Category Archives: Male

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

CLAIRE ALEXANDER

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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.

1980 - 1989, All, Builder, Male

ROBERT “ROSE” BUSH

Everybody has a secret dream, no matter how small, and everybody lives for the day the dream will come true.

For many people the dream of a lifetime never materialize but there is always that
hope that lies beneath the human breast.

But a lifetime dream did come true for the late Robert “Rose” Bush on June 23rd, 1978, when Bob Bush cut the traditional ceremonial ribbon to officially open the “Old Village Park” in Collingwood’s east end.

They couldn’t have selected a more appropriate citizen to do the honours because AA park for the east enders’ had long been Bob’s Slogan since he was first elected to council years ago.

The “Old Village” takes in that historic territory between Niagara and Raglan Streets and runs north and south from the waterfront to Shannon’s Bridge. Rose was born and raised in that hallowed section and had been regarded as the unofficial Mayor of the Old  Village for most of his adult life.

An outstanding athlete in his younger days, Bob Bush learned to skate on the east mill pond, learned to swim in the old stone quarry (the exact site of the Village Park) played ball in the rock strewn back lots, speared long neglected gravel road that was Raglan Street. When he was fifteen he vowed the east end kids would some day have a park of their own. That park is a reality now and it can stand as a monument to Robert “Rose” Bush.

The Rose took part in about every phase of sport and he kept the sporting fraternity well informed regarding the sporting scene as a columnist with the Enterprise-Bulletin, and in later years, with the Collingwood Times. He played hockey with the Collingwood Juniors after coming up through the town’s minor hockey system, starred on several championships softball teams and was the prime mover in the organization of that fabulous Collingwood Bearded Softball Team during the town’s Centennial year in 1958.

He was a better than average lacrosse player, a hard plunging half-back with the C.C.I. football team and a talented left handed baseball pitcher. In baseball he was a picture but when he switched to softball he became a left hand catcher-and a good one.

He started out with the old Trinity Live Wires around 1938 in the Senior Softball League but he switched to the Legion club after a couple of seasons and moved over to the Pros and helped brother Ed win two league championships.

Rose handled a pretty nifty lacrosse stick when the game made a short lived comeback in Collingwood around 1937.

Rose acted ad bench manager when the Collingwood Greenshirts were winning O.H.A. Junior “C” titles in the early fifties. His brother Ed coached the Greenshirts at that time and this arrangement created repercussion at times. Ed fired Rose about twice a month but blood was thicker than water and the dismissals lasted only from one game to another.

The Rose pulled on punches in his breezy column “Out on the Limb”. His
newspaper career was interrupted for three years during World War 11 when he served with the R.C.A.F. in North Africa, Italy and France. In later years, before suffering a stroke in 1975, he wrote another sports column in the Collingwood Times.

Bob died in 1980. He was fifty-eight.

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

BILL ALLAN

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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.

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

ROY BROCK

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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.

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

BERN BROPHY

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Born on Aug 9, 1903, Bern Brophy was truly one of Collingwood’s best all-around athletes. His induction into the Sports Hall of Fame was automatic.

In hockey, Bern wore the uniforms of the Detroit Red Wings and the Montreal Maroons and you will find his name on the Stanley Cup with such names as Reg Noble, Clint Benedict, Punch Broadbent, Babe Seibert and Nels Stewart- all of them in the National Hockey Hall of Fame.

The Maroons sold him to Canadians, the Canadians sent him to Providence and Jack Adams brought him to Detroit to team up with a couple of more Collingwood natives-Reg Noble and Jack Herberts. He finished his pro career in the International League with Cleveland, Windsor and London and helped London win the league title in 1936.

Bern was re-instated as an amateur in 1938 and in 1939 he came back to Collingwood, and as a player-coach, led the Shipbuilders to the O.H.A. Intermediate “A” championship.

His athletic prowess was not confined to hockey. Visit the Sports Hall of Fame at Toronto and you will see a picture of the 1922 Queens University Football team, Canadian Intercollegiate champions. Seated in the middle row is Flying Wing B.L. Brophy.

An outstanding baseball player, Bern performed for many Collingwood ball clubs and was a member of Victoria Harbor provincial intermediate champs in the early twenties. His exploits in the realm of track and field are recorded in the archives of the Collingwood Collegiate where he won the junior, intermediate and senior athletic championships in three consecutive years.

He could qualify for Collingwood’s Hall of Fame as a Builder because it was Brophy who revived Intermediate hockey in Collingwood after the game had sunk to a low ebb from 1922 to 1938. It was a fitting climax to a great athletic career. He once said, “Before I hang up my skates, I would like to help Collingwood win another Intermediate Title!” Bern’s wish was granted. He died in his hometown of Collingwood on July 19, 1982.

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

MIKE BROPHY

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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.