The Hugh Davidson Cup that is presented each year to public school students is a tribute to this former school principal who was entered into the Sports Hall of Fame as a
Builder in 1984.
He organized many sporting competitions during his many years as Principal of Victoria School.
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.
Bert McLeod can qualify for Collingwood’s Sports Hall of Fame in several categories because he excelled in every game he ever tried.
As a student in the Collingwood Collegiate over seventy years ago, he won the junior, intermediate and senior athletic awards in senior athletic awards in successive years and played fullback on the C.C.I. first ruby-football team.
As a member of the Collingwood Y.M.C.A. he stared in basketball, volleyball, track and field, gymnastics, baseball and lacrosse.
Bert played on Collingwood Junior O.H.A. teams for several years and then became a key defenseman with the Collingwood Intermediate team that lost only four games in three years- winning the provincial title in 1918-19-20.
Bret moved on to Peterborough in 1921 where he led the Lift Lock City team to two O.H.A. Senior “A” championships.
He turned professional with Kansas City in the mid twenties and pioneered the game in the mid-west American city as a player and coach.
During his seven-year win three championships and was never out of the play-offs. After his long athletic career he operated a successful pharmacy in Peterborough.
Paul, nicknamed “Percy” was born in Rouyn, Quebec on March 29, 1930, living in Collingwood from 1945 to 1960. Alongside his wife, Isabel, they have three children Douglas, Constance and Patricia. Paul was a graduate of Collingwood Collegiate.
Paul favoured the warmer weather to excel in his sporting career. Throughout the greener months, his accomplishments were numerous on the baseball diamond and track & field pitch. As a member of the Collegiate Track & Field Team, Paul established a long list of school records including;
Senior Long Jump – 20’ 6”, Senior Pole Vault – 11’ 4 ½”.These records, alongside numerous invitational titles culminated in 1950 when Paul was the All Ontario (OFSAA) Senior Pole Vault Champion.
Upon the completion of the Track & Field season, Paul’s baseball career began to materialize from his early days in the Collingwood Shipyard Town League (Softball) in conjunction with his numerous Fastball teams. As a pitcher in both disciplines, Paul took home many team titles including: 1952 – Collingwood Shipyard League (Softball), 1953 & 54 – Coop Insurance League Champs (Softball), 1955 & 56 – Allenwood Georgian Bay Rural Champions and MVP (Fastball), 1957 & 58 – Minesing Barrie Senior League Champions (Fastball), 1960 & 61 – North Bay League Champs (Fastball), 1963 – Northern Ontario Intermediate A Champs and All Ontario Finalists (Fastball), 1978, 81 & 84 – Alliston Softball Champions. Paul’s fastball career featured a No Hitter, 1 – One Hitter, 13 Championships and 2 MVP awards.
Paul became a member of the Collingwood Sports Hall of Fame on June 12, 1998 in the Players’ category
Nip” Spooner qualifies as both a player and a builder in the Sports Hall of Fame. He played a major roll in the establishment of the Eddie Bush Arena as the official home for the Hall of Fame. Besides playing Junior and Senior hockey, he was a long-time scout for the Toronto Maple Leafs as a scout and is credited with the discovery of Darryl Sly and Wayne Carleton.
Donald Spooner was induced into the Collingwood Sports Hall of Fame in August, 1984.
Scotty Carmichael became the 25th member of the Sports Hall of Fame. He was nominated and inducted by his fellow members of the selection committee, without his knowledge, at the first induction ceremonies.
He is credited with the establishment of the Collingwood Sports Hall of Fame.
A sports reporter for various daily newspapers, radio and television stations, he
has been connected with many sports organizations for fifty-five years.
During this time he served as president of the Collingwood Senior Hockey League, the
Collingwood District Fastball League, Collingwood Junior Football League and
served as secretary and on and on the executive of Collingwood Intermediate and
Junior O.H.A. teams and the Collingwood Minor Hockey Association. He also
coached junior baseball teams and was actively engaged in long distance running
back in the mid-twenties.
At age ninety, Vic Ellis is the oldest living member in the Collingwood Sports Hall of Fame.
A lifetime of competition in many branches of sport, especially in golf and curling, has filled his home with so many cups and trophies that it now appears he has a corner on the silver market.
Born in Kimberly, Ont., Vic starred on baseball and soccer team before baseball and soccer teams in 1911, winners of the Grey County soccer cup.
Vic played on Collingwood baseball and softball teams for thirty years and was a member of the Collingwood senior baseball team of 1922, O.A.B.A. finalists and champions of the Georgian Bay League.
A school teacher in Collingwood for twenty years, Vic was the driving force behind the organization of the one-hundred member Tuxis Boys and Trail Rangers in the 1920’s.
A member of the old Collingwood Golf and Country Club and the Blue Mountain Golf Club for the past fifty-five years, he has been a perennial member of the Men’ Golf team and fifteen years ago won the Blue Mountain Handicap Trophy. In July 1943, he shot a hole in one for the first and last time in his golfing career.
However, this versatile athlete gained most of his fame as a expert exponent of the game of curling.
