Category Archives: 1970 – 1989

MIKE JACKSON

In his competitive golfing career, Mike has atop the leader board for more than 50 golf championships spanning the local, provincial, national and international landscape. Mike has played in national events in all ten Canadian provinces at least once.

Jackson is currently ranked in the upper tier out of more than 700 senior golfers by Golf Week Magazine in the United States.  And as recently as May 2012, he won the Ontario Senior Men’s “Champion of Champions” title by two strokes in Peterborough.

His athletic roots run deep in Collingwood.  He is the son of Ken “Jeep”’ Jackson, a member of the Sports Hall of Fame.  Michael, who played local Junior hockey as a right-winger, tried out for the Guelph CMC’s in 1972. In 1973, he attended the training camp for the Toronto Maple Leafs arranged through local scout Donald ‘Nip’ Spooner.  Mike also played a couple of years of Senior “B” Hockey for the Durham Husky’s winning a provincial championship.

An excellent right-handed golfer as a youth, Jackson was Ontario Best Ball Champion with Hugh Fraser in 1976.  As an amateur, he competed numerous times at the provincial level.  He took part in the 1985 British Amateur at Royal Dornoch in Scotland and was 27th out of 288 golfers before match play.  His medal score was ahead of such greats as Duffy Waldorf, Jose Maria Olazabal and Colin Montgomerie.  He was the 2003 mid-amateur provincial champion (played at Mad River in Stayner) and won the 2010 Ontario Senior Men’s Amateur crown at the Ambassador Golf Club in Windsor.

Locally, Jackson has been the Blue Mountain Golf and Country Club champion an unprecedented 15 times, the club’s Senior champ twice and captured the Scenic Caves Invitational on seven occasions.  As a six-time champion with the Midland Golf and Country Club, he holds the course record of 63, shot in the final round of the club championship in 1979.  He’s a four-time winner of both the Georgian Bay Club championship and Senior Club championship, along with being Match Play champion for three years.

Jackson, a committed community citizen, owns the GM dealership in Collingwood.  A recipient of Rotary’s Paul Harris Fellowship Award, he has been the E-3 Community Living golf tournament chair for many years.  He was a board member for the Collingwood Sports Hall of Fame committee from 1988 to 2002.  Jackson has been on the board of the Canadian Auto Institute (CAI) at Georgian College for several years, and was its chairman of the board from 2005 to 2007.

Jackson is appreciative of the support of his family – wife Doreen, son Ryan and daughter Courtney – which has allowed him to venture far and wide in his chosen sport.  He credits fellow Sports Hall of Famers Don Cook and Brian Jeffery for giving him the inspiration to compete in golf.

On October 20, 2012, the Collingwood Sports Hall of Fame welcomed Mike Jackson as an enshrined ‘Athlete’ from our sporting community.

ROBERT “BOB” STOREY

Known as “Mr. Bobsleigh” in Canada, Bob Storey was involved in the Olympics for 45+ years as an athlete, official and volunteer.

In the 1960’s, he was a young competitor that trained on rollerblade wheels given
Canada’s lack of any bobsleigh training facility. His first taste of the  Olympics came during the 1976 Innsbruck games as a breakman. Subsequently, he  moved to the front of the sleight piloting Canada I at the World Cup and
Championships until his retirement in 1974. He competed in the 1968 and 1972 Olympic Games in the two and four man categories finishing 17th and 19th respectively.

Following his competitive career, Bob began his second career as a representative for the sport of bobsleigh. In this role, he advised national and international sports  bodies and was instrumental in the decision to allow Womens’ bobsleigh and skelton into the 2002 Olympics. He has served as a director and member of the Canadian Olympic Committee that was successful in securing the 1988 Calgary and 2010 Vancouver host bids.

In 1998, he was inducted into the Canadian Olympic Sports Hall of Fame as a builder.

SUE PALMER KOMAR

Sue was born in Collingwood on Jan. 27, 1967, lived in Collingwood until 1992, and now resides in Hamilton with her husband Chris Komar. Sue received her education at Mountain View Public School and Collingwood Collegiate Institute. She later attended McMaster University and received her Bachelor of Physical Education in 1992 followed by a Bachelor of Education degree from the University of Windsor in 1993.

A summary of her career is as follows:
Collingwood Collegiate Institute – Cross Country Running & Cross Country Skiing

Cycling

1988-1993 – National Development
1993-1998 – National Team (6 times at World Championships, 50+ Career wins, 20 Mountain Jerseys
1993 – Tour de France Feminine yellow jersey
1994-97 – Tour de L’Aude mountain jersey
1994-97 – Power Bar mountain jersey
1996 – Canadian Road Champion
1996 – Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta, 10th place finish

This evening June 9, 2000 marks the induction of Sue Palmer Komar into the Collingwood Sports Hall of Fame in the Players’ category.

