BOHC 80+ International Hockey Tournament

These men are over 80 years old and ready to beat the U.S. on ice

Article posted in Hamilton Spectator courtesy Nathan Bawaan (Reporter)

Annual tour­na­ment for first time will have two teams rep­res­ent­ing the U.S. and two teams rep­res­ent­ing Canada

At 83­ years­ old, Bill Leit­head's body doesn't feel like it did when he was younger. He moves a bit slower now, and his knees hurt. But that doesn't stop the Bur­l­ing­ton man from play­ing hockey — a sport he's played since he was six — with other people his age in the Bur­l­ing­ton Old­timers Hockey Club three times a week.

“It's more for fun with the guys,” Leit­head explained to The Spec.

While hockey for Leit­head has become more about the camaraderie from play­ing as a team as he's got­ten older, he still has a com­pet­it­ive streak. (When asked if he had any favour­ite memor­ies play­ing hockey in his 80s, Leit­head said “they're all favour­ites when you win.”)

In a week, Leit­head will be able to let his com­pet­it­ive side show as he and two other Bur­l­ing­ton octo­gen­ari­ans team up with 80 ­something ­year­ olds from around Ontario and other parts of the coun­try as part of Team Canada in the annual 80+ Hockey Hall of Fame Inter­na­tional series against the U.S.

Since 2017, the 80+ Hockey Hall of Fame — an Ott­awa-­based organ­iz­a­tion that hon­ours any octo­gen­ari­ans who are still play­ing hockey by induct­ing them into a vir­tual Hall of Fame — has organ­ized a tour­na­ment between a Cana­dian and U.S. team.

In 2022, the games moved to Bur­l­ing­ton from Ott­awa, where host Bur­l­ing­ton Old­timers Hockey Club expan­ded the tour­na­ment from a one-game series to two.

This year's tour­na­ment will take place at the Appleby Ice Centre in Bur­l­ing­ton from Oct. 21 to 24.

For the first time this year, the tour­na­ment will have two teams each rep­res­ent­ing the U.S. and Canada, a move Hall of Fame dir­ector and Bur­l­ing­ton Old­timers mem­ber Peter Aus­tin said was made in part to meet the grow­ing demand of the tour­na­ment. As an 83­ year­ old him­self, Aus­tin is a hall inductee and will be play­ing defence on one of the two Cana­dian teams.

“The year before I had so many people who wanted to play,” he recoun­ted. “And I heard in the States there were some people that were being cut from the Amer­ican team but still wanted to play.”

With double the num­ber of teams this year for both coun­tries, Aus­tin said the Cana­dians are able to include play­ers from the Mari­times and Saskat­chewan, includ­ing former NHL player Bill Orban, who is fly­ing in with four oth­ers from Saska­toon for the tour­na­ment.

The games them­selves are pretty much like any other hockey game, Aus­tin explained, although the play­ers are slower and there is no “delib­er­ate” bodycheck­ing allowed.

“We all like to win obvi­ously,” said Aus­tin, adding that this year's tour­na­ment will act as a tiebreaker between the two coun­tries, who have won the cham­pi­on­ship three times each.

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USA vs Canada - 80+ Series - Starts Tuesday, Oct 21

Announcing the 2025 International Games being hosted by the Burlington Oldtimers Hockey Club
Join us for the USA vs Canada Series October 21 to 24, 2025

Schedule

All games will be played at: Appleby Ice Centre Rink 1, 1201 Appleby Line

Tuesday, Oct 21

12:00 PM - Appleby Pad 1
Team Canada 80+ vs Ottawa Elder Statesmen

1:30 PM - Appleby Pad 1
USA 1 vs USA 2

Wednesday, Oct 22

12:00 PM - Appleby Pad 1
Team Canada 80+ vs USA 1

1:30 PM - Appleby Pad 1
USA 2 vs Ottawa Elder Statesmen

Thursday, Oct 23

12:00 PM - Appleby Pad 1
Team Canada 80+ vs USA 2

1:30 PM - Appleby Pad 1
USA 1 vs Ottawa Elder Statesmen

Friday, Oct 24 - Championship Games

11:00 AM - Appleby Pad 1
2nd Canada vs 2nd USA

1:00 PM - Appleby Pad 1
1st USA vs 1st Canada

4:00 PM – Trophy presentation at:
QB Sports Bar Grill and Games
4460 Fairview Street

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BOHC Dates to Save

October 21-24 – 80+ International Tournament (Appleby rink 1)

Oct 25 – 80+ HHOF induction of BOHC Bert Lavigne (Ottawa)

Nov 29 (7pm) – Xmas Dance (Legion)

Dec 27 (7pm) – refs vs Board game

Dec 30 (7pm) – BOHC women vs BOHC men Skills Competition

Dec 30 (8pm) – BOHC women vs BOHC men game

Feb 18-22, 2026 – invitational Tournament

April 12, 2026 – championship games with Cogeco

May 2, 2026 – 50^th Gala formal dinner and dance at RBG

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Many of our BOHC sponsors would welcome support from our members and it would go a long way to show how much we appreciate the dollars spent by the advertisers each year.