If there ever was a Lady Byng Trophy for amateur hockey players, Ab Kirby would have won it ten years in a row.

Through a career of twenty years in O.H.A. competition, Kirby’s penalty record could be written on the head of a pin. Here was a player who exploded the Leo Durocher theory that “Nice guys finish last”.

Collingwood born Albert Kirby played on championship teams in the junior, intermediate and senior O.H.A. series with Barrie, Collingwood and Owen Sound
and he was always up there with the scoring leaders.

One of the high points in his great career came in 1939 when the helped the
Collingwood Shipbuilders win the O.H.A. Intermediate “A” title. In sixteen games he scored sixteen goals and assisted on sixteen others. He went through the entire series without drawing a single penalty.

This shifty little centre man never weighed any more than 135 pounds (soaking wet)
but he held his own with the hard bumping giants of that era. One of the best
stick handlers of his time. Ab never had to resort to rough play. He was a
gentleman on and off the ice. Like his long-time team mate, Eddie Bush, Ab learned his hockey basics on the East End mill ponds.

He made the Collingwood junior club at age fifteen in 1934 and the following
season went to the Barrie Colts. Barrie won the O.H.A. Junior “B” title and Kirby scored 30 goals in the regular season. He picked up seven goals in the five-game final series against St. Michael’s College.

He was back in Collingwood in 1938 but had to sit out most of the season after
MIDLAND PROTESTED HIS ELIGIBILITY UNDER THE RESIDENCE RULE.

Re-instated in ,1939, he played for the Collingwood Shipbuilders under the coaching of former N.H.L. star, Bern Brophy, and the Shipbuilders won the championship. Kirby played on a line with Alvie Wilson and Greg Coulson.

Ab scored six goals and had three assists in the five-game final against the Port
Colborne Incos. In 1940 he moved up to senior company with St. Catherine’s with
Collingwood team mates Don Jeffery and Dick Tracey. That team went to the
O.H.A. Senior “A” final against the Toronto Goodyears.

Kirby added a senior championship medal to his collection when he helped the Owen
Sound Trappers win the Ontario Senior title in 1947.

But he came back to his home town in 1951 when Jack Portland came back from a
ten-year N.H.L. career, coached the Shipbuilders and took them to the O.H.A.
Intermediate “A” semi-final round.

He finished his career with Eddie Bush and the Shipbuilders in 1952 and 1953 when
the Collingwood club won back to back provincial Intermediate “A” championships.

Ab did not confine his athletic endeavours to hockey. He was a better than average
baseball and softball player and had a hand in coaching midget hockey and baseball teams. He was Brit Burns’ assistant coach when the Collingwood Juveniles won the O.M.H.A. championship in 1956.

Along-time director in the Collingwood Minor Hockey Association, he served two years as president.

No Sports Hall of Fame could complete without a special corner for Johnny Burns, one of the most courageous players ever to wear the Gold and Blue colours of the Collingwood Shipbuilders.

He never played for any other club but Collingwood and he was the driving force on the front line of a team that won five O.H.A. Intermediate championships in ten years from 1910 to 1920.

Playing junior hockey for three years before moving up to the intermediates, Burns teamed up on the forward line with Rabbi Fryer, Tom Collins and Jack Belcher in 1907.

That was Collingwood’s first year in the O.H.A. final and they lost to the famed Berlin Union Jacks.

IN 1908 Collingwood lost again in the final round, this time to the ancient rivals,Midland. But in 1910,13,18, 19 and 20 the Shipbuilders lifted the John Ross Robertson Trophy and a major share for the team’s success belongs to Johnny Burns. His deadly shot and playmaking ability was matched only by his dogged courage and his ice generalship.

A total abstainer, Burns kept some of the more exuberant players in line, especially the tempestuous Rabbi Fryer.

His career almost came to an end in 1909 when he was critically injured but Wiarton’ Bill Simmie in the O.H.A. semi-finals round. Burns hovered between life and death for many days. He not only recovered but went to star for twenty more years with the Collingwood Shipbuilders.

During his career he found time to coach ten junior teams, including the great Collingwood team in 1915, captained by Hall of Famer Reg Noble.

He was an artist in the rink corners, which let Bill Cook to remark after the Kingston-Collingwood Intermediate final in 1920. Going into the corner with Jack Burns is something to remembered coming out of the corner that time, with two fractured ribs.

