The Tribune Democrat, Johnstown, PA

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July 15, 2006

Head, local hockey go hand-in-hand

By MIKE MASTOVICH

Galen Head captained Johnstown’s last professional hockey championship team and coached the city’s first high school state champion program.

As much as Head has done for the region’s hockey scene, he’s even more grateful to a city that has made the Grande Prairie, Alberta, native one of its own during the past four decades.

“The greatest experience of my whole life was winning that championship with the Johnstown Jets in 1975 and then 21 years later we played for that state championship with my Bishop McCort High School team at the War Memorial with all those people there and it was just as loud,” Head said.

More cheers will follow when Head joins the Cambria County Sports Hall of Fame. The eight-member Class of 2006 will be honored on Saturday at the Pasquerilla Conference Center.

“This is humbling,” said Head, 59. “I came here at age 20, going on 21. This is my adopted hometown. Thank you Johnstown and Cambria County for accepting me to be a part of you. I got the opportunity to play hockey here. I started the program at McCort. I really am proud to be a part of the community.”

Head joined the Eastern Hockey League’s Johnstown Jets in 1967 and quickly made an impact with 53 goals and 105 points. Those numbers led to a one-game call up to the NHL’s Detroit Red Wings.

“I played six or seven shifts in that game,” Head said. “It doesn’t matter. I was there. We played against Toronto at Detroit.”

His best season with Johnstown was in 1968-69, when he had a then-record 67 goals and 121 points.

The following season, Head was promoted to Salt Lake City in the former Western Hockey League, a step below the NHL. A serious facial injury cut short his season, and many believed, ultimately prevented him from returning to the NHL.

Head captained the 1974-75 Jets team that won the North American Hockey League playoff title and inspired the Paul Newman movie “Slap Shot” that was filmed in Johnstown.

“That team, you had the camaraderie,” Head said. “Everybody got along so well.

“Everybody had a desire to win. When you get that feeling, it’s almost like nobody is going to stop you.”

In 561 games during eight seasons with the Jets, Head scored 308 goals – third all-time. His 601 points rank fourth and 293 assists, sixth.

Head’s No. 8 jersey is one of only three retired numbers in Johnstown hockey history dating to 1941.

In 1985, Head helped found the Bishop McCort program. His teams went 134-98-9 in 11 seasons and won Pennsylvania Cups in 1994, 1995 and 1996.

The Crushers won two more titles after he retired. In 1997, Head joined the ECHL’s Johnstown Chiefs as a volunteer coach, passing the torch from one professional hockey generation to another during a seven-year span.

Head, his wife, Grace, a Johnstown native, and their son, Jason, continue to give back to the community through the Galen Head Jr. Memorial Scholarship.

The scholarship honors Head’s son, a former McCort hockey player and Johnstown Chiefs trainer who died in an automobile accident while working in the former International League in 1996.

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