Dickie Moore Park inaugurated in Parc-Ex, where the Habs legend grew up
Posted October 5, 2022 12:04 pm.
Last Updated October 5, 2022 9:39 pm.
The City of Montreal inaugurated a park Wednesday named after a Montreal Canadiens legend and one of the most decorated hockey players of all time.
The Dickie Moore Park officially opened in Parc-Extension with a ceremony shortly before noon.
Moore, a six-time Stanley Cup winner, grew up in Parc-Ex where he learned to skate on his backyard rink. He came from a family of 12 children, the youngest of the nine boys.
“This is his day, a great honour,” said his daughter Lianne Moore. “And I thank the City of Montreal and everybody that that was a part of making this special, a special park. And if he was here, he’d be the happiest man alive.
Dickie Moore went on to become a gritty goal-scorer and playmaker on the Montreal Canadiens dynasty of the 1950s.
He spent several of his 12 seasons in Montreal patrolling the left wing on a line with Maurice and Henri Richard.
He died in 2015 at the age of 84.
“I’m blessed because he was my daddy,” said Lianne. “To you he was a hockey player. To me he was my everything. And he bleeds like everybody else. But he was so humble and he cared for absolutely everybody. He’d take his shirt and give it to you.”
The park, at the intersection of Beaumont Avenue and De L’Épée Avenue, is roughly 4,000 square metres.
Montreal Mayor Valérie and borough mayor Laurence Lavigne Lalonde were on hand for the inauguration.
“We are proud to offer Montrealers a park that shows our commitment to providing public spaces. There is a serious lack of green spaces in Park Extension,” said Mayor Plante.
“Choosing a name is also very important. And it made so much sense to put the name Dickie Moore for this park, since Mr. Moore was a legend in hockey. But he also he was a Montrealer and he passed his childhood here in Parc-Extension.”
“This has created a little oasis in a highly densified area. This is a park for the neighbourhood, to make them proud,” added borough mayor Laurence Lavigne Lalonde.
—With files from The Canadian Press.
