We can name a half dozen Collingwood boys who could be classed as “all round athletes” but from a national standpoint the honours must go to Big Jack.

As a hockey player he starred for ten years in the N.H.L. with Montreal, Boston and Chicago.

His name will be found on the Stanley Cup, alongside such greats as Eddie Shore, Bill Cowley, Dit Clapper, Cooney Weiland and the Kraut line of Schmidt, Bauer and Dumart. That was the team of 1939, considered to be Boston’s greatest. That year the Bruins lost only ten games in a 48-game schedule and defeated Toronto four games to one in the Stanley Cup final.

His professional hockey career was cut short by at least five years when World War II intervened. After three years service with the Canadian Army, Jack never returned to the N.H.L.

Pro football lost him because hockey was his first love. He turned don three football offers before signing with Canadians. Jack represented Canada at the 1932 Olympiad at Los Angeles and the 1930 British Empire Games at Hamilton in the high jump event. We always thought he should have competed in the decathlon. He could run 100 yards in ten seconds, toss the javelin, heave the shot put, run the half mile, long jump and triple jump and, of course, set records in the high jump.

He finished his great athletic career back in his home town by playing for the Collingwood Shipbuilders and coaching the Collingwood Greenshirts to their first of four O.H.A. Junior “C” championships.

Jack Portland qualifies for the Collingwood Sports Hall of Fame in just about any category you care to mention.