Category Archives: 1970 – 1979

1900 - 1929, 1930 - 1949, 1970 - 1979, All, Hockey, Male

ROY BURMISTER

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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.

1930 - 1949, 1950 - 1969, 1970 - 1979, 1970 - 1989, All, Builder, Hockey, Male

EDDIE BUSH

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Eddie bush is Collingwood’s most famous hockey export over the past thirty five years
and certainly the most colourful.

Eddie makes the Collingwood Hall of Fame on three counts-as a player, a coach and a
builder.

This brash, flamboyant, swashbuckling competitor came a long way since he made the Collingwood Junior as a kid from the other side of the east end track back in
the hungry thirties.

Bush was a winner right from the start. He hated to lose and he expressed nothing but contempt for anybody who took defeat too lightly.

He qualifies as a builder because it was Bush who revived hockey in Collingwood after it had sunk into the doldrums for more than a decade.

He put this town back on the hockey map in 1951 when he closed off his active pro career to give Collingwood three consecutive Junior “C” provincial titles and a pair of back to back Intermediate “A” championships missing a third one after a great series with the Simcoe Gunners. What a work horse he proved to be in those golden years of Collingwood hockey in 1951-52-53. Coaching the juniors, acting as player-coach with the Shipbuilders and still finding time to impact his great hockey skill and experience to the minor hockey teams from Pee Wee to Juvenile.

He turned professional with Detroit in 1938 and the sporting public knew all about it the first day he arrived in Detroit. Jack Adams was not too shocked with the flamboyance of his introduction because he had been exposed to the Collingwood elements years before with Reg Noble, Sailor Jim Herberts and Bern Brophy.

At any rate he sent Eddie to Pittsburgh and Kansas City for seasoning but he was back in the big time in 1941-42. The big fellow had his best season in 1943 and you will find his name in Stanley Cup records.

In the third game of the Stanley Cup finals the Wings beat the Leafs 5-2 and Eddie helped himself to a goal and four assists. That single game scoring record for a defenseman still stands. Bush looked to be on his way to a brilliant N.H.L. career, but, as in the case of Portland,  fate stepped in. Eddie joined the R.C.A.F. and when the war ended thee years later, it was just too late.

His playing career, however, lasted almost ten years more with Cleveland, St. Louis, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Sherbrooke and finally back in his old home town.

But he continued in the game that has always been his life as a very successful coach at Collingwood, Guelph, Hamilton, Pittsburgh, Memphis, Quebec, Richmond and the Kitchener Rangers. He got back in the N.H.L. as a coach for part of the season with the Kansas City Scouts in 1976.

He was a good football player, better than average ball player and expert at darts and is still pretty nifty with a dollar.

1900 - 1929, 1970 - 1979, All, Hockey, Male

JOHN BURNS

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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.