KELLIE CASEY

In 1973, at the age of 8, Kellie Casey moved to the
Collingwood area with her family and promptly began
training for a career in freestyle skiing.

She attended school in Thornbury and Meaford before transferring to Collingwood Collegiate for Grade 12 and 13. At age 12, she decided that her main skiing interest was not freestyle but rather the challenging downhill events. She began competing in the Toronto Ski Club racing programs, her firm goal now was to be an Olympic downhiller.

In 1980, she made the Southern Ontario Division team. She graduated in 1982 to the Ontario team and began racing
internationally. Her top finishes in the Pontiac Cup series of 1982 and 1983 earned her a place on the development squad of the
national team in 1984. In 1985, she became a member of the Canadian
National Alpine Ski Team and began a regular tour of competition on the prestigious World Cup circuit. She competed and trained throughout the world, proudly carrying the name, Collingwood through many countries in Europe and America as well as into numerous major ski centres in North America. Injuries prevented her from a serious run at the 1984 Olympic Games in Sarajevo. In 1985, she placed 4th in Canada in the downhill. In 1986, she won the overall downhill title in the Nor-Am International series. In 1987, she vaulted into the 1st seed in the World Cup Downhill standings with 5th, 8th and two 12th place finishes in Europe just prior to the Olympics. She capped her bid for Olympic selection later that year with a 2nd place finish in the Canadian Championships.

At the Calgary Olympics on February 18, 1988 she was 7th out of the
starting gate. On a steep twisting high speed turn at the top of Mt. Allan she lost visual contact with the terrain and crashed heavily into a safety net. The resulting torn knee ligament ended her quest for an Olympic medal. Following surgery and extensive knee rehabilitation she returned to World Cup competition in 1989, still ranked in the first seed on the World Cup tour.

In 1990, during a downhill training run in Argentina, she sustained a back injury. This latest problem along with a still-imperfect knee was enough for Kellie to heed the medical advice, and call it a career.

Kellie attended the University of Guelph for a Bachelor of Commerce
degree, and Brock University for a Bachelor of Education. She has been a
special education teacher and a local ski coach for two decades. Her
passion is teaching youth at-risk and teaching Indigenous youth to
reconnect with their Indigenous ancestry while she does the same. She is devoted to her three children and still spends as much time as possible skiing with them.

Kellie still proudly calls the Collingwood area her home.

BARNEY WALMSLEY

In 1958, he won the Dr. John C. Findley Trophy. The Dr. Findley Trophy is an award presented annually to the athlete adjudged to be the keenest and best competitor in the Town of Meaford. That year, the special citation read “To the little man with the big heart.” That single line is the life story of Collingwood born – Barney Walmsley.

Pound for pound . . . and he never weighed more than 135 of them. . .  Barney was one of the best and gamiest athletes ever to come out of Collingwood’s East End, and there were many games ones spawned in the shadow of the old Connaught School.

He excelled at every game he played; hockey, baseball, softball, football, track and field and even table tennis. Barney played them all and won them all – well and clean.

There are not many stick handlers left in the game of hockey. The stick handler has been discouraged in this era of hit, charge and shoot but Barney can be classed as one of the last of the good ones.

He had everything but weight on the ice with the big fellows. He weaved in and out of the tight corners like an eel, could attain full flight in three strides, could thread a needle from the port or starboard side with a flicking but powerful wrist shot, could lay a pass on a teammate’s stick from blue line to blue line, rarely lost a face-off and never, stopped trying and hustling.

Born on January 15, 1931, Barney skated a few days after he learned to walk.

His hockey career started with the formation of the Collingwood Minor Hockey Association back in 1945 when that organization boasted only four junior teams. He played centre for theEast End and made the first All-Star team the first-time out. He was fourteen and he tipped the scales at exactly 90 pounds, shoulder pads and all.

He jumped up to Midget O.M.H.A. in 1946 and was bitterly disappointed when Hap Emms’ Barrie Club beat them out in the group finals and went on to win the provincial title. Lindsay put the Collingwood team out in 1947 in a tough overtime game and the following year the whole team stepped up into Juvenile ranks. The club went to the finals.

The following year, the Juvenile Cubs won the Ontario title without losing a game. Barney scored 35 goals and set up plays for 81 more.

The following year, Barney and Len Cook went to the St. Louis training camp and St. Louis sent them to the Barrie Colts, a Junior “A” club, coached by Hap Emms.

Emms was very much impressed with Walmsley but he said “Barney you are good enough for any Junior “A” Club right now but you are too small for professional hockey.” The kid was naturally disappointed but he passed up the Junior “A” chance and came back to Collingwood.

