Category Archives: Browse by Category

1950 - 1969, 2000 - 2009, All, Baseball, Male

JIM McALLISTER

October 29, 2011 Mark

A very talented athlete since 1958, JimMcAllister dominated area ball diamonds throughout his 20-year fastball career.

Recognized for his excellent control with his drop, rise and slow pitches, Jim was a catcher’s dream as he seldom refused a pitch signal and on the rare occasion the catcher could expect ‘heat’ on the following pitch. He knew what his job was when he stepped on the mound and made sure he did his best for himself and his team.

His reputation elevated him to local legend status with the community often referring to him as “Big Jim” or “Wendell”.

A great team player, Jim’s maintained his focus on the job he was asked to do on the mound with little concern of what was going on around him. He never showed frustration and just worked harder!

Although it was his pitching exploits that are often referenced, his batting abilities were characterized as heavy moon shots that often soared over the outfield
fences. Throughout his career, he would close out his own game at the plate!

Upon review of his career, many of his personal statistics deserve recognition in League Ball comprising of 3 time – Most Valuable Player, 5 time –
Batting Title, 5 time – League Championships as he recorded 4 No-Hitters per season, 15 Strike outs per game while allowing only 3 hits per game.

Additional achievements included:

1963 Pitched First No-Hitter in Collingwood Softball

1965-66 Blue Mountain Softball League Batting & Home Run Champion

1967 Top Pitcher in Wins-Losses (210 Strike Outs)

1968 Blue Mountain Softball League Most Strike Outs

1969 Blue Mountain Softball League MVP

1970 New League Record of 300 Strikeouts in 20 games

Jim’s local Competitive Career:

Co-operators Insurance Fastball Team 1958

Beaver Valley League Champions 1958

Collingwood Shipyard Fastball Team 1959

Browns Lumber Kings Fastball Team 1960-1965

Beaver Valley League Champions 1963 & 1965

Gurney’s Sports Fastball Team 1965-1966

Collingwood & District League Champions 1966

Fisher Electric Fastball Team 1967

Elmvale Palace Hotel 1967 – 1970

LOF Glass Fastball Team 1968 – 1971

Blue Mountain League Champions 1970

Blue Mountain League All Star Team 1970

Woods BA Senior Fast Ball Team Barrie 1971-1972

George’s Furniture Senior Fastball Team – Angus 1972-1974

Clarkson Hotel Senior Fastball Team – Barrie 1976-1978

1930 - 1949, 1970 - 1979, All, Hockey, Male

CHARLES PORTLAND

October 29, 2011 Mark Leave a comment

If an athlete from Collingwood excels in five competitive sports and plays on a World championship hockey team, he certainly qualifies for a spot in his home town’s Hall of Fame.

Bus Portland performed in the shadow his famous brother, Jack, but nevertheless he was one of the best all Collingwood. We remember a bright sunny day back in 1934 when Bus Portland stole a whole athletic show in the annual Ontario Athletic Commission Meet in Orillia.

All he did that day was win the pole vault, high jump, 12- pound shot put and the long jump, had it not been for a special rule. No athlete was allowed to compete in more than three events in high school athletic events sponsored by the Ontario Athletic Commission.

That same year he set a record in the Collingwood Collegiate Field Day by winning the senior medal with six firsts out of seven events.

He was just as good on the football field. Playing at centre half, he ran plunged and kicked the C.C.I. to a C.O.S.S.A. championship in 1934.

Bus had a very colourful hockey career but his greatest hockey thrill came in 1938 when he starred with the Sudbury Wolves, winners of the McReavey, Gordie Bruce, Fan Hexime and Johnny Godfrey, the Wolves sailed through the entire tournament without a loss. He played on Collingwood junior teams before turning pro with the Hershey Bars in the American League. That team won the American League title in 1936. His last year in hockey was with a winner in 1939 when the Detroit
Ford Holyboughs won the Michigan- Ontario championship.

1930 - 1949, 1950 - 1969, 1980 - 1989, All, Athlete, Male, Other, Wrestling

LARRY SMITH

October 29, 2011 Mark 2 Comments

Larry Smith’s qualifications for the Sports Hall of Fame can come under any of the following headings: Boxing, wrestling, softball, baseball, football, track and field, bowling and coaching.

A very astute business man, he has often been known as “Square Deal Larry”. His idea of a square deal is to trade you a pork chop for a pig and the pork chop would probably be a shoulder cut.

