Pat Doherty made his mark here
Coached Peterborough bantam A team to OMHA title 61 years ago
Pat Doherty grew up in Peterborough playing hockey but earned his stripes on the administrative side of the game.
He coached a Peterborough bantam A team, then the highest level of hockey available, to an OMHA title 61 years ago. It was the first Ontario title at that level for a Peterborough team. The team featured future hockey pros Bill Mahoney, Gary Darling, Larry Lounsbury and lacrosse greats Pat Baker and Cy Coombes.
Doherty was only getting started.
After beginning a teaching career in Peterborough in 1949, he moved to Kitchener in 1955. He made an impact in the school system coaching St. Jerome’s high school hockey and football teams to championships and becoming supervisor of athletics of the Waterloo Catholic school board for 21 years. He also gave his time to minor hockey serving as chairman of the Kitchener Minor Hockey Association, later the Ontario Hockey Association and was involved with the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association (CAHA) which is now known as Hockey Canada. He was coordinator of the 1988 World Junior Hockey Championships held in Hamilton. During his career he received the highest meritorious service awards presented by the KMHA, OHA and CAHA. There is an arena in Kitchener that bears his name.
Mr. Doherty died last month at age 87.
While most of his life was spent in the Kitchener-Waterloo area there are many in Peterborough who have fond memories of Mr. Doherty including those who played for him.
HANGS THEM UP
Umpire Gary Mitchell, 72, has called it a career calling balls and strikes after 35 years on the diamond.
He began umpiring in 1980 in Oshawa where he ran his first softball clinic and did many games in the Peterborough Men’s Softball Association city league at the George (Red) Sullivan East City Bowl.
He began umpiring both men’s and ladies fastball and peaked in 1986 with a total of 170 games while working shift work at General Motors. He was evaluated to Level 3 in a Port Perry tournament that year and in 1989 umpired at a women’s national championship, moving up to Level 4.
He moved to the Peterborough area in 1997 and continued umpiring men’s games also in Douro and Ennismore. He joined Softball Ontario.
“It was my love of the game that kept me coming back all these years, now at 72 both my wife and my body are telling me it is time to pack my equipment bag for the last time,” he stated.
WHERE IN THE WORLD ARE PETES FANS?
Winning by 12 votes, Petes fan Jason Wickman has been named the second annual Where in the World are Petes Fans summer photo contest winner.
More than 50 photos were submitted for this year’s contest with a Facebook fan vote determining the overall winner.
Wickman’s photo, taken in Niagara Falls, has earned him a onenight hotel stay in Toronto as well as a trip for four to the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Featuring a 2014 Petes playoff T-shirt, as well as Peterborough Huskies and Toronto Maple Leafs apparel, the photo took first place over a submission from a fan sand-surfing in Huacachina, Peru.