Midland Kelsey's Flyers Jr.C Hockey Club

 Midland Jr. B Flyers History

·         Entering the 1968-69 Ontario Hockey Association season, Midland hockey fans had two teams to follow at the town's legendary Arena Gardens – the Intermediate B Flyers, and Junior C Braves. The Braves featured a teenaged Wayne King playing centre. A product of the Midland Minor Hockey Association, King, Midland-born, but raised in Port McNicoll, consistently dazzled local crowds with his mixture of aggressive checking, superb passing, and menacing wrist shot. That spring, the 17-year-old forward competed alongside the men on the Flyers' squad which reached the provincial Intermediate B final, where Midland lost to the Durham Huskies, four games to one, in the best-of-seven championship series. During the same campaign, King performed in an OHA exhibition contest for the Owen Sound Jr. B Greys against the defending Memorial Cup champion Niagara Falls Flyers. It was there that Hap Emms, the owner and general manager of the Flyers, spotted the prospect's talent. Emms drafted King, and he lined-up in two games for the Major Junior A club.

·         King went on to complete two more seasons with Niagara Falls. Prominent amongst the skaters he battled on the same ice against were Gilbert Perrault of the Montreal Jr. Canadiens, Marcel Dionne, a St. Catharines Blackhawk, and Toronto Marlboro Steve Shutt. All three are now Honoured Members of the Hockey Hall of Fame at Toronto. Signed as a free agent by the California Seals, King had three tours in the National Hockey League with the Seals, and renamed California Golden Seals, across the 1970s. His most prolific season of professional hockey happened in 1973-74. In 76 games, as a left-hand shooter operating from the opposite side, the right winger scored 34 goals and added 34 assists for the Western Hockey League's Salt Lake Golden Eagles, California's top farm team. Not surprisingly, King was selected in 1996 as one of the inaugural inductees of the Midland Sports Hall of Fame.

·         Midland's Flyers, from 1969 to 1971, dominated the playoff groupings within the Georgian Bay league, and proved to be an Ontario intermediate hockey power. Their roster over those years was thick with stars, and included: Alvin Robillard, Edgar Dorion, Hugh Robertson, Larry Banks, Ken Edgar, Earl Scott, Ron Ley, Don Wilcox, Terry (Tiger) Moore, and longtime Midland stalwart Morley Spiker. Home dates at the Arena Gardens were frequently sold out, with play-by-play man Tom Shields broadcasting them live over radio station CKMP. At the end of both the 1969-70 and 1970-71 campaigns, the Flyers, having moved up to a higher classification, finished as OHA Intermediate A finalists. In 1970, the Port Colborne Sailors defeated Midland, four games to one, and a year later, the Brantford Foresters would claim the province's title from the Flyers in six  games.

·         By 1972 - and having already composed one of the most glorious eras of winning hockey in the town's history - the Midland Flyers intermediates disbanded. Advancing further into the '70s decade, team executives had decided they'd steer their franchise towards another direction. Many of the former players continued on with the sport, forming the nucleus for the Intermediate C Penetanguishene Garrisons. Meanwhile, Midland's remaining hockey brain-trust, led by president Ron Sauve, went forward and filed an application for approval to join the Mid-Ontario Junior B Hockey League. The efforts were successful, and the new Midland entry, once again called Flyers, prepared to face the Barrie Colts, Newmarket Redmen, Collingwood Blues, Orillia Travelways, and Owen Sound Greys in the upcoming 1972-73 season.

·         From the beginning, the off-ice plan for the Midland Jr. B Flyers was to stock their roster with the best available talent in North Simcoe. Across five seasons, Flyer management would sign Wyebridge's Murray and Bruce Guthrie, Elmvale natives Doug McMann, and Pete and Paul Minnings, Tom Gignac and Paul Robillard of Penetanguishene, and Midland's Bill Beauchamp, Loren Urquhart, Guy Ormiston, Ken Fox, Dave Ogilvie, John Frame, Randy Simpell, and Joe Gibson to OHA amateur contracts. In addition, they brought into town several highly-regarded imports, such as Rich Tabobondung and Mike Norrie of Parry Sound, Mactier's Ron Lyte and Cliff Jordan, Huntsville's Rene Pelletier, and Americans Eddie Malone, from Springfield, Massachusetts, and Long Island, New York products Rick Campisi, Val James, and Tom Hasenzahl. Coaching the Midland juniors, between the years 1972 and 1977, were Mike Dubeau, Terry Moore, Blake Ball, Larry Banks, and Edgar Dorion. Donald (Red) Urquhart was the team's general manager.   

