The history behind the Peterborough & District Sports Hall of Fame
Volunteer visionaries like Maurice (Lefty) Reid, and many others, helped to piece everything together
If you have never visited the Peterborough and District Sports Hall of Fame, I suggest you do. I know you will be impressed. And the cost is very reasonable. Admission is free.
The idea for a permanent Sports Hall of Fame, located in the east side of the Peterborough Memorial Centre, was pitched 47 years ago. Founded in 1979, the museum is home to a vast collection of more than 10,000 items of sports memorabilia and artifacts dating back to the mid-1880s.
But how did the Hall of Fame come into existence, and who were the original trailblazers who made it happen? The Hall of Fame’s website says the idea came about when Stan McBride Sr. suggested the City of Peterborough should establish a local lacrosse Hall of Fame.
This was the genesis for the Peterborough and District Sports Hall of Fame.
In 1976, Jack Carpenter moved to Peterborough and became involved in a variety of community endeavours, including lacrosse. Carpenter organized a meeting attended by some of the lacrosse executive members, and a plan was devised.
The assembled group started by researching the constitutions of other Ontario community Sports Hall of Fames. Next, the City of Peterborough granted its blessing to proceed, committees were established and an executive was finetuned.
Members of the original Sports Hall of Fame committee were Jack Carpenter (founder and first chair), Gerry O’Connor (city council appointee), Paul Epping, Mollie Cartmell, Bobby Allan and Bob Delpellaro.
Now the real work began. Beginning with the first induction dinner at the Red Oak Inn, inductees were presented with a framed Norman Knott thunderbird print. One original Norman Knott painting is on display in the Hall of Fame, but at that time there was no physical building.
In 1986, Ed Murphy joined the executive. He recruited Herb Warr, Neil Thompson and Vic Henderson to a meeting at his dining room table, and a plan to create a permanent display for athletes was conceived.
The building committee set a goal of raising $50,000. First, they approached the athletes who had been inducted, and asked each for a $500 donation. The response was overwhelmingly positive.
Next, they set about fundraising. One of their first ventures was selling draw tickets for a big-screen television. With permission from Portage Place, they set up inside and sold tickets for the prize.
They also ran bingos, and later they partnered with the Brick furniture store to sell hamburgers, hot dogs and soft drinks in the parking lot. They ran games for the children and the proceeds from the sale of food went to the hall.
The $50,000 was raised and this money was used to create the wall of honour in the Memorial Centre corridors, including the framing of the inductee sketches and their biographies.
After Maurice (Lefty) Reid retired as curator of the Hockey Hall of Fame, he came to Peterborough. The Hockey Hall of Fame was moving from the CNE grounds to its new location. With Reid’s connections, he made arrangements to pick up the old display cases that were going to be discarded, free of charge.
With the generosity of local entrepreneur Dan McWilliams, who donated a truck, Reid and a few other volunteers picked up the display cases in Toronto.
Reid, Warr, Thompson, Jack Gibson and others spent the next year assembling and retrofitting the display cases for the new building that opened in 1995.
Thanks to these visionaries, Peterborough has one of the best halls of fame in Ontario.