Larry did not come into athletic prominence until around the age of 16 due to the fact that he was an only son and was more than urged to lead a sheltered life. He played a pretty good football game with

Collingwood Collegiate under the coaching of the late Lou Stapleton, earned a letter in Track & Field and made quite an impression in the Coronation Meet at Owen Sound by winning the 100 and 220 yard sprint in a pair of great duels with Eddie Sergeant, the well-known former M.P.P. for Grey. He finished his secondary school education at Glebe Collegiate in Ottawa At Glebe, he took up boxing and wrestling and went to the finals in both these sports in the Ottawa Valley championships.
Incidentally, he lost out in the boxing final to the late Johnny Quilty of St. Patricks College. Quilty later became a hockey star with the Montreal Canadiens.

At the Aggie College in Guelph, he played football and made the college track and field team in the sprints and relay races. Along came WWII and Larry enlisted with the 541 st Parachute Regiment. He won the light heavyweight boxing title at Fort Bragg and found in several important military boxing tournaments at Camp MacKall, Fort Jackson, Camp Gordon and Fort Benning.

He was selected to represent Airborne Command in the All American Army Golden Gloves at Charlotte, North Carolina, in 1943. He won three bouts and lost in the final. During his active duty in Europe, he made sixty parachute jumps and took part in the bloody battle of Arnheim. While in the army of occupation in Germany and Austria, Larry took part in several wrestling bouts with Captain Vern Smith, former American Amateur Union and American Intercollegiate champion. He won points in the General Patton Third Army Track and Field Meet and ran the anchor leg on
the 506th Regiment Relay team in Munich.

After the war, Smith returned to Collingwood, where he pitched softball for the Collingwood Legion softball team. The Legion team won the Blue Mountain League title in 1949, the Legion District title and went to the Ontario final. In 1950, he played centre filed for the Collingwood Intermediate baseball team and won the Georgian Bay League batting championship. This team also went to the provincial final.

He took up 5-pin bowling after he settled down to business as the owner and operator of the Collingwood Bowling Lanes and had a 250 average for 6 straight years. His best effort was a 256 average and a 975 triple in Senior play. He also won the Legion District Singles title at Newmarket.

Larry coached the Collingwood Collegiate Senior Football team in 1947, acted as wrestling and boxing instructor for the Collingwood Sea Cadet Corps and supervised a bowling school for Grade School children.

Collingwood fans got a chance to Larry in action when he challenged the Masked Marvel, who was then giving wrestling exhibitions with the Kings Brothers Circus. With the assistance of a thick coating of olive oil and the referee (long-time friend Don Jeffrey) Smith beat the Masked Marvel, much to the delight of the hometown fans.

1900 - 1929, 1930 - 1949, 1970 - 1979, All, Baseball, Male

WILLIAM “HUCK” CAESAR

October 29, 2011 Mark Leave a comment

Huck Caesar was only a lightweight in physical proportions but he was “giant” on a baseball diamond. He never weighed any more than 135 pounds soaking wet
but he hit more balls for extra bases than any other Collingwood ball player we ever saw or knew.

He covered centre field like a blanket and ran the bases like a gazelle. As tough as leather, his active playing career lasted thirty-seven years and he spent two decades of the amazing career on Collingwood baseball, softball, hockey and lacrosse teams. He was the driving force on the great Collingwood baseball team of 1935, winners of the John Ross Robertson Trophy and the All- Ontario Intermediate baseball championship – the only Collingwood ball team to win a provincial intermediate title.

Born in the village of Proton in 1903, Huck moved to Alliston with his parents in 1908. He made the Alliston team at age fifteen and helped the club win three
league titles in 1924-25-26.During his career, he played in several hundred tournaments for various teams.

The Bank of Toronto moved him to Havelock in 1926 where he played baseball and hockey. Collingwood claimed him in 1927, but this town had no baseball club that year and Huck signed Creemore and later played with Thornbury for six years.

During his stay in Collingwood he helped organize the Senior Softball League where he managed and starred with the Bankers, five-times champions. He played
intermediate hockey for the Shipbuilders in the thirties and even took a crack at lacrosse, when that game made a brief comeback in the depths of the depression.

When intermediate baseball went into a decline in Collingwood in the late thirties, he played five years with Meaford and helped that town with the Ontario championship in 1939.

Huck left Collingwood in 1947 but he kept playing baseball and was with the Watford intermediate champs in 1947 and 1948. He was still playing at fifty-five and after his retirement, he wound up his diamond career by coaching his home town Alliston team to Ontario Midget title in 1957.

