His playing weight hovered around 150 pounds but he hit like a heavyweight and
stickhandled in the fashion of the legendary Rabbi Fryer. Artie Clark was a
forward but his body checking ability had just as much effect on opposing
players as a hitting defenseman. Defensemen stopped them at the blue line-Artie
dropped them at centre ice.

His athletic capabilities were not confined to hockey. He was equally adept in the games of baseball, softball and lacrosse and he even played creditable game of cricket. He pitched, caught and played the infield in baseball. We can recall many ball games back in the twenties when Artie caught the first four innings and then finished the game on the mound. He just turned fifteen when he made the Collingwood junior team in 1920. In 1921, he was a member of the exceptionally good Collingwood junior club that almost beat Howie Morenz and the Stratford Midgets in a sudden death semi-final game in the old Toronto Mutual Street Arena. Stratford went on to win the Dominion title.

He was still with Collingwood when they lost out in the O.H.A. semi-finals to Aura Lee and University of Toronto in 1922 and 1923. He moved up into the intermediate ranks with Collingwood the following year and then helped
the Grimsby Peach Kings win the Ontario title in 1925. That was the year the Peach Kings stunned the amateur hockey circles by beating the Soo Greyhounds in the first round of Allan Cup play. He stayed with the Peach Kings another year
and turned professional with the old Chicago Cardinals in 1927. In 1928, he was up with the leading scorers with the Kitchener Millionaires in the International League and had another good year with Teddy Oakes’ Toronto Millionaires in 1929.

The following year he signed with the Cleveland Barons where he teamed up with three other Collingwood born players, Reg Noble, Bern Brophy and Mike Brophy. Artie had a season with Syracuse and finished an eighteen-year in Oklahoma City in 1935.

Back at the turn of the century a Collingwood hockey coach watched a wiry red headed nipper weave back and forth through thirty or forty kids on a west end mill pond.

He wore a pair of beaten up spring skates and he carried a home made hockey stick. With that stick he performed miracles with a wooden puck. He only relinquished possession of that wooden missile when he felt like a rest.

That was the last time Ernie Fryer ever played on a mill pond. He was quickly injected into the line-up of the Collingwood Shipbuilders and for the next three decades he wrote his name across the record books of the Ontario Hockey Association.

He played his entire hockey in Collingwood with the exception of the two-season stint in Northern Ontario and a season with a senior club in Toronto.

He captained and spearheaded the Collingwood Shipbuilders to five Intermediate “A” provincial titles in 1910-13-18-19-20. He and Frank Cook turned down a pro offer from the Montreal Canadians mid-way through the 1920 season.

They said at the time that they could not leave Collingwood with the Shipbuilders on the way to a third straight championship. Of course, the amateur rate of pay was pretty good in those boom days of the early twenties.

The late Lou Marsh once said, “Rabbi Fryer was the greatest amateur player Iever saw. Everything he did in a hockey rink came natural.” Fryer was a legend in his time and he was still good enough to command star rating at forty-eight years of age. I saw him play his last game in Midland in 1934. He scored two goals and drew five penalties. He was his own policeman right to the end. When the final bell sounded, a thousand fans jumped the boards to shake his hand. The rest of the team was dressed and back in the hotel before Fryer left the rink. It was the first time I ever saw anything but fire in his eyes, but there were tears that night. It was the Rabbi’s finest hour.

We have no hesitation in inducting Ernest Fryer as the first member of Collingwood’s Sports Hall of Fame. He died November 15th, 1969. We will never see his like again.

Sonny Robinson was a valuable member of those great Collingwood Jr.’C’ Greenshirt
teams, in 1951 -52 and 1952 – 53, which won back-to-back OHA championships.

Robinson, was the leading scorer for the a Greenshirts in the 1953-54 season before
moving on to play for the Intermediate ‘A’ Meaford Knights for two years, going
to the all-Ontario finals both times. The hard working centre man came
back to Collingwood to play for the Intermediate ‘A’ Shipbuilders in 1956 and
played for eight more seasons.

Robinson’s contributions weren’t restricted to the ice surface as he served as a volunteer at several different positions, including president and a house league coach
with the Collingwood Minor Hockey Association for 1957-79. He was responsible
for setting up a power skating school during his tenure with the CMHA.

Clarence ‘Sonny’ Robinson was inducted in the Collingwood Sports Hall of Fame in 1996.