Category Archives: Inductee – Gender

1900 - 1929, 1970 - 1979, All, Male, Track & Field

ROY HEWSON

Professional foot racing was a booming sport throughout the Georgian Bay 70 years ago but few people know that Collingwood once claimed a professional distance runner of national reputation.

His name was Roy Hewson and for a decade between 1906 and 1916 he ruled supreme in races over distance between three and five miles.

He was the postmaster at Batteau Settlement, just south of Collingwood, for many years. Hence his nickname “The Batteau”.

No person heard of him as a runner until he casually entered the five-mile race in the annual Domination Day Celebration at Collingwood.

Dressed in street clothes, he literally walked away from the field of twenty better than average runners of that era.

He was only fifteen years old at the time and he did not take the sport too seriously until two Stayner backers persuaded him to take a crack at professional running.

In the spring of 1909, he gave up his amateur standing and entered a race over a seven-mile course from Duntroon to the old Globe Hotel in Collingwood. He lost that race to Ed Haverson of New Lowell.

Haverson was a seasoned runner with two big time wins at the Canadian National Exhibition to his credit. On April 25th, 1909, Hewson beat Haverson soundly for a purse of three hundred dollars and a two hundred dollar side bet. Collingwood sportsmen Joe Ganley and Paddy Stone won ten thousand dollars on the race.

The skinny kid from Batteau went home with a silver cup in his arms and five hundred dollars in his pocket. Hewson won a dozen more important races and repeated his victory over Haverson in Barrie.

Three years later he won the three-mile Canadian title in Toronto but interest in professional running had died out. The purse was only fifty dollars. The Batteau hung up his running shoes and went back to the post office. Twenty-nine years ago he collapsed and died outside on the street after attending a hockey match in the Collingwood Arena.

1900 - 1929, 1970 - 1979, All, Male, Skating

JAMES WOOLNER

Captain Jim Woolner was born in Collingwood in 1878.

A Master of the steel blades at the turn of the century Captain Jim was a household word and every kid in the Georgian Bay district tried to emulate his style at one time or another.

He had his first pair of speed skates shortly after he had his first pair of boots and he was still skating the year he died in 1938.

For over two decades Jim beat every skater that cared to take up the challenge, and he did it with the confident ease that was his stock in trade.

Unfortunately, Woolner was never attached to an organized skating club, and, as a result, many of his best records are not officially recorded.

In his heyday, Captain Woolner defeated such great Canadian speed artists as Toronto’s Harley Davidson, the fiery Stubby Graham of Fergus, Canadian mile champion, Len Forrester of Fergus.

The crowning point of his career was his victory over Davidson in Collingwood’s old Pine Street Rink in March, 1900.

Davidson had beaten the best skaters of the era at the International Speed Carnival atMontrealand up until that time he had never even heard of Woolner. But Davidson accepted Jim’s challenge and the match race was staged for a cash prize of two thousand dollars-winner takes all.

As it turned out, the race was a walk away for Woolner and an embarrassing memory for the highly touted Davidson.

The following winter, Stubby Graham challenged Woolner to a race in Meaford. Graham was not only beaten by Jim but he was nosed out of second place by another Collingwood skater, Doug McLeod.

Tom Eck, a well known sports promoter and a former trainer of heavyweight boxing champion, Jack Johnson, arranged a five-mile race between Woolner and Len Forrester, Then the Canadian champion at five-mile distance.

With ten thousand dollars in bets riding on the outcome of the race, Captain Jim covered the five miles in fourteen minutes and forty seconds, and beat the Fergus star by four laps.

The gamblers refused to bet against him and limited their wagers to the number of laps Woolner would finish ahead of the runner-up.

He won 3 races in Toronto on one Saturday afternoon and was so far ahead in the last race he turned around and skated backwards a full lap from the finish line.

Two years later, the Captain’s great career came to an end under shady circumstances in a return match with Forrester in Fergus.

He won the first heat easily but fell and broke his leg half-way through the second heat. A quick check revealed that someone had laid a fine wire across the ice in Woolner’s Lane.

