Category Archives: Inductee – Gender

1950 - 1969, 1970 - 1989, 1980 - 1989, All, Hockey, Male

LARRY GIBBONS

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Larry Gibbons makes the Sports Hall of Fame as an aggressive all-around athlete.

Born in Collingwood, he grew up fast and always looked three or four years older  than his team mates and opponents when he performed for the minor hockey and ball teams.

He came through the Collingwood Minor Hockey system and looked like a Juvenile  when he played bantam, much to the consternation of the other kids and their parents.

Larry drew the attention of the scouts when he played a major part in helping the
Collingwood Bantams reach the finals in the Bantam Division of the O.M.H.A.

After a season with the Collingwood Junior “C” club, he was drafted by the
Toronto Marlboros and sent to the Markham Junior “B” club for the 1965-66 season where he was named to the Metro Junior “B” All-Star team.

Drafted in the second round by the Chicago Black Hawks while still Midget age, he was assigned to the St. Catherine’s Black Hawks in the Junior “A” loop for two seasons in 1967 and 68.

Although he never made the N.H.L. he played eight years in the Black Hawk organization.

Larry joined the Greensboro Generals in the Eastern Hockey League in the 1968-69
season and was with the same team when the Generals won the Southern Division
championship in 1970.

He jumped back to Senior “A” hockey with Oakville in 1971 and was voted the league’s
most valuable defenseman.

After another season with the Greensboro club in 1972 he went to the Flint Generals in the International League where he set a team record in scoring for defensemen in 1973.Flint won the Northern Division championship.

He starred with the Dallas Black Hawks when that team won the Central League title
and the Adams Trophy in 1974.

After another full season with Dallas, Larry moved back with the Flint Generals in the International League and retired at the end of the 1975-76 season.

For three summers he directed the Detroit Red Wings Hockey School in Bracebridge and for two more summers conducted the Wasaga Stars School at Wasaga Beach.

He coached the Alliston Juniors to the Ontario semi-finals before calling it a hockey career.

Larry was an exceptionally good football player and was named the most valuable
player with the Collingwood Collegiate Seniors in 1965.  He had considerable placed well up in the Ontario Schools Ski Racing programme.

Always a lover of horses, he became a certified farrier and was assistant manager of
the Ontario Harnessmens’ Association for two years. Involved as an owner, trainer and driver of Standard Bred horses since 1972, Larry owned and operated the Intosh Harness Supplies Ltd. and Custom Blend Horse Feeds, coupled with a busy mail order horse supply businesses and the operation of the Tack Store at Windsor Raceway.

His uncle, Alex MacMurchy, a well known former long distance runner, was one of the first athletes to be inducted into the Collingwood Sports Hall of Fame.

1930 - 1949, 1950 - 1969, 1970 - 1989, 1980 - 1989, All, Hockey, Male

ROBBIE SANDELL

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Robbie’s hockey career spans an active period of some 40 years counting his seven years with the Collingwood Old-timers squad.

He played on three championship teams in Public school; Juvenile in 1941; Junior “A” with Barrie; Intermediate and Senior with Collingwood, and was a member of the All-Ontario Kinsmen Hockey Club.

Robert Sandell was inducted into the Collingwood Sports Hall of Fame, in August, 1984.

1930 - 1949, 1950 - 1969, 2000 - 2009, All, Baseball, Hockey, Male

LEN COOKE

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A few years ago, the Ontario Hockey Association singled out the Collingwood Jr. ‘C’ Greenshirts as its Team of the Century for capturing four straight provincial titles in the early 1950s.

One of the leading scorers on that first championship team was Len Cooke, a skilled left-winger who was an all-around exceptional athlete during his elementary and high school days in Collingwood. In a span of five years, Cooke would play on four Ontario-champion hockey teams, beginning with the Brown’s Taxi juveniles in 1948-49, followed by the Greenshirts, followed by the Intermediate ‘A’ Shipbuilders during their celebrated run to glory. Then in 1952-53, an employment opportunity brought him to Simcoe, where Cooke helped the Gunners beat out Collingwood for the OHA crown. “What mattered most about those teams was that there were no individual stars and everyone did their part, right down to the executive,” Cooke said. “There are a lot of good memories and great people involved.” The native of Honora Bay, Ont., which is on the north shore of Manitoulin Island, also excelled in baseball and football in his youth.
He managed Beaver Lumber and Cashway Building Centres around the province until retiring four years ago. Cooke is a keen golfer with a five handicap who boasts club championship trophies from Blue Mountain, where he dueled often with fellow 2004 Hall of Fame inductee, Brian Jeffery, along with Port Dover and his current home course, Brantford Northridge. “I’ve lived in a lot of different places but I always consider Collingwood my hometown,” Cooke added. “Memories slip by but I’ll always remember what a great nucleus we had for those Jr. ‘C’ Greenshirt teams.”

