When Ron Ralph moved with his family from Kentucky to take over managership of the Canadian Mist Distillers in Collingwood in 1968, he had two things in mind.

He was going to see that his firm would become a good corporate citizen and that
he, himself, would be an active private citizen in the town of his adoption.

Interested in all phases of sport in his native Kentucky, he continued to dominate the sports scene in the a Collingwood as a competitor and an organizer.

Ron was the driving force behind the organization of the Georgian Bay Slo-Pitch Softball League, now one of the longest and best in Ontario. He served as President of the League in 1973 and 1974 and become the first chairman of the infamous Collingwood Summerfest Slo-Pitch tournament, an annual event which attracted fifty teams from all parts of Ontario, including a couple of clubs from the USA.

Ron played basketball in the Kentucky Little League up through high school. His team later won the junior district title and the regional championship in the senior ranks.

He played baseball for the 504 Paratroop Battalion at Fort Bragg, North Carolina and later played senior baseball in the Kentucky Tri-County League for the Beals Red Sox.

He organized a Babe Ruth League in Owensboro,  Kentucky. Ron coached a team, built the playing field, umpired and rustled up the team sponsors. For this project, Ron received the Kentucky Colonel Award. When he moved to Collingwood, Ron played fastball in the Blue Mountain League.

He found that fastball in Collingwood was as good as the US but preferred slo-pitch as it seemed more like baseball strategy and more all-around action.

In the summer of 1970, he was able to get a group of men to play challenge slo-pitch games and the following year organized the first Slo-Pitch Industrial League with the able assistance of John Hill and Tommy Murray. He continued direct involvement in the league until 1978, during which time he built the Canadian Mist team to championship caliber in the newly formed Ontario Slo-Pitch Association.

Along with Frank Smalley, Ron started the Collingwood Minor Baseball League in 1972. He coached several teams in the league for a couple of years before he was elected president of the league in 1974. The league grew by leaps and bounds and Collingwood hosted the All Ontario Bantam tournament in 1975.

A Collingwood team won the provincial title in 1979.

Robert Ring has served as a coach and in several capacities in the Collingwood Minor Hockey Association’s executive.

As a defenseman in his minor hockey years here, he has the distinction of playing on two CMHA teams that won provincial titles. In recent years, Ring has served as Collingwood’s representative on the Georgian Bay Minor Hockey Association and was appointed district rep for the Ontario Minor Hockey Association in 1994-95.

The OMHA chose “Ringo” as its prestigious Honour Award winner for 1994-95, recognizing him for his tireless volunteer work in minor hockey.

He has also been an active member in adult baseball as president of the North Dufferin Baseball League in Collingwood and was credited with bringing back minor
baseball to this town in the late seventies.

Robert’s 20 years of dedication and volunteer work with minor hockey was also recognized earlier this year when he received the Order of Collingwood.

Robert Ring was inducted into the Collingwood Sports Hall of Fame, in the builders’ category, in 1996.

Scotty Carmichael became the 25th member of the Sports Hall of Fame. He was nominated and inducted by his fellow members of the selection committee, without his knowledge, at the first induction ceremonies.

He is credited with the establishment of the Collingwood Sports Hall of Fame.

A sports reporter for various daily newspapers, radio and television stations, he
has been connected with many sports organizations for fifty-five years.

During this time he served as president of the Collingwood Senior Hockey League, the
Collingwood District Fastball League, Collingwood Junior Football League and
served as secretary and on and on the executive of Collingwood Intermediate and
Junior O.H.A. teams and the Collingwood Minor Hockey Association. He also
coached junior baseball teams and was actively engaged in long distance running
back in the mid-twenties.

Born in Streetsville, Walt Robinson came to Collingwood with his parents as a very
young boy.

He played hockey, lacrosse and baseball for Collingwood junior teams in the early
parts of this century but his mark was made as a coach and trainer.

Walt played and coached to win and he never tired to cover his contempt for laughing
losers. He regarded a loss as a team to show it on their faces.

He started coaching Collingwood hockey and lacrosse teams in 1910 but his greatest
success came in 1918-19-20 when he guided the Collingwood Shipbuilders to three
consecutive O.H.A. Intermediate “A” championships. Newly Lalonde
brought him up to the international Hockey League as a trainer with the Niagara
Falls Cataracts in 1930. He ended up coaching that team when Newsy quit in mid
season.

