Whit Hammond makes Collingwood’s Hall of Fame as a lacrosse player, speed skater and hockey player.
Eighty years ago he was one of the brightest stars in Canadian lacrosse but at that time he was raising no cheers from Collingwood fans. Wearing the colors of the Owen Sound Crescents he sank many a ball a Collingwood net and we were happy to see him move to Collingwood in 1908.
A fierce competitor at all times, he was a driving force behind Collingwood hockey teams for many years.
He played goal for the Shipbuilders in 1908, the first Collingwood team to reach the O.H.A. Intermediate finals.
His speed skating feats are legendary and as a speed skater he was indirectly responsible for starting a Canadian fighter on the road to the World Heavyweight Boxing title. That may sound like a kooky kind of a statement but it is true. Back in 1900, Whit Hammond and Noah Brusso of Hanover, Ontario, were considered to
be the best speed skaters in the country but they had never met in a race.
Brusso was charged with “ducking a match race with Hammond” and Brusso replied by accepting a match race with this remark. “If Whit Hammond beats me I will hang up my skates forever.” Hammond beat him in three straight heats for a trophy filled with silver dollars at Hepworth. Noah Brusso was true to his word.
He did hang up his skates and put on a pair of boxing gloves and changes his name to Tommy Burns.
It was a wise and profitable choice for the Hanover speed skater. A few years later on Feb. 23rd, 1906, he defeated Marvin Hart for the World heavyweight crown-the only Canadian ever to reach the pugilistic pinnacle.
Whit Hammond was one of the great athletes of his time. He died in Collingwood in 1959.
Category Archives: Years Competed
KEN MILLER
Ken Miller was born in Sarnia, Ontario in 1947 where he began his weightlifting career. In his hometown, he was a member of the Turcotte Athletic Club from 1970-1977.A career business decision brought him to the Collingwood area in 1977 resulting in Ken founding the Blue Mountain Weightlifting Club.
Over his career, he has competed at Local, Provincial, National and International Levels since 1970 – winning numerous local, Gold, Silver & Bronze medals. Ken has held the title of the Ontario Open Champion – multiple times alongside scores of Gold, Silver and Bronze medals.
A member of the Ontario Weightlifting Team since 1970, Ken has earned a Bronze Medal at the Canadian National Championship. In his early competitive years, Ken reached the National standards to compete at the National Championships. Incredibly, Ken has been a 6-time Gold Medalist 6 times at the Canadian Masters Championship (1993, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000).
On the International Scene, Ken has participated in events around the globe as a member of the Canadian Masters Weightlifting Team from 1990 through today. His medalist accomplishments include:
Pan American Masters Championships – Gold, Silver, Bronze medalist (Competitors
from North & South America and Caribbean Islands) – about 7 competitions
World Masters Games –BrisbaneAustralia – Silver Medal
World Masters Championships – Bronze Medalist – representing Canada against competitors from all over the world.
Ken has set or still holds Ontario, Canadian, Pan American and British Commonwealth Masters records.
Understandably, there are few “honours “available after this list of incredible achievements. However, the the Ontario Weightlifting Association recently recognized his 25 continuous years within the sport. He has competed, coached and administrated in the sport of weightlifting for 35+ years.
He has also participated in baseball, fastball, slo-pitch, golf and hockey.
Ken has continued to follow his own competitive path as an athlete and also acted as an ambassador for the sport of weightlifting in the community and also for Collingwood in the International weightlifting arena. Ken has been an inspiration, coach and mentor to many younger athletes over the years.
Some of the more prominent ones would include:
1) Former President & Treasurer – Ontario Weightlifting Association
2) Former Chairman of Canadian Master Weightlifting Association
3) Level 1 coach – Coach with Blue Mountain Weightlifting Club (25 years)
4) Chairman – Canadian Master Weightlifting Championships – Collingwood 1993
5) Co-chair of World Master Weightlifting Championships – Collingwood 1996
6) Co-chair of Pan American Masters Weightlifting Championships – Collingwood 1999
7) Co–chair Canadian Weightlifting Championships- Collingwood 2001
8) Representative for Canada at World Masters Congress
9) Co-chair of annual Collingwood Open Weightlifting Championships- 8+ times
10) Representative of Collingwood on the Provincial, National and International weightlifting scene
The Town of Collingwood could not have a better ambassador for the community and sport. Ken has always demonstrated a desire for sportsmanship, a trait that he willingly imparts to fellow competitors during competition. Ken is truly recognized as a gentleman within the weightlifting community, and eager and focused competitor but one that always ensures the experience is a joyous one for him and his fellow competitors.