Burns came out of retirement in 1931, with the late Frank Cook and Jack Dance, to help the Oddfellows win the Collingwood Senior League title.

He died in February, 1964.

Born in 1945, this fine hockey player came up through the ranks of the Collingwood
Minor Hockey System.  He had played in numerous leagues previously but had
been rejected by umpteen more. On the strength of his booming shot, Alexander
once won a scoring championship playing Senior hockey with the Collingwood
Shipbuilders.

Following a nomadic Junior career, Alexander became one of the hockey’s last great amateur players.  After a brief stint in minor-pro hockey in the mid-1960s, he returned home to Ontario and took a job as a milkman, while continuing to star with local senior amateur teams. A skilled defender with a booming shot, Alexander led the Orillia Terriers to the Allan Cup , awarded to Canada’s top amateur club, in 1973

He turned professional with Knoxville and in 1972 the Toronto Maple Leafs talked Alexander into giving pro hockey another chance, and he joined their Central Hockey League affiliate, the Oklahoma City Blazers the following year. He was an immediate hit, as he scored 60 points and was named the league’s top rookie and top defender.

In 1974-75, at the age of 29, Alexander was called up to the Leafs, making his NHL debut at the age of 29. He finished the season with 7 goals (including a hat-trick) and 17 points in 42 games. He spent most of the next two seasons on the Leafs’ roster, posting 21 points in 81 games, and made his most notable contribution in the 1976 playoffs with 6 points in 9 games.

For the 1977-78, Alexander was traded to the Vancouver Canucks. He split the season between the Canucks and their farm team in Tulsa, but made a substantial  contribution with 26 points in just 32 games in Vancouver. The following season, he moved to the  WHA with the Edmonton Oilers, posting 31 points on a team featuring Wayne Gretzky in his first professional season. He then spent two season playing in Germany for a two-year term, later coaching a junior team there and another team in Switzerland the year after before retiring in 1981.

Following his retirement, the Leafs hired him to coach their AHL affiliate in St. Catharine’s in 1984. In 1985, his preference for a private life to raise his family resulted in Claire leaving the organization.

Alexander finished his career with 18 goals and 64 points in 155 career NHL games, along with just 36 penalty minutes. He also recorded 8 goals and 31 points in 54 WHA games.

He played on Toronto Metro Old-timers, world’s champions for 1983.

Nowadays, he cheers on his daughter Buffy, representing Canada in rowing for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. Beijing will be the third Olympics for Buffy Williams, who won a bronze medal with the women’s eight in Sydney in 2000 and placed fourth in the women’s pair in Athens in 2004 with partner Darcy Marquardt.

Claire was inducted into the Collingwood Sports Hall of Fame in 1984.

Although he excelled as an all around athlete, Bill Allan’s hockey career made him a
real traveling man. Not counting his minor hockey activities, Bill played on
nine teams in three countries and two continents.

Born in Victoria Harbour, he played minor hockey in Midland before moving to Wiarton, where his late father served as government Indian Agent.

The Allan family moved to Collingwood in 1935 where Bill made the Junior team the
first time out. After three years with the Collingwood Juniors he moved north
with Don Jeffery to Pomour Mines in the NorthernOntario Senior “A” League.

In 1939, Bill and Jeff came back to Collingwood just in time to help the
Collingwood Shipbuilders win the O.H.A. Intermediate “A” championship
under Bern Brophy.

He moved to the Port Colborne Sailors in 1940 and in 1941 joined the R.C.A.F.
During his training period as a wireless operator he found time to perform for
the R.C.A.F. team and the Truro Bearcats.

Following his discharge after the war, Bill moved out to the Pacific Coast League where he starred with the Portland Eagles in the years 1946-47-48.

He was on the move again in 1949 and this time he crossed the Atlantic
to play a bang up defensive game for the famed Harringay Greyhounds of the
English League.

It was back to Collingwood in 1950 as the Shipbuilders went to the finals against Port Colborne. Jack Portland, just back from a long N.H.L. career, coached that team.

Bill teamed up with Eddie Bush as the Shipbuilders won the O.H.A. Intermediate
“A” title in 1951. A severe eye injury put him out of action for most of the 1952 season but he came back to finish up his career with the Shipbuilders, Intermediate “A” finalists in 1953. He commanded the Kiwanis Ai Cadet Squadron and coached minor hockey teams for a number of years.

