Local author publishes book on early history of Hurricanes

By Lethbridge Herald on January 24, 2026.

Nathan Reiter
Lethbridge Herald

A new book published by a local author has helped shine a spotlight on the early years of the Lethbridge Hurricanes.

Mark Weninger has published his second book chronicling junior hockey history, The Run to A Championship looks back on the first 10 years of the Lethbridge Hurricanes franchise, including a focus on the origins of the franchise as the Winnipeg Jets in the WCHL all the way back in 1967.

Weninger’s passion for junior hockey began in the 1970s when he worked at a car wash in Lethbridge that was owned by Earl Ingarfield and Dennis Kjeldgaard who also owned the Lethbridge Broncos.

Weninger got to know some of the players since they’d often come in to buy gas at the establishment. He says those interactions really helped plant the seed for his love of junior hockey.

“I’ve been a hockey fan all my life so it was kind of neat, so I really started to follow the Broncos and then just continued. I love hockey in general, but I love junior hockey. I love watching players trying to fulfill a dream, so that’s kind of where I came from.”

Weninger has previously published a book titled The Lethbridge Broncos: A History 1974-1986 documenting the 12 years that team spent in the city before relocating back to Swift Current, where the team still exists today.

The production of his first book was a result of being stir crazy during the pandemic, which led to him deciding to take on the challenge.

“I had never written a book before, it was completely a result of COVID and boredom, when everything was shut down.” Weninger explained. “I still play hockey in my late 60s and I still go over three to four times a week, and when they shut everything down, there’s essentially nothing to do. I just thought, I’m going to put something together and just see where it takes me.”

Weninger’s son, Matt, who is the current goaltending coach for the Hurricanes played a role in networking some contacts for the Broncos book. Matt served as the goaltending consultant for Canada at the 2021 U18 World Championships in Texas. Dave Barr, a former Bronco, was the head coach of that team.

From there, Mark was able to accrue over 100 contacts of former Bronco players, coaches and staff.
For his second book, Weninger was able to receive help from Bob Bartlett, who has been a major resource in ensuring accuracy. Former Herald sports editor Randy Jensen has also been involved with editing the book.

Weninger says deciding how to cover the Hurricanes was a daunting challenge.

“I was a little bit worried about the Hurricanes because with the Broncos I was talking about 12 years. The Hurricanes have been here for 40 years. I was like that’s a big story to write about 40 years of hockey, right? What I ended up doing is I focused primarily on the first 10 years of the Hurricanes organization. They made the Western Hockey League Finals three years and won a championship. I called it the run to a championship because that was the 10th year that they won the championship. When they first arrived they were really bad, probably the worst team in the WHL and within two years they were in back-to-back championship series then had to rebuild and then got to a point where they won a championship in ‘97.”

Lethbridge has had a decorated history even outside of their first decade of existence. The Hurricanes have made three trips to the Eastern Conference final in the past decade and have produced several NHL draft picks since they won it all in 1997.

“For the time that Peter Anholt was here, it was a pretty exciting time.” Weninger explained. “Some great teams went to the Eastern Conference Final a few (times). Dylan Cozens and Calen Addison especially, they were very exciting to watch. The last 10 years of the Hurricanes have been exciting and now they’re in a rebuild, so we’ll see how it goes.”

Weninger interviewed 11 former Hurricane players for the book including Byron Ritchie who was an assistant captain on the ‘97 championship team. Byron’s son, Ryder, won a WHL championship with the Medicine Hat Tigers last season and is currently playing in the NCAA with Boston University.

The book also contains a broader summary of Hurricane history. Weninger says it wasn’t plausible to speak to every notable alumni, but he included notes about each of them in the book.

“I might add to the book in terms of like a second edition. What I did do is like every season following their first 10 years, I covered the season and summarized it. What I tried to do in the book is take a significant player who made an appearance and write a little bit about them. The way the book ends, it’s a summary, but that also talks about a lot of the stars of the next 30 years. I didn’t interview them because it would have taken forever, but I did try to write about them and that was interesting.”

While Weninger has completed books on the Broncos and Hurricanes, he says he might not be finished writing about junior hockey history in Lethbridge

“I’m also interested in perhaps doing a few more stories on some of the older teams like the Lethbridge Sugar Kings and the Lethbridge Native Sons, just to kind of complete the junior hockey cycle here. I love history and I love hockey, so it kind of fits.”

The Run To A Championship is available for purchase at the Hurricanes gift shop, Analog Books or online through Amazon.