MVP hockey player remembered
Gus Leonard, 97, had been second oldest living Peterborough and District Sports Hall of Fame inductee
Gus Leonard was at the Peterborough and District Sports Hall of Fame for their Tuesday morning coffee crew as the 97-year-old has been doing for years.
That’s why it was surprising for many to learn on Friday that Mr. Leonard died Thursday night. Only Fraser Dunnfield, at 100, was older among the Hall’s living inductees.
“I don’t know anyone who didn’t have tremendous respect for Gus as a person and a hockey player,” said long-time Hall of Fame chairman Don (Red) Wasson. “If the world was full of Gus Leonard it would be a much better place.”
Mr. Leonard grew up in Marmora but Peterborough became his home when he moved here in 1941 to play junior B hockey and soon after begin basic training at Morrow Park during the Second World War. He built a home on Donegal Street he lived in until his death.
In December 1997, Examiner columnist Don Barrie wrote an extensive piece on Leonard’s career. Barrie quoted a 1951 Examiner article which said of Leonard: “The Petes star took the rubber at his blueline, and in a beautiful display of weaving and stickhandling, eased his way through the entire team to score a picture goal.”
Wasson said Leonard was one of the best senior hockey players of his era.
“He was a wonderful hockey player ,” he said. “I can’t believe he didn’t play at a higher level than he did.”
A combination of the War and Leonard’s love for hunting and fishing may have contributed to him not having a burning desire to pursue professional hockey.
As Barrie wrote, a teammate of Gus from his junior days said of him, “He was a hockey talent with class and a real gentleman to boot.”
He played his minor hockey in Marmora and gained a reputation as a teenager playing in the Trent Valley League. He joined Peterborough’s junior B team in 1941 and joined Joe Rochetta and Ron Horton on the team’s top line. Examiner sports writer Fred D. Craig wrote: “This boy Leonard who hails from Marmora is a real find for the juniors. A rangy, fast lad, he is good going both ways, is a fine team player and handles himself nicely at all times.”
Following his basic training he was posted to the Canadian Provost Corp in Ottawa and played in the Interservice Hockey League. He was recruited for an Armed Forces team of select players who were to travel to entertain the troops. He trained with Red Tilson who was later killed in combat and for whom the OHL’s Most Outstanding Player Award is named.
“He was as good a player as was in camp,” Leonard said. “He was not very big but he was outstanding with the puck.”
Before the team was to go on tour all the players were sent back to their local regiments. After the War, Leonard resumed playing hockey in Marmora until Red Creighton called to see if he was interested in moving to Peterborough and play for the senior B Petes.
Barrie wrote that Leonard’s first job, he remembers, was “sweeping out the old Centre Theatre each night after the last show.”
He later worked at the Dominion Woolens and the Toronto Peterborough Transport Co., from which he retired.
The fondest memory of Leonard’s hockey career was winning the Jimmy Drummond Trophy. This award was given to the most outstanding player in hockey in Peterborough in 1951.
His best game memory was from his high school days. The high school in Marmora had 35 boys, in total, from which to choose a hockey team. In the 1938-39 season, this small school made it all the way to the Ontario finals in Ottawa.
Mr. Leonard was elected to the Peterborough and District Sports Hall of Fame in 1993. Visitation and funeral arrangements were not immediately available.