Remembering Paul Platz (1920-2012)

A look at Winnipeg's Paul Platz and his dreams of playing with the Chicago Black Hawks that were lost because of the outbreak of World War II.

Paul Platz is standing fourth-from-the-left in this photo of a Chicago Black Hawks training camp in Hibbing, Minnesota.

Paul Platz was born in Winnipeg on July 28, 1920. He attended Daniel McIntyre High School in the west end of town and was a multi-sport athlete which hockey being the game he excelled at the most.

Platz first came into the spotlight the Winnipeg Monarchs where he won a Winnipeg A Midget and two Juvenile Titles. After his junior years with the Monarchs, he was turned pro by the Chicago Black Hawks in 1940.

Only a Manitoba wartime athlete would know the answer to this question: Name the uniform worn by the most talented collection of homegrown hockey players ever assembled in Manitoba.

Most hockey fans would suggest contenders ranging from the Winnipeg Victorias' Stanley Cup winners of 1896 to the one edition of the Winnipeg Maroons who captured the Allan Cup, or the Winnipeg Falcons who won the 1920 Olympic gold medal in ice hockey.

However, the way Paul Platz remembered it, that honour properly belongs to an outfit whose uniform did not include skates. The uniform those guys wore identified them as members of D Company, a reserve unit of the 1941 Royal Winnipeg Rifles.

"There were 100 of us in the company and every one was a hockey player," Platz said.