Ron Butlin (ice hockey)

rdf:langString Ron Butlin (ice hockey)

rdf:langString Ron Butlin

rdf:langString Ron Butlin

rdf:langString Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

rdf:langString Calgary, Alberta, Canada

rdf:langString Ron Butlin circa 1974

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rdf:langString Ronald James Butlin (August 8, 1925 – September 24, 2014) was a Canadian ice hockey executive. He was president of the Western Canada Hockey League (WCHL) from 1968 to 1971, when the league separated from the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association (CAHA) due to grievances arising from the National Hockey League (NHL) agreement for the NHL Amateur Draft. He also served as president of the Canadian Hockey Association from 1968 to 1970, which was formed as a national governing body of junior ice hockey in Canada, in opposition to the CAHA. He sought to raise the age limit imposed by the NHL and negotiate better financial terms for the junior teams which developed future professional players. He criticized the CAHA for its spending on administration and wanted hockey policy to be determined by the teams instead of elected officials. He negotiated an agreement to reunite the WCHL with the CAHA in 1970, where the WCHL gained direct representation on the CAHA junior council, better financial return for drafted players, and received development grants from the NHL. Butlin previously hosted a sports radio show, and was a founding member and later president of the Calgary Booster Club. He founded the Calgary Spurs as an independent senior ice hockey in 1964, which joined the Western Canada Senior Hockey League in 1965. After the Spurs were 1967 Allan Cup finalists, he helped establish a senior league based in Western Canada which included the Canada men's national ice hockey team in its schedule. He sold the Spurs in 1968. After his tenure with the WCHL, he was executive director of from 1973 to 1977, and directed the first in 1974, and the first Alberta Winter Games in 1976. He then became the manager-director of the BC Games Society which oversaw the BC Summer Games and the BC Winter Games until 1987, and then coordinated the Washington state centennial in 1989. He later spent 21 years organizing the annual Santa Claus parade and the Victoria Day parades in Victoria, British Columbia.