Cort Egan
Professor WJ Brad Hanna
Located: in the Archives
Brad Hanna is an associate professor at the Ontario Veterinary College who investigates neuromuscular disorders of animals, in particular those that may be caused by dysfunctional ion channels. It was something of a surprise, then, to find him in the Archives with several boxes of materials laid out in front of him. Papers included the OVC Dialogue, The Yak, student newspapers from the 1940s, old University of Toronto yearbooks, U of T student Newsletters and related ephemera. What gives?
Even though it was his vacation, instead of canoeing or swinging a club at a dimpled ball, Brad was working in the Archives tracking down the winners of the Challenge Cup, the annual hockey tournament held by the veterinary medicine students. The tournament began in 1931 when Principal CD McGilvray donated a modest award for this inter-class competition, and it has continued uninterrupted right through to Challenge Cup 82, scheduled for March 2012. For those of you keeping score, that means that the Challenge Cup is only a few years younger than the Stanley Cup.
One might be forgiven for asking why a professor with a full course load and graduate students to advise would be spending additional time in the Archives researching a recreational hockey tournament. Hanna explained that it is part of the OVC’s 150th anniversary celebration in 2012. The annual Challenge Cup, says Hanna, has long been one of the premier non-academic events of the year at OVC, and alumni many years out recall the “incredible fun” they had playing in it.
To help mark the 150th, Brad has constructed a trophy modeled on the 1931 Stanley Cup, which had a much more modest base than the one that supports it today. He learned traditional metalsmithing techniques and succeeded in producing an object that bears a striking resemblance to Lord Stanley’s (scaled-down) Cup. Thanks to the historical research conducted in the Archives, most of the past winners of the DVM student tournament have been identified and the team names have been engraved onto the new trophy, creating an object that will tell the story of the tournament for today’s students and serve as a source of nostalgia for alumni. And it won’t look bad in a team photo!
Brad had many kind things to say about the staff of the Library’s archives who were able to unearth papers and publications that could not be found through the cataloguing system (about which he was less kind). He also found that some of the very old materials were suffering from mould and mildew and were in less than satisfactory condition. He was also disappointed with the Archives’ hours of operation. As this was a personal mission, Brad was forced to take vacation time in order to do research during the hours that the Archives are open.
The Library is currently attempting to raise additional funding that would allow for an expansion of the archives and better climate control for the rare books and materials in our care. As for the hours of operation, that will likely remain the same.
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