This evening, October 23, 2004, the Collingwood Sports Hall of Fame welcomes Len Cooke as an enshrined member for his Athletic achievements.

1990 - 1999, 2000 - 2009, 2000 - 2009, All, Male, Other

KEN MILLER

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Ken Miller was born in Sarnia, Ontario in 1947 where he began his
weightlifting career. In his hometown, he was a member of the Turcotte Athletic
Club from 1970-1977.A career business decision brought him to the Collingwood
area in 1977 resulting in Ken founding the Blue Mountain Weightlifting Club.

Over his career, he has competed at Local, Provincial, National and International
Levels since 1970 – winning numerous local, Gold, Silver & Bronze
medals.  Ken has held the title of the
Ontario Open Champion – multiple times alongside scores of Gold, Silver and
Bronze medals.

A member of the Ontario Weightlifting Team since 1970, Ken has earned a Bronze
Medal at the Canadian National Championship. In his early competitive years,
Ken reached the National standards to compete at the National Championships.
Incredibly, Ken has been a 6-time Gold Medalist 6 times at the Canadian Masters
Championship (1993, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, & 2000).

On the International Scene, Ken has participated in events around the globe as a member of the Canadian Masters Weightlifting Team from 1990 through today.  His medalist accomplishments include:

Pan American Masters Championships – Gold, Silver, Bronze medalist (Competitors
from North & South America and Caribbean Islands) – about 7 competitions

World Masters Games –BrisbaneAustralia – Silver Medal

World Masters Championships – Bronze Medalist – representing Canada against competitors from all over the world.

Ken has set or still holds Ontario, Canadian, Pan American and British Commonwealth Masters records.

Understandably, there are few “honours “available after this list of incredible achievements. However, the the Ontario Weightlifting Association recently recognized his 25 continuous years within the sport. He has competed, coached and administrated in the sport of weightlifting for 35+ years.

He has also participated in baseball, fastball, slo-pitch, golf and hockey.

Ken has continued to follow his own competitive path as an athlete and also acted
as an ambassador for the sport of weightlifting in the community and also for
Collingwood in the International weightlifting arena.  Ken has been an inspiration, coach and mentor to many younger athletes over the years.

Some of the more prominent ones would include:

1)  Former President & Treasurer – Ontario Weightlifting Association

2)  Former Chairman of Canadian Master Weightlifting Association

3)  Level 1 coach – Coach with Blue Mountain Weightlifting Club (25 years)

4)  Chairman – Canadian Master Weightlifting Championships – Collingwood 1993

5)  Co-chair of World Master Weightlifting Championships – Collingwood 1996

6)  Co-chair of Pan American Masters Weightlifting Championships – Collingwood 1999

7) Co–chair Canadian Weightlifting Championships- Collingwood 2001

8) Representative for Canada at World Masters Congress

9) Co-chair of annual Collingwood Open Weightlifting Championships- 8+ times

10)  Representative of Collingwood on the Provincial, National and International weightlifting scene

The Town of Collingwood could not have a better ambassador for the community and sport.  Ken has always demonstrated a desire for sportsmanship, a trait that he willingly imparts to fellow competitors during competition.  Ken is truly recognized as a gentleman within the weightlifting community, and eager and focused competitor
but one that always ensures the experience is a joyous one for him and his fellow competitors.

This evening, April 21, 2007, the Collingwood Sports Hall of Fame welcomes Ken Miller as an enshrined member for his Athletic achievements.

1930 - 1949, 1980 - 1989, All, Baseball, Male

STAN SWAIN

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They called him “Possum” when he was a nipper and the moniker stuck  throughout his fine athletic career in the fields of hockey, football, baseball and hockey. Born in Collingwood, he was a son of the late Herb Swain, one of this town’s best baseball pitchers for over a twenty year span.

He first gained recognition as a plunging halfback on the Collingwood Collegiate
Junior Football team in 1929. That year the juniors played eight games going undefeated by lop sided scores.

In 1933 and 1934 he was a key player with the C.C.I. seniors, Central Ontario
Secondary School Senior Finalists.

His baseball career started in 1931 with Collingwood. Thornbury lured him away in
1932 but he was back in Collingwood in 1934. His baseball career reached its crescendo in 1935 when the Collingwood Shipbuilders won the Ontario Intermediate “A” championship. Stan was the team’s second baseman, the key man in the Shipbuilders famed double play combination.

In 1936, he went to Penetang but came back to play with Meaford in 1940 and
Collingwood in 1941.

