Evening star., 1936-01-26

who once played several games with
his jaw wired together; and so did all
the others. In the first rush Ching's
knee was twisted. and within few
minutes three more Rangers had to go
to the dressing room for repairs Then
Joe Miller, the borrowed goaler, got
stick square in the eye.
The rest of that game is all fog to
me, Frank says. and can't to this
day figure out how we won
Perhaps the fact that he scored
both Ranger goals had something to
do with it.
Frank comes from an athletic
family - and. by the way. the Bou-
chers, despite the French Canadian
name. talk with something of
brOgue: that's from the half-Irish
father and the all-Irish mother - his
father was famous Rugby and
lacrosse player. he and his brothers
played football. soccer, basketball
and baseball as we'll as hockey.
So it was natural that Frank should
know plenty of hockey by the time he
reached his teens. But it never oc-
Cured to him that hockey was his
career. That. he hoped, lay with the
Mounted
And so. when the time seemed ripe,
he and another boy ran away and
enlisted. Frank was seventeen and
small - the age limit was eighteen.
and up to twenty-one a parents con-
sent was requisite. But they solved
everything by forging their fathers
names. A promising start for a career
against crime!
Frank was mounted constable for
two years. Between tours of duty he
found time to organize a hockey
team in his troop, and he showed to
such advantage that the Ottawa
Senators sought him. So in 1921 he
bought his discharge and turned pro.
And now he's in his fifteenth year
as major Lacquer - and ten years is
long stretch for most of them. Ex-
perts will tell you that hockey player
expends more energy in game than a
football player does, and of course
the hockey season is longer and more
strenuous - three games week for
six months. Yet Frank is as vigorous
as ever. and if he's slowed up bit -
it's hard to see it, il he has - his
experience and his undiminished skill
make up ior lessened speed. Last
season he scored four points more than
his nine-year average and finished
fourth highest in the League.
He lives the kind of life he likes now
- old friends and crowds and noise
and excitement and strenuous effort
from November to April, then home
to Ottawa waiting for the summer,
then to his camp on Lake McGregor
twenty miles away. to ride and fish.
His wife not only likes to fish,
whether she catches anything or not.
but even bats her own hook.
So they ride together and fish to-
gether. and Frank doesn't know when
he'll find time to teach nine-year-old
Earl to play hockey.
For eleven years, now, Agnes Syl-
vester, his wife, has watched him
shoot about the ice. bump and trip
and fall headlong, score and miss, win
and lose. She likes to see him play,
but she never applauds. But the min
ute Frank is through with hockey"
she says, I'm going to game and
root my head off,
When there is no longer room for
him in the game here. as he puts it,
Frank plans to 60 to England. Hockey
is booming there now. and he wants
to carry On with the game that has
done so much for him. But he won't
go until he is ready. until he is sure.
Slow on the draw eh. Frank"
"Yes, surely. But don't forget the
rest of it - quick on the shootr"