Jim Woolner never skated again in competition. He became one of the most colourful skippers on theGreat Lakes. Three weeks before his untimely death, he thrilled a big crowd at the annual Collingwood Ice Carnival at the Park Rink. When he made a few graceful turns around the ice and was given a standing ovation.

On March 15th, 1938, Captain Jim Woolner died in a motor crash on Paddy Dunn’s Hill, just north of Barrie. He was returning from a hockey game in Toronto. He was just fifty-seven.

1930 - 1949, 1950 - 1969, 1980 - 1989, All, Hockey, Male

JACK “DUTCH” WHEELER

The hockey career of the colourful Dutch Wheeler covers a quarter of a century and his natural ability can be compared with any of the great players spawned in his ” hockey hot bed” that is Collingwood.

Learning to skate the day after he took his first walking step, Dutch was starring for the old Central Tigers in the Junior Town League at the age of then, and before he turned fourteen he earned himself a spot on the 1934 Collingwood O.H.A. Junior “A” division. Collingwood’s Charlie Sandell also made the team.

Dutch starred with the Biltmores for three years in 1938, 39 and 40.

From Guelph, he went to the Barrie Colts with another Collingwood Boy, Robbie Sandell.

He enlisted with the Canadian Army in 1941 and played out of Newmarket for three years with the Canadian Army team. That team won the interservice championship against the Royal Canadian Navy in 1944. His team mates included Bill Taylor, Bep Guindon, Check Shannon, Bill McComb and Johnny Callaghan.

It was back to Collingwood after the war in 1946. He performed for the Shipbuilders in the O.H.A. Intermediate “A” series for two years and then hopped over to  Midland for one season in 1948.

The new Community Arena was built in 1948 and Dutch couldn’t stay away from the old home town with such ice facilities so close to his own back door.

About that time Eddie Bush was finishing off a great professional career and when he came back home as a coach-player, Dutch Wheeler definitely figured in Bush’s plans.

It could be said that Eddie built one of Collingwood’s greatest Intermediate teams around himself and the Dutchman.

Jack Wheeler was a key cog on a team that won two back to back O.H.A. Intermediate “A” championships in 1951 and 1952 and went to the finals against the Simcoe Gunners in 1953

Dutch and Bush both packed it up as active players the follow year.

Hockey was not his only athletic endeavour. He played a pretty fair softball game and was a member of the Trott’s Pros, twice winners of the Collingwood Senior Softball League in the fifties.

His lacrosse career lasted one season when a group tried to revive the game back in 1936.

An eight-team junior group was formed and all went well with the Collingwood team until they met the power packed Orillia club, seven times winners of the Minto Cup.

That ill fated evening in Orillia, Jack Wheeler startled the Orillia fans when he took a pass from Butch Thomson and scored ten seconds after the face-off. Then the Minto Cup holders went to work and scored thirty-two goals. The final score-32-1. That was the end of short lived Georgian Bay Junior Lacrosse League. There hasn’t been a lacrosse game played in Collingwood since.

Dutch continued his interest in hockey in an executive position with the Collingwood Senior Club during the late fifties and early sixties. This man truly earned his niche in Collingwood’s Sports Hall of Fame.

 

1900 - 1929, 1970 - 1979, All, Hockey, Male

NORM BURMISTER

Norm Burmister was the only Collingwood born goalkeeper to make the professional ranks. He was born too soon. In this era of expansion, Normie would have no trouble catching a spot in the N.H.L.

He learned his trade on the West End mill ponds and made the Collingwood Junior O.H.A. club at the age of fifteen. One of his team mates was Reg Noble, Collingwood’s contribution to the National Hockey Hall of Fame. Another was Sailor Jim Herberts, one of the most colourful players with Boston, Toronto and Detroit, in the days when colourful hockey players were abundant.

He performed in the nets for several Collingwood junior teams until his career was interrupted by World War 1. He served in the Canadian Army for three years and on his return hitched up with intermediate and senior teams in Welland and Niagara Falls.In 1926 he turned in professional with the New York Americans and was sent to New Haven for seasoning.

