Donnie Hudson never weighed more than 140 Pounds, but he had the heart of a lion and can be considered as one of the fastest goalkeepers ever developed in Collingwood.

Born in Collingwood’s South End, he came up through the Collingwood Minor Hockey system from atom to juvenile.  When he finished his active career about 25 years ago, he had amassed a total of six OHA championships.

His first provincial title came in 1949 when he shared goalkeeping duties with Murray Blackburn, under the coaching of Porky Young, when the Peerless Collingwood Cubs won the Ontario Juvenile title without losing a game.

Then came four straight Junior “C” OHA championships with the Collingwood Greenshirts.  A feat that has never been duplicated in OHA history.

The Greenshirts finally lost to Welland in the 1954 semi-final round.  Roy Connacher was coaching the Midland team that same year, Midland had qualified for the final against Welland and Connacher, asked for, and got permission to use Hudson after his own goalie was injured.  Midland won the title and Donnie Hudson won his sixth straight provincial championship.

Like most star goalies of that era, Hudson rarely left his feet, but it was his lightening-fast hands that gave him the edge on other goalkeepers.

We can safely say that he made more stops with his gloves than his pads or stick. For this reason he was not bothered by those troublesome rebounds that haunted other goalies.

Hap Emms wanted Donnie for the Barrie Colts in Junior “A” company, but he finally and reluctantly decided that at five-feet five inches he was too small for the major leagues.  He had tryouts with Guelph and Kitchener and played one season with Queens’ University.  He played one year with the Collingwood Shipbuilders in Intermediate “A” hockey before hanging up his skates.

Ill health ended his active career 16years ago, but on his return from Texas continued to assist as a coach in the Collingwood Minor Hockey system.  Donnie was also a better that average baseball player during the fifties.

One month before his induction into the Hall of Fame, Donnie Hudson’s succumbed to cancer after a long battle on May 3, 1986.  He was 52.

Ed Kea was born in Weesp, Holland but his family of fourteen relocated to Collingwood, Ontario when he was just four years old. In Canada he was exposed to the game of hockey and took to it very well. Kea never played Junior hockey, nor did he play collegiate hockey but he managed to turn professional in 1969 nonetheless. After two years with the Jersey Devils, and stops with the Seattle Totems and the St. Petersburg Suns, he was signed as a free agent by the Atlanta Flames in 1972.

Kea played 583 games over 10 seasons in the NHL, scoring 30 goals and
175 points. He spent his first six seasons with the Atlanta Flames, who signed him as a free-agent on Oct. 6, 1972.

The defenseman made his NHL during the 1973-74 season when he played three games for the Flames, but he was a regular the following season. Kea spent the next five seasons playing his solid, steady game on the Flames blue line before being dealt to St. Louis just prior to the 1979-80 season. With the Blues,  Kea played three and half seasons before being sent to the minors.

During the 1982-83 season, St. Louis shipped him to their farm team in Salt Lake. Unfortunately, while toiling for the Salt Lake Golden Eagles tragedy struck. Kea hit his head on the ice during a game and suffered severe head trauma and was left handicapped as a result. Though a series of operations saved his life, Kea’s hockey career was obviously over and he retired and spent time with his wife and children.

Sadly, this wouldn’t be the only tragedy for Ed Kea and his family. In September 1999, Kea drowned at his family cottage. Kea was just 51 years old.

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.

We have often heard it said that Donnie Keith is one of the most mild-mannered gentlemen in Collingwood, until he puts on a pair of skates.

When he puts on a hockey uniform, it’s a different story.  He plays the game for keeps, gives no quarter and asks for none.  It has been like that for nearly 20 years since he helped the old West End Wildcats win the town league championship under Coach Reg. Westbrooke back in 1947.  He was the policeman on two great Juvenile teams when the Cubs went to the Ontario finals in 1948 and then won the title in 1949 without losing a single contest.

He jumped into the Junior “B” ranks with Guelph the following year and then spent two star-studded years with the Guelph “A” team in a league that boasted such coming NHL stars as Harry Howell, Lou Fontinato, Andy Bathgate and Dean Prentice.

He gained great respect in his knock-down, drag-out duels with the all time tough Fontinato.  Keith backed down from nobody and he took as much as he handed out.  Eddie Bush lured him back to Collingwood in 1951, and he was instrumental
in helping the Shipbuilders win a pair of OHA Intermediate “A” Titles.

He stayed with the Shipbuilders until the end of 1953 and then went over to the strong Meaford Knights.  His rugged-checking and accurate-shooting were the main cogs in Meaford’s OHA Senior “B” Championship.

That season he led the league in scoring and penalties.

Donnie played the last 10 years of his active career in senior company with Shipbuilders.  His OHA career spanned 20 years, but he is still starring with the Old Timers well into the 1990’s, along with such other old time Collingwood stars, as Robert Sandell, Don Rich, and Don Cook.

Don Keith was inducted into the Collingwood Sports Hall of Fame, in 1986.

The local sporting community was saddened when Don passed away 2010.

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.

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.