Category Archives: 1930 – 1949

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.

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.

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.

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, 1950 - 1969, 1990 - 1999, All, Hockey, Male

CAL PATTERSON

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Born in Collingwood on July 29, 1929, Cal is a lifelong citizen of our community. A graduate of Victoria Public School and Collingwood Collegiate, Cal and his wife Lenora have five children – Wendy, Patricia, David, William and Carole.

Cal’s hockey career spanned 5 decades as a player and coach. In 1944-45, Cal began his playing career in the Town League as a South End Dynamiter ascending to the Collingwood Juveniles (1947), Collingwood Junior B Sailors (1948 & 49), Collingwood Intermediate A (1949-54 & 1955-56). He played with the Aylmer Intermediates in 1954-55 and returned to play with the Collingwood Senior B team in 1964-65. His competitive career ended in 1966 with the Senior B – Midland Flyers.

During his playing years, Cal won the Intermediate A Championships in 1951 and
1952 and OHA Senior B Georgian Bay Group Champions in 1965.

Immediately following his playing days, Cal coached the Stayner Lions to the
OHA Intermediate D Championship. He also managed the Senior A – Collingwood
Kings from 1967-69 and Collingwood Intermediate A team from 1972-74.

Cal is recognized for his hockey career, becoming a worthy member of the Collingwood Sports Hall of Fame on June 12, 1998 in the Players’ category.

1900 - 1929, 1930 - 1949, 1950 - 1969, 1980 - 1989, All, Athlete, Male

VICTOR “VIC” ELLIS

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At age ninety, Vic Ellis is the oldest living member in the Collingwood Sports Hall of Fame.

A lifetime of competition in many branches of sport, especially in golf and curling, has filled his home with so many cups and trophies that it now appears he has a corner on the silver market.

Born in Kimberly, Ont., Vic starred on baseball and soccer team before baseball and soccer teams in 1911, winners of the Grey County soccer cup.

Vic played on Collingwood baseball and softball teams for thirty years and was a member of the Collingwood senior baseball team of 1922, O.A.B.A. finalists and champions of the Georgian Bay League.

A school teacher in Collingwood for twenty years, Vic was the driving force behind the organization of the one-hundred member Tuxis Boys and Trail Rangers in the 1920’s.

A member of the old Collingwood Golf and Country Club and the Blue Mountain Golf Club for the past fifty-five years, he has been a perennial member of the Men’ Golf team and fifteen years ago won the Blue Mountain Handicap Trophy. In July 1943, he shot a hole in one for the first and last time in his golfing career.

However, this versatile athlete gained most of his fame as a expert exponent of the game of curling.

A past president of the Collingwood Curling Club, Vic has dominated the “roaring game” for sixty years.

Just two years ago he skipped the winning rink in the Markdale Mixed Curling tournament and in 1979 led a Creemore rink to the Quebec International Bonspiel Championship and the Marc-Hellaire Trophy.

This is a major curling feat at any time, but at eighty-seven, it was nothing short of a phenomenon.

Back in 1936 he skipped a rink in the Ontario Tankard competition and during his lifetime of curling won at least thirty trophies, including the Norman Rule Cup, the Currie Cup, the C.S.L. Trophy, the Enterprise-Bulletin Shield and the Chamber of Commerce Cup.

In 1956 he skipped the first Collingwood rink to ever score an eight end. It was a mixed team with Mary Colling, Evelyn Kean and Johnny Walker.

A lifelong member of the Smokey Island Hunt Club, Vic never missed a deer hunt in six decades.

His involvement in service clubs, charitable organization and the Masonic Order is legend. He has the distinction of presiding over all three branches of the Masonic Order in Collingwood. W Master of the Manito Lodge, “Z” of the Manitou Chapter and was first President of the Manito Shrine Club. Vic also served as president of the Collingwood Progress Club, chairman of the Victoria Order of Nurse, president of the Collingwood Curling Club, director on the General and Marine Hospital Board and a moving force behind the development of the Senior Citizen Club and the Meals on Wheels service.

His contribution to society was finally recognized two years ago when he was selected as the Citizen of the Year. His induction into the Sports Hall of Fame was delayed because of the rule that no person is eligible until after retirement. We had to waive that rule in the case of Victor A. Ellis – he is never going to retire.

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.

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, 1980 - 1989, All, Athlete, Male, Other, Wrestling

LARRY SMITH

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Larry Smith’s qualifications for the Sports Hall of Fame can come under any of the
following headings: Boxing, wrestling, softball, baseball, football, track and field, bowling and coaching.

A very astute business man, he has often been known as “Square Deal Larry”. His
idea of a square deal is to trade you a pork chop for a pig and the pork chop would probably be a shoulder cut.

Larry did not come into athletic prominence until around the age of 16 due to the fact that he was an only son and was more than urged to lead a sheltered life. He played a pretty good football game with

Collingwood Collegiate under the coaching of the late Lou Stapleton, earned a letter in Track & Field and made quite an impression in the Coronation Meet at Owen Sound by winning the 100 and 220 yard sprint in a pair of great duels with Eddie Sergeant, the well-known former M.P.P. for Grey. He finished his secondary school education at Glebe Collegiate in Ottawa At Glebe, he took up boxing and wrestling and went to the finals in both these sports in the Ottawa Valley championships.
Incidentally, he lost out in the boxing final to the late Johnny Quilty of St. Patricks College. Quilty later became a hockey star with the Montreal Canadiens.

At the Aggie College in Guelph, he played football and made the college track and
field team in the sprints and relay races. Along came WWII and Larry enlisted with the 541 st Parachute Regiment. He won the light heavyweight boxing title at Fort Bragg and found in several important military boxing tournaments at Camp MacKall, Fort Jackson, Camp Gordon and Fort Benning.

He was selected to represent Airborne Command in the All American Army Golden Gloves at Charlotte, North Carolina, in 1943. He won three bouts and lost in the final. During his active duty in Europe, he made sixty parachute jumps and took part in the bloody battle of Arnheim. While in the army of occupation in Germany and Austria, Larry took part in several wrestling bouts with Captain Vern Smith, former American Amateur Union and American Intercollegiate champion. He won points in the General Patton Third Army Track and Field Meet and ran the anchor leg on
the 506th Regiment Relay team in Munich.

After the war, Smith returned to Collingwood, where he pitched softball for the Collingwood Legion softball team. The Legion team won the Blue Mountain League title in 1949, the Legion District title and went to the Ontario final. In 1950, he played centre filed for the Collingwood Intermediate baseball team and won the Georgian Bay League batting championship. This team also went to the provincial final.

He took up 5-pin bowling after he settled down to business as  the owner and operator of the Collingwood Bowling Lanes and had a 250 average for 6 straight years. His best effort was a 256 average and a 975 triple in Senior play. He also won the Legion District Singles title at Newmarket.

Larry coached the Collingwood Collegiate Senior Football team in 1947, acted as wrestling and boxing instructor for the Collingwood Sea Cadet Corps and supervised a bowling school for Grade School children.

Collingwood fans got a chance to Larry in action when he challenged the Masked Marvel, who was then giving wrestling exhibitions with the Kings Brothers Circus. With the assistance of a thick coating of olive oil and the referee (long-time friend Don Jeffrey) Smith beat the Masked Marvel, much to the delight of the hometown fans.