In a very real sense, Bill Warwick was just what the doctor ordered to help restore the pride of Canadian hockey.
Humiliated by the 7-2 loss the Toronto East York Lyndhursts suffered at the hands of the Soviet Union at the 1954 World Championship in Stockholm. The Canadian Amateur Hockey Association was banking heavily on Warwick and his teammates when it selected the 1954 Allan Cup champion Penticton Vees to represent Canada at the 1955 World Championship in West Germany.
A hard-nosed product of the playgrounds of Regina, Saskatchewan, Warwick had been a star in senior hockey and played well in the minor professional ranks, even though he could not hold down a job in the NHL. When he arrived in Penticton in 1952, he brought with him not only an excellent array of skills, but also a mean streak that would eventually put the fear of God into the best players in Europe.
Warwick scored 50 goals in 58 games with the Penticton club in British Columbia's Okanagan Senior Hockey League in the 1953-54 season and led that league in penalty minutes twice, although he stood only 5' 7" and weighed just 155 pounds.
When the tournament opened, Warwick was a leader for the Canadian team, which was determined to bring home the gold medal. He scored six goals in a 12-1 romp over the United States. In an all-important match with Czechoslovakia, he brought the Canadian team from behind twice with tying goals in a 5-3 victory. And playing on a line with his brothers, Grant and Dick, he sparked the Vees to a 5-0 victory over the Soviets in the game that decided the gold medal.
Earlier in Bill's career, when he joined brother Grant as a member of the New York Rangers in the 1942-43 season, the Warwicks became the fourth brothers combination in the history of the club. Brother duos Bill and Bun Cook, Neil and Mac Colville and Lynn and Muzz Patrick had previously played in New York.
But Bill played only one game for the Rangers that season before joining the New York Rovers of the Eastern Hockey League and 13 more for the Broadway Blueshirts in the 1943-44 campaign. He had a long career in the minor pros with stops in Hershey, Providence, Philadelphia, Springfield, Fort Worth, Minneapolis, Cleveland and Denver.
