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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.

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

DARRYL SLY

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Darryl Sly is not only a hockey player. He is an organizer and an ambassador of good will for the game he loves and plays so well.

Never hesitant to lend a helping hand to young players on the way up, Darryl know the value of good publicity and he has done much to publicize his native Collingwood.

Born in Collingwood, he came all the way up through the town=s minor hockey system and capped off his own minor hockey career by helping the Collingwood Clubs win the O.M.H.A. Juvenile “A” championship in 1956.

From juvenile he immediately jumped to the Major “A” Junior League in 1957 under the guidance of Father Dave Bauer. He developed into one of the top junior defensemen in the nation as a member of St. Michael’s college team.

From St. Mike’s he went to the Kitchener-Waterloo Flying Dutchmen in the Senior “A” loop.  As a member of the Flying Dutchmen, he represented Canada in the 1960 Winter Olympics at Squaw Valley. That was the year that Canada lost to the United States and they had to be content with a Silver Medal.

International hockey seemed to be in his blood and in 1961 he was an outstanding star on another Canadian National team. The Trail Smoke Eaters won the World Hockey championship over a powerful Russian club. Incidentally, that was the last time a Canadian team won a World Amateur hockey tournament.

Darryl was on a red hot winning streak because he came back from the World tournament and helped the Galt Terriers win the Allan Cup that very same year.

After turning pro with the Toronto Maple Leaf organization, Darryl kept hoarding the silverware with Rochester in the American League, winning three consecutive Calder Cups. He moved out to Vancouver when the Rochester club’s franchise was transferred to the wear coast city and once again the silverware rolled his way.  Vancouver won the Western League title and the Lester Patrick Trophy.

Playing on four championship teams in five years has got to be a record.

Darryl was then drafted to the Minnesota North Stars in the N.H.L. and the following season he was back with another expansion club-the Vancouver Canucks.

A year later he decided to look to the future with his family and a business career but kept his hand in hockey by retrieving his amateur status.

Here was a hockey player who looked beyond hockey while he was still playing the game. Already a college graduate, he picked up a Bachelor of Arts degree and carried on with a successful teaching career.

Like Bern Brophy, Roy Burmister, Jack Portland and Eddie Bush, all members of Collingwood’s Sports Hall of Fame, Darryl Sly came back to the old home town to finish his hockey career as a player and coach.

Darryl hooked up as a player-coach with the Barrie Flyers in 1971 and in the next seven years led the Flyers to the Allan Cup finals four times. They won the Allan Cup after a great series with Spokane in 1974.

He came back to Collingwood as a player-coach. He led the Shipbuilders to the O.H.A. Intermediate Championship in 1983.

2000 - 2009, All, Builder, Male, Skiing

JIM SINCLAIR

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Having never been much of a cross-country skier as a youth, Duntroon’s Jim Sinclair still can’t explain why he became so involved with the sport that has earned his induction as a builder into the Collingwood Sports Hall of Fame.

After being exposed to Nordic skiing while on a three-year teaching stint in Sault Ste. Marie in the early ’60s, the 74-year-old Sinclair stepped into the coaching role of the Collingwood Collegiate’s cross-country squad for almost 20 years while also serving as an automotive instructor at the school. “I don’t know why we were drawn to
it, but we were. We used to ski as a family at Blue Mountain all the time – and I know it seems like a pittance now – but $5 for a lift ticket was too much,” Sinclair said. “So we tried something different. I took some technique lessons and it just grew from there. It was a pretty young sport at that time. Another teacher, Greg Titus, tried to get a Nordic team going, but he was involved with so many other sports, so I put my name in.”

Sinclair literally wrote the book on organizing cross-country skiing races for the
Southern Ontario Division for the provincial sports association and he helped
establish the successful Highlands Nordic facility in Duntroon, which is now owned and operated by his oldest son, Larry. With approximately 500 members and over 21 kilometres of trails, Highlands Nordic has become a world-class facility that has hosted several major competitions, including national championships, the 1993 world high school meet and the 1997 Special Olympics World Winter Games.

Sinclair played a key organizing role in those events, along with many others, including the 1991 Ontario Winter Games and the OFSAA championships in 1974 at Kolapore.

He downplays his role as a catalyst behind the development of Highlands Nordic and cross-country skiing at CCI and in southern Ontario in general, but his dedication continues to this day. He planned and worked on trails in Loree Forest, what is now Central Park in Collingwood and Huron Highlands and began hosting Georgian Bay and Ontario high school meets.

“I always said I was never going to do another trail after those and then I got into it big time at Highlands Nordic,” the Ottawa native added. “(Duntroon Highlands Golf Club founder) Dalt Sampson started the skiing and he cleared a lot of the trails himself. I don’t think that man ever skied, but he knew enough to make a nice, wide trail and didn’t make turns at the bottom of hills. Everything was done right the first
time around.”

This evening, October 23, 2004, the Collingwood Sports Hall of Fame welcomes Jim
Sinclair as an enshrined member for his role as a Builder of our athletic community.

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, 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.

1970 - 1989, 1990 - 1999, All, Male, Wrestling

STEVE SAMMONS

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In 1981, Steve captured his first Cadet provincial championship in the 84 lb. weight class.  He would go on to win eight consecutive provincial titles and six Canadian Cadet championships in whatever weight class he grew into, which topped off at the 112 lb. mark.