The Falls club disbanded and Walt went back to the O.H.A. where he brought the
Parry Sound Shamrocks to the Junior semi-finals.

For the next three years he was head hockey coach for the R.C.A.F. at Camp Borden
and twice brought the Flyers top the semi-finals.

He finished his coaching career with Collingwood in the early thirties.

On Walt’s recommendation, Leo Dandurand signed Jack Portland after only one year’s experience in Intermediate ranks. Portland starred for ten years in the National Hockey League and was a member of the  Stanley Cup winning Boston Bruins in 1939.

Walter Robinson died on June 23rd, 1968. He was seventy-eight.

Frank was born in Sheet Harbour, Nova Scotia on May 2, 1923 moving to Collingwood in 1970 with his wife Elsie (inducted 2004). Along with their family of 5 children – Frank, Norma, Donna, Clyde and Vicky, the Cruickshank quickly immersed themselves into Collingwood’s vibrant sports scene.

Frank’s resume as a supporter of Collingwood minor sports is impressive. His
accomplishments include:

O.M.H.A. Coaching I,II,III, IV and Referee I,II, III; Executive role in Collingwood
Minor Hockey for 7 years including President in 1979;  Coach & Manager role in teams ranging from Atom to Midget for 20+ years; Chairman and member of the Youth Education Committee, Royal Canadian Legion 1980-83.

Throughout Frank’s active involvement he has been recognized as the recipient of the Andy Morritt C.M.H.A. Award in 1974, Royal Canadian Legion of Merit in 1980
alongside a Life Membership. In 1995, Frank was the further recognized with the
Legion’s Meritorious Service Award in 1985 acknowledged as the highest award
awarded to Legion members.

Frank’s dedication culminated in his membership within the Collingwood Sports Hall of Fame on June 12, 1998 in the Builders’ category.

Everybody has a secret dream, no matter how small, and everybody lives for the day the dream will come true.

For many people the dream of a lifetime never materialize but there is always that
hope that lies beneath the human breast.

But a lifetime dream did come true for the late Robert “Rose” Bush on June 23rd, 1978, when Bob Bush cut the traditional ceremonial ribbon to officially open the “Old Village Park” in Collingwood’s east end.

They couldn’t have selected a more appropriate citizen to do the honours because AA park for the east enders’ had long been Bob’s Slogan since he was first elected to council years ago.

The “Old Village” takes in that historic territory between Niagara and Raglan Streets and runs north and south from the waterfront to Shannon’s Bridge. Rose was born and raised in that hallowed section and had been regarded as the unofficial Mayor of the Old  Village for most of his adult life.

An outstanding athlete in his younger days, Bob Bush learned to skate on the east mill pond, learned to swim in the old stone quarry (the exact site of the Village Park) played ball in the rock strewn back lots, speared long neglected gravel road that was Raglan Street. When he was fifteen he vowed the east end kids would some day have a park of their own. That park is a reality now and it can stand as a monument to Robert “Rose” Bush.

The Rose took part in about every phase of sport and he kept the sporting fraternity well informed regarding the sporting scene as a columnist with the Enterprise-Bulletin, and in later years, with the Collingwood Times. He played hockey with the Collingwood Juniors after coming up through the town’s minor hockey system, starred on several championships softball teams and was the prime mover in the organization of that fabulous Collingwood Bearded Softball Team during the town’s Centennial year in 1958.

He was a better than average lacrosse player, a hard plunging half-back with the C.C.I. football team and a talented left handed baseball pitcher. In baseball he was a picture but when he switched to softball he became a left hand catcher-and a good one.

He started out with the old Trinity Live Wires around 1938 in the Senior Softball League but he switched to the Legion club after a couple of seasons and moved over to the Pros and helped brother Ed win two league championships.

Rose handled a pretty nifty lacrosse stick when the game made a short lived comeback in Collingwood around 1937.

Rose acted ad bench manager when the Collingwood Greenshirts were winning O.H.A. Junior “C” titles in the early fifties. His brother Ed coached the Greenshirts at that time and this arrangement created repercussion at times. Ed fired Rose about twice a month but blood was thicker than water and the dismissals lasted only from one game to another.

The Rose pulled on punches in his breezy column “Out on the Limb”. His
newspaper career was interrupted for three years during World War 11 when he served with the R.C.A.F. in North Africa, Italy and France. In later years, before suffering a stroke in 1975, he wrote another sports column in the Collingwood Times.

Bob died in 1980. He was fifty-eight.