This evening, April 21, 2007, the Collingwood Sports Hall of Fame welcomes Ken Miller as an enshrined member for his Athletic achievements.
ROBBIE SANDELL
Robbie’s hockey career spans an active period of some 40 years counting his seven years with the Collingwood Old-timers squad.
He played on three championship teams in Public school; Juvenile in 1941; Junior “A” with Barrie; Intermediate and Senior with Collingwood, and was a member of the All-Ontario Kinsmen Hockey Club.
Robert Sandell was inducted into the Collingwood Sports Hall of Fame, in August, 1984.
FRANK COOK
Frank Cook was the greatest goalkeeper of his time stated Bill Hewitt, secretary of the O.H.A. for 60 years, when Frank died on June 6th, 1931, in his forty-second year.
Born in Midland in 1888, he was a member of the Midland Junior O.H.A. champions in 1907, lured to Collingwood in 1909 to lead the Collingwood Shipbuilders to their first Intermediate championship in 1909-10 against London. Three years later, Frank backstopped Collingwood to another Championship in 1913 followed by 3 consecutive titles in 1918, 1919 & 1920. In total, Frank played on six O.H.A. Intermediate title winning teams between Midland and Collingwood.
Near the close of the 1919 season, Cook and Rabbi Fryer, were both offered pro contracts with Montreal Canadians.
“It may be your last chances to make the big time” said Darcy Bell, manager of the Collingwood team.
“We can’t leave Collingwood with the team in the finals” said Cook and the Rabbi agreed.
After retiring in 1924, Frank rose from his sick bed to backstop the Collingwood Oddfellows win the 1931 Senior Town League title. The opposition scored three goals off him in seven play-off games.
It was, perhaps, a sentimental gesture, but it stuck in the hearts of Collingwood fans forever. From that day, the names of Cook and Fryer have been spoken in reverence.
Lou Marsh thought he was born twenty years too soon and said. “Had he chose to turn pro he would have been rated as one of the best N.H.L.”
As it was, Frank Cook dominated the amateur hockey scene for seventeen years from 1907 to 1924.
Less than 3 months following Frank’s return to the ice in 1931, the town was collectively shocked to learn of Frank Cook sudden passing, truly Collingwood’s greatest goalie and one of the town’s most respected citizens.
JIMMY “THE SAILOR” HERBERTS
Collingwood has been the birthplace of many colourful sports characters over the past seventy-five years and the Sailor must rank high on the list.
We have always thought that he never received the recognition he deserved and apparently Connie Smythe thought so too.
When Jimmy died in 1968, Smythe said, “Herberts was the most underrated player in the N.H.L. because too much attention was paid to his fun loving antics. But he was one of the best of his era and a natural hockey player.”
He had a ten-year career with Boston, Toronto and Detroit and several years with International League clubs. He also took a fling at refereeing in the British Hockey League but his antics were just a little too much for the staid English hockey promoters.
He was a star right from the start in his rookie year with the Bruins as he scored seventeen goals and picked up ten assists in a 30-game schedule. This was a most remarkable feat when you realize that the goal production for the whole Boston team that season of 1925 was only forty-seven goals.
The season of 1925-26 was his best. Playing between Carson Cooper and Hugo Harrington he scored 27 goals in 36 games and finished third in the standing behind the great Nels Stewart and Cy Denneny. In 1927 he finished fourth in the
scoring race and the Bruins made the Stanley Cup finals for the first time. The Ottawa Senators defeated the Bruins that season two games to nothing with two games tied. The Sailor’s contribution was three goals.
Jimmy moved on to Toronto in the middle of the 1928 season but although Smythe valued his ability, he refused to put up with his frolicsome behaviour and his utter disregard for training rules. He finished his N.H.L. career with Detroit where he succeeded in helping Jack Adams to acquire a cluster of ulcers. He once upset the whole scoring structure of the league by claiming two points for one goal. In a game against New York Ranges he managed to recover his own pass and score. According to Jimmy’s calculations an assist counted a point and so did a goal. Since he was the passer and the scorer it just had to be two points for Herberts. Of course, he didn’t get away with it, but he had the official scorer puzzled for awhile.
