Are you ‘teddy’ for this?

The Whitecourt Wolverines took on the Lloydminster Bobcats on Friday and Saturday night at
JDA Place in front of the local fan base, with 555 bums in the seats. The weekend was made
extra special by a fun-loving, Christmas-spirit-giving, fluff-filled tradition that the team has been
doing for years.
The Teddy Bear Toss event sees fans bring new, bag-wrapped teddy bears to a specified game,
in this case, Friday, December 6, and toss them onto the ice when the Wolverines score their
first goal of the game. Once collected, the cuddle stuffies are loaded up and delivered to the
Whitecourt Christmas Hamper as part of the year’s donation drive to support families in the
community.
It’s a theme at this time of year, and many teams do it. The history behind the event traces back
to the Kamloops Blazers in 1993, where the first recorded Teddy Bear Toss took place on
December 5. The moment Kamloops scored, fans threw over 2,400 bears onto the ice,
kickstarting a tradition that has spread across the country and even around the world.
Teddy Bear Toss events are typically done in junior and minor hockey leagues because the NHL
discourages fans from throwing anything on the ice. However, over the years, since the first
official toss in 1993, hundreds of thousands of bears have been thrown and donated to
charities.
One of the largest Canadian hauls on record happened at a Calgary Hitmen game on
December 3, 2018, which set a record of 29,935 stuffed toys thrown down to the ice surface
from fans in the stands. The Hitman have been doing their event since 1995, just two years after
the Blazers did theirs and have collected well over half a million toys since then.
Closer to home, the Edmonton Oil Kings are another group that revels in the fun of the Teddy
Bear Toss. The players even go all out, wearing festive jerseys for the game. This year’s Oil
Kings event was on November 24 against the Red Deer Rebels. The 17,000 fans at Roger’s
Place threw nearly 15,500 stuffed animals down to the ice. Since the 2007/2008 season, the
Edmonton Oil Kings fans have tossed nearly 180,000 bears.
Outside of Canada, the AHL Hershey Bears from Pennsylvania claim to have collected nearly
75,000 stuffed toys at a single game, and even crazier than that, the Polish football club
Jagiellonia Bialystok, claims to have the world record, collecting 109,470 stuffed toys at a game.
Each team that takes part selects a charity to receive the bears, providing a fun, feel-good
moment for fans while having an impact. For the Whitecourt Wolverines, the recipient of the
bears is the Whitecourt Christmas Hamper.
The moment the puck dropped, shortly after 7 pm on Friday, the Wolverines were pushing hard.
Every single player wanted to be the one to score the goal that would cause bears to rain down
onto the ice. The movements were quick, and shots on the net started in the first few seconds.
The team was hungry after not playing for two weeks.
One of those especially hungry was #72 Reid Larson. He joined the Wolverines during last
year’s playoffs, and in twenty-four games this season, Larson had been scoreless. He had four

assists to his credit, but his first AJHL goal remained elusive. So, who better to score one of the
most exciting goals of the year than a player who has yet to score his first AJHL goal?
At 8:44 into the first period, assisted by Travis Verbeek and Dwayne Jean Jr, Reid Larson netted
one heck of a historic goal, claiming the 2024 Teddy Bear Toss title and his first league goal all
in one handy-dandy shot. To say the team and fans were thrilled would be an understatement.
Jean Jr and Verbeek both leapt into the growing group of Wolverines who were congratulating
Larson as teddy bears started to land on the ice around them. It was a very special moment.
For several minutes, stuffies continued to land as helpers skated out to help collect them,
shoving them into big bags. The community’s generosity was on display. Once the ice was
ready, the teams lined up to continue the rest of the game.
In the second period, somebody turned on the goal tap and didn’t shut it off. Not one, not two,
not three, but four Wolverine goals landed on the scoreboard. With the monkey off his back,
Larson also scored again, snagging his first and second AJHL goals in the same game.
Bianchet, Keeble and Ruptash scored the other three. The Wolverines were up five zip.
In the final period, the Bobcats managed to pot one in, stealing the shutout from Onyshiw, but
they could not catch the Wolverines. Some rumbles picked up just past the midway mark, which
saw Dwayne Jean Jr ejected following a 10-minute misconduct penalty. Ruptash also took a
cross-checking penalty, and Spencer Claerhout sat for delaying the game. But the last-minute
kerfuffle’s did not change the result. The Wolverines took the game 6-1. Great job, Wolverines
and fans!