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

JOHN DANCE

October 29, 2011 Mark Leave a comment

They called him the “Hard Rock” and there never was a more suitable moniker to describe this rugged little policeman of the ice lanes in the days when hockey players had to be rugged to survive.

John Dance played in the shadow of such great Collingwood stars as Rabbi Fryer, Jack Burns, Frank Cook, Harold Lawrence, Angus McKinnon and the Foulis brothers but it was his back checking and bodychecking that gave the stars the chance to shine.

He played junior for several years before he made the Intermediate club in 1911, the year after the Shipbuilders won their first O.H.A. title.

The team missed out in 1911 and 1912 but it was Dance who knocked down the obstacles and led the team to the championship again in 1913.

It was his greatest year. He skated interference for the big scores and took many a thump that was meant for the top scorers, Fryer, Burns and Lawrence, but his goal came in the big clutches.

Three times on the way to the final round, Dance came through with game winning goals. Collingwood won the first game of the provincial final against London Acadians 6-5 and Dance poked in the winner. London won 2-1 at home and tied the round. The third and deciding game played before six thousands fans in Toronto went to the Shipbuilders 3-2. Dance scored one goal and set up the winner.

Collingwood did not win another championship until 1918 and once again John Dance bore the brunt of the enemy attack. He hung up his skates in 1919 but he took them down again twelve years later. With his old teams mates, Frank Cook and Jack Burns, he came back to help the Odd fellows win the Collingwood Senior Hockey title. He was forty-three years old at the time.

John Dance died on April 14th, 1965, in his 77th year.

1950 - 1969, 1990 - 1999, All, Baseball, Builder, Male

JOHN HILL

October 29, 2011 Mark Leave a comment

John Hill and his wife Marie and sons Jim and Gary, are lifetime residents of Collingwood.

John has participated in and organized many sports. He has also volunteered and officiated for numerous sports and leagues.

The following is a list of his personal achievements:

1947……….Ontario Baseball Association Bantam Finalist

1947-48…….O.M.H.A. Bantam Group Champions

1953……….O.H.A. Jr. C Champions (beating Ingersoll 4-1 series)

1954……….Georgian Bay Sr. Boys Basketball Champs

1954-55…….Captain Jr. C Belairs- Won league over Midland Redwings 9-2.

1955-56…….Legion Sr. Town League Champs

Jan. 1956…..Received a letter for New York Giants to attend rookie camp in Melborne, Florida

1957……….Stayner Motormen O.B.A. Int. A Champions

1960……….Midland Indians O.B.A. Sr. A Champions-defeated Oakville

1964……….Orillia Majors O.B.A. Sr. A Champions

1968……….Tremont Hotel Blue Mtn. Fastball Champions

1969……….Orillia Majors. O.B.A. Sr. A Finalists

1972……….Orillia Majors O.B.A. Sr. A Finalists

1979……….O.A.S.A. Slo Pitch B Div. Champions, Canadian Mist

The playoffs provided John with the opportunity to lead his respective teams. As Captain of the Jr. C Belairs, John singlehandedly defeated Midland accounting for 5 goals/3 assists in final game.

On the ball diamond, it was during the 1960 O.B.A. Championship Series when John’s baseball talents were put on display as he played and excelled in three positions against Oakville – Pitcher, Left fielder and Catcher. Incredibly, John batted .419 throughout this playoff run.

He was a volunteer member of the Collingwood Recreation Board from 1967 to 1985 and served as its chairman for 6 years. Working alongside Ron Ralph and Brian Sayer, John was instrumental in organizing Slo Pitch in Collingwood.

-Pitch, Kinsmen Slo Pitch and Hockey Tournaments along with the Beaver Lumber Annual Oldtimers Hockey Tournament.

John was a long time member of the Collingwood Hall of Fame Selection Committee. His local sports history was often referenced by others and his stories always brought a smile. Until his untimely death in 2012, John was an active Director. The reprint of the 2012 Sports Hall of Fame book was the result of John’s passion to update the original 1978 publication.

He has coached minor hockey and baseball, and has also umpired in Fastball, Baseball and Slo Pitch. He has refereed Little N.H.L., O.M.H.A. and O.H.A.

On January 1, 1988 the Order of Collingwood was bestowed on him, acknowledging his many years as a community volunteer.

1970 - 1979, All, Builder, Male

WILLIAM McLEAN

October 29, 2011 Mark Leave a comment

I would have liked to have written the story of Bill McLean while he was still
with us but he wanted no part of personal publicity.

