They called him a hockey policeman and there never was a better one than Buck Walton.

Never a fancy skater or a fast one, Buck made up for his lack of speed and finesse with his courage, stick handling and dogged determination.

He played on three Collingwood O.H.A. Intermediate “A” championship teams in 1918, 1919 and 1920 and on the runner-up team in 1921.

When the going got tough and the opposition started carrying the sticks high, the call went out for the “policeman”.

He never spared himself and he never made excuses. If he took a butt end in the corner there was no squawking from the “Buckaroo”

He just lowered his head and hit with everything he had. Buck took many beating but he handed out some pretty good lumps himself. No fast skating forward ever came in on Walton with his head down-at least not after the first time.

I remember the night, fifty-four years ago, when the Buckaroo took a bad on big Dick Simple, the great Midland star of that era. Dick stepped deftly aside and Walton took a Barnum and Bailey dive into the end boards. The crowd groaned as his head and shoulders crunched against the planks and his body slipped down to the ice. The legendary Rabbi Fryer skated over to the fans and called out “Get a dust pan and a broom!” Buck was on his feet in a minute, skated over to the bench, took a long drink of water, or whatever, and joined the affray again. Two minutes later he went from end to end and scored.

Back in 1915, he scored a winning goal in Hamilton that put Collingwood into the O.H.A. semi-finals round. He had been knocked out twice during the game. For twenty years, Buck Walton gave everything he had for Collingwood junior and intermediate teams.

Buck and Rabbi Fryer were lured out of retirement in the thirties and turned out to be bad decision.

In a play-off game between Collingwood and Camp Borden for the Georgian Baygroup title, referee Ernie Wortley fingered buck for five cheap penalties and the Buck lost his cool. He dropped his stick and went for the official, the first time he did that in his life. Fryer came to Buck’s assistance, although he really didn’t=t need it, and both players were suspended indefinitely by the O.H.A.

Two years later, Fryer made application and was re-instated. Buck refused to go hat in hand and said. “Let them keep the O.H.A. it’s only a pink tea party now, anyway. Next thing you know they’ll penalize you for spitting out your own teeth”.

He never was re-instated and I was always sorry about that. I tried to persuade him to apply for re-instatement just so he could retire with a clean slate. It was no dice. Buck was just too proud and that application for re-instatement sounded too much like begging to suit the Buck.

Don Westbrooke rose through the local minor system and went on to play Junior “B”, Intermediate, and Senior.  He also played professional hockey with International teams followed by the IHL Toldedo Blades in 1963-64 when he won Longman Trophy as “Rookie of The Year”.

1968-69                       Awarded the Gatschene Memorial Trophy as IHL-MVP Award

1969-70                       Awarded the Leo Lamoureux Trophy as IHL Top Scorer

As a 20-year-old IHL rookie for Toledo Blades in 1964, Don scored in overtime to beat defending champion Fort Wayne Komets in deciding sixth game of Turner Cup Finals.

In 1970-71, Don played under the infamous coach – Eddie Shore – with the Springfield Kings & Eddie Shore of American Hockey League. Later he was traded to Rochester Americans where he played with Collingwood native Darryl Sly & roommate Don Cherry.  In 1971-72, Don played in Seattle and led the team in scoring.

On January 5, 1974, Don Westbrooke became a North American trivial answer as he became the “only” North American player to score 3 goals against Vadislav Tretiak (of the Soviet Red Army Selects) and defeated the World Champions 6-4.

In July 1984, Don Westbrooke joined his goaltending father, the late Reg. Westbrooke, as an enshrined member of the Collingwood Sports Hall of Fame.

Reg Westbrooke was around the Collingwood sports scene so long his presence was almost taken for granted.

Fourteen seasons as the first string goalkeeper for the Collingwood Shipbuilders, A permanent first baseman on local baseball and softball teams, and, all sports scene as sports editor of the Enterprise-Bulletin.

After World War 11, Reg and a few other returning veterans resurrected the Collingwood Softball League and a merry six-year span was whetted but prolific newspaper coverage.

And while he was beating the drums for the softball loop, Reg was walking off with three batting titles. One season his average was an unbelievable .615.

