Frank Frederickson was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1895. His parents came from Iceland and spoke only Icelandic in the house. Frank couldn't speak a word of English until he was six years old.At the time of Frederickson's youth, the Icelanders in Winnipeg were treated as a second class minority group and Frank found himself the target of insults when he would return home from school. He was able to find a safety valve through sports.
"My best outlet was hockey. I got my first pair of skates when I was five and had a great time learning to play. School came easy for me. After finishing grade eight I decided I ought to earn a living and got a job as an office boy in a law firm. This turned out to be an excellent move since the firms all sponsored hockey teams then so naturally we had one too.
"I played well and captured the attention of two of our attorneys. They took a great deal of personal interest in me, not just as a hockey player, and urged me to go back to school. So in 1914 I enrolled at the University of Manitoba, took liberal arts courses, and a year later was named captain of the hockey team."
Full Frank Frederickson biography
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