HOF News

2026 HOF Preparation

SPORTS HALL OF FAME

By RON SMITH

The Brockville and Area Sports Hall of Fame is preparing for next year’s event.

The Sports Hall of Fame has been scheduled for Thursday, June 11 and Friday, June 12, 2026 at the Memorial Centre in Brockville.

After being sidelined by COVID for three years, the Sports Hall of Fame made its comeback in 2023. This year the Sports Hall of Fame will be celebrating its 32nd anniversary.

Brockville radio and community legend Bruce Wylie had an idea for the sports awards banquet in 1976. At the initial event, Bunny Bradfield, Jim Cunningham, Jack Giffin, Charlie Publow and Don Swayne were inducted into the Sports Hall of Fame for their contribution to local athletics over many years.

The event struggled financially and it did not reappear until 1993 when Leo Boivin, Roger Hodgkinson, Chick Kirkby, Doug Marshall and Wilmot Young joined the original five inductees on the wall in the lobby of the Brockville Memorial Centre.

The 32nd event will be honouring a longtime volunteer, a longtime coach, sports team of the year and sportsperson of the year. The event will also induct five new individuals into the Sports Hall of Fame to join the 170 who are already there on that impressive wall or rotating through on the television screen.

The committee is always looking for the community’s input into nominations for the five categories in the area that encompasses Brockville along with Cardinal on the east, Toledo to the north and Mallorytown to the west.

For coach and volunteer, those awards are given to people who have dedicated a lot of their lives to helping athletes or teams or organizations.

For sports team and sportsperson of the year, they are honoured for accomplishments between May 1, 2025 and May 1, 2026.

For possible Sports Hall of Fame inductees, they are honoured for a lifetime of accomplishments and achievements, whether pro or amateur, whether it is for athletic prowess or for giving of their time to enable teams and athletes to enjoy and succeed in sports.

People are urged to send nominations to Ron Smith at rsmith132@cogeco.ca. The deadline for nominations is Saturday, May 23.

Larry Robinson

LARRY ROBINSON

By Ron Smith

If it was a movie script that was offered to Hollywood directors, they probably wouldn’t believe it.

But, it was certainly a Cinderella story when the St. Louis Blues went from last place in the National Hockey League in early January to hoisting the Stanley Cup in mid-June.

And, for Larry Robinson, the most accomplished player to ever wear a Brockville Braves uniform, it marked an impressive milestone achievement.

As a senior consultant/assistant coach for the Blues, this is the 10th time … six as a player with the Montreal Canadiens, three as a coach with the New Jersey Devils and one with St. Louis… that Robinson will have his name engraved on the sport’s most cherished trophy.

“It sure brought back a lot of memories for me, the whole story of where we were and where we came from,” said Robinson, “and the fact we were basically setting history for the franchise just made it all that much sweeter.”

The Blues fired the offensive-minded Mike Yo in January and replaced him with the more defensively-responsible Craig Berube.

“We just didn’t have the horses to play that way,” said Robinson of an offensive, run-and-gun game. “Craig came in and changed the way we played. The kid (goaltender Jordan Binnington) came in and we went on an 11-game winning streak. All of a sudden, we were back in the race.”

“He (Berube) wanted the guys to play as a team, not as individuals,” continued Robinson. “I’ve always believed that individuals win awards, teams win championships. That was the biggest turning point.”

From January to the end of the season, the Blues broke down the schedule into 10-game segments, wanting to win seven of the 10 games. Every game was playoff style for the Blues and they didn’t have to change anything when the post-season started.

The Blues shocked the heavily-favored Winnipeg Jets in the first round and the road to the Stanley Cup parade had begun. Even in the finals against the Boston Bruins, the Blues were the underdogs.

“It was amazing. This team never game up. The more the odds were against them, the better they played. When their backs were against the wall, that’s when they played their best,” praised Robinson, noting the depth and balance of the team was a key element in winning.

