@@Vancouver Canucks

Canucks first ever game 1970

  • March 9, 2024


I attended the first ever Canucks game on October 9, 1970. I was 13 and went with my dad who had been given the tickets by a business associate. It was a 3-1 loss to the Kings but I did witness Barry Wilkins score the first goal for the franchise.
There was no drinking as no alcohol was available but everyone smoked and i remember the air being thick with cigarette smoke.
I still have the original game program. Has a picture of the Stanley Cup on the cover which in these later years i was convinced added to the curse. My dad is long gone and I class myself as an old fart now. Still hopeful they can win the big one in my lifetime.
Curious if anyone else is out there that attended that first game?
Thanks for reading. Go Canucks!

https://imgur.com/a/1zWkPXB

https://imgur.com/a/NblHstQ

20 comments

  3. My dad didn’t get to attend the first game, but he does remember going to games as a 7 year old with his dad in the inaugural season!

  4. TIL the origins of our curse. Thanks for sharing.

    Also, can’t even imagine having to play with all that second hand smoke — I’m guessing most of the players smoked back then, too. I wonder what endurance was like back then lol.

  6. Thanks for sharing, always cool to hear of people who have supported the team through highs and lows. Any chance you could share a photo of that program?

  7. I vaguely remember a cordoned off beer garden on a lower level at the Pacific Coliseum, back when I was a kid in the 80s. It was a big deal when The Garage opened, and you could have a beer in the stands.

  8. I grew up in the BC interior so never saw any games from that initial season. My first game was I think 1976 at Christmas with my dad and brothers. I remember them playing the North Stars. Ron Sedlbauer chased this European player around and eventually fought him. I think he did because he could. I remember thinking he was an idiot!

  9. That’s so cool. My first ever game was in 1988. Lots of beer, no smoke! One guy got so wasted he took his pants off!

    I remember a few years later going to a game with my sister and she told me “apparently a Russian player will be joining the team that’s INCREDIBLY fast?” It was Pavel Bure, who became my favorite for a while.

  10. This was way before my time…but I got to be Orland kurtenbachs gardener for several years. Nicest guy ever

  12. That dollar which your dad spent on the game program is now worth $7.84! 🙃

  13. I remember watching that first game on tv, having attended a few games the previous couple of seasons when they were WHL champions.
    Then their 2nd game was saturday afternoon against the leafs. Me and my best friend (we were 14 and 15) got tix and got to the game. I had been a big leafs fan growing , he was habs fan, grr. But we got to see canucks first ener win that day as they beat leafs 5-2 as i recall. And what i remember most is this curly haired blond rookie playing for the leafs. Some new kid named Daryl Sittler. No match for canucks that day! Haha

  14. I’m 8 years older than you and lived in Ottawa at the time. Was a big Habs fan and only saw the Canucks a couple of times on HNIC. I came West 4 years later and have been a Canucks fan since.

  17. I was born in ’69 when it was first announced that Buffalo and Vancouver would be getting teams. I just hope that both the team & I accomplish our ultimate goals before I leave this planet.

  18. Yes, I was twelve and remember the first game, I also went the first Abbotsford Canuck game so i don’t there are too many that can say that they were at both.

  19. The curse wasn’t having the Cup on the cover of the program, the curse was having the Cup at centre ice.

  20. My Mom went to one of the first games on November 7th, 1970 to see her hero Dave Keon.

    I got to meet him last year and got him to sign her ticket stub from that game. Pretty cool moment telling him that story.

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