Whistles with peas were abandoned by hockey leagues years ago (especially unheated or outdoor facilities). That is one sport where they DID freeze up. It is not a myth. The amount of times they blow the whistle or even hold the whistle up to blow leads to a lot of spittle in the whistle which can freeze and block the operation or at the very least atune the frequency so that it becomes a garble instead of a tweeeet.
Actually this not quite true. During the last NHL All Star week, there was a very brief discussion on a sports show about the old whistles as compared to the new whistles. The reason both high level minor and pro hockey migrated to pea-less whistles is due to the fact that most modern arenas are much larger and seat more people which means more crowd noise. The old pea whistles that refs once used were not loud enough to hear above the crowd noise whereas the newer whistles are designed to be louder and and with a different pitch that helps overcome (mostly) the crowd noise and the bad acoustics of the bigger arenas. It also bears mentioning that the Fox brand is the official (sponsored) ref whistle of the NHL so it is no surprise that refs use them..
Around here, a few old school beer league refs still use the old pea whistles, but the most common I see are the Fox brand of whistles also.
As for the cold freezing the pea in the old whistles, we discussed this here awhile. When I was growing up and playing outdoor hockey for hours at time, we never had problems with the pea whistles in temps well below zero.
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