Watching from the team box was agony in the playoffs.

“I was playing every shift, blocking every shot, shooting every puck,” recalled Robinson. “The butterflies I had in my stomach never left me until there was seven seconds left in Game Seven.”

This was a memorable and special Stanley Cup win for Robinson, right up there with his first one with the Montreal Canadiens as a player in 1973 and then his first one as a coach with New Jersey in 1995.

He’s the only player-coach in the NHL to win a Stanley Cup over five decades.

It’s been an incredibly memorable career in hockey for Robinson.

He lasted 20 seasons in the NHL, 17 with Montreal and three with the Los Angeles Kings, playing 1,384 games with 208 goals and 750 assists. He counted another 144 points in 227 playoff games.

He won the Norris Trophy twice as the league’s best defenceman and the Conn Smythe once as the MVP of the playoffs. He was named as No. 24 in the top 100 greatest NHL players. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1995 and the Brockville and Area Sports Hall of Fame in 1996.

Robinson has always been a pretty humble guy and that hasn’t changed.

“I’ve never really been like that,” he said when asked if he looks back at his amazing career. “If you’re looking back, you’re going to run into something in front of you. All those championships I was on, I was part of a team. I was just one person on a team where there was a lot of hard work and effort by a lot of people.”

Few people know how Robinson’s career began. In 1969, he was headed to a tryout camp for the Cornwall Royals but there was a snowstorm and he arrived late. The Royals told him not to bother but a Braves official was there and asked Robinson to come to their training camp.

The Braves only had two defencemen at the time and asked the big and raw Robinson to switch from forward to the blueline.

“That’s how my career got started,” said Robinson with a grin.

Despite battling health issues, the 68-year-old Robinson recently agreed to return to the Blues for another year, making it his 50th year in hockey.

Little League Champions

LITTLE LEAGUE CHAMPIONS

By RON SMITH

It’s hard to believe it was 50 years ago that the Brockville team captured the Canadian Little League baseball championship and competed in the World Series.

But, for those that enjoyed the whirlwind summer of 1971, the memories make it seem like only yesterday.

The talented team of 11 and 12-year-olds strolled through the District playdowns, handily won the Ontario championship and then persevered for the Canadian crown to deservedly earn its spot at Williamsport, Pennsylvania.

In a stretch of more than six weeks away from home, the Brockville team made history as the lone city representative to ever win the national title and proudly carry the Canadian flag at the Little League World Series.

Because of their accomplishments, the 1971 Little League all-stars were inducted into the Brockville and Area Sports Hall of Fame in 1996, the only team to have received that honour.

Coached by the late Fred Blanchard and Dave Wyatt, the team consisted of Dennis Atkins, the late Steve Caldwell, Dan Collison, Gerry Crooke, Larry Crooke, Bernie Edwards, Kevin Kennedy, the late Steve McCaugherty, the late Bobby Morrow, Nick Noonan, James Reynolds, Dale Robertson, the late Terry Spence and John Vanderbaaren.

“The whole experience of going to the World Series, it was a blur. It just went by so fast,” said Collison. “It always gets me to think back, look through the scrapbook and just say ‘wow’”.

Atkins, one of three 11-year-olds on the team, regards that team and that accomplishment as a highlight of his sports.

“It really is. It’s hard to believe I’m 61. Where did all the years go?” asked Atkins. “To be part of that was so, so special.”

Gerry Crooke still smiles when he thinks back to those times.

“It’s unbelievable. 50 years, really? It’s been that long? That’s unreal,” said Gerry Crooke. “It seems like yesterday. People talk to me and I can give them all kinds of stories.”

Right from the time the team was put together, Wyatt was pretty confident it was a group that could win the Canadian championship.

“I didn’t think it. I expected it,” said Wyatt. “And that was the way the kids felt. We didn’t hope to win. We expected to win.”

The players thought that also.

