The players who couldn't make the cut formed their own hockey team back in Moose Factory in the mid 1970s.

The team of misfits who were too young, too old and too slow was dubbed "The Scrappers."

"We were a bunch of scraps that couldn't make the A team," says Charlie Cheechoo who was one of the original members of the team.

The Scrappers would go on to be the top team in the isolated Cree First Nation and the top team in Ontario, capturing three provincial titles at the highly competitive Native men's hockey tournament.

Charlie Cheechoo played on the original Scrappers teams in the 1970s and now coaches kids hockey teams who play under that name. (Erik White/CBC )

"We were the underdogs like we weren't even supposed to be there," says Cheechoo, now 65.

"They were calling us Eskimos. 'You guys are from the far north, you must be Eskimos, you eat seal meat and stuff like that."

The players from those teams became local legends and the name Scrappers is now used by every hockey team representing Moose Factory.

"The Moose Factory Scrappers back in the day, were huge," says local history buff and former Scrappers stick boy Vic Linklater.

"Wow we did this, we accomplished this. For a small little reserve with an outdoor rink, how great was that?"

Hear more in this radio documentary prepared for CBC's Morning North: