Charlie Cheesman Memorial Ice Arena

Charles Benjamin Cheesman

The Cardston Ice Arena memorializes the most prominent sports advocate in the History of Cardston: Charlie Cheesman. Built 10 years after Charlie's death, the Ice Arena is dedicated to his lifetime commitment to promoting and coaching many different sports in the Town of Cardston, and leading many of his teams to provincial and national championships. 

(The following is from Chief Mountain Country: A History of Cardston and District, Volume I, published by the Cardston Historical Society)

Charles Benjamin Cheesman was born January 26, 1891 at Stayner, Ontario. His parents were Alexander and Marie Glenn Cheesman.

As a young man in Ontario he showed an interest in amateur sports and participated in distance running, baseball, and lacrosse. It was the game of lacrosse that gave him the more-or-less permanent disfigurement of a broken nose.

After learning the barber trade in Ontario, Charlie had the desire to come west, which he did in 1909. His search for work led him to visit Calgary, then Blairmore, before finding a job on the railroad between Lethbridge and Taber. On his job he met Alfred McCune who had a farm at Spring Coulee. Charlie worked for McCune for a while, then moved into Cardston in 1911 and set up a barber shop in the Spencer Block. In 1915 he moved to the ground floor of the Cahoon Hotel, and set up his famous "Black and White Barber Shop". This became the headquarters for sporting activities of Cardston and district for the next 39 years, until Charlie's passing February 8, 1954. His great passion was organizing, coaching, and promoting sports of all kinds. He became the greatest single factor in the glory that Cardston and district achieved through sports.

By 1913 Charlie was manager-coach of the Cardston senior baseball team - a post which he held for many years, during which time he brought two Provincial Intermediate Baseball Championships to Cardston (1928 and 1935). He was also giving support to other sporting ventures, notably the Cardston Amateur Athletic Association. In 1920 he became Secretary-Treasurer of that organization, and held this office until 1949. Under his guiding hand, this organization promoted baseball, basketball (men's and ladies), volleyball (men's and ladies), tennis, track and field for all age groups, wres­tling and boxing for all ages of boys and men, and golf. He coached many of these teams, organized tour­naments, established referees' clinics, promoted boxing and wrestling cards on local and Provincial levels, also one Dominion Boxing Championship card in 1940. He directed Cardston's Annual Victoria Day Track and Field Meets for some 25 years. He instituted "Mardi Gras" for the raising of funds for sports.

Charlie coached the famous Cardston Shooting Stars women's basketball team that were Dominion finalists in 1948 against the Toronto Montgomery Maids. Under Charlie's regime, many Cardston and district athletes won Provincial and Dominion championships in boxing, wrestling, and track and field; and some set Provincial and Dominion records in track and field. (See "Sports History" in Volume I of Chief Mountain Country, available from the Cardston Historical Society)

Since the C.A.A.A. was an affiliate of the Alberta Branch Amateur Athletic Union of Canada, Charlie was the chairman of the Provincial boxing committee for 24 years, and a member of the Dominion boxing committee at the same time. He was also a member of the Provincial basketball and track and field committees. He founded Provincial basketball referees' schools, and a system of carding qualified referees.

He also promoted other worthwhile, local organizations - the Rod and Gun Club, the Cardston Agricultural Society and Rodeo, the local Red Cross, War Bond drives, the Cardston Rotary Club, Curling Club, Golf Club, and Trap Shooting Club. He sat on the Town Council for a number of years, and was Chairman of the Cemetery Commission during these years.

Charlie was an ardent fisherman, and on one occasion caught an 11 ¼ lb. rainbow trout that was a record catch at that time.

Charlie had other talents, such as both reciting and composing poetry. His charitable services included visiting the local hospital weekly, where he shaved or cut the hair of male patients free of charge.

On November 18, 1914 Charlie married Hazel Leavitt of Leavitt. They had two sons - Audrey born June I 0, 1915 who only lived eight days; and Beverly Bur­ton, born July 4, 1917 who married Muriel Pape.

Hazel was born August 8, 1894 to William Jenkins and Elizabeth Bryce (Hill) Leavitt. She was one of a large family of eleven children, some of whom still live in the Cardston district, as do many of their descendants. Hazel, however, survived Charlie only by some two years, and died August 23, 1956.

In her own right, Hazel was equally active in the field of sports. She was an ardent fisherman along with Charlie, and enjoyed the game of golf. She sat on the provincial executive of the Women's Auxiliary Athletic Federation for many years. She gave other public service in Red Cross and Alberta Stake Primary. She and Charlie both sang in the Second Ward choir in their earlier years.

Despite the fact that the Cheesman name came to an end in southern Alberta with the I 969 death of Beverly, a grateful public erected the "Charlie Cheesman Memorial Center" as a monument to his life and service. It stands just west of Main Street between Third and Fourth Avenues and serves the local needs for skating, hockey, and curling; being adequately provided with artificial ice, dressing rooms and concession areas.

The funeral services for Charlie Cheesman were among the most impressive and well attended ever held in Cardston. Glowing tributes were paid by many who knew and respected him for his humanitarian interests and ser­vices in this land of his adoption. The Cheesman family are all buried in the Cardston Cemetery.