Albert, or Ab as he was better known, was inducted into the Collingwood Sports Hall of Fame on June 20, 1992, in the players category.

He was born in Collingwood, May 1, 1933 and at the time of his election to the Hall he was living in Collingwood with his wife Gladys.  They had three
children. Albert attended Collingwood Connaught Public School and Collingwood Collegiate Institute.

The list is long for this multi-sports athlete, thus the reasons for naming Ab to
the Hall of Fame.

A summary of his career is seen in the following:

– 1946-1960  Hockey

– 1947-1959 Baseball

– 1948          High school Track & Field

– 1960-1967 Fastball

He played juvenile hockey in 1949-50 moving up to Junior ”C” to be coached by Jack Portland and winning the OHA’s Junior “C” title.  Continued his “C” career until 1953 having played on all four Junior ”C’ Greenshirt championship teams-1949 -50 with Jack Portland; 1950-51, 1951-42, 1952-53 with Eddie Bush. In 1953-54, he played on the Collingwood Intermediate Hockey Team. In 1954-55, Ab was a member of the Meaford Knight’ Intermediate Hockey Club going to the OHA final before being ousted by Tillsonburg in the seventh game.

During the 1949-50 season while playing juvenile hockey he was scouted by Bob Davison, chief scout of the Toronto Maple Leafs and signed to an Option “C” form.
The following year he attended the Toronto Marlboro Junior “A” Hockey Team’s camp at Maple Leaf Gardens.

In fastball, he played on local teams until 1957 when he joined the Stayner Motormen’s OBA Intermediate club helping the team win the provincial title.  In 1958 and 59 he went to OBA finals with Stayner and the Collingwood Lions.  He also played with the Midland Indians and the Creemore Red Sox.  He ended his ball career playing with Collingwood clubs sponsored by GM Motors and the Tremont Hotel.

In 1948, while attending Collingwood Collegiate Institute he completed in junior boys’ track and field becoming the junior school champion in three events (880 yard dash, 440 yard and 220 yard) and finished second I the 100 yard dash.  He was named the overall junior champions.

Ab worked at the Collingwood Shipyards as a draftsman until the yard closed in 1986.

In Jan 2023, the Albert passed away in his hometown, Collingwood.

In 1958, he won the Dr. John C. Findley Trophy. The Dr. Findley Trophy is an award presented annually to the athlete adjudged to be the keenest and best competitor in the Town of Meaford. That year, the special citation read “To the little man with the big heart.” That single line is the life story of Collingwood born – Barney Walmsley.

Pound for pound . . . and he never weighed more than 135 of them. . .  Barney was one of the best and gamiest athletes ever to come out of Collingwood’s East End, and there were many games ones spawned in the shadow of the old Connaught School.

He excelled at every game he played; hockey, baseball, softball, football, track and field and even table tennis. Barney played them all and won them all – well and clean.

There are not many stick handlers left in the game of hockey. The stick handler has been discouraged in this era of hit, charge and shoot but Barney can be classed as one of the last of the good ones.

He had everything but weight on the ice with the big fellows. He weaved in and out of the tight corners like an eel, could attain full flight in three strides, could thread a needle from the port or starboard side with a flicking but powerful wrist shot, could lay a pass on a teammate’s stick from blue line to blue line, rarely lost a face-off and never, stopped trying and hustling.

Born on January 15, 1931, Barney skated a few days after he learned to walk.

His hockey career started with the formation of the Collingwood Minor Hockey Association back in 1945 when that organization boasted only four junior teams. He played centre for theEast End and made the first All-Star team the first-time out. He was fourteen and he tipped the scales at exactly 90 pounds, shoulder pads and all.

He jumped up to Midget O.M.H.A. in 1946 and was bitterly disappointed when Hap Emms’ Barrie Club beat them out in the group finals and went on to win the provincial title. Lindsay put the Collingwood team out in 1947 in a tough overtime game and the following year the whole team stepped up into Juvenile ranks. The club went to the finals.

The following year, the Juvenile Cubs won the Ontario title without losing a game. Barney scored 35 goals and set up plays for 81 more.

The following year, Barney and Len Cook went to the St. Louis training camp and St. Louis sent them to the Barrie Colts, a Junior “A” club, coached by Hap Emms.

Emms was very much impressed with Walmsley but he said “Barney you are good enough for any Junior “A” Club right now but you are too small for professional hockey.” The kid was naturally disappointed but he passed up the Junior “A” chance and came back to Collingwood.

That was the beginning of the long reign of the Collingwood Greenshirts. They won the Ontario Junior “C” title four years in a row.

In 1950, Barney scored 50 goals and at the end of the season, Baldy Cotton, chief scout for the Boston Bruins, asked him to sign with Waterloo in the Junior “A” loop. He was offered a contract but he couldn’t sign because he property of the St. Louis Flyers.

After a great deal of thought, he reasoned that there was no 103 pounders in the NHL and he came back to Collingwood.

He helped the Greenshirts to another title and moved up to the Intermediate ranks under Eddie Bush in 1952 when the Shipbuilders on the provincial championship for the second year in a row.

It was quite a season for Barney. He lost all of his front teeth in the group final against Newmarketbut he never missed a game.

In the Ontario final against the Simcoe Gunners, it was Barney who put the icing on the cake in the fifth game. He scored the cup-winning goal on a pass from Eddie Bush before the end of the 10 minute overtime period. The Gunners turned the tables on the Shipbuilders in the 1953 final.

After another year in Collingwood, he received offers from Orillia, St. Thomas and Meaford. He took Meaford because it was closest to home. Meaford reached the Intermediate “A” finals in the next two years and won the OHA Senior “B” title in 1958.

Barney had played in the OHA Junior, Intermediate and Senior finals for eight consecutive years. Meaford went to the Senior “B” final  again in 1963 and two years later Walmsley was back to Collingwood.

The Shipbuilders went to the Senior “A” final in 1965 and Barney moved back to Meaford to finish out his active playing days. He played hockey with the Oldtimers until 1982.

Barney was a slick fielding baseball player and was a member of the Collingwood team which won the Ontario Midget title in 1946. He later played O.B.A. baseball with Collingwood and in the Intermediate ranks with Thornbury, Orillia, Stayner, Creemore and Meaford. His athletic ability was not confined to hockey and baseball as he starred on high school basketball, soccer and football teams. In a Tudhope Track and Field Meet in 1946, he competed in five events and finished with a first, two – seconds and a third.

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.