This Day in Norwood History-April 13, 1946-Ray Martin Named to European Theatre All-Star Hockey Team

FRANKFURT, Germany—Private First Class Ray Martin of Norwood, Mass. has been selected as a member European Theater Championship hockey team of 1946.

Selection was made recently at a banquet in Garmisch-Partenkirchen Bavaria, the world-famous winter sports center and site of the 1936 Winter Olympics. Players on the ET team were named following a game earlier in the evening which decided the European Theater championship between a winning Third Army team and the 78th Division, representing the Berlin District.

Martin’s brilliant play and burning speed were no small determining factors in placing him on the team. Outstanding throughout the three-game series, he was one of the leading scorers in the tournament. Earlier in the season, Martin helped spark the Ninth Division hockey team to its championship of the Third Army, placing five of its six varsity men on the Third Army team.

The theater championship games were held at Garmisch. In an open-air stadium, beneath a glaring ring of lights and to the flash of steel on ice and the shrieks of thrill-mac spectators, the Third Army champs forged ahead in an overtime period, after being deadlocked at 4-4, to score the winning tally in the closing seconds of the extra period and win the Theater championship.

At a banquet held later at the Alpendorf Hotel to celebrate the victory members of the winning team, including Martin, were presented Swiss watches by Major General Alexander R. Bolling, USFET Chief of Special Services. Major General Horace D. MacBride, Ninth Division CG, commended the team on its successful season and presented the winners with a handsome trophy—a large gold cup surmounted by a statuette of a hockey player in action.

Games scheduled for the All-Star team will include post-season tilts with Swedish, Canadian, and Swiss teams in their respective zones.

Martin passed up the opportunity to go on a European tour with the All-Stars in order to come home. He is on his way now after serving one year overseas. A member of the Military Police, he has been in the service for 34 months.

He has kept in good physical condition by participating in all the major sports. He was a member of the 9th Division basketball and baseball teams. Compiling a 12-4 pitching record, he was picked for the Third Army All-Stars which made a tour of several countries.

A contract with the Boston Braves signed in 1941 when he pitched Norwood High to the State championship, awaits the big righthander, Before entering the service he pitched two games for the Braves, one an all-star contest and the other a relief stint against the Chicago Cubs.

(All articles were originally published in the Norwood Messenger unless otherwise noted)