A past president of the Collingwood Curling Club, Vic has dominated the “roaring game” for sixty years.
Just two years ago he skipped the winning rink in the Markdale Mixed Curling tournament and in 1979 led a Creemore rink to the Quebec International Bonspiel Championship and the Marc-Hellaire Trophy.
This is a major curling feat at any time, but at eighty-seven, it was nothing short of a phenomenon.
Back in 1936 he skipped a rink in the Ontario Tankard competition and during his lifetime of curling won at least thirty trophies, including the Norman Rule Cup, the Currie Cup, the C.S.L. Trophy, the Enterprise-Bulletin Shield and the Chamber of Commerce Cup.
In 1956 he skipped the first Collingwood rink to ever score an eight end. It was a mixed team with Mary Colling, Evelyn Kean and Johnny Walker.
A lifelong member of the Smokey Island Hunt Club, Vic never missed a deer hunt in six decades.
His involvement in service clubs, charitable organization and the Masonic Order is legend. He has the distinction of presiding over all three branches of the Masonic Order in Collingwood. W Master of the Manito Lodge, “Z” of the Manitou Chapter and was first President of the Manito Shrine Club. Vic also served as president of the Collingwood Progress Club, chairman of the Victoria Order of Nurse, president of the Collingwood Curling Club, director on the General and Marine Hospital Board and a moving force behind the development of the Senior Citizen Club and the Meals on Wheels service.
His contribution to society was finally recognized two years ago when he was selected as the Citizen of the Year. His induction into the Sports Hall of Fame was delayed because of the rule that no person is eligible until after retirement. We had to waive that rule in the case of Victor A. Ellis – he is never going to retire.
Ab Hughes was 30 years old when he began his National Hockey League career. That is considered to be an advantage age for a rookie but he stayed up there for three years with the old New York Americans and went on to a successful coaching career in St. Louis.
Born in Guelph, Abbie started as a junior with Collingwood and immediately caught the eye of a Toronto hockey scout who induced him to come to Toronto in 1917. He was only sixteen at the time but he starred with Aura Lee and helped that team win the Ontario Junior “A” title.
His career was interrupted for almost three years when he served with the Canadian armed forces in World War 1 but he took up right where he broke off and was a
member of the Collingwood Intermediate O.H.A. champions in 1920.
He saw a great deal of senior action with Toronto, Hamilton and Welland and then signed a professional contract with the New Haven Eagles and later played two years with the New York Americans in the N.H.L. in 1931 and 32.
Scotty Carmichael (founder of the Hall of Fame) was one of a group of Collingwood fans who made the trip to Toronto to see Hughes play his first game as a N.H.L. pro in the new Maple Leaf Gardens in 1931. What a show he put on for the home town fans. Abbie scored two goals and the Amerks beat the Leafs 3-2.
In the late thirties he was signed as a player-manager of the team fledging St. Louis
team in the American Association. He is credited with educating St. Louis to the ice game as he held skull sessions with the fans between periods and before games and organized the first hockey school.
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.
When Ron Ralph moved with his family from Kentucky to take over managership of the Canadian Mist Distillers in Collingwood in 1968, he had two things in mind.
He was going to see that his firm would become a good corporate citizen and that
he, himself, would be an active private citizen in the town of his adoption.
Interested in all phases of sport in his native Kentucky, he continued to dominate the sports scene in the a Collingwood as a competitor and an organizer.
Ron was the driving force behind the organization of the Georgian Bay Slo-Pitch Softball League, now one of the longest and best in Ontario. He served as President of the League in 1973 and 1974 and become the first chairman of the infamous Collingwood Summerfest Slo-Pitch tournament, an annual event which attracted fifty teams from all parts of Ontario, including a couple of clubs from the USA.
Ron played basketball in the Kentucky Little League up through high school. His team later won the junior district title and the regional championship in the senior ranks.
He played baseball for the 504 Paratroop Battalion at Fort Bragg, North Carolina and later played senior baseball in the Kentucky Tri-County League for the Beals Red Sox.
He organized a Babe Ruth League in Owensboro, Kentucky. Ron coached a team, built the playing field, umpired and rustled up the team sponsors. For this project, Ron received the Kentucky Colonel Award. When he moved to Collingwood, Ron played fastball in the Blue Mountain League.
He found that fastball in Collingwood was as good as the US but preferred slo-pitch as it seemed more like baseball strategy and more all-around action.
In the summer of 1970, he was able to get a group of men to play challenge slo-pitch games and the following year organized the first Slo-Pitch Industrial League with the able assistance of John Hill and Tommy Murray. He continued direct involvement in the league until 1978, during which time he built the Canadian Mist team to championship caliber in the newly formed Ontario Slo-Pitch Association.
Along with Frank Smalley, Ron started the Collingwood Minor Baseball League in 1972. He coached several teams in the league for a couple of years before he was elected president of the league in 1974. The league grew by leaps and bounds and Collingwood hosted the All Ontario Bantam tournament in 1975.
A Collingwood team won the provincial title in 1979.