Neil McNeil Colville was a professional ice hockey

Ice hockey

Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...

 player. Born in Edmonton, Alberta, he played for the New York Rangers

New York Rangers

The New York Rangers are a professional ice hockey team based in the borough of Manhattan in New York, New York, USA. They are members of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League . Playing their home games at Madison Square Garden, the Rangers are one of the...

 in the National Hockey League

National Hockey League

The National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...

 with his brother Mac, winning the Stanley Cup

Stanley Cup

The Stanley Cup is an ice hockey club trophy, awarded annually to the National Hockey League playoffs champion after the conclusion of the Stanley Cup Finals. It has been referred to as The Cup, Lord Stanley's Cup, The Holy Grail, or facetiously as Lord Stanley's Mug...

 in 1940.

• Position: centre
  Centre (ice hockey)
  The centre in ice hockey is a forward position of a player whose primary zone of play is the middle of the ice, away from the side boards. Centres have more flexibility in their positioning and are expected to cover more ice surface than any other player...
  
  
• Height: 5 ft 11 in (180 cm)
• Weight: 180 lbs (82 kg)

Colville joined the Rangers' farm team

Farm team

In sports, a farm team, farm system, feeder team or nursery club, is generally a team or club whose role is to provide experience and training for young players, with an agreement that any successful players can move on to a higher level at a given point...

 in 1934 and quickly made his way to the pros by 1936, centreing the "Bread Line" with his brother and Alex Shibicky

Alex Shibicky

Alex Shibicky was an ice hockey forward who played for the New York Rangers of the National Hockey League from 1935 to 1946....

, where he played until World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. During the war, he and his brother were stationed in Ottawa

Ottawa

Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...

 and played on the army's Ottawa Commandos team, winning the Allan Cup

Allan Cup

The Allan Cup is the trophy awarded annually to the national senior amateur men’s ice hockey champions of Canada. It has been competed for since 1909. The current champion is the Clarenville Caribous hockey club of Newfoundland and Labrador.-History:...

 in 1942.

After the war, they both returned the Rangers, this time as defencemen

Defenceman (ice hockey)

Defence in ice hockey is a player position whose primary responsibility is to prevent the opposing team from scoring...

, the first pairs of brothers to ever do so in the NHL. Neil was just as good at defence as he was on offense, becoming the first player to be named to All-Star Teams as both a forward and a defenceman.

He retired in 1949 and became the Rangers' youngest coach a year later, but he was forced to resign due to health problems halfway through his second season.

In the 1950s, Colville was one of the primary founding investors in what would become Northern Television Systems, WHTV, in Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada. Colville eventually moved from Vancouver, B.C. to Whitehorse in order to run the small four-channel station. He slept in a bunk in the studio and learned to do everything from fixing the equipment to hosting the news casts. Filling the air time without the benefit of extensive broadcasting infrastructure was at times difficult, and the station would run footage of downtown's Main Street or do live broadcasts of a goldfish bowl to fill the hours.

He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame

Hockey Hall of Fame

The Hockey Hall of Fame is located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Dedicated to the history of ice hockey, it is both a museum and a hall of fame. It holds exhibits about players, teams, National Hockey League records, memorabilia and NHL trophies, including the Stanley Cup...

 in 1967. He died in 1987 and
there is a memorial bench in his honor at the Gary Point Park in Steveston, British Columbia

Steveston, British Columbia

Steveston was originally a small town near Vancouver, British Columbia, but has since been absorbed into the city of Richmond, British Columbia....

.

In 2009, Colville was ranked No. 22 on the all-time list of New York Rangers in the book 100 Ranger Greats (John Wiley & Sons

John Wiley & Sons

John Wiley & Sons, Inc., also referred to as Wiley, is a global publishing company that specializes in academic publishing and markets its products to professionals and consumers, students and instructors in higher education, and researchers and practitioners in scientific, technical, medical, and...

).