·         Throughout the club's existence, everyone who played for the Jr. B Flyers wore green and white sweaters, Midland's traditional hockey colors – and for at least a few campaigns, the famous "winged" or "Flying M" crest adorned the front of their design. Perhaps no other sports logo has come to so closely represent Midland, or has endured in the town for so long. The symbol dates back to the nineteenth century, and was adopted by the 1899-1900 Midland team that captured the OHA's Northern Ontario Intermdiate championship. It later graced the uniforms of the 1908 and 1941 Midland Intermediates, each provincial winners, as well as Jim Johnson's great senior Flyer squads from the 1960s, and of course, the late '60s and early '70s intermediate editions, which also carried the Flyers name. Eventually, the juniors significantly altered their look, placing smaller "Flying M" shoulder patches on the sweaters, changing to a solid-yolk style down the arms, and replacing the front-side's larger emblem with "FLYERS" scripted diagonally in block letters.

·         Three members of the Flyers – Val James, Bruce Guthrie, and Bill Beauchamp – enjoyed varied careers in professional hockey, after displaying their potential at the Jr. B level. Born in Ocala, Florida, James used his size (6-foot-2, 205 pounds) and rugged ability effectively for the Quebec Remparts of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, and then the American Hockey League Rochester Americans, St. Catharines Saints, and Newmarket Saints. During the 1980s, the defenceman/winger was one of the few African-Americans skating in the National Hockey League, when he had brief stints filling an "enforcer" role with the Buffalo Sabres and Toronto Maple Leafs.

·         Guthrie joined the Flyers while still holding midget-age eligibility, and was partnered beside his older brother Murray on the Midland defence. Smart, tough, and creative, he later defended the blueline for the OHA's Major Junior A Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, before establishing an outstanding minor-pro reputation with the New Brunswick Hawks in the AHL, Utica Mohawks of the Eastern Hockey League, and most notably, the International Hockey League Saginaw Gears. Near the end of his playing days, Guthrie was a last cut at the 1979 training camp of the NHL’s Hartford Whalers.

·         Like Guthrie, Beauchamp developed his skills within the Midland Minor Hockey Association. A stylish centre, blessed with finesse, Beauchamp scored 25 goals - across  70 games of the OHA's Major Junior A league schedule -  for the 1974-75 London Knights. Unfortunately, he suffered a severe knee injury the following year in London, but despite the setback, the ex-Flyer star went on to split two IHL seasons between the Dayton Gems and Columbus Owls. Because of their accomplishments, the Midland Sports Hall of Fame embraced both Beauchamp (2008) and Guthrie (2000), by inducting them into its Athlete category.

·         The Flyers qualified for the playoffs in four of the five seasons in which the Jr. B franchise operated, and found success during the 1974 post-season. That year, the Midland juniors finished fourth in the Mid-Ontario league standings, setting up an opening semi-final confrontation between the Flyers and the second-place Collingwood Blues. Collingwood had won the majority of the regular-season matches against Midland over the previous two campaigns, and before the best-of-seven series began, the Blues were considered strong favorites to advance into the next round. But after six games, the long-time hockey rivals were tied at three wins apiece. In the seventh and deciding game, held on Collingwood ice, the Flyers completed the series upset of the Blues with a stunning 9-2 victory, and eliminated Collingwood from the playoffs. Midland's good fortune ended in the championship final, however, as the Owen Sound Greys pushed past the Flyers, four games to one, to capture their second-consecutive MOJHL title. 

·         In early July of 1976, the local hockey talk around town was the possibility of the Midland Flyers becoming a Tier Two Jr. A club. Flyer officials were awaiting approval from the Southern Ontario Junior A Hockey League, while keeping the option open to remain in the Jr. B ranks. But later that month, one of the worst disasters in North Simcoe's recent memory occurred, when fire completely destroyed the Midland Arena Gardens. The building had served the community since 1931, and during a period within the 1930s, Midland could boast of having the only artificial-ice facility located between  Toronto and Winnipeg. The town was devastated, and user groups from minor hockey to figure skating scrambled to find ice-time in such nearby arenas as Penetanguishene, Elmvale, and Wasaga Beach. Subsequently, the Flyers' application to join the Southern Ontario league had been rejected, and Midland was again fitted into the Mid-Ontario Jr. B league schedule. The team, now renamed the Midland-Penetang Flyers, would play its home games at the Penetanguishene Memorial Community Centre.

·         The 1976-77 season turned out miserably for the Midland-Penetang Flyers: Fan support was small and unenthusiastic; the club ended the year owing $9,000 to creditors; and on the ice, the young Flyer squad's (the Midland-Penetang roster included several midget and juvenile-calibre players) lack of experience resulted in a last-place finish. The Flyers'  management - citing high travel costs, uncertain facility rentals, and the fact the Midland franchise was without a home arena of its own - decided they couldn't ice any type of OHA team for the upcoming 1977-78 campaign. The Midland Centennial Arena wasn't slated to open until May 1978. Trying to put a positive spin on the events, and after failing to gain admission into the Georgian Bay Junior C  Hockey League, the Flyers vowed the Jr. B club would return in the accompanying season, 1978-79, with a stronger financial picture, executive, and local player base. Yet, time would show that sadly the distinctive era of the Midland Jr. B Flyers was over. During the months ahead, Jr. C hockey re-emerged in Midland to take the Flyers' place, and begin making an imprint on the town's sports scene.