He was a member of Collingwood at the age of twelve, played in the Junior Town League, the Junior O.H.A. team for three years and moved up into the Intermediate ranks in 1938.

Although still of junior age, Reg stayed with the Intermediates and was the back-up goalie for the late Tony Nobes when the Shipbuilders won the O.H.A. Intermediate “A” championship in 1939.

Two more seasons as the regular goalie for the Shipbuilders and Reg’s career was interrupted in 1941 when he enlisted in the armed forces.

The Army team pulled some strings inTorontoand he landed in a Senior League with a team of professionals, playing in theMapleLeafGardensbefore crowds of ten thousand and more.

Another two years of army service followed and Reg found himself playing on a couple of strong Camp Borden teams, one a championship club that was rated with the best amateur hockey teams ever assembled.

After the war, Westbrooke returned home and went in between the goal posts for the Shipbuilders. He became a fixture in this position for the next nine years from 1945 to 1954.

A couple of times, herald aspirants came on the scene but Reg always ended up as the first string goalie. For a good many seasons he operated without benefit of a back-up goalie.

He played goal for two O.H.A. title winning teams under the leadership of Eddie Bush, in 1951 and 1952 and on the 1953 finalists.

A rather unique experience over his ten post-war Shipbuilders seasons was his selection was made by the fans, another time by the club executive and a third time by his fellow players.

His hockey swan song came in March, 1954. Appreciative fans gave him a testimonial presentation when he hung up the pads and moved to Creemore to pursue a career in the newspaper publishing field. Reg married a Collingwood girl, Beverly Mirrlees, and had three children. One son, Don, has just completed a long professional hockey career.

His playing weight hovered around 150 pounds but he hit like a heavyweight and
stickhandled in the fashion of the legendary Rabbi Fryer. Artie Clark was a
forward but his body checking ability had just as much effect on opposing
players as a hitting defenseman. Defensemen stopped them at the blue line-Artie
dropped them at centre ice.

His athletic capabilities were not confined to hockey. He was equally adept in the games of baseball, softball and lacrosse and he even played creditable game of cricket. He pitched, caught and played the infield in baseball. We can recall many ball games back in the twenties when Artie caught the first four innings and then finished the game on the mound. He just turned fifteen when he made the Collingwood junior team in 1920. In 1921, he was a member of the exceptionally good Collingwood junior club that almost beat Howie Morenz and the Stratford Midgets in a sudden death semi-final game in the old Toronto Mutual Street Arena. Stratford went on to win the Dominion title.

He was still with Collingwood when they lost out in the O.H.A. semi-finals to Aura Lee and University of Toronto in 1922 and 1923. He moved up into the intermediate ranks with Collingwood the following year and then helped
the Grimsby Peach Kings win the Ontario title in 1925. That was the year the Peach Kings stunned the amateur hockey circles by beating the Soo Greyhounds in the first round of Allan Cup play. He stayed with the Peach Kings another year
and turned professional with the old Chicago Cardinals in 1927. In 1928, he was up with the leading scorers with the Kitchener Millionaires in the International League and had another good year with Teddy Oakes’ Toronto Millionaires in 1929.

The following year he signed with the Cleveland Barons where he teamed up with three other Collingwood born players, Reg Noble, Bern Brophy and Mike Brophy. Artie had a season with Syracuse and finished an eighteen-year in Oklahoma City in 1935.

Lindsay was born in Collingwood, Ontario on September 7, 1955, the youngest of six children. He began skating at age three on an outside rink at Wasaga  Beach, Ontario.

In the summer of 1962, Lindsay moved with his family toToronto. In the fall of 1962 at age seven Lindsay began his hockey career by joining the Bert Robinson Minor Hockey League at the tyke level.

He played in this league until 1964. After winning the league championship the
first year, he played a second year of Tyke house league hockey for Bert Robinson and a third Tyke year for the Bert Robinson “Hornets”. In 1965, he switched to the George Bell Hockey Association where he played for their M.T.H.L. representative for the next three years of Minor Atom, Atom, and Pee Wee level hockey. Over the next three years, these three teams accounted for three Metropolitan Toronto Hockey League
Championships, three Ontario Minor Hockey Association Championships, a Silver Stick Hockey Championship (Port Huron, Michigan) and a Quebec Pee Wee “AA” Championships (Quebec City).