His big chance came in 1928 when he was slated to move up into the “Big Time” with the Amerks. But cruel  fate stepped in and deprived Normie of his one big opportunity. Joe Ironstone was a hold-out and refused to come to terms with Big Bill Dyer, the racketeer owner of the New York team. Dyer immediately sent for Burmister, who was in training camp at Niagara Falls. On the day before he was to report, Normie broke his shoulder in a pick-up softball game. He never got the chance again and finished his professional career with New Haven in the Can-American League and Guelph and Stratford in the old Can-Pro League.

While with New Haven, he played with two other Collingwood boys, his brother Roy and Abbie Hughes. Roy and Abbie both made the N.H.L. with New York Americans.

1950 - 1969, 1970 - 1989, 1990 - 1999, 2000 - 2009, 2010 - 2019, 2010 - 2019, All, Golf, Male

MIKE JACKSON

In his competitive golfing career, Mike has atop the leader board for more than 50 golf championships spanning the local, provincial, national and international landscape. Mike has played in national events in all ten Canadian provinces at least once.

Jackson is currently ranked in the upper tier out of more than 700 senior golfers by Golf Week Magazine in the United States.  And as recently as May 2012, he won the Ontario Senior Men’s “Champion of Champions” title by two strokes in Peterborough.

His athletic roots run deep in Collingwood.  He is the son of Ken “Jeep”’ Jackson, a member of the Sports Hall of Fame.  Michael, who played local Junior hockey as a right-winger, tried out for the Guelph CMC’s in 1972. In 1973, he attended the training camp for the Toronto Maple Leafs arranged through local scout Donald ‘Nip’ Spooner.  Mike also played a couple of years of Senior “B” Hockey for the Durham Husky’s winning a provincial championship.

An excellent right-handed golfer as a youth, Jackson was Ontario Best Ball Champion with Hugh Fraser in 1976.  As an amateur, he competed numerous times at the provincial level.  He took part in the 1985 British Amateur at Royal Dornoch in Scotland and was 27th out of 288 golfers before match play.  His medal score was ahead of such greats as Duffy Waldorf, Jose Maria Olazabal and Colin Montgomerie.  He was the 2003 mid-amateur provincial champion (played at Mad River in Stayner) and won the 2010 Ontario Senior Men’s Amateur crown at the Ambassador Golf Club in Windsor.

Locally, Jackson has been the Blue Mountain Golf and Country Club champion an unprecedented 15 times, the club’s Senior champ twice and captured the Scenic Caves Invitational on seven occasions.  As a six-time champion with the Midland Golf and Country Club, he holds the course record of 63, shot in the final round of the club championship in 1979.  He’s a four-time winner of both the Georgian Bay Club championship and Senior Club championship, along with being Match Play champion for three years.

Jackson, a committed community citizen, owns the GM dealership in Collingwood.  A recipient of Rotary’s Paul Harris Fellowship Award, he has been the E-3 Community Living golf tournament chair for many years.  He was a board member for the Collingwood Sports Hall of Fame committee from 1988 to 2002.  Jackson has been on the board of the Canadian Auto Institute (CAI) at Georgian College for several years, and was its chairman of the board from 2005 to 2007.

Jackson is appreciative of the support of his family – wife Doreen, son Ryan and daughter Courtney – which has allowed him to venture far and wide in his chosen sport.  He credits fellow Sports Hall of Famers Don Cook and Brian Jeffery for giving him the inspiration to compete in golf.

On October 20, 2012, the Collingwood Sports Hall of Fame welcomed Mike Jackson as an enshrined ‘Athlete’ from our sporting community.

1990 - 1999, 2000 - 2009, 2010 - 2019, All, Golf, Male

BRIAN FRENCH

Respected and competitive golf professional Brian French has been a member of Team Ontario five times in Titleist Cup match-play action. His team won the 2010 event played at the Royal Quebec Golf Club in Boischatel. ‘Frenchie’ holds course records locally at Cranberry Resort (66), Mad River (68) and Monterra (66). Among his many achievements was being the leading money winner in the 1989 Ontario Assistants’ Order of Merit.

