As the Collingwood Colts sped end to end at the Eddie Bush Memorial Arena, a small group of former hockey players reminisced about the games they played before helmets and Zambonis.
Last night, the Colts paid tribute to the former Collingwood Shipbuilders, a hockey team that played at different junior and senior levels in Collingwood from as early as 1907 to as late as 1986.
For their game against Brampton Admirals, the Colts wore re-created Shipbuilders jerseys and the team executive invited former Shipbuilders players onto the ice for the puck drop.
Among the former players were Jim Nixon, Charlie MacDonald, Ron ‘King’ Taylor, Don Rich, and Dr. Don Paul, teammates from the 1950s and 60s.
“It was good hockey and good teams,” said Nixon, once the captain of the Collingwood Shipbuilders.
“The ice was good,” said MacDonald, a centre during his time with the team. “The crowds were good.”
Rich was a goalie for the team. He recalled a time when the players took their positions on the blue line for the playing of God Save the Queen, but there was a mix up with the tapes, and I’s the B’y started playing over the arena speakers.
The group chuckled together at the memory.
The Colts netted two goals in the first period, impressing the Shipbuilders in the crowd, who also noted the speed and skill of each player. And the equipment.
Nixon, MacDonald, Taylor, and Rich played without helmets and with very little padding. They also had to rely on manpower instead of machines to clean the ice.
Rich recalls the “rink rats” who pushed shovels around the ice to clear it. Then they carried drums of water – two rink rats to a barrel – around the ice surface, sprinkling water as they walked. Behind them another followed with a cloth to smooth everything out.
Dr. Paul didn’t play on the team, but he was president of the Shipbuilders from 1960 to 1971. He looks back on that time with fondness.
“It was fantastic,” he said. “It was more fun than anything, and it was a wonderful bunch of guys.”
He remembers MacDonald as “one of the best,” and said the Shipbuilders centre forward could have made the NHL had he not fractured his ankle one summer playing ball.
Harry Lumley, a former goalie for the Shipbuilders, did play in the NHL as the youngest goaltender in the league. He was 17 for his first game. Lumley played for the Shipbuilders after retiring from the NHL.
“We’re all really good friends,” said Paul. “We had a lot of fun together … we have a lot of memories and all good.”
After his time with the Shipbuilders, Paul became a radiologist and spent his career in medicine at the Collingwood General and Marine Hospital. He remained passionate about the Shipbuilders and local hockey and he kept a study full of team photos and memorabilia.
When he dropped the puck at last night’s game (Jan. 3), he was wearing a corduroy Shipbuilders team jacket.
He said it was “wonderful” to return to the Eddie Bush Memorial Arena and drop the puck for a hockey game.
He also got to see the Colts take their first game of 2020 with a 4-2 win over the Admirals.
Bruce Melhuish, a member of the Colts executive, first pitched the idea of a game honouring the Collingwood Shipbuilders at the start of the Colts season.
He’s a hockey fan with a collection of 100 jerseys, and is fond of the Shipbuilders story.
He said the wood in the ceiling of the arena, build in 1948, came from the Collingwood Shipyards, and he considers the Shipbuilders the foundation of Collingwood’s hockey history.
“They were the ones,” he said. “The fabric of our community. Everyone knows a Shipbuilder … I wanted to let everyone here know where we come from.”
Having former Shipbuilders on the ice for the puck drop was a last-minute idea, but Melhuish is glad it came together.
“I think, quite frankly, it made the evening,” he said. “It’s the proudest thing we did out there.”
The Shipbuilder jerseys were made at Trott’s Sports Excellence in Collingwood, and they were done in white with blue and red stripes to match some of the sweaters worn by former Shipbuilders teams.
The Colts return to the ice tonight for a home game against visitors, Stouffville Spirit, at 7:30 p.m.
