Bob Ruthig remembers Peterborough as a great place to play hockey - ThePeterboroughExaminer.com

“We would take our sticks into the bathroom and run hot water over them and try to bend them to get a curve into them.”

As a forward on Roger Neilson’s 1967-68 Petes, Bob Ruthig (’67-’68) remembered how curved sticks were just starting to come out during the late ’60s. The Petes had fewer resources at that time so learning tricks of the trade came in handy.

“Dick Redmond started us on that one,” Ruthig recollected.

Ruthig, a native of New Hamburg, Ont., and Redmond were teammates in the 1967-68 season along with Craig Ramsay and the late Tony Featherstone. Ruthig, Ramsay, and Featherstone comprised a checking line Neilson deployed every time the opposition put their top line on the ice.

The winger remembers how unique playing for a hockey innovator like Neilson was.

In practice, Neilson brought his dog, Jacques, on the ice to show the players how to play with the puck-carrier behind the net.

“He would have the dog stand in front of the net and he would stand behind the net so rather than chase that player behind the net, he said, “you wait for him to come out” and that’s when his dog would wait for that player to come out from behind the net,” Ruthig calls with a laugh.

“He could relate to you on the ice and off the ice. I had several meetings with him off the ice as to how I was settling in.”

Ruthig enjoyed his experience with the Petes.

“Peterborough was a great town to play in. They got a great organization. I can’t remember the names off the top of my head of the executive members, but they always worked very hard and treated us exceptionally well,” Ruthig explains. “I was honoured to be able to be a member.

“My billets, Gary and Ferne Erl, planted a seed in my head that if you don’t move on with hockey, why don’t you try getting into the accounting profession.”

Ruthig initially thought such a career choice would not make any sense. The added years of schooling necessary to attain an accounting license was of no interest to the young Ruthig.

So, with hockey in mind, he played one year in the Western Ontario Jr. A Hockey League and then spent two years in the Ontario Hockey Association Senior A league as a member of the Woodstock Athletics and Woodstock Royals.

As Ruthig closed out his hockey years and married his high school sweetheart, he began to reconsider the Erl’s suggestion.

“I said maybe I should follow up on that accounting education, which I did,” Ruthig recalled.

Ruthig earned his charter professional accountant license, or CPA, after six years of attending night classes while working during the day. The hockey player-turned-accountant started working at New Dundee Creamery Ltd. where he wrote tests for the accounting society and oversaw tax returns.

By 1994, Ruthig decided it was time to work privately. He started working independently as an accountant, taking on clients ranging from individuals to firms. After 21 years, the Petes alumnus decided to retire, kind of. He works a lot fewer hours now in order to enjoy more time with his family and friends. He and his wife Gwen have three children.

The love he and Gwen have for each other is just as strong now as it was in the late ’60s when a young Gwen would make long trips to see her future husband play.

“She would come up to Peterborough when I was there. She would drive all the way up on her own,” he said.

The couple have been married for 51 years. They have grown a loving family and fostered a community with their neighbours. It is a community that supported them when they needed it most, best exemplified on one challenging winter night.

Ruthig had just settled into bed at 11:05 p.m. on Jan. 7, 2020 when “there was a tremendous crash.”

He got up, surprised by the ferocity of the noise, and went downstairs.

“One of my cabinets was pushed through the wall between my office and the kitchen and I said, ‘Well, that didn’t fall through on its own’” Ruthig said. “I went back and looked into my office and there was so much dust and whatever. Here there was a car sitting in my office.

“Some nights I would be at my office at 11 o’clock at night, but that particular night I wasn’t.”

He and his family slept in their neighbour’s home for a week until the house was repaired.

The office of the accountant is important. There, Ruthig spent 21 years thriving as a private accountant.

“I can attribute my future to that suggestion and it worked out well.”

Michael Mazzuca, a University of Minnesota graduate student, is archive and alumni relations intern with the Peterborough Petes.

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Bob Ruthig remembers Peterborough as a great place to play hockey - ThePeterboroughExaminer.com
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