BEARS ALUMNI JR. C TEAM SCORES AGAIN FOR ANDY’S PLACE WITH ANNUAL GOLF TOURNAMENT

Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com

BRACEBRIDGE — Remember Red Fisher and Scuttlebutt Lodge: Tall Tale Capital of the World?

It ran on CTV from 1968 to 1989. Guests included NHL greats Johnny Bower and Eddie Shack (Leafs), Stan Makita (Blackhawks), Gordie Howe (Wings), baseball legends  Fergie Jenkins (Red Sox) — and even Slim Pickens (actor — think of Major “King” Kong riding a nuclear bomb to oblivion in Dr. Strangelove?)

Fisher, an ex-pat American, shared tall tales about fishing, hunting, hockey, other sports and a lot of needling, humour and fun camaraderie.

The show was even parodied by a couple of Canadians on SCTV’s ‘Fishin’ Magician’ with John Candy and the Red Green Show with Steve Smith.

It was pretty much like that Saturday on Saturday at South Muskoka Curling and Golf Club where players, friends and family of the Bracebridge Bears Jr. C hockey team (cira 1970-83) alumni gathered to golf, exchange exaggerations and raise money for Muskoka Hospice’s Andy’s Place, which is in need of money after losing some funding. The alumni did the same last year.

This was the third annual tournament.

Lots of names were dropped, including former coach Randy “Squid” Faulkner, who died March 13. A very fine player and an even nicer guy, all agreed as they paused to remember him.

Last year team members paid tribute to Scottie Lees, who was previously deceased the season before last on June 13 2022.

That’s how team-mates are.

They remember the great (Billy Morrison, Wayne Sander and so many dozens more …), the bad (family newspaper) and the funny — and not always strictly about hockey in the glorious old barn coming down this fall and site of many miraculous playoffs and championships.

Goals scored, missed — and more than a few that were slightly more embellished game winners.

Goalie Greg Hammond recalled a humorous anecdote about Bears director Joe Defabrizio.

He owned Joe’s Billiards, downstairs on Manitoba Street beside the Patterson Hotel, where many players celebrated or drown their sorrows.

Anyone who scored a hat-trick got a free dinner at the Top Hat restaurant further down main street.

The same went for puck-stoppers who didn’t allow a goal.

Only Joe thought not.

Or at least tried to convince some gullible goalies, Hammond laughed while telling a round table of former players on the 19th hole.

Luckily the less timid Hammond had GM Keith Peacock intervene on his behalf by signing the certificate and dinner was served. Dessert was humble pie for the poolie whose hall slogan was “Where good sports meet.”

Mini golf or South Muskoka, the Bears were ready for 18 holes at both and having great fun rounds of golf and friendship for the third straight year.
Great game – games – guys. The Bears Alumni scored a win for Andy’s Place Saturday with their third annual golf tournament at SMCGC.

There were plenty of good-natured stories on the course, off it and during dinner, silent and bidding auctions.

Rick Smith and Rick McCutcheon, two other truly greats, were among 50 golfers who hit the links in the best ball tournament. Many of them proving to be more improved with a golf club than a hockey stick — as they put away their golf bag, but not before one more shot on the putting green in an additional fundraiser.

Fortunately they played better when first facing off first with a putter in the morning when more than half the team teed off at 9:30 a.m. at the Northern Escapade mini golf club. That teed them up for the main noon tee time start, said golf coordinator Ron Webb, a former BCGC club golf pro who also coached the Bears after Danny Poland, 92, who made a brief appearance on the third hole riding with his former stick boy and later player John Stewart.

Organizer Greg Crozier says they are still settling all the scores and should know how much their donation to Andy’s Place is this year.

This season a new Muskoka Jr. C Bears team debuts at the soon to open Muskoka Lumber arena/library for play this winter.

Next year there will be more tall tales about how great this alumni golf round was.

This time you can believe them.

Rick and Sherry Smith carry away one of the prized auction items. A photo of the Bracebridge Memorial Arena taken by Mark Clairmont the last day the ice was in the Memorial Arena before the home of the Bears is to be torn down this fall for a new rink cross town to open next month.
Scott Hammond tees one up at Northern Escapes in the morning.
All eyes are on this orange ball headed over the hump to the hole. Did it make it … ?
Brian Whitehead and Mike Jones, different eras, same team in the mini putt.
Greg Crozier, centre, takes a break for lunch from organizing various parts of the tournament to have a quick bite. He and wife Linda and Ron Webb were just a few of the Bears who pitched in a third year to get players, their spouses and friends together to reminisce about the good old Jr. C. Days.

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