Roland Joseph "Rollie" McLenahan (October 26, 1921 – April 23, 1984) was a Canadian professional
ice hockey
Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice h ...
player and coach. He played 8 games in the
National Hockey League
The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...
for the
Detroit Red Wings during the
1945–46 season. The rest of his career, which lasted from 1941 to 1957, was spent in the minor leagues.
McLenahan was a member of the
AHL First All Star Team in 1950, and a member of the
IHL First All-Star Team in 1954, 1955, and 1956. He retired from playing hockey following the 1956-1957 season.
Post-retirement
From 1957 to 1958, he was head coach of the AHL's
Rochester Americans
The Rochester Americans (colloquially known as the Amerks) are a professional ice hockey team in the American Hockey League; the team is an owned and operated affiliate of the Buffalo Sabres. The team plays its home games in Rochester, New York, ...
,
[ ] who won the
Calder Cup
The Calder Cup is the trophy awarded annually to the playoff champions of the American Hockey League. It was first presented in 1937 to the Syracuse Stars.
The cup is made of sterling silver mounted on a base of Brazilian mahogany. In its cur ...
that year. He later served as a Director for the Department of Youth for the
Province of New Brunswick from 1961 to 1981. He was a scout for Montreal from 1960 to 1968, and a member of the Canada Games Council. McLenahan also served as director of the CAHA, and a director of
Hockey Canada. He helped found the New Brunswick Sports Hall of Fame, and the New Brunswick Amateur Hockey Association.
In 1981, he was discovered to have
lung cancer
Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma (since about 98–99% of all lung cancers are carcinomas), is a malignant lung tumor characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. Lung carcinomas derive from transformed, malign ...
, but the cancer spread to his brain. He died in his native Fredericton, at the age of 62, on April 23, 1984, and was buried in the Fredericton Hermitage Cemetery. He was inducted into the
New Brunswick Sports Hall of Fame in 1982 and in 2005,
Krista Betts, a gold medal winner in Canadian Women's Wrestling at the Canada Games who is from the small farming community of
Bass River,
Weldford Parish, New Brunswick
Weldford is a civil parish in Kent County, New Brunswick, Canada.
For governance purposes it is divided between Richibucto 15 Indian reserve and the local service district of the parish of Weldford, which is a member of the Kent Regional Serv ...
received the prestigious Roly McLenahan Award.
Career statistics
Regular season and playoffs
References
External links
*
New Brunswick Sports Hall of Fame
{{DEFAULTSORT:McLenahan, Rollie
1921 births
1984 deaths
Buffalo Bisons (AHL) players
Canadian expatriates in the United States
Canadian ice hockey coaches
Canadian ice hockey defencemen
Canadian ice hockey players
Cincinnati Mohawks (IHL) players
Cleveland Barons (1937–1973) players
Detroit Red Wings players
Eastern Hockey League coaches
Guelph Biltmore Mad Hatters players
Hershey Bears players
Ice hockey people from New Brunswick
Indianapolis Capitals players
New Brunswick Sports Hall of Fame inductees
Southern Hockey League (1973–1977) coaches
Sportspeople from Fredericton
Washington Eagles players