He commenced his hockey career with the East End Fishermen in the old Collingwood Junior Hockey League and played five years with the Collingwood Juniors before going back to Penetang to play Intermediate in 1936. He finished off his hockey career with Kirkland Lake Bird Goldmine and Omega in 1937-38-39 in Senior O.H.A. Stan starred at basketball at the C.C.I. for 5 years. The 1933 senior team went to the Central Ontario Secondary School Senior basketball final.

1970 - 1979, All, Builder, Male

WILLIAM McLEAN

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I would have liked to have written the story of Bill McLean while he was still
with us but he wanted no part of personal publicity.

Bill’s contributions to the development of sport and young athletes in Collingwood
were hidden under a bushel because that’s the way Bill wanted it.

This single incident, one of many, will attest to the true spirit of helping others
that was Bill McLean’s greatest human asset.

About forty-five years ago we were having a hard time assembling a Junior O.H.A. hockey team. The main stumbling block was the lack of cash. We didn’t have enough of that commodity to pay the entrance fee.

A hastily called meeting was attended by six or seven interested citizens. The
interested citizens ignored the poor turn-out and went ahead with the election
of a board of directors.

Bill McLean, who had returned to Collingwood to practice law after an absence of
many years, slipped unannounced into the meeting just before it broke up. He
didn’t even identify himself but sought out he newly elected treasurer- the treasurer without a treasury.

“Would like to help a little” he said, as he slipped a bill into the treasurer’s hand and departed. It was a one hundred-dollar bill. He didn’t even wait for a “thank you” and that was his only donation as the season progressed.

That was only one incident in the life of Bill McLean where he helped without
looking for anything in return-not even acknowledgement.

Born in Barrie in 1896, Bill taught public school in Collingwood for two years before moving out to Weyburn, Saskatchewan. He played centre for the Presbyterian Theolgian College team in Saskatchewan in 1922 and 1923 but his crowing athletic achievement came in 1923 when he coached the University of Saskatchewan Senior Hockey Team to the Allan Cup finals. This team lost by a single goal in a two-game series to the famed Toronto Granites, Olympic winners in National Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto.

A year later he coached the Regina girls’ hockey club to the provincial title.

An accomplished marksman he captained the University of Saskatchewan rifle team for two years.

Mr. McLean was admitted to the bar in 1925. He practiced in Indian Head,  Saskatchewan, and Barrie, before returning to Collingwood in 1944.

From 1944 until his death in 1977, he supported Collingwood hockey and ball teams in his own quiet way and during that time became involved in harness racing as a
driver and attained notable success with Billie Direct and Bunty Gratton.

Bill McLean, gentleman, scholar and sportsman, has well earned his niche in
Collingwood’s Sports Hall of Fame.

1990 - 1999, All, Football, Male

SCOTT LECKY

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Scott was born in Staten Island, New York, U.S.A., December 9, 1964, and at the time of his 1992 election to the Hall he was living in Collingwood.

Following his schooling in Collingwood and Cameron Street Public School, Collingwood Collegiate Institute and at the University of Guelph, football
became his life.

A summary of his playing career is seen in the following:

–  1979-1982 -Played football, and other sports, at Collingwood Collegiate Institute

-1979-80 Scott was the junior boys’ athlete of the year at Collingwood Collegiate
Institute

-1980 He was the MVP on the CCI junior football team and played on the midget
basketball team.

– 1982-MVP senior football at CCI and winner of the Robertson-Titus Football
Award.

– 1982-83-Competed in track and field and as of his induction to the Hall of Fame
still held five records in that sport at Collingwood Collegiate Institute.

-Played football at the University of Guelph 1983-1985

– 1983 –was named the University  of Guelph’s ‘Rookie of the Year’

-1984 – Played with the Ottawa Schooners Junior Football Club and won the  Canadian Championships.

-Member of the Canadian Football League’s B.C. Lions 1986-1989

– 1986-Scott was named the B.C. Lions ‘Rookie of the Year’

-In 1986, in his starting game with the Lions, he played slotback and scored a
touchdown

-In 1988 he helped take the Lions to the Western Conference Finals and played as the starting slotback in the Grey Cup contest played in Ottawa.

Scott was inducted into the Sports Hall of Fame on Junes 20, 1992, in the Players’
category.

 

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

JIMMY “THE SAILOR” HERBERTS

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Collingwood has been the birthplace of many colourful sports characters over the past
seventy-five years and the Sailor must rank high on the list.

We have always thought that he never received the recognition he deserved and apparently Connie Smythe thought so too.

When Jimmy died in 1968, Smythe said, “Herberts was the most underrated player in the N.H.L. because too much attention was paid to his fun loving antics. But he was one of the best of his era and a natural hockey player.”

