Andy Gilpin

Who was Andy Gilpin?

Andrew Crowley Gilpin was a Canadian ice hockey forward. Born in Montreal, Quebec, he was a member of the Ottawa RCAF Flyers who won the gold medal in ice hockey for Canada at the 1948 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz. Gilpin played Junior A hockey in Montreal. He joined the Royal Canadian Air Force, and in March 1947 he was transferred to the RCAF station in the “hockey crazy” town of Whitehorse, Yukon.

The 1948 Winter Olympics were to be held in St. Moritz, Switzerland. They were then officially known as the V Olympic Winter Games as they were the first Olympic games to be celebrated after World War II. In the fall of 1947, the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association invited the RCAF to form Canada’s Olympic ice hockey squad, and in January 1948 Gilpin was selected to be a member of Canada men's national ice hockey team – the Ottawa RCAF Flyers. Although Gilpin traveled to St. Moritz as a member of Canada national hockey team, due to tournament rules that allowed teams to dress only twelve players, Gilpin was used as a reserve and did not get into game play during the 1948 Olympics.