Cal Hammond’s name will now grace part of the airport he spent so many years working at.
The longtime City and airport employee has been honoured with a partial renaming of the airport in his honour. Flin Flon Mayor Cal Huntley made a proclamation during council’s Oct. 18 meeting to rename the runway at the Flin Flon Airport as Cal Hammond Field, naming the runway after the longtime airport employee and community figure who died earlier this year.
The airport itself will remain known as Flin Flon Airport, but the airport’s main runway area will be renamed in Hammond’s honour.
Huntley provided a copy of the proclamation to Heather Hammond, Cal’s widow, who was in attendance at the meeting.
“Cal was a very valued employee, both in the community and at the airport,” Huntley said.
Born in Flin Flon in 1950, Hammond grew up in Flin Flon and Snow Lake and became known for his prowess on the hockey rink. Becoming known for a time as the north’s best young goalie, Hammond played three seasons with the Bombers and won two Western Canada Hockey League (WCHL) championships in 1969 and 1970.
Hammond was picked in the fourth round of the 1970 NHL Entry Draft by the Montreal Canadiens, but never played with the team or saw ice time in the show. Hammond did play a few seasons of minor-league hockey before heading back to the north.
Following his retirement from the pro game, Hammond coached and worked as a goalie clinician for hockey schools, but while his passion was on the ice, his day-to-day work was done at the Flin Flon Airport. There weren’t many jobs Hammond didn’t do at the facility over the years, working not far from his home at Bakers’ Narrows.