He had a ten-year career with Boston, Toronto and Detroit and several years with International League clubs. He also took a fling at refereeing in the British Hockey League but his antics were just a little too much for the staid English hockey promoters.

He was a star right from the start in his rookie year with the Bruins as he scored
seventeen goals and picked up ten assists in a 30-game schedule. This was a
most remarkable feat when you realize that the goal production for the whole Boston team that season of  1925 was only forty-seven goals.

The  season of 1925-26 was his best. Playing between Carson Cooper and Hugo
Harrington he scored 27 goals in 36 games and finished third in the standing
behind the great Nels Stewart and Cy Denneny. In 1927 he finished fourth in the
scoring race and the Bruins made the Stanley Cup finals for the first time. The
Ottawa Senators defeated the Bruins that season two games to nothing with two
games tied. The Sailor’s contribution was three goals.

Jimmy moved on to Toronto in the middle of the 1928 season but although Smythe valued his ability, he  refused to put up with his frolicsome behaviour and his utter disregard for training rules. He finished his N.H.L. career with Detroit where he succeeded in helping Jack Adams to acquire a cluster of ulcers. He once upset the whole scoring structure of the league by claiming two points for one goal. In a game against New York Ranges he managed to recover his own  pass and score. According to Jimmy’s calculations an assist counted a point and so did a goal. Since he was the passer and the scorer it just had to be two points for Herberts. Of course, he didn’t get away with it, but he had the official scorer puzzled for awhile.

Herberts had that race gift of showmanship that kept his name in sport pages. A Detroit writer panned him once for failing to show up for a game. Jimmy was as mad as wet hen. Not for the panning. He was ruffled because the writer misspelled his name.

1950 - 1969, 1970 - 1989, 1980 - 1989, All, Hockey, Male

PAUL SHAKES

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Born in Collingwood, Paul Shakes scored one hundred goals in the novice division of Collingwood Minor Hockey, and that record still stands. Paul hockey skills caught the attention of our local junior team where he played at the midget age of 15.

Shakes was chosen 38th overall by the California Golden Seals (NHL) after accumulating 170 points in three seasons with the St. Catharines Black Hawks of the OHA. After scoring 20 goals in 1971-72 the young rearguard was voted on to the OHA  first all-star team.

A recognized fine playmaker, Paul played defense for Salt Lake City in 1972-73 where he registered a decent 42 points as a rookie pro with the WHL’s Salt Lake Golden Eagles. The next year he played 21 games for the California Golden Seals but was relegated to the minors for the last two years of his career before he retired in 1976 after surgery for a herniated disk.

He now has an interest in Harness Racing where he and son Brad have co-owned and trained many champions including 2002 Ontario Sires Stakes champion Meadowview Sunny.  In the same year, Meadowview Sunny was a recipient of the O’Brien Awards as the premiere 2 year old cold trotter in harness racing over a given year.

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



1930 - 1949, 1950 - 1969, 2000 - 2009, All, Male, Track & Field

JOHN WALLACE COOK

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There was also the duty of serving in the Canadian Armed Forces in 1944-45. “In those days, scholarships were not worth that much and you had to work as well as pay a lot for the schooling, and there wasn’t enough to support that at home,” he said. Among his achievements were high school records in the 100-yard, 220-yard, 440-yard, 880-yard and mile races, along with the broad jump and shot put.

He also won several regional and military events thanks in part to the tutelage of local native and star athlete Charles “Bus” Portland. Cook was a keen volunteer and organizer who served as CCI student council president, and with the help of Marion Clarke and Blue Mountain Resort founder Jozo Weider, established the inaugural Collingwood Collegiate invitational alpine ski meet in 1947. He worked, then managed at Walker Stores outlets across Ontario and would settle in the hometown of his wife Mary, Carleton Place, where his family would own a store for 38 years until selling it in 1995.

During this time, Cook also served as a town councillor from 1960-64 and chaired a committee that oversaw business development for this Eastern Ontario region. He has three children, Richard, Mary Jane and Melinda. His granddaughter, Alex Cook, attends the famed Nick Bolleteri Tennis Academy in Florida, and grandson Brock Matheson plays for Brock University’s varsity hockey team after a successful run with the Tier II Jr. ‘A’ Kanata Stallions. “I can’t say my family hasn’t been holding up the athletic end of the bargain,” he quipped. “It’s been enjoyable to travel and see them perform.” In his later life, Cook still rides 10 miles a day on his bicycle, and is an avid skier and recreational badminton player. “It’s not a competitive thing. I just like to stay active and healthy!”

This evening, October 23, 2004, the Collingwood Sports Hall of Fame welcomes Wallace ‘Wally’ Cook as an enshrined member for his Athletic achievements.