The winner of more than 10 Ontario professional golf tournaments, French shot a 68 at Deerhurst and a 64 at Tor Hill Golf Club in Regina; both course records. He captured two consecutive championships in the Pro-Am event at the National Golf Club in Woodbridge. He also won the Head Professional T.P.D. Fall Classic at the Barrie Golf and Country Club. In 1986, French won the Saskatchewan Open and was a three-time member of the Willingdon Cup. As part of the Willingdon Cup, he was among the top four amateur golfers in Saskatchewan.

French has shot one double-eagle — on hole #14 at Cranberry — and collected 11 aces in his strong golfing career.

French has been the head golf professional at Mad River Golf Club in Creemore since 1994 and is in his 25th year as an accomplished golf instructor. He was also head pro at Cranberry. He continues to be an avid supporter of developing and promoting popular junior golf programs. Along with being a prolific squash player, he was a class ‘A’ squash referee and a member of the Saskatchewan Squash Association.

While attending Collingwood Collegiate Institute, French was part of the badminton team and continued playing the sport at university. The CCI golf team one year featured French, his brother Tim, and the Jacksons, Mike and Paul.

2000 - 2009, 2010 - 2019, 2010 - 2019, All, Builder, Male, Other

BRIAN BAILEY

Brian Bailey is the wind beneath the wings of the Collingwood Sailing School, which has been recognized by the Canadian Yachting Association and teaches the ropes to
more than 100 youth and adults each year. A Collingwood Yacht Club member since
1973, the Manchester, U.K.-born Bailey raced DEIMOS, an Express 30, for 29
years. The long-time sailor has been the club’s Keel Boat Champion three times. He has been commodore of the local yacht club as well as a member of its board of directors for more than 20 years. In Toronto, he was part of a successful racing crew on a custom C & C 34 which won the Royal Canadian Yacht Club’s;Champion of Champions.

Bailey was the catalyst in the history of the successful Collingwood Sailing School. He
channeled his energy, knowledge and pride into a unique educational opportunity
for budding sailors in the region. Bailey’s early involvement in the sailing school resulted when his son, Kyle, was hired by the former Watts Skiff Sailing School in 2001 as its sole instructor. The following season, he became the volunteer course director helping to drive increased enrolment, improved classroom instruction on the second floor of the Collingwood Terminals warehouse, and organized the repair of a collection of cast-off boats.

The Sailing School, in 2011, had close to 120 students and five instructors. (Almost
all of the instructors hired have been former graduates of the program.) The school’s fleet of 20 boats receives heavy use throughout the summer season. Student volunteers earn valuable experience for their instructor certification and community placement hours for high school graduation requirements. The school offers Canadian Yachting Association White Sail I, II, III, and Bronze IV; V courses at the Collingwood Harbour. The school uses a variety of dinghies from 7.5 feet to 14 feet.

Bailey is an avid skier, working as a Blue Mountain patroller from 1995 to 2004. He was a Mosport racer from 1961 to 1967 with his Sunbeam Alpine car. His first race was in front of a crowd of 50,000 people. He is passionate about all three sports; sailing, skiing and racing; describing how participants carve into turns in each of them. “You feel it”, he said. “You slide through it. If you have done all three, you can relate.”

2000 - 2009, 2010 - 2019, 2010 - 2019, All, Male, Other

ADRIAN VAN DEN HOVEN

Adrian van den Hoven is a sailing master of the Great Lakes. He is the first Canadian to complete solo racing on all five of the lakes, has won his division in all but one of the lakes, and was our country’s first participant in the Super Mac marathon race. For his outstanding efforts, he was awarded the Collingwood Yacht Club’s James Russell Memorial Trophy in 2011 for Meritorious Navigation skills. He’s proven to be one of the best in his racing division.

