Category Archives: 1970 – 1979

1950 - 1969, 1970 - 1979, 1970 - 1989, All, Male, Skiing

WERNER ZOTTER

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Werner Zotter was born to ski in his native Austria, a country famous for champions down through the ages.

He came to Canada with his parents at the age of nine in 1953 and it was not long before he was recognized as an up and comer.

Werner practically lived on the slopes of theBlueMountainbut he found time to launch a modest minor hockey career. He was a better than average goalkeeper on several teams in the Collingwood Minor Hockey system.

In 1959, he won the Southern Ontario Zone championship, repeated in 1960 and won the Canadian title the same season.

A year later, Werner won the Zone title again and annexed the Alpine and Nordic titles with the Ontario Combined.

The same year he captured Junior championship and in 1962 was crowned the Ontario Senior Champion.

His greatest season was in 1966 when he won theOntariofour-way title (Downhill, Alpine, Jumping and Slalom), the Canadian Junior Alpine and his crowing achievement, the Wilkinson Sword Speed Trails atGeorgianPeaks. On that day he averaged eighty-four miles per hour in three downhill runs. It was a record that has never been broken to this day.

He won several competitions in theUnited Statesin 1967 and 68 and came back to win the Southern Ontario Alpine in 1969.

The next two years he coached Canadian Junior team in Trail and later was a ski instructor and coach at Broadmore, Colorado.

Werner spend  many summers in California but returned to Blue Mountain to work with his father in Zotter’s Ski Shop.

1900 - 1929, 1930 - 1949, 1970 - 1979, All, Male, Track & Field

ANCEL WILLIAMSON

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Ancel was part of Collingwood’s greatest long distance running team back in the first ten years of this century. The other two members were the late Hec Lamont and Jack Rowe the dean of all Collingwood athletes.

Williamson also excelled at lacrosse, basketball and hockey but most of his team games were played in Vancouver, Seattle and New West Minister. We cannot gloss over Ancel’s career without bringing to mind the time he hitched up with Rowe and Lamont in an exhibition race in Collingwood against the great Tom Longboat. The race was run in the old Pine Street Rink in Laps over a five-mile distance. The three Collingwood runners were supposed to each run a mile and two thirds against the great Indian racer. Instead they kept popping out from behind pillars at one-hundred yard intervals. They beat the champion by a few steps. Tom Flanagan, Longboat’s crafty manager, was fit to be tied. It was Longboat’s Canadian barnstorming tour. Williamson won the Canadian Junior one-mile championship inTorontoin 1908 and just missed making the Olympic team. He won the Georgian Baycross-country run and then moved out to the west coast. In 1910, he played with the Vancouver senior lacrosse team, the British Columbia champions.

He moved on to New Westminister in 1911 and once again he was a member of a provincial title winning club. IN the next two yeas he was a member of Mann Cup winning clubs in Vancouver and New Westminister. He played senior baseball and basketball for New Westminister and a member of the Mount Lehman soccer team in the Fraser Valley League.

After being out of hockey for almost twenty years, he donned a pair of skates and played one season in the Vancouver Senior Hockey League.

While serving as a Sgt Major in the Canadian Army, he was good enough to win the army featherweight boxing title.

While serving in the Army, he played on two army lacrosse and hickey teams and it was here that he realized his greatest athletic thrill. He was assigned to the task of checking the great Newsy Lalonde.

1970 - 1979, All, Builder, Male

JOHN SMART

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The development of skiing at Collingwood has been a process that had been continuing since 1934. This was the formative year when the plans were laid for the first active winter of 1934-35.

A number of people were involved but the one who spear-headed the organization of the Blue Mountain Ski Club of Collingwood was John L. Smart.

He was not an active skier, but he was very active in the administrative area. He provided an influence that was needed to stimulate the growth of a sport that was need to stimulate the growth of the sport that was not yet considered to have other potential.

Mr. Smart was involved with the acquisition of land, the cutting and clearing of trails, the contact that was made with the Toronto Ski Club and the subsequent  collaboration, the installation and building of ski tows, and eventually, the placing of club activities on a business basis.

When the late Jozo Weider became involved with the Collingwood Ski area, Mr.  Smart worked closely with him, later serving as an officer of the Blue Mountain Ski Club incorporated.

