How players from northern Ontario helped shape Italy's national hockey program

In just over a month, millions of Canadians will be gathering to watch ice hockey at the Milano-Cortina Winter Games.

Hockey enthusiasts may know Italy is among 12 nations on the men's side that'll be vying for gold, while the host country's women's team is among eight in competition.

But what fans may not know is Italy’s hockey program has deep and historic ties to Canada, particularly northern Ontario.

Aldo Maniacco, who passed away last year, was from Sault Ste. Marie and among several players from the region to compete on Italy’s men's Olympic team in 1956. It was the first time the country ever hosted a Games, which 70 years ago were also played in Cortina d’Ampezzo. 

Aiming to ice as competitive a squad as possible, players of Italian heritage from Sault Ste. Marie, Sudbury, Timmins and Thunder Bay were scouted by Italy’s national team in the years leading up to the 1956 Games. 

These men applied for Italian passports and moved to the country their parents had once called home, carrying hopes of making something of themselves in professional sports and dreams of competing on the international stage. 

Several of the northern Ontario players made it to that Olympic team 70 years ago — along with Maniacco, they included fellow Sault players Carmen Tucci and Bernie Tomie. Ron Furlani from Sudbury also made the squad. 

Other players, including Florio Guarda of Timmins, Roy Furlani of Sudbury and the Sault’s Ron Dotter, Don Lato and Dickie Gioia all moved to Italy to play hockey but didn’t crack the Olympic roster. 

Decades later, Maniacco’s family is working to ensure the legacy of these players — known as the Cortina Canadians — doesn’t get erased.

The late hockey player’s granddaughter, Brye-Anne Maniacco, along with their in-law, Bill O’Donnell, have been retracing the history of the team in hopes of eventually producing a full documentary.

“It seemed their contribution to hockey had been forgotten,” O’Donnell said. “I don’t think this is a story that should be lost. These men gave up Canadian citizenship, but they loved the game so much that playing hockey was what they wanted to do.”

Italy’s hockey team finished the 1956 Olympics in seventh place among 15 teams, which remains the country’s best Olympic finish in the sport.

In preliminary play, the team tied games with Austria and Germany before holding Canada to a 1-1 score entering the third period — a game Italy lost 3-1. 

“Aldo Maniacco told me that he scored a goal against Martin Brodeur’s father, Denis Brodeur, who was [Canada's] goaltender,” O’Donnell recalled. “But the referee didn’t see it go into the net. Brodeur pulled it out before the referee could call it a goal.”