Bill’s contributions to the development of sport and young athletes in Collingwood
were hidden under a bushel because that’s the way Bill wanted it.

This single incident, one of many, will attest to the true spirit of helping others
that was Bill McLean’s greatest human asset.

About forty-five years ago we were having a hard time assembling a Junior O.H.A. hockey team. The main stumbling block was the lack of cash. We didn’t have enough of that commodity to pay the entrance fee.

A hastily called meeting was attended by six or seven interested citizens. The
interested citizens ignored the poor turn-out and went ahead with the election
of a board of directors.

Bill McLean, who had returned to Collingwood to practice law after an absence of
many years, slipped unannounced into the meeting just before it broke up. He
didn’t even identify himself but sought out he newly elected treasurer- the treasurer without a treasury.

“Would like to help a little” he said, as he slipped a bill into the treasurer’s hand and departed. It was a one hundred-dollar bill. He didn’t even wait for a “thank you” and that was his only donation as the season progressed.

That was only one incident in the life of Bill McLean where he helped without
looking for anything in return-not even acknowledgement.

Born in Barrie in 1896, Bill taught public school in Collingwood for two years before moving out to Weyburn, Saskatchewan. He played centre for the Presbyterian Theolgian College team in Saskatchewan in 1922 and 1923 but his crowing athletic achievement came in 1923 when he coached the University of Saskatchewan Senior Hockey Team to the Allan Cup finals. This team lost by a single goal in a two-game series to the famed Toronto Granites, Olympic winners in National Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto.

A year later he coached the Regina girls’ hockey club to the provincial title.

An accomplished marksman he captained the University of Saskatchewan rifle team for two years.

Mr. McLean was admitted to the bar in 1925. He practiced in Indian Head, Saskatchewan, and Barrie, before returning to Collingwood in 1944.

From 1944 until his death in 1977, he supported Collingwood hockey and ball teams in his own quiet way and during that time became involved in harness racing as a
driver and attained notable success with Billie Direct and Bunty Gratton.

Bill McLean, gentleman, scholar and sportsman, has well earned his niche in
Collingwood’s Sports Hall of Fame.

1900 - 1929, 1930 - 1949, 1970 - 1979, All, Football, Hockey, Male

JACK PORTLAND

October 29, 2011 Mark Leave a comment

We can name a half dozen Collingwood boys who could be classed as “all round athletes” but from a national standpoint the honours must go to Big Jack.

As a hockey player he starred for ten years in the N.H.L. with Montreal, Boston and Chicago.

His name will be found on the Stanley Cup, alongside such greats as Eddie Shore, Bill Cowley, Dit Clapper, Cooney Weiland and the Kraut line of Schmidt, Bauer and Dumart. That was the team of 1939, considered to be Boston’s greatest. That year the Bruins lost only ten games in a 48-game schedule and defeated Toronto four games to one in the Stanley Cup final.

His professional hockey career was cut short by at least five years when World War II intervened. After three years service with the Canadian Army, Jack never returned to the N.H.L.

Pro football lost him because hockey was his first love. He turned don three football offers before signing with Canadians. Jack represented Canada at the 1932 Olympiad at Los Angeles and the 1930 British Empire Games at Hamilton in the high jump event. We always thought he should have competed in the decathlon. He could run 100 yards in ten seconds, toss the javelin, heave the shot put, run the half mile, long jump and triple jump and, of course, set records in the high jump.

He finished his great athletic career back in his home town by playing for the Collingwood Shipbuilders and coaching the Collingwood Greenshirts to their first of four O.H.A. Junior “C” championships.

Jack Portland qualifies for the Collingwood Sports Hall of Fame in just about any category you care to mention.

1990 - 1999, All, Builder, Male, Wrestling

RALPH SNEYD

October 29, 2011 Mark Leave a comment

Ralph was born in Vancouver BC in January of 1945 and spent his early years of school competition moving from Montreal, Daytona Beach Fla., Port Hope and Toronto.

He participated on several championship teams in high school and represented his school at the Ontario Athletic Leadership Camp where he was introduced to the sport of amateur wrestling. He competed in wrestling’s early years as a
high school and university sport. In 1969 he started his teaching career in North York’s, Northview Heights SS where he began his coaching career and convened and won several Team Championships with three Canadian Champions and six OFSAA medalists.