Hockey was not his only sport. Bill Allan can be rated as one of the best softball
pitchers ever to perform in the old Blue Mountain League. He pitched on two
championship ball teams in the early fifties with the Canadian Legion and
Trott’s Pros.

A Collingwood native, Roy was born on March 13, 1917. 

A renowned goal scorer, Roy  played several years with the Collingwood Juniors and a member of the Barrie Juniors Ontario Championship club in 1937. A  top scorer, he was invaluable for the Collingwood Intermediate Club winning the Ontario title in 1939. Additionally, Roy played with the Petawawa in the Allan Cup. As a professional, Roy Brock skated in New Haven, Three Rivers and
Knoxville.

Away from the ice, Roy was the club professional at the Collingwood Golf and Country Club for 20+ years.

Mike Brophy was one of the slickest stick handlers ever to come out of theEast End mill pond.

His hockey career lasted fifteen years, ten of them in the professional ranks. His athletic ability was not confined to hockey for Mike was a hard hitting football halfback, a softball pitcher and infielder of not and a much better than average golfer.

The size of his hands, like two Maple Leaf hams, always fascinated me. He could take a football from the centre, wrap his fist around the leather and sail through the line with both arms flailing. Mike played his first organized hockey with the Collingwood juniors in 1924.

In 1925, he was a member of an outstanding Collingwood junior club that unfortunately ran into the Owen Sound Greys in the first round. The Greys, with Cooney Weiland, Butch Keeling, Ted Graham and Dutch Cain, went on to win the
Memorial Cup.

Mike went to Owen Sound in 1926 and that club ended up in the O.H.A. Junior finals against Aura Lee. He turned professional with the Chicago Cardinals in 1927 and the next year found him in Hamilton in the old Can-Pro League under the coaching of Hap Holmes. The following year, Holmes moved the whole team to Cleveland in the International Leagues and Mike’s traveling days were over.

He became a hockey landmark in Cleveland and stared with that team for eight years until the end of his active career. During that time he helped Cleveland win the Calder Cup and three times led the league in scoring and made the All-Star team four times.

At one time he played with three other Collingwood born players on the Cleveland team-Reg Noble, Artie Clark and his brother, Bern.

Mike should have had a crack at the N.H.L in 1930 a deal was all set for a trade with Montreal Canadians but Holmes balked and kept him in Cleveland.

Mike never got the chance again. He organized, managed and played for the Pros in the first Collingwood Senior Softball League.

They called him the “Hockey Traveler” and for a very good reason. During  the twenty-one years of his active career as an amateur and professional he  performed for no fewer than fourteen teams in six leagues including thee
seasons in the National Hockey League with the old New York Americans.

He was one of the fastest skaters ever turned out of this hockey town of Collingwood. He was 130-pound, five-foot-six, fifteen year-old little rabbit had a tough time making the 1921 Collingwood Junior team, perhaps the greatest junior club to represent Collingwood in O.H.A. competition. That was the year that the
Collingwood Bees almost knocked off the famous Stratford Midget, led by Howie
Morenz. They must have been good. Four members of that team Burmister, Bern
Brophy, Artie Clark and Clyde Dey went on to pro careers.

Roy starred for two more years with Collingwood junior and intermediate teams, went to the Owen Sound Greys in 1925, to Niagara Falls under the late Gene Fraser in the senior ranks in 1926 and that same season Niagara Falls became pat of the newly formed pro International League. He signed for eight hundred dollars and a job.

The New York Americans took him up to the big time from New Havens in 1929 and for the next three years he drew down N.H.L. pay while shuffling between the
Americans and New Haven.

It was a pretty good financial situation for Roy, as he beat a path between New
Haven and New York, but the shuttle service arrangement cost him a couple of
Americans League scoring championships. It seemed that every time he got up
there in the American League scoring lead, the Amerks ran into injuries and
back to the Madison Square Garden went Burmister.

In the succeeding years he played for Boston of the Americans League, London and Windsor in the International, back to the Americans loop with Philadelphia, Galt in the old Ontario pro league, two championship years with St. Louis in 1935 and
1936, then to St. Paul and finally closing off his career with Kansas City.

He came back to the amateur ranks in 1941 and played for Collingwood in the O.H.A.
Senior “B” series. So after two decades and over a thousands hockey games, Roy
finally called it quits.

How many goals did he score in that time? We will never know. Roy never kept track of them and it would take a team of researchers to go back over the books in six leagues.