If there ever was a Lady Byng Trophy for amateur hockey players, Ab Kirby would have won it ten years in a row.

Through a career of twenty years in O.H.A. competition, Kirby’s penalty record could be written on the head of a pin. Here was a player who exploded the Leo Durocher theory that “Nice guys finish last”.

Collingwood born Albert Kirby played on championship teams in the junior, intermediate and senior O.H.A. series with Barrie, Collingwood and Owen Sound
and he was always up there with the scoring leaders.

One of the high points in his great career came in 1939 when the helped the
Collingwood Shipbuilders win the O.H.A. Intermediate “A” title. In sixteen games he scored sixteen goals and assisted on sixteen others. He went through the entire series without drawing a single penalty.

This shifty little centre man never weighed any more than 135 pounds (soaking wet)
but he held his own with the hard bumping giants of that era. One of the best
stick handlers of his time. Ab never had to resort to rough play. He was a
gentleman on and off the ice. Like his long-time team mate, Eddie Bush, Ab learned his hockey basics on the East End mill ponds.

He made the Collingwood junior club at age fifteen in 1934 and the following
season went to the Barrie Colts. Barrie won the O.H.A. Junior “B” title and Kirby scored 30 goals in the regular season. He picked up seven goals in the five-game final series against St. Michael’s College.

He was back in Collingwood in 1938 but had to sit out most of the season after
MIDLAND PROTESTED HIS ELIGIBILITY UNDER THE RESIDENCE RULE.

Re-instated in ,1939, he played for the Collingwood Shipbuilders under the coaching of former N.H.L. star, Bern Brophy, and the Shipbuilders won the championship. Kirby played on a line with Alvie Wilson and Greg Coulson.

Ab scored six goals and had three assists in the five-game final against the Port
Colborne Incos. In 1940 he moved up to senior company with St. Catherine’s with
Collingwood team mates Don Jeffery and Dick Tracey. That team went to the
O.H.A. Senior “A” final against the Toronto Goodyears.

Kirby added a senior championship medal to his collection when he helped the Owen
Sound Trappers win the Ontario Senior title in 1947.

But he came back to his home town in 1951 when Jack Portland came back from a
ten-year N.H.L. career, coached the Shipbuilders and took them to the O.H.A.
Intermediate “A” semi-final round.

He finished his career with Eddie Bush and the Shipbuilders in 1952 and 1953 when
the Collingwood club won back to back provincial Intermediate “A” championships.

Ab did not confine his athletic endeavours to hockey. He was a better than average
baseball and softball player and had a hand in coaching midget hockey and baseball teams. He was Brit Burns’ assistant coach when the Collingwood Juveniles won the O.M.H.A. championship in 1956.

Along-time director in the Collingwood Minor Hockey Association, he served two years as president.

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.

Randy Osburn was born in Collingwood, played all his minor hockey in Collingwood under such competent coaches as Dennis Robinson, Harvey Pearen and the late Merv Smith.

When he as ready to move up in t faster company in 1969, he was picked up by another Collingwood coach, Eddie Bush, who sent him to the Hamilton Mountain Junior B club. Eddie was coaching the Memorial Cup winning Hamilton Red Wings at the time.

Randy verified Eddie’s assessment of his ability by winning the scoring title in the Junior “B” League. The team lost out in the Ontario finals to the Dixie Bee Hives.

In 1970, he went up to the Hamilton “A” club but was traded the London Knights half way through the season. In 1971, he had a very good season with the Knights and the line of Reg Thomas, Dennis Ververgard and Osburn finished second in the scoring department, just 3 pints behind three future NHL stars named Shutt, Gardner and Harris of the Toronto Marlboros. Osburn scored forty goals and sixty assists for an even 100 points and the All-Star team.

The following year he was drafted by the Toronto Maple Leafs and after a full season was sent to Oklahoma City in the Central Pro League.

He won the goal scoring title for the league and was again picked on the first All-Star team. Dallas won over Oklahoma City in the league finals.

In 1974, the Leafs traded him for Bill Flett to the Philadelphia Flyers, then the Stanley Cup Champions.  He played with the Flyers for over half a season and was then assigned to the Philadelphia Firebirds of the American Hockey League. A severe neck injury ended his playing career in 1978.

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.

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.