Herberts had that race gift of showmanship that kept his name in sport pages. A Detroit writer panned him once for failing to show up for a game. Jimmy was as mad as wet hen. Not for the panning. He was ruffled because the writer misspelled his name.
ALLAN MORRILL
To say that Allan Morrill is a member of one of Collingwood’s great hockey families would be the understatement of the century. Allan will join his great uncle, Ernie “Rabbi” Fryer; his father Bobby Morrill, of the greatest amateur centre and goal scorers of all time; his two cousins, Barney Walmsley and the late Ab Kirby.
Allan’s active hockey career was far too short. Had he chosen to continue after his junior days, he would undoubtedly have made the NHL.
He had everything –superb stick-handling ability, speed, courage and a shot that could tear out the end of a net.
His ability to score goals can be attested in his splendid goal production when the Collingwood Greenshirts won their first Ontario Junior title in 1950.
In a 15 game regular schedule he scored 25 goals and assisted on 18 more. In the 17 game playoff series, he “lit the lamp” 21 times and was accredited with 20 assists. That makes a total of 46 goals, 38 assists for a total of 84 points.
That year, Morrill and his team mates of Frankie Dance and Jimmy Barrett rolled up the astounding mark of 184 points. Needless to say, Dance and Barrett are also in Collingwood’s Sports Hall of Fame.
Allan’s first provincial medal came in 1949 with Porky Young’s juvenile champions. He was teamed with Frankie Dance and Jim Barrett that season and for the next four years the line held together to win four straight Junior “C” championships. Morrill and Barrett also added a pair of OHA Intermediate “A”’ medals when Eddie Bush called them up to the Shipbuilders Intermediate finals in 1952 and 1953.
The Barrett-Morrill-Dance line was probably the greatest scoring combination in Collingwood’s hockey history. Its passing plays could be described as “Poetry in Motion”. With that combination there was no such a thing as “giving the puck away”. Every move was made as if it was planned on the drawing board beforehand. Dance
would lay out the pass to the point from left or right with deadly accuracy. He did not even have to lift his head because he knew that either Morrill or Barrett would be on the receiving end and the shot on goal was automatic. That kid line accounted for 444 goals and 347 assists for a point total of 791 scoring points during the four year span they were together.
His greatest scoring feat came in the final game of the 1952 Collingwood-Ingersoll series. Morrill scored five goals and assisted on a sixth as the Greenshirts won 7-5. He drew a standing ovation from a crowd of 2,000 as he skated to the dressing room three minutes before the end of the game.
Allan left Collingwood for Gananoque in 1953. He played part of a season for Kingston Seniors before calling it a career in 1954.
Allan Morrill was inducted into the Collingwood Sports Hall of Fame on June 11, 1986.
PAUL SHAKES
Born in Collingwood, Paul Shakes scored one hundred goals in the novice division of Collingwood Minor Hockey, and that record still stands. Paul hockey skills caught the attention of our local junior team where he played at the midget age of 15.
Shakes was chosen 38th overall by the California Golden Seals (NHL) after accumulating 170 points in three seasons with the St. Catharines Black Hawks of the OHA. After scoring 20 goals in 1971-72 the young rearguard was voted on to the OHA first all-star team.
A recognized fine playmaker, Paul played defense for Salt Lake City in 1972-73 where he registered a decent 42 points as a rookie pro with the WHL’s Salt Lake Golden Eagles. The next year he played 21 games for the California Golden Seals but was relegated to the minors for the last two years of his career before he retired in 1976 after surgery for a herniated disk.
He now has an interest in Harness Racing where he and son Brad have co-owned and trained many champions including 2002 Ontario Sires Stakes champion Meadowview Sunny. In the same year, Meadowview Sunny was a recipient of the O’Brien Awards as the premiere 2 year old cold trotter in harness racing over a given year.
Paul was inducted into the Collingwood Sports Hall of Fame in 1984.
JOHN WALLACE COOK
There was also the duty of serving in the Canadian Armed Forces in 1944-45. “In those days, scholarships were not worth that much and you had to work as well as pay a lot for the schooling, and there wasn’t enough to support that at home,” he said. Among his achievements were high school records in the 100-yard, 220-yard, 440-yard, 880-yard and mile races, along with the broad jump and shot put.
