CAPTAIN JAMES WOOLNER

He won three races in Toronto one Saturday afternoon and was so far ahead in the last race he turned around and skated backwards a full lap from the finish line.

Two years later, the Captain's great career came to an end under shady circumstances in a return match with Forrester in Fergus. He won the first heat easily but fell and broke his leg half-way through the second heat. A quick check revealed that someone had laid a fine wire across the ice in Woolner's Lane.

Jim Woolner never skated again in competition. He became one of the most colourful skippers on the Great Lakes. Three weeks before his untimely death, he thrilled a big crowd at the annual Collingwood Ice Carnival at the Park Rink. When he made a few graceful turns around the ice and was given a standing ovation.

On March 15th, 1938, Captain Jim Woolner died in a motor crash on Paddy Dunn’s Hill, just north of Barrie. He was returning from a hockey game in Toronto. He was just fifty-seven.