Category Archives: All

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

RAY CREW

Leave a comment

Born in 1934, this hockey player got his start with the Collingwood Minor Hockey Association.

He played with the Collingwood Junior C Club, before playing with the Junior ‘A’ – Guelph Biltmores. He played professional hockey in several cities, including New
Haven, Three Rivers Knoxville and Philadelphia in the Eastern Hockey League (EHL). His career in the EHL ended following the 1968-69 season as a player-coach with the Syracuse Blazers.

He moved to Wallingford, Connecticut where he coached a high school hockey team.

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

JIMMY “THE SAILOR” HERBERTS

Leave a comment

Collingwood has been the birthplace of many colourful sports characters over the past seventy-five years and the Sailor must rank high on the list.

We have always thought that he never received the recognition he deserved and apparently Connie Smythe thought so too.

When Jimmy died in 1968, Smythe said, “Herberts was the most underrated player in the N.H.L. because too much attention was paid to his fun loving antics. But he was one of the best of his era and a natural hockey player.”

He had a ten-year career with Boston, Toronto and Detroit and several years with International League clubs. He also took a fling at refereeing in the British Hockey League but his antics were just a little too much for the staid English hockey promoters.

He was a star right from the start in his rookie year with the Bruins as he scored seventeen goals and picked up ten assists in a 30-game schedule. This was a most remarkable feat when you realize that the goal production for the whole Boston team that season of  1925 was only forty-seven goals.

The  season of 1925-26 was his best. Playing between Carson Cooper and Hugo Harrington he scored 27 goals in 36 games and finished third in the standing behind the great Nels Stewart and Cy Denneny. In 1927 he finished fourth in the
scoring race and the Bruins made the Stanley Cup finals for the first time. The Ottawa Senators defeated the Bruins that season two games to nothing with two games tied. The Sailor’s contribution was three goals.

Jimmy moved on to Toronto in the middle of the 1928 season but although Smythe valued his ability, he  refused to put up with his frolicsome behaviour and his utter disregard for training rules. He finished his N.H.L. career with Detroit where he succeeded in helping Jack Adams to acquire a cluster of ulcers. He once upset the whole scoring structure of the league by claiming two points for one goal. In a game against New York Ranges he managed to recover his own  pass and score. According to Jimmy’s calculations an assist counted a point and so did a goal. Since he was the passer and the scorer it just had to be two points for Herberts. Of course, he didn’t get away with it, but he had the official scorer puzzled for awhile.

Herberts had that race gift of showmanship that kept his name in sport pages. A Detroit writer panned him once for failing to show up for a game. Jimmy was as mad as wet hen. Not for the panning. He was ruffled because the writer misspelled his name.

1970 - 1979, All, Builder, Harness Racing, Male

CLARENCE “SHORTY” LOCKHART

Leave a comment

The name of Shorty Lockhart must have top billing when Collingwood harness racing
history is written Horsemen like Paddy Stone, Joe Welch and Paddy Neville were
big names in the sulky game at the turn of the century but Shorty completed dominated the scene for thirty-five years. Born in Honeywood, Shorty farmed in the Osprey district before he took to harness racing seriously in his early twenties. His
first good horse Dorothy Peters, was an instant success and he always likes to
talk about Make Believe, a handsome trotter that won him forty races in a
single season.

As implicated by his nickname, “Shorty” is small of stature but his courage and determination offsets the size handicap. He needs nobody to run interference for him because the little man from the Osprey Hills has always been on his own.

One of his greatest triumphs was a victory with Sonny Creed against top drivers like Keith Waples, Dell McTavish and Harold McKinley. Three outstanding match races stand out in his memory; Two against his old rival, Honourable Earl Rowe at Greenwood with Make Believe and at Grand Valley with Dorothy Peters. His match race with Sonny Creed against Dr. Morrish’s – Lochlinvar King was staged before the largest crowed ever to witness a harness race at London Raceway.

Shorty has trained and owned more than one hundred trotters in his days. His ace pacers, Sonny Creed and Single Chips have carried him over the mile at 2.03 at one time ore another and A.W. Chips and McCarr Hanover have stepped it in 2.04 with Shorty in the sulky.

He has fine memories in the racing exploits of such fine horses as Dorothy Peters, Make Believe, Dr. Fleet, Laurentide, Prince Demon, True Spencer, Frisco Van R., Alex Hardy and Collingwood Boy.

Clarence “Shorty” Lockhart has left his mark on the big tracks like the Blue Bonnett and Richelieu in Quebec, Greenwood, Mohawk, Garden City, the old Thorncliffe and Dufferin in Ontario and Batavia and Hamburg across the border.

He just had to be No.1 in the harness racing section of Collingwood’s Sports Hall of Fame.

