edwin Tackaberry, who just happened to be a native of good old Dresden.  Who knew?

Here's the story, previously unknown in Dresden.

Tackaberry apprenticed as a shoemaker in Dresden before marrying and moving to Manitoba in 1900.  Through research this week, I have learned that George was the son of Ben and Irene (nee Moore) Tackaberry and was born in Dresden on 6 May 1874.  He married the former Helen Weir of Manitoulin Island in August 1897 in Clifford and subsequently moved permanently out west where he went to work in the Zinc Brothers shoe shop in Brandon.

George lived next door to "Bad Joe" Henry Hall a professional hockey player who, in an over-the-fence conversation one day in 1904, complained about his hockey boots.  Hall was known for his rough and tumble style of play and was apparently very hard on his equipment, particularly his skates.  He asked the young shoemaker, who specialized in making orthopaedic shoes for the disabled, if he could make him a pair of hockey boots that would last the season without collapsing. 

George picked up the challenge and carefully measured Hall's feet.  The two then went to work designing a new boot made of kangaroo hide because of its resistance to moisture and stretching.  They also lowered the top of the boot nearly two inches and added a snuggly fitting reinforced heel and toe and a much improved arch support and sole to accomodate the attachment of a blade. 

Bad Joe was so pleased with his new skates that other players soon began trying out the new design.  Among the first were Lester Patrick of New York Rangers and Art Ross of the Boston Bruins.  Eventually George was swamped with orders and the reputation of his high quality "Tacks" spread across the country.

When George passed away in 1937, the Canadian Cycle and Motor Company (CCM) acquired the Tackaberry trade name and his many innovative techniques.  The Tackaberry boot with its CCM Pro-Line blade was eventually worn by virtually every player in the National Hockey League and thousands of others who just wanted the best hockey skate on the market.  I could never justify a pair of Tacks...The best I could manage was a Bauer Rocket Richard model skate which was about $100.00 cheaper than a pair of Tacks in those days.

George's accomplishments, oddly enough, influenced a Toronto area life-style publication, The Tackaberry Times, to adopt his name as a symbol of an era when trips to town were an event, neighbours depended on each other, and a frozen pond was a community's skating rink and gathering place.

In an obituary, the Brandon Sun newspaper described George as "a man of ability and resourcefulness, an outstanding figure in the community."  Hall, a victim of the influenza epidemic of 1919, died at a very young 36 years-of-age and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1961.

George apparently also made skate boots for each of his two sons and one of those pairs is in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

George's wife, Helen, received a small royalty from CCM for each pair of Tacks sold, until her death, July, 1964.
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I hope to research further Tackaberry family roots in Dresden.  Meantime, a memorial to George somewhere in town would be an excellent project for a service club.  A sign or plaque indicating "Home of the creator of the world famous Tackaberry hockey skate" would be quite in order.  Maybe even a spot in the Dresden Sports Hall of Fame.

(Much appreciation to Keith and Donna Babcock of Dresden for tipping me off about this story. * Every Stone a Story: Manitoba's Burried History)