Career statistics

Season	Club	League	REGULAR SEASON						PLAYOFFS
			GP	G	A	TP	PIM	+/-	GP	G	A	TP	PIM
1929–30	Edmonton Enarcos	EJrHL	12	1	0	1
1930–31	Edmonton Canadians	EJrHL	13	2	0	2	8
1931–32	Edmonton Poolers	EJrHL	11	7	3	10			4	2	1	3	0
1931–32	Edmonton Poolers	M-Cup Memorial Cup The Memorial Cup is a junior ice hockey club championship trophy awarded annually to the Canadian Hockey League champion. It is awarded following a four-team, round robin tournament between a host team and the champions of the CHL's three member leagues: the Ontario Hockey League , Quebec Major...	5	2	0	2	2
1932–33	Edmonton Athletic Club	EJrHL	11				10		3	0	0	0	2
1933–34	Edmonton Athletic Club	EJrHL	9	14	4	18	13		2	4	2	6	5
1933–34	Edmonton Athletic Club	M-Cup	12	15	6	21	4
1934–35	New York Crescents	EAHL	21	24	11	35	16		8	8	4	12	2
1935–36	New York Rangers New York Rangers The New York Rangers are a professional ice hockey team based in the borough of Manhattan in New York, New York, USA. They are members of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League . Playing their home games at Madison Square Garden, the Rangers are one of the...	NHL National Hockey League The National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...	1	0	0	0	0
1935–36	Philadelphia Ramblers Philadelphia Ramblers The Philadelphia Ramblers were a minor professional ice hockey team based in the Philadelphia Arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Ramblers played for six seasons during the infancy of the American Hockey League from 1935 to 1941.-History:...	Can-Am Canadian-American Hockey League The Canadian-American Hockey League, popularly known as the Can-Am League, was a professional ice hockey league that operated from 1926 to 1936. It was a direct ancestor of the American Hockey League....	35	15	16	31	8		4	0	2	2	0
1936–37	New York Rangers	NHL	45	10	18	28	33		9	3	3	6	0
1937–38	New York Rangers	NHL	45	17	19	36	11		3	0	1	1	0
1938–39	New York Rangers	NHL	47	18	19	37	12		7	0	2	2	2
1939–40	New York Rangers	NHL	48	19	19	38	22		12	2	7	9	18
1940–41	New York Rangers	NHL	48	14	28	42	28		3	1	1	2	0
1941–42	New York Rangers	NHL	48	8	25	33	37		6	0	5	5	6
1942–43	Ottawa Commandos	QSHL Quebec Senior Hockey League The Quebec Senior Hockey League was an ice hockey league that operated between 1941 and 1959 in Québec, Canada. From 1941, it operated on an amateur basis, before becoming the semi-professional Quebec Hockey League in 1953...	22	12	30	42	32
1942–43	Ottawa Army	OCHL	12	11	12	23	6
1942–43	Ottawa Commandos	Al-Cup Allan Cup The Allan Cup is the trophy awarded annually to the national senior amateur men’s ice hockey champions of Canada. It has been competed for since 1909. The current champion is the Clarenville Caribous hockey club of Newfoundland and Labrador.-History:...	12	14	14	28	17
1943–44
1944–45	New York Rangers	NHL	4	0	1	1	2
1944–45	Winnipeg RCAF	WNDHL	6	5	4	9	4
1944–45	Ottawa Commandos	QSHL	2	0	0	0	0
1944–45	Quebec Aces Quebec Aces The Quebec Aces, also known in French as Les As de Québec, were an amateur and later a professional men's ice hockey team from Quebec City, Quebec. The Aces were founded in 1928, and played until 1971. The team played home games at the Quebec Coliseum from 1930 to 1971.The Aces were Allan Cup...	QSHL	5	1	2	3	0		7	2	5	7	4
1944–45	Quebec Aces	Al-Cup	3	0	3	3	0
1945–46	New York Rangers	NHL	49	5	4	9	25
1946–47	New York Rangers	NHL	60	4	16	20	16
1947–48	New York Rangers	NHL	55	4	12	16	25		6	1	0	1	6
1948–49	New York Rangers	NHL	14	0	5	5	2
1948–49	New Haven Ramblers	AHL American Hockey League The American Hockey League is a 30-team professional ice hockey league based in the United States and Canada that serves as the primary developmental circuit for the National Hockey League...	11	0	3	3	8
1949–50	New Haven Ramblers	AHL	17	3	4	7	13
NHL Totals			464	99	166	265	213		46	7	19	26	32

External links

• Find-A-Grave profile for Neil Colville