Lifelong fan has had a long relationship with the Petes
From the first game in 1956 to Thursday’s home opener, it’s been fun, rewarding
On Thursday the Petes had their 64th home opener.
I was at that first game in 1956 and over the past 63 years have not missed very many games.
About five years ago, GM Mike Oke asked me to help Gary Dalliday as host of what’s now known as the Gary Dalliday Scouts and Media Room. When Gary passed away last year, I continued on until this fall, when Burton Lee, executive director, business operations told me the team was going in a different direction. That ended 48 years of my active involvement with the Petes.
It started in 1971, when I was the colour commentator on the CKPT radio broadcasts of their games, with the late Bill Bennett doing play-by-play. The three-year tenure was highlighted when we broadcast the final Memorial Cup game from Ottawa on May 14, 1972. There was no live television of the game that the Petes lost to Cornwall, 2-1.
Soon after, I started assisting in the Maclean-Hunter delayed-cable broadcasts of the Petes’ Thursday night games. Bill Spencley, then later J. Murray Jones and I taped the game later aired Sunday afternoon.
A few years later I did a live half-hour pre-game show from the garage area of the Peterborough Memorial Centre. I would interview the coaches and players and occasionally have a special guest, one being Don Cherry who was in town to open his new restaurant.
In 1981, I started scouting parttime for the Buffalo Sabres. The Petes and all teams east of Toronto were my responsibility.
In 1983 I was appointed the Petes’ academic adviser. All the high school-aged Petes attended Thomas A. Stewart Secondary School, where I taught. I was responsible for reporting the players’ progress, or lack of, to the team manager and parents. I attended the OHL drafts to meet the selected players and their parents. I continued that until 1995, when I retired from teaching. I found that time my most rewarding experience with the Petes.
In 1995, I co-authored, with Kevin Varrin and Gary Baldwin, a history of the team called “Five Decades with the Petes.” That year I started writing for The Examiner, and over the years have done a number of columns on the Petes.
Obviously, over all the years I have noticed a number of changes, but comparing eras in any sports can be a fool’s errand.
One obvious change is in those early years a fan of the game had to be alert. There was no glass protection along the side boards and no mesh high above the nets. The game clock only showed the time remaining; there were no penalty clocks or video screens with replays. If you missed seeing a play, it was gone.
I believe the players today come to the team with a higher skill level, on the whole better skaters, a higher hockey IQ, but less physically prepared for the rigors of major/junior hockey. Unfortunately, a few of the top talented players also bring an entitlement.
There are more opportunities for today’s junior players to go into the professional ranks of the game, but with the exponential rise in the number of young players competing for those jobs, the odds today are long.
The other big change in the game today is the speed of the players and the lack of extraneous physical play and fighting. As for the officiating in today’s games compared to earlier eras, I do believe there are less contentious judgment calls for them because of reduced physical play.
As for the entertainment value today for fans as opposed to earlier eras, I believe it’s a sawoff. Where the memorable segments of earlier games were often some kind of physical dustup, today it is the eye-popping skills of some of the top players. Don Barrie is a retired teacher, former Buffalo Sabres scout and a member of the Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame and Peterborough and District Sports Hall of Fame. His column appears each Saturday in
The Examiner.