That was the beginning of the long reign of the Collingwood Greenshirts. They won the Ontario Junior “C” title four years in a row.

In 1950, Barney scored 50 goals and at the end of the season, Baldy Cotton, chief scout for the Boston Bruins, asked him to sign with Waterloo in the Junior “A” loop. He was offered a contract but he couldn’t sign because he property of the St. Louis Flyers.

After a great deal of thought, he reasoned that there was no 103 pounders in the NHL and he came back to Collingwood.

He helped the Greenshirts to another title and moved up to the Intermediate ranks under Eddie Bush in 1952 when the Shipbuilders on the provincial championship for the second year in a row.

It was quite a season for Barney. He lost all of his front teeth in the group final against Newmarketbut he never missed a game.

In the Ontario final against the Simcoe Gunners, it was Barney who put the icing on the cake in the fifth game. He scored the cup-winning goal on a pass from Eddie Bush before the end of the 10 minute overtime period. The Gunners turned the tables on the Shipbuilders in the 1953 final.

After another year in Collingwood, he received offers from Orillia, St. Thomas and Meaford. He took Meaford because it was closest to home. Meaford reached the Intermediate “A” finals in the next two years and won the OHA Senior “B” title in 1958.

Barney had played in the OHA Junior, Intermediate and Senior finals for eight consecutive years. Meaford went to the Senior “B” final  again in 1963 and two years later Walmsley was back to Collingwood.

The Shipbuilders went to the Senior “A” final in 1965 and Barney moved back to Meaford to finish out his active playing days. He played hockey with the Oldtimers until 1982.

Barney was a slick fielding baseball player and was a member of the Collingwood team which won the Ontario Midget title in 1946. He later played O.B.A. baseball with Collingwood and in the Intermediate ranks with Thornbury, Orillia, Stayner, Creemore and Meaford. His athletic ability was not confined to hockey and baseball as he starred on high school basketball, soccer and football teams. In a Tudhope Track and Field Meet in 1946, he competed in five events and finished with a first, two – seconds and a third.

DON WESTBROOKE

Don Westbrooke rose through the local minor system and went on to play Junior “B”, Intermediate, and Senior.  He also played professional hockey with International teams followed by the IHL Toldedo Blades in 1963-64 when he won Longman Trophy as “Rookie of The Year”.

1968-69                       Awarded the Gatschene Memorial Trophy as IHL-MVP Award

1969-70                       Awarded the Leo Lamoureux Trophy as IHL Top Scorer

As a 20-year-old IHL rookie for Toledo Blades in 1964, Don scored in overtime to beat defending champion Fort Wayne Komets in deciding sixth game of Turner Cup Finals.

In 1970-71, Don played under the infamous coach – Eddie Shore – with the Springfield Kings & Eddie Shore of American Hockey League. Later he was traded to Rochester Americans where he played with Collingwood native Darryl Sly & roommate Don Cherry.  In 1971-72, Don played in Seattle and led the team in scoring.

On January 5, 1974, Don Westbrooke became a North American trivial answer as he became the “only” North American player to score 3 goals against Vadislav Tretiak (of the Soviet Red Army Selects) and defeated the World Champions 6-4.

In July 1984, Don Westbrooke joined his goaltending father, the late Reg. Westbrooke, as an enshrined member of the Collingwood Sports Hall of Fame.

JOHN THOMAS

“Men weren’t supposed to figure skate back then”, said Thomas, “I just went about my business and did what I had to do, and what I wanted I wanted to be. I had a wonderful career. I met a lot of wonderful people over the years”.

Thomas was 1955 champion in the Northern Ontario Junior Mixed pairs. He was a 1956 Bronze Medalist for the Northern Ontario Junior Men’s competition. He was also champion of British Columbia Junior Men’s competition and a British Columbia Bronze champion in 1958.

Nationally, he won the Western Canada Silver Junior Men’s Championship in 1958. Thomas started the Stayner figure skating club in 1959 with the Stayner Lions Club. During his 19 year professional career, he spent a lot of time coaching and teaching in several towns. He said somewhere along the line he and his coach decided that mentally challenged children deserved the chance to skate. “We devised a method of teaching them, and it gave them something to strive for” said Thomas, “after being all over it was nice to give something back”.His aunt and cousin are also in the Hall of Fame as volunteer “builders” of sports clubs.

He skated until 1978, long enough to skate in an annual town skating carnival with his two daughters Sheri and Monica. He said that many things have changed since he last skated. He used to take his own luggage onto a Trans Canada (Air Canada) plane. He also said figure skating used to be an art, now it’s a sport!

John Thomas was inducted into the Collingwood Sports Hall of Fame June 17, 1994. John was honoured for his figure skating career and his work with the mentally handicapped.