1970 - 1979, All, Builder, Male

WALTER ROBINSON

Leave a comment

Born in Streetsville, Walt Robinson came to Collingwood with his parents as a very
young boy.

He played hockey, lacrosse and baseball for Collingwood junior teams in the early
parts of this century but his mark was made as a coach and trainer.

Walt played and coached to win and he never tired to cover his contempt for laughing
losers. He regarded a loss as a team to show it on their faces.

He started coaching Collingwood hockey and lacrosse teams in 1910 but his greatest
success came in 1918-19-20 when he guided the Collingwood Shipbuilders to three
consecutive O.H.A. Intermediate “A” championships. Newly Lalonde
brought him up to the international Hockey League as a trainer with the Niagara
Falls Cataracts in 1930. He ended up coaching that team when Newsy quit in mid
season.

The Falls club disbanded and Walt went back to the O.H.A. where he brought the
Parry Sound Shamrocks to the Junior semi-finals.

For the next three years he was head hockey coach for the R.C.A.F. at Camp Borden
and twice brought the Flyers top the semi-finals.

He finished his coaching career with Collingwood in the early thirties.

On Walt’s recommendation, Leo Dandurand signed Jack Portland after only one year’s experience in Intermediate ranks. Portland starred for ten years in the National Hockey League and was a member of the  Stanley Cup winning Boston Bruins in 1939.

Walter Robinson died on June 23rd, 1968. He was seventy-eight.

1970 - 1979, All, Builder, Male

JOHN SMART

Leave a comment

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.

1990 - 1999, All, Builder, Male

FRANK CRUIKSHANKS

Leave a comment

Frank was born in Sheet Harbour, Nova Scotia on May 2, 1923 moving to Collingwood in 1970 with his wife Elsie (inducted 2004). Along with their family of 5 children – Frank, Norma, Donna, Clyde and Vicky, the Cruickshank quickly immersed themselves into Collingwood’s vibrant sports scene.

Frank’s resume as a supporter of Collingwood minor sports is impressive. His
accomplishments include:

O.M.H.A. Coaching I,II,III, IV and Referee I,II, III; Executive role in Collingwood
Minor Hockey for 7 years including President in 1979;  Coach & Manager role in teams ranging from Atom to Midget for 20+ years; Chairman and member of the Youth Education Committee, Royal Canadian Legion 1980-83.

Throughout Frank’s active involvement he has been recognized as the recipient of the Andy Morritt C.M.H.A. Award in 1974, Royal Canadian Legion of Merit in 1980
alongside a Life Membership. In 1995, Frank was the further recognized with the
Legion’s Meritorious Service Award in 1985 acknowledged as the highest award
awarded to Legion members.

Frank’s dedication culminated in his membership within the Collingwood Sports Hall of Fame on June 12, 1998 in the Builders’ category.

1990 - 1999, 1990 - 1999, All, Golf, Male

DON HEWSON

Leave a comment

The Collingwood Collegiate grad moved out of the Collingwood area in his late teens to attend the University of Toronto where he secured a degree in Mechanical Engineering. A resident of Stouffville, Don his wife Sandra havre raised seven children.

Hewson is the President and major shareholder in a Toronto-based engineering firm, and despite his professional and family commitments through the years, has been able to keep his golf game more than up to snuff.

In 1991, he captured the Canadian Seniors’ Golf Association Tournament with a two-round total of 150 at the York Downs Golf Club. He has had a couple of other notable performances, including a first-place in the Ontario Seniors Better-Ball event and a berth in the 1992 U.S. Senior Amateur event a the Oak Hill course at Rochester, N.Y.

In his younger years, Hewson won several club championships including four in Collingwood, three for Simcoe County and other at York Downs, St. George’s and Scarborough.

He also won a few Collingwood Shipbuilders’ Suppliers Tournament in Wasaga Beach, and Collingwood’s John Richards, often a playing partner of Hewson’s said that if Don didn’t win that tournament, his twin brother often did.

Hewson was active in other sports, and played on two Collingwood hardball clubs that made it to the provincial finals.  He was also a member of Central Ontario high
school championship teams in both volleyball and basketball during his stay at
CCI.

Don Hewson was inducted into the Collingwood Sports Hall of Fame in 1994.

1930 - 1949, 1950 - 1969, 1970 - 1979, All, Male, Track & Field

ALEX MACMURCHY

The careers of many great athletes have been directly or indirectly affected by wars.

Such was the case of Alex MacMurchy, undoubtedly Collingwood’s most successful long distance runner who twice represented Canadain International meets and crowned his brilliant career by winning the Canadian and Allied Army Cross Country championship in Holland in 1945.

