Campbell has helped make game faster as rules enforcer
Memorial Centre had to separate the penalty boxes shortly after Greg Neeld got into a sin bin scrap with Campbell when he played for the Petes
The Peterborough Petes have produced lawyers, entrepreneurs, musicians and a web of figures across varying layers of the NHL, including Gary Bettman’s right-hand man: Colin Campbell.
Campbell was a member of some of the Petes’ most successful teams, including the 1971-72 roster that won an OHA championship and berth in the Memorial Cup final.
That same year, the Jim Mahon Award, given to a player exemplifying outstanding hockey skills and sportsmanship, was introduced in honour of the gentle giant whose life was cut short the summer before.
“Where I come from (Tilsonburg), you were in tobacco (farming ) in the summer,” Campbell said.
“I remember coming in from the farm one day and reading in the (London) Free Press about a Petes winger who was electrocuted and it was Jim Mahon.”
Campbell recalls processing the death of the beloved Pete with his teammates.
“I remember meeting the bus on the 401. We drove there and parked and the bus picked me up at 5 a.m. Peterborough picked up all the players along the 401. Going to a funeral as a kid, you don’t know how to deal with it.”
While in the Electric City, Campbell was coached by Roger Neilson who he joined in 1981 while playing for the Vancouver Canucks and then again as assistant coach in 1991 with the New York Rangers.
The Tillsonburg native saw more time in the NHL as a coach than he did as a player, splitting his 10 years manning the bench between the Big Apple and Motor City.
Shortly after concluding his coaching career, Campbell joined the NHL executive as senior vice-president and director of hockey operations.
In this role, he saw the 200405 lockout, chairing a committee to evolve the NHL’s rule book during the suspended season.
Since his hiring, Campbell has seen his son Gregory win a Stanley Cup with the Boston Bruins, ex-Petes Kris King and Kay Whitmore added to the executive and the league he loves expand.
Although the hockey world is quickly progressing and remarkable moments continue to be added to his bank of memories, for Coli there are ones that stand out.
“I got in a fight in the (Memorial Centre) penalty box once. It was an all-out brawl,” Campbell said.
“A guy by the name of Greg Neeld jumped up to kick me and I twisted his foot and we went down between there and
turned into a brawl out on the ice.”
Before room for timekeepers and separate penalty boxes, hockey players in the OHL were forced to share a bench with their opponent in the sin bin.
In the early 1970s, the OHL implemented a regulation requiring all rinks to build separate penalty boxes corresponding to the home and visiting team in the likelihood there was a member from each team simultaneously sent for a timeout.
Regardless of this request, the management of the Memorial Centre did not succumb to the league’s structural suggestions. That is, until Campbell and Neeld met in the single box.
Campbell describes the disapproval of his then coach and future colleague: “Roger came down and told me to stop because we had to go cross ice to our bench (east side of building).
“It was crazy to share the same penalty box. It was pretty ugly.”
According to unofficial Petes historian Pete Pearson, two penalty boxes were put in the rink shortly after.
Today, Campbell is responsible for enforcing the rules and elevating the game, a role that leaves him with few fans at the end of the day.
“What’s a compliment? Is it going to be backhanded or what?”
Campbell chuckled and recalled the time a dad approached him at a minor hockey rink asking him if he could commend him on his work with the NHL.
According to the NHL exec, the dad said, “Me and my eightyear-old son love the game now, it’s fast, enjoyable. We just wait every night to watch playoff hockey.”
For Campbell, the father’s comment marked a moment where he aced the test of building a professional hockey league with pond hockey values. During the 2004-05 lockout, his work’s mission was to decrease violence and in his own words, “make the game more fun to play, more fun to watch and return hockey to what it’s about.
“Our test is fans and players. We have to keep them happy and the media. We get tested the most. We get criticized the most. That is our test so we have to withstand that,” he said.
Campbell has worn nearly every hat possible in the business of hockey. This year, he faces arguably his toughest challenge yet — getting a season off the ground during a global pandemic.