In 1982, he returned from the World Championships in Los Angeles with a silver medal, and then a fourth at the same competition in 1984.  Sammons is also the only wrestler in Georgian Bay Secondary School Association history to win the regional high school title in all five years he competed.  He went on to win two OFSAA championships in Grades 12 & 13.

His career was far from over after high school, however, as he went on to win on CIAU gold medal and two OUAA titles for York University in the late 1980’s.

He was a member of Canada’s national team and placed third in the 52 kg. Weight class at the 1988 Olympic trial for the Games in Seoul, Korea, but a recurring shoulder injury would later put a premature end to his career.

Steve Sammons was inducted into the Collingwood Sports Hall of Fame, in June 1994.

 

1900 - 1929, All, Athlete, Builder, Golf, Male, Other

NORM RULE

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Norman Rule qualifies for Collingwood’s Sports Hall of Fame as a competitor and a builder.

This pioneer sportsman passed away in 1973 at the age of ninety-six, a member of Collingwood’s first hockey team organized eighty-nine years ago in 1894.

It was mainly through the organization ability of Mr. Rule that the first team came into being. He borrowed a pair of cricket pads and took over the goalkeeping duties behind such pioneer players as Ed Elworthy, Charlie Norris, a man who later became vice-president of the Canadian Bank of Commerce, Date Andrews, Reg Brown, later a wealthy business man in British Columbia, Fred Hopkins, who lost his life in Klondike Gold Rush in ’98, and Bill Toner, who had the honor of being elected Collingwood’s first hockey team captain.

Norman Rule could be classed as one of the town’s first all around athletes. He was a better than average ball player, an outstanding golfer and his name is on the Ontario Tankard Curling Trophy won by Collingwood in 1913.

His contribution to hockey alone rates him as a candidate for the Sports Hall of Fame but his real value came in the promotion and organization of sports in general. I have five individual trophies, all won by Norman Rule, stored at my home at the present time.

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

JOHN ROWE

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Jack (aka John) Rowe was not only one of Collingwood’s greatest and best known athletes, at the age of 90, he was still an important cog in this town’s sporting fraternity.

Born of a pioneer Collingwood family in 1885, he was on the active sports scene for
almost three quarters of a century. Apart from numerous team sports, he will be
remembered mostly for his success as a long distance runner. He once defeated
Billy Steel in a ten-mile race at Barrie and Steel represented Canada
in the 1908 Olympics.

Jack and two other outstanding Collingwood runners, Ancil Williamson and Hec Lamont, once ran an exhibition five-mile race against the legendary Tom Longboat, Canada’s greatest distance runner. The race took place sixty-five years ago right here
in Collingwood in the old Pine Street rink. We won’t go into the details, but the
Collingwood trio running as a relay team and with the assistance of a little skull duggery, defeated the peerless Indian runner.

Jack’s best game was lacrosse. We saw him play his last game against Alliston at the
age of forty-eight. To say he held his own that evening would be a bit of an
understatement. Collingwood won the game 5-4 and Mr. Rowe scored four goals,
including the winner.

For forty years he was a landmark on Collingwood ball diamonds as a player,
manager, umpire and as president of the softball league no fewer than six
times.

He played on Collingwood’s first basketball team, re-organized and served as
president of the Town Hockey League. Few people know of his boxing ability but
he has a gold medal to prove it. In 1917, Sergeant Jack Rowe, representing the
157 Battalion, won the Fourth Canadian Division Welterweight title. Ten years
ago, at a testimonial dinner, Bill Akos presented a new trophy to Blue Mountain
Softball League. It was named the Jack Rowe Trophy. Just a small tribute to a
man who played such a major part in Collingwood’s sporting history.

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

SONNY ROBINSON

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Sonny Robinson was a valuable member of those great Collingwood Jr.’C’ Greenshirt
teams, in 1951 -52 and 1952 – 53, which won back-to-back OHA championships.

Robinson, was the leading scorer for the a Greenshirts in the 1953-54 season before
moving on to play for the Intermediate ‘A’ Meaford Knights for two years, going
to the all-Ontario finals both times. The hard working centre man came
back to Collingwood to play for the Intermediate ‘A’ Shipbuilders in 1956 and
played for eight more seasons.

Robinson’s contributions weren’t restricted to the ice surface as he served as a volunteer at several different positions, including president and a house league coach
with the Collingwood Minor Hockey Association for 1957-79. He was responsible
for setting up a power skating school during his tenure with the CMHA.

Clarence ‘Sonny’ Robinson was inducted in the Collingwood Sports Hall of Fame in 1996.

1990 - 1999, All, Builder, Male

ROBERT RING

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Robert Ring has served as a coach and in several capacities in the Collingwood Minor Hockey Association’s executive.

As a defenseman in his minor hockey years here, he has the distinction of playing on two CMHA teams that won provincial titles. In recent years, Ring has served as Collingwood’s representative on the Georgian Bay Minor Hockey Association and was appointed district rep for the Ontario Minor Hockey Association in 1994-95.

The OMHA chose “Ringo” as its prestigious Honour Award winner for 1994-95, recognizing him for his tireless volunteer work in minor hockey.

He has also been an active member in adult baseball as president of the North Dufferin Baseball League in Collingwood and was credited with bringing back minor
baseball to this town in the late seventies.

Robert’s 20 years of dedication and volunteer work with minor hockey was also recognized earlier this year when he received the Order of Collingwood.

Robert Ring was inducted into the Collingwood Sports Hall of Fame, in the builders’ category, in 1996.