He also won several regional and military events thanks in part to the tutelage of local native and star athlete Charles “Bus” Portland. Cook was a keen volunteer and organizer who served as CCI student council president, and with the help of Marion Clarke and Blue Mountain Resort founder Jozo Weider, established the inaugural Collingwood Collegiate invitational alpine ski meet in 1947. He worked, then managed at Walker Stores outlets across Ontario and would settle in the hometown of his wife Mary, Carleton Place, where his family would own a store for 38 years until selling it in 1995.
During this time, Cook also served as a town councillor from 1960-64 and chaired a committee that oversaw business development for this Eastern Ontario region. He has three children, Richard, Mary Jane and Melinda. His granddaughter, Alex Cook, attends the famed Nick Bolleteri Tennis Academy in Florida, and grandson Brock Matheson plays for Brock University’s varsity hockey team after a successful run with the Tier II Jr. ‘A’ Kanata Stallions. “I can’t say my family hasn’t been holding up the athletic end of the bargain,” he quipped. “It’s been enjoyable to travel and see them perform.” In his later life, Cook still rides 10 miles a day on his bicycle, and is an avid skier and recreational badminton player. “It’s not a competitive thing. I just like to stay active and healthy!”
This evening, October 23, 2004, the Collingwood Sports Hall of Fame welcomes Wallace ‘Wally’ Cook as an enshrined member for his Athletic achievements.
DON HEWSON
The Collingwood Collegiate grad moved out of the Collingwood area in his late teens to attend the University of Toronto where he secured a degree in Mechanical Engineering. A resident of Stouffville, Don his wife Sandra havre raised seven children.
Hewson is the President and major shareholder in a Toronto-based engineering firm, and despite his professional and family commitments through the years, has been able to keep his golf game more than up to snuff.
In 1991, he captured the Canadian Seniors’ Golf Association Tournament with a two-round total of 150 at the York Downs Golf Club. He has had a couple of other notable performances, including a first-place in the Ontario Seniors Better-Ball event and a berth in the 1992 U.S. Senior Amateur event a the Oak Hill course at Rochester, N.Y.
In his younger years, Hewson won several club championships including four in Collingwood, three for Simcoe County and other at York Downs, St. George’s and Scarborough.
He also won a few Collingwood Shipbuilders’ Suppliers Tournament in Wasaga Beach, and Collingwood’s John Richards, often a playing partner of Hewson’s said that if Don didn’t win that tournament, his twin brother often did.
Hewson was active in other sports, and played on two Collingwood hardball clubs that made it to the provincial finals. He was also a member of Central Ontario high
school championship teams in both volleyball and basketball during his stay at
CCI.
Don Hewson was inducted into the Collingwood Sports Hall of Fame in 1994.
BOBBY MORRILL
One of the greatest stick handlers of his time, Bobby Morrill holds the time record in Collingwood’s long hockey history for goals scored in a single season.
Fifty-three years ago, while playing centre for the Collingwood Juniors, he scored ninety-five goals in twenty-one games.
You would almost think he had some kind of a rubber-to-wood magnet on the blade of his stick. He had a supernatural knack of pulling the puck from the back of the net, pivoting around the post and slipping the puck under the goalie’s skates.
Mike Rodden actually compared Morrill to Howie Morenz when the two centers met in the 1921 O.H.A. Junior semi-finals and by a strange quirk of fate, both players died only a week apart in 1937. Morenz died after he received a broken leg in an N.H.L. game at the Montreal Forum and Morrill met a tragic death in an industrial accident at the International Nickel Plant in Port Colborne.
Rodden was really sweet on Morrill and he induced him to go for a try-out with the Toronto St. Pats. Bobby turned out for one practice, and according to Mike, he was a sensation. But he was convinced that he was not fast enough as a skater to hold his own in the N.H.L. and he never went back.
So Morrill went to Port Colborne where he became the toast of the canal town for many years when the Sailors ruled the roost in the Senior O.H.A. ranks.
We saw a carbon copy of Bobby some thirty years ago when his eldest son, Allan, spearheaded the Collingwood Greenshirts to four straight O.H.A. Junior “C” championships.
The fading art of stickhandle ran in the blood of the Morills. Four of Bobbie’s nephews, Barney and Ab Walmsley and Morrill and Ab Kirby left their marks on the Collingwood hockey scene over the past four decades.