Seven years after beginning the sport of sailing, van den Hoven set sail on a racing career in 1997. Three years later, he was racing solo and placed first in the 2003 Collingwood Yacht Club Invitational Race. Three out of the five times that he entered the Georgian Bay Sailing Regatta from 2000 to 2008, he placed first in his division and took overall honours in ’00. As part of the crew aboard the 42-foot Benateau ‘Smokum Too’ out of Thornbury, he worked the foredeck handling sails and spinnaker from 2000 to 2011. In 2006, the boat became the first-ever Canadian entry to win overall honours in the Chicago – Mackinac race.

van den Hoven enjoys working out and training, skis alpine and cross-country during the winter months. He works as a full-time employee with Hydro One as a Hydro One Lines Supervisor in Stayner, Ontario.

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

ROBERT “BOB” STOREY

Known as “Mr. Bobsleigh” in Canada, Bob Storey was involved in the Olympics for 45+ years as an athlete, official and volunteer.

In the 1960’s, he was a young competitor that trained on rollerblade wheels given
Canada’s lack of any bobsleigh training facility. His first taste of the  Olympics came during the 1976 Innsbruck games as a breakman. Subsequently, he  moved to the front of the sleight piloting Canada I at the World Cup and
Championships until his retirement in 1974. He competed in the 1968 and 1972 Olympic Games in the two and four man categories finishing 17th and 19th respectively.

Following his competitive career, Bob began his second career as a representative for the sport of bobsleigh. In this role, he advised national and international sports  bodies and was instrumental in the decision to allow Womens’ bobsleigh and skelton into the 2002 Olympics. He has served as a director and member of the Canadian Olympic Committee that was successful in securing the 1988 Calgary and 2010 Vancouver host bids.

In 1998, he was inducted into the Canadian Olympic Sports Hall of Fame as a builder.

1990 - 1999, 2000 - 2009, 2010 - 2019, Male

DAVID McKECHNIE

It didn’t take McKechnie long to set new benchmarks in swimming as a young member of the Collingwood Clippers. He started swimming at age 9. He holds 60 short-course and long-course club records and five Huronia Regional records. In 1996, he was ranked the nation’s third-fastest 10-year-old swimmer and clocked strong results at the provincials, where he was champion in the 50 and 100 breaststroke.
Ivy League champion swimmer David McKechnie is recognized as one of Cornell University’s all-time best performers, his swimming accomplishments rank among the best results in Ivy League history. He achieved the highest honour a college swimmer can attain as he qualified for the 2007 NCAA Division 1 championship in Minnesota. He placed 24th in the 100 breaststroke. It was a landmark year for the Cornell team, which claimed its first unbeaten dual-meet season in 60 years (10-0) and captured the regular season Ivy League title for the first time in school history. Cornell defeated Princeton and Harvard for the first time in over 20 years. From 2005 to 2007, he was the three-time Ivy League winner in the 100 breaststroke and twice won the league championship in the 200 breaststroke.

He was a member of four championship-winning relays for Cornell at Ivy competition in 2007. He was Cornell’s MVP in 2004-05 and 2006-07 and won the Spirit Award in 2004.
At the 2004 Canadian Olympic trials, McKechnie placed 12th in the 100 and 200 breaststroke. He won the 50 breaststroke championship at the Bell Grand Prix National Meet in Etobicoke in 2006, 3/10th of a second off the national record set by Morgan Knabe. He beat three Canadian Olympians in the process (Mike Brown, Scott Dickens, Matt Huang).

During his years at Cameron Street Public School and Collingwood Collegiate, he was involved in volleyball, basketball, cross-country running, and curling. His 1999-2000 junior volleyball team won the Georgian Bay championship. He also participated in Kids of Steel and Collingwood triathlons.

Twenty-six-year-old McKechnie is employed with Deutsche Bank and lives in Singapore. He says he owes a huge thank you to his local coaches, including Barb Richmire, Cheryl Blay and Todd Funston with the Collingwood Clippers.