Through the years, he played an important role in the affairs of the Collingwood Ski Club, giving wise counsel and encouragement when it was required.

John L. Smart was one of the few Collingwood men who had the vision to see the full value of skiing as a sport and as a local industrial enterprise.

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

BOBBY MORRILL

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One of the greatest stick handlers of his time, Bobby Morrill holds the time record
in Collingwood’s long hockey history for goals scored in a single season.

Fifty-three years ago, while playing centre for the Collingwood Juniors, he scored
ninety-five goals in twenty-one games.

You would almost think he had some kind of a rubber-to-wood magnet on the blade of his stick. He had a supernatural knack of pulling the puck from the back of the
net, pivoting around the post and slipping the puck under the goalie’s skates.

Mike Rodden actually compared Morrill to Howie Morenz when the two centers met in the 1921 O.H.A. Junior semi-finals and by a strange quirk of fate, both players
died only a week apart in 1937. Morenz died after he received a broken leg in
an N.H.L. game at the Montreal Forum and Morrill met a tragic death in an
industrial accident at the International Nickel Plant inPort Colborne.

Rodden was really sweet on Morrill and he induced him to go for a try-out with the
Toronto St. Pats. Bobby turned out for one practice, and according to Mike, he
was a sensation. But he was convinced that he was not fast enough as a skater
to hold his own in the N.H.L. and he never went back.

So Morrill went to Port Colborne where he became the toast of the canal town for many years when the Sailors ruled the roost in the Senior O.H.A. ranks.

We saw a carbon copy of Bobby some thirty years ago when his eldest son, Allan,
spearheaded the Collingwood Greenshirts to four straight O.H.A. Junior “C” championships.

The fading art of stickhandle ran in the blood of the Morills. Four of Bobbie’s
nephews, Barney and Ab Walmsley and Morrill and Ab Kirby left their marks on
the Collingwood hockey scene over the past four decades.

1970 - 1979, All, Builder, Male

LOU STAPLETON

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The Builders section of a Sports Hall of Fame is reserved for men and women who have contributed time, talent and leadership to the organization and
development of sports.

Generally, these dedicated men rarely hear the plaudits of the crowd; never see their names in headlines and most often are forgotten entirely.

Such a man was the late Lou Stapleton, the beloved former principal and physical education teacher at the Collingwood Collegiate. He is the one man who definitely had left his mark in the development of every phase of high school athletics in the Georgian Bay District. You of this generation, who never know Lou Stapleton, were deprived of the influence of this very special man.

He possessed the gift that enabled him to bring out the most and the best in every
athlete. His keen sense of sportsmanship and fair play left a lasting impression on every student fortunate enough to come under his guidance on a football field, a baseball diamond, the gymnasium or in track and field competition.

He drilled his junior and senior football teams in after school sessions that lasted until after dark and then he had them back at night for blackboard talks.

He was the man responsible for the formation of the Georgian Bay Secondary Schools
Athletic Association and he became its first president. When Stapes first came to Collingwood, football was only two bucks and a kick. But in less than two years he had his players away ahead of Barrie, Owen Sound, Midland and Orillia in the fine points
of the modern game.

His best football team was built around Jack Portland in 1929 and the squad won the
Ontario Secondary Schools championship. His track team brought national acclaim when he brought a small squad of ten jumpers and runners of the C.N.E. Intercollegiate title.

Lou Stapleton was a giant in the athletic field but he died all too soon. His untimely death took place in 1938 at the height of his brilliant career.

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

REG NOBLE

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A Sports Hall of Fame in Collingwood would be vacant without the name of Reg Noble.

Of all the Collingwood born hockey players, the name of “Noble” stands out like a sore thumb because it was Reg who paved the way for the others.

A member of Canada’s National Hockey Hall of Fame, Noble turned pro with the old Toronto Arenas in 1916 but the team disbanded half-way through the season and Reg was snapped up by Montreal.

The Canadians won the Stanley Cup in 1918 that year and Reg was back in Toronto in 1917. Toronto won the Stanley Cup in 1918 and Noble scored 28 goals in twenty-two games schedule. He finished third in the scoring race behind Cy Denneny and Joe Malone. That was the year Joe Malone set the league on fire with 44 goals in 22 games. The Toronto team took the name of St. Patrick’s and in 1922 that team won the Stanley Cup with Noble and the late Harry Cameron, another Hall of Famer, setting pace for the St Pat’s.

