An Ottawa native, Flying Officer Reginald “Reg” Schroeter served with the RCAF during the Second World War as an air crew instructor and after it as a left-winger on the RCAF Flyers, the ice hockey team that represented Canada at the 1948 Winter Olympics and took home the gold medal. Prior to his Olympic appearance, he had spent two seasons in the Ottawa Junior Hockey League with the Ottawa LaSalle (1937-1938), the Ottawa Westboro Spearmans (1939-1940), and the Ottawa Senators (1940-1941). He played one senior game with the Ottawa Princess Pat Dragoons in during the 1939-1940 season, but spent his first full year at that level with the Ottawa Canadiens from 1941-1942. He shuffled around various teams from 1942 through 1947, including the Ottawa District Depot and the Upper Ottawa Valley Hockey League’s incarnation of the Ottawa Senators. He was with the New Edinburgh Burghs in 1947 when he was called to join the Canadian delegation to the Olympics and, at the tournament, he played in eight games and scored twelve goals. He also, with teammate Ab Renaud, hoisted Barbara Ann Scott onto their shoulders after her gold medal victory in that year’s figure skating competition.
After the Olympics, he returned to his job at the Federal Air Transport board, from which he had taken a leave from for the Olympics, until his retirement in 1980, refereed at the amateur level for 17 years, fished and golfed into the mid-1980s and played hockey until 1992. From 1977 until his death in July 2002 from cancer, Schroeter was the Flyers’ archivist, keeping everyone in contact and maintaining a detailed scrapbook.
Canada