Neil Gladstone Price
Goalie Price Appears To Be Twins
Born in 1916, Neil Price entered Acadia University with the Class of 1940 after obtaining a teaching certificate from Prince Of Wales College. Once settled in Wolfville, he was an essential part of the hockey team’s success. His play impressed spectators from his first game in the Acadia nets. The March 1938 Athenaeum commented: “The boys got well underway in their first real clash of the season by splashing through to a 6-3 win over Wolfville. The new netminder, Neil Price, appeared to be twins at times, especially when the Axemen fell into the bad habit of forgetting to clear the rubber....” In February 1939 the same publication claimed of a 20 January game against cross river rival Port Williams: “Neil [Price] rose to sensational heights, especially in the last period, as time after time he stopped sure scoring thrusts of the Port Williams forwards.”
During the 1940 season, Price was captain of the hockey team but did not let his added responsibilities detract from his net minding. Of a hockey game against the Wolfville Cohorts, the Athenaeum commented: “The work of the rival goalies, West and Price, was perhaps the outstanding feature of the game. Time after time the playing of Price was miraculous for he blocked shot after shot with a non-chalance that left the fans breathless. At one time Price stopped a shot after he had lost his stick in the mix-up.” With consistently excellent play, the team won the Western Nova Scotia title, the Nova Scotia intercollegiate crown and the Maritime intercollegiate hockey title, the latter title claimed by Acadia for the first time. For his play, Price became the first recipient of the Orlay Bligh trophy. He also played interclass and varsity baseball and interclass hockey.
Price was campus photographer during his time at Acadia, and in his Senior year, photo editor of the yearbook. After graduation in 1940, he served with the RCAF, received a law degree from the University of New Brunswick in 1949 and returned to Acadia for a Bachelor of Theology in 1955 and a Master of Divinity in 1958. Price served as a Baptist minister in a number of churches in the Maritimes.
(Acadia Athenaeum, March 1938, 61; 3 February 1939, 3; 17 February 1940, 3)