Ralph moved to Collingwood in 1976 and began the Collingwood Wrestling Club that saw just fewer than 3,000 members in its 30 year operation. His high school wrestlers collected 26 OFSSA medals and 51 GBSSA Championships. The club continued to compete in Canadian Amateur events and won 18 Ontario Team Championships and 7 Canadian team titles. 147 wrestlers won Ontario Amateur Wrestling Medals and sixty two of them winning Canadian medals. Three of his wrestlers went on to win silver and bronze medals in World Championships. Fourteen former wrestlers of the program are now coaching wrestling in other programs across Canada. Ralph was the Team Leader for several Ontario teams who all won Gold at the National Championships. He coached Canadian teams at World Championships in France,
Hungary and Washington DC.

He hosted 148 wrestling tournaments including 9 OFSAA Championships, 16 Ontario Championships, 7 Canadian Championships including 4 in Collingwood and the World Youth Wrestling Championships held in Collingwood in 1987. He retired from teaching in 2000 but still is involved with the sport of Wrestling in Ontario and committees such as the Multiuse Committee in Collingwood.

– President of Central Ontario Wrestling 1979-1992 and member of OAWA Board of Directors

-Member of OFSSA Sports Advisory Committee for Wrestling 1983-1998

-Founded Wrestling Drawmasters Association of Canada in 1988

– Wrote all 3 OFSSA Rulebooks on Wrestling

– Was a co-founder of Ontario Youth Wrestling and Canadian Youth Wrestling and
chaired the committee for 12 years.

– Established Simcoe County Elementary School Wrestling program for boys and girls

-Assisted in the development of Women’s Wrestling as an OFSSA and Amateur Olympic Sport

– Chaired committees in Ontario, National or World sporting events held in Collingwood 1989-2003

– Founder and Chair of the Federation of Collingwood Sports Inc (transportation support to sports teams)

– Creator of the Black and Gold Society to honour outstanding alumni at CCI and first Chairperson

Understandably, Ralph has been recognized with numerous awards for his dedication. Some of these include:

– Ontario Special Achievement Award 1988

– FILA Gold Star 1987 (the sport of wrestling’s highest international award)

– Ontario Coach of the Year Awards 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1989, 1990, 1994

– Inductee Canadian Wrestling Sport Hall of Fame 1998

– OFSSA Leadership in School Sport Award 1992

– Simcoe County Excellence in Education Award 2003

– Order of Collingwood 1987 and Companion to the Order of Collingwood 2004

1900 - 1929, 1930 - 1949, 1970 - 1979, All, Hockey, Male

LAWRENCE”DUTCH”CAIN

October 29, 2011 Mark Leave a comment

He was the most artistic body checker ever to perform for a Collingwood hockey
team and must be ranked with the best hitting defensemen of anytime-professional or amateur.

Bon in Newmarket but a resident of Collingwood for forty years, Dutch was the kingpin on the 1935 Collingwood Shipbuilders, winners of the O.H.A. Intermediate “A” championship.

Dutch played hockey under the principle that a good body check should be heard and not seen. There never was a better demonstrator of that principle.

“The bigger they are, the heavier they fall!” said Dutch, and during his career he dropped tons of hockey beef over scorers of arena ice surfaces throughout Canada and the United States.

He weighed only 155 pounds but the answer to his great hitting ability was in the
timing. Dutch never ploughed directly into the path of an onrushing forward. All he needed was a piece of him.

Cain played junior hockey in his native Newmarket and was a member of the Owen Sound Greys, Memorial Cup champions of 1924-25. That was quite a team-Cain, Cooney Weiland, Butch Keeling, Teddy Graham, Hedley Smith and Fred Elliot. The team picture of the Greys is in the Hockey Hall of Fame. Weiland Graham and Keeling went on to stardom in the N.H.L.

In the following years, up until 1928, Dutch played with Eveleth and Calumet in the old Central League. Calumet won the title in 1927.

A few years ago Cain was inducted into the United States Hockey Hall of Fame in Minnesota. Dutch returned to Canada in 1928 to help South Porcupine win the Northern Ontario senior title and then played on championship teams in the Eastern League with Baltimore Orioles and the Bronx Tigers. He was selected as the most valuable player in the league in the season of 1934-35.

He moved back to Collingwood in 1932 and was about to call it a career when he was
lured back into uniform by the late Walter Robinson, then coach of the Collingwood Shipbuilders. Dutch teamed up with big Jack Portland on the defense. Portland
was a good pupil and went on to a ten-year career in the N.H.L. his last season in 1935 was a winner.

Teaming up with playing-coach Bern Brophy, he helped Collingwood win the Intermediate title for the sixth time since 1910. He died the day after the founding of the Collingwood Sports Hall of Fame.