He went to the Montreal Maroons in 1924 and helped that team win the Stanley Cup
in 1926. Noble finished his great hockey career with Detroit after eighteen years in the N.H.L. He died in June 19, 1962.

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

CHARLES PORTLAND

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If an athlete from Collingwood excels in five competitive sports and plays on a World championship hockey team, he certainly qualifies for a spot in his home  town’s Hall of Fame.

Bus Portland performed in the shadow his famous brother, Jack, but nevertheless he was one of the best all Collingwood. We remember a bright sunny day back in 1934 when Bus Portland stole a whole athletic show in the annual Ontario Athletic Commission Meet in Orillia.

All he did that day was win the pole vault, high jump, 12- pound shot put and the long jump, had it not been for a special rule. No athlete was allowed to compete in more than three events in high school athletic events sponsored by the Ontario Athletic Commission.

That same year he set a record in the Collingwood Collegiate Field Day by winning the senior medal with six firsts out of seven events.

He was just as good on the football field. Playing at centre half, he ran plunged and kicked the C.C.I. to a C.O.S.S.A. championship in 1934.

Bus had a very colourful hockey career but his greatest hockey thrill came in 1938 when he starred with the Sudbury Wolves, winners of the McReavey, Gordie Bruce, Fan Hexime and Johnny Godfrey, the Wolves sailed through the entire tournament without a loss. He played on Collingwood junior teams before turning pro with the Hershey Bars in the American League. That team won the American League title in 1936. His last year in hockey was with a winner in 1939 when the Detroit
Ford Holyboughs won the Michigan- Ontario championship.

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

JACK PORTLAND

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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.

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

WHIT HAMMOND

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Whit Hammond makes Collingwood’s Hall of Fame as a lacrosse player, speed skater and hockey player.
Eighty years ago he was one of the brightest stars in Canadian lacrosse but at that time he was raising no cheers from Collingwood fans. Wearing the colors of the Owen Sound Crescents he sank many a ball a Collingwood net and we were happy to see him move to Collingwood in 1908.
A fierce competitor at all times, he was a driving force behind Collingwood hockey teams for many years.
He played goal for the Shipbuilders in 1908, the first Collingwood team to reach the O.H.A. Intermediate finals.
His speed skating feats are legendary and as a speed skater he was indirectly responsible for starting a Canadian fighter on the road to the World Heavyweight Boxing title. That may sound like a kooky kind of a statement but it is true. Back in 1900, Whit Hammond and Noah Brusso of Hanover, Ontario, were considered to
be the best speed skaters in the country but they had never met in a race.
Brusso was charged with “ducking a match race with Hammond” and Brusso replied by accepting a match race with this remark. “If Whit Hammond beats me I will hang up my skates forever.” Hammond beat him in three straight heats for a trophy filled with silver dollars at Hepworth. Noah Brusso was true to his word.
He did hang up his skates and put on a pair of boxing gloves and changes his name to Tommy Burns.
It was a wise and profitable choice for the Hanover speed skater. A few years later on Feb. 23rd, 1906, he defeated Marvin Hart for the World heavyweight crown-the only Canadian ever to reach the pugilistic pinnacle.
Whit Hammond was one of the great athletes of his time. He died in Collingwood in 1959.

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

BERT McLEOD

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Bert McLeod can qualify for Collingwood’s Sports Hall of Fame in several categories because he excelled in every game he ever tried.
As a student in the Collingwood Collegiate over seventy years ago, he won the junior, intermediate and senior athletic awards in senior athletic awards in successive years and played fullback on the C.C.I. first ruby-football team.
As a member of the Collingwood Y.M.C.A. he stared in basketball, volleyball, track and field, gymnastics, baseball and lacrosse.
Bert played on Collingwood Junior O.H.A. teams for several years and then became a key defenseman with the Collingwood Intermediate team that lost only four games in three years- winning the provincial title in 1918-19-20.
Bret moved on to Peterborough in 1921 where he led the Lift Lock City team to two O.H.A. Senior “A” championships.
He turned professional with Kansas City in the mid twenties and pioneered the game in the mid-west American city as a player and coach.
During his seven-year win three championships and was never out of the play-offs. After his long athletic career he operated a successful pharmacy in Peterborough.