At the tender age of sixteen he had the brashness to enter a race against such top Canadian runners as Percy Wyer, Jim Bartlett and Jim Wilding over the full marathon distance of 26 miles, 385 yards.

He was matching stride for stride with the big guns until he tore off a running shoe between Washago and Orillia and dropped back to 25th place. He changed over to a pair of ordinary street shoes, passed sixteen runners and finished in tenth place.

A few months later he gave Scotty Rankine a good run in the C.N.E marathon.

The following year he won eight major races and finished fourth behind Dick Wilding, Bill Reynolds and Jim Cummings in the Hamilton marathon. It was his third marathon in two months. He rolled up another string of victories with the Forest Hill Recreation Club and then won the three-mile C.N.E. race over a field of the best runners of  Canada and the U.S.A. In the British Empire trails at Hamilton, he lost a shoe at the end of the first half-mile lap and finished in his bare feet, only five yards behind Rankine and Longman. He was considered a cinch to make the Canadian Olympic team in 1939 but the war cancelled out the 1940 Olympiad and Alex had already joined the armed forces.

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

RYAN POTTER

Leave a comment

Back in 1974, running back Ryan Potter, donning CCI’s gold and black, dominated play in Simcoe County during his high school years, but had to ask for a tryout with the University of Western   Ontario Mustangs.

The first year I was at Western there were 45 running backs trying out for the team.  “It was ludicrous” said Potter.  “They ended up keeping six of us, and I was fortunate enough to be one of them.”  Potter went on to have a five-year career in the Canadian Football League, and at the time was only the second Collingwood resident to ever get that far – the first being Jack Portland.  But it was with the Mustangs that the tailback enjoyed his greatest success.

During his four-year playing career at Western, from 1978 -81, the Mustangs went 35-8 and won three consecutive Yates Cup Championships (emblematic of the Ontario university title).  Potter was awarded the Dalt White Trophy as most outstanding player in two of those championship games – ’79 and ’81.

He had 1,172 yards on just 130 carries and ranks 10th on Western’s all-time yardage list, despite being the only player among those top 10 who had less than 200 carries.

Ryan started his career at Western with two fellow-freshmen running backs, Greg
Marshall and Mike Kirkley, who would form over the next four years perhaps the
most dynamic threesome in Canadian university football history, said Larry Haylor, long time head coach of the Mustangs.  “We have always been motivated at Western by team goals and it’s testimony to Ryan’s character that he always placed team before self.”

In the 1982 CFL Canadian College Draft, Potter was chosen in the third round by
the B.C. Lions, who would later draft a couple of other Collingwood residents,
Scott Lecky and Reinhardt Keller.  He played for four years with the Lions
and one more with Calgary before calling it quits.

At CCI, Potter was the captain for two junior teams, yet he played only one year
of senior because of his age.  A two-way player, he won CCI’s athlete-of-the-year on two occasions.

Potter is married with two daughters and is a sales trainer for a pharmaceutical
company.  He recently moved to Toronto from Vancouver. Ryan Potter was inducted into the Collingwood Sports Hall of Fame in 1994.

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

DEVERDE “SMOKEY” SMITH

2 Comments

There was no question about the Collingwood Athlete of the Year Award back in 1935. Deverde “Smokey” Smith won the honours hands down!

Deverde came from down eastern Ontario way with a infectious smile. Nobody paid him particular attention until he turned up at the Exhibition Park one day and he
wanted to try out for the junior baseball team.

Veteran baseball men like Huck Caesar, Dr. Bill Blakley, Father Hugh Ellard and Roy Burmister just couldn’t believe their eyes.

Here was a kid with magic in his left arm and only sixteen years old. His curve looked like the ball was coming at you from first base, the high hard one looked the size of an aspirin and his sinker dropped five feet from the point of delivery to the plate. That evening, this reporter hung the name “Smokey” on him and moniker stuck.

The kid became Collingwood’s skater that very day and baseball was back in Collingwood. I t was too late to build a title winning team that year but in 1935 Collingwood lured catcher Paddy Young away from Creemore as Smitty’s battery mate and the rest is sporting history.

In 1935, Smokey curve balled the Shipbuilders to the Ontario championship and in the process defeated Penetang’s, Phil Marchildon, who was destined to star in the American League with Conny Mack’s Philadelphia Athletics, seven out of nine times with two more games ending in ties.

He pitched a perfect game against Coniston in the Semi-final round and had two more no-hit no-run games in the regular Georgian Bay League schedule. His 1935 pitching record with 22 wins – 3 losses while striking out 310 batters. He went on to a professional career in the Canadian-American League and had the pleasure of beating Marchildon in the same league 2-1 in a game that went 12 innings.

Deverde did not seriously pursue a pro career and he hung up the glove after joining the Ontario Provincial Police.