In 1968, Lindsay transferred to St Michael’s College Arena to play Minor Bantam for Toronto Olympics (M.T.H.L.) the following year playing for Foster Firebirds (M.T.H.L.) in the Bantam division. Lindsay was selected as the Toronto Telegram’s All-Star Goalie in the M.T.H.L. Lindsay enjoyed two successful seasons of Junior “B” hockey, including selection as the Western Division’s All-Star Goalie in the Junior “B” All-Star game and the All Ontario Junior “B” Championships.

In 1977, Lindsay signed as a ‘free-agent” with the New York Rangers. He split his 1st year of professional hockey between the New Haven “Nighthawks” of the American League and Toledo “Goaldiggers” of the International Hockey League, leading the “Goaldiggers” to the Turner Cup International Hockey League Championship while being voted First All Star Goalie.

The second year (1978-79) Lindsay led the New  Haven “Nighthawks” to the Southern Division Championship of the American Hockey League.

The following six years of professional hockey involved being drafted second by the Winnipeg Jets in the 1979 N.H.L. expansion draft. He split his time between the Jets and their central Hockey League Farm Team, the Tulsa Oilers. In 1981 Lindsay was names second All Star Team Goalie in the C.H.L. and in 1982 first All Star Team Goalie. Lindsay played for the Minnesota North Stars, New Jersey Devils and the Edmonton Oilers.

To say that Allan Morrill is a member of one of Collingwood’s great hockey families would be the understatement of the century. Allan will join his great uncle, Ernie “Rabbi” Fryer; his father Bobby Morrill, of the greatest amateur centre and goal scorers of all time; his two cousins, Barney Walmsley and the late Ab Kirby.

Allan’s active hockey career was far too short.  Had he chosen to continue after his junior days, he would undoubtedly have made the NHL.

He had everything –superb stick-handling ability, speed, courage and a shot that could tear out the end of a net.

His ability to score goals can be attested in his splendid goal production when the Collingwood Greenshirts won their first Ontario Junior title in 1950.

In a 15 game regular schedule he scored 25 goals and assisted on 18 more.  In the 17 game playoff series, he “lit the lamp” 21 times and was accredited with 20 assists.  That makes a total of 46 goals, 38 assists for a total of 84 points.

That year, Morrill and his team mates of Frankie Dance and Jimmy Barrett rolled up the astounding mark of 184 points.  Needless to say, Dance and Barrett are also in Collingwood’s Sports Hall of Fame.

Allan’s first provincial medal came in 1949 with Porky Young’s juvenile champions.  He was teamed with Frankie Dance and Jim Barrett that season and for the next four years the line held together to win four straight Junior “C” championships.  Morrill and Barrett also added a pair of OHA Intermediate “A”’ medals when Eddie Bush called them up to the Shipbuilders Intermediate finals in 1952 and 1953.

The Barrett-Morrill-Dance line was probably the greatest scoring combination in Collingwood’s hockey history.  Its passing plays could be described as “Poetry in Motion”.  With that combination there was no such a thing as “giving the puck away”.  Every move was made as if it was planned on the drawing board beforehand.  Dance
would lay out the pass to the point from left or right with deadly accuracy.  He did not even have to lift his head because he knew that either Morrill or Barrett would be on the receiving end and the shot on goal was automatic. That kid line accounted for 444 goals and 347 assists for a point total of 791 scoring points during the four year span they were together.

His greatest scoring feat came in the final game of the 1952 Collingwood-Ingersoll series.  Morrill scored five goals and assisted on a sixth as the Greenshirts won 7-5.  He drew a standing ovation from a crowd of 2,000 as he skated to the dressing room three minutes before the end of the game.

Allan left Collingwood for Gananoque in 1953.  He played part of a season for Kingston Seniors before calling it a career in 1954.

Allan Morrill was inducted into the Collingwood Sports Hall of Fame on June 11, 1986.

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 in Port 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.