“We knew we were going to win. It was just confidence,” continued Collison. “We weren’t cocky or anything but we had confidence. It was a Brockville thing. We had this aura about us. We were here to play ball and we were going to play smart and hard and we were confident we were going to win. We never showed off. We were always very humble.”

It was a pretty talented team with Collison and the two Crookes as the best players but everyone else had their strengths and contributed to winning the district, the provincials and the Canadians.

Collison was probably the best young pitcher in Canada. The Crooke cousins were top hitters and pitchers, even though Larry was four-foot, six inches tall and only weighed 85 pounds. Everyone else shone by chipping in offensively and defensively at key moments.

“It wasn’t about three or four players,” said Crooke. “It was all of us, all the guys. They all put in their time too.”

The team practiced morning and late afternoon and had to be chased off the diamonds from playing pickup ball in between at Prince of Wales public school.

There was no summer hockey then. Everyone lived and breathed baseball. The players were described as having baseball smarts, knowing what they had to do offensively and knowing how to make the correct defensive plays.

The playdowns began with a 37-1 victory over Stittsville, then saw Collison throw a one-hitter in an 8-0 win over a combination Aylmer-Hull team with a no-hitter and 17 strikeouts in the six-inning, 9-0 win over Ottawa City View.

Brockville won the championship with a 9-4 win over City View with Collison earning playdown pitching honors while Gerry Crooke was the top hitter with a .687 average.

“We were just playing ball. There was no nervousness involved,” said Larry Crooke. “It was just like playing out in your backyard and we did that every day.”

Then, it was off to Chapleau. A scheduled 10-hour train ride ended up taking 16 hours when the train engine caught on fire. That just prepared the team to arrive in Chapleau to see snow on the ground in early August.

Brockville blanked Windsor 2-0 and edged Noranda 3-1 in a game that was stopped on four occasions due to rain in 45 degree Fahrenheit weather. Brockville defeated Toronto Parkedale in the Ontario championship by an 8-1 score. Collison earned the pitching win, striking out 15 and hitting two long home runs while Robertson, the team’s tough little catcher, drove in two runs.

That earned Brockville the opportunity to fly from Timmins to St. Laurent, Quebec for the Canadian championships, the first time the players had ever experienced flying.

Brockville’s first game in the Canadians was probably one of the most controversial, a 1-0 victory over Sherbrooke in front of 3,000 fans, according to The Recorder and Times report by sports editor Don Swayne.

In the bottom of the sixth inning of the scoreless game with Brockville runners on second and third, Vanderbaaren hit an infield grounder. Larry Crooke headed home from third and so was the infield throw. Crooke jumped over the catcher, touching the plate.

The umpire called Crooke out for intent to injure… even though there was no contact… and tossed him out of the game.

“I just jumped over him and landed on the plate,” recalled Larry Crooke. “The next thing I know I was called out and thrown out of the game. I went back to the dugout and I was crying and wondering what just happened. Everybody was confused. Even the Quebec fans were booing the call. It was nothing I had ever experienced before.”

Collison had moved to third on the play. When the Sherbrooke pitcher threw a ball past his catcher, Collison came home to score. However, the ump ruled that time had been called as Crooke was still in the dugout and Collison was sent back to third. With the fans yelling and screaming at a fever pitch, Gerry Crooke then followed with a line drive hit to score Collison for the dramatic win.

“It didn’t matter who we were playing we were going to get our hits,” said Collison. “No matter what happened, we just knew, one way or another, we were going to come out on top.”

Brockville then dropped a 10-7 decision to North Vancouver. Brockville beat Alberta 8-3 to earn the spot in the double-elimination finals, needing to beat North Vancouver twice for the Canadian title.

Brockville beat North Vancouver 7-3 in extra innings with a three-run homer by Gerry Crooke as the decisive blow. In the championship 2-0 win over North Vancouver, Collison fired a no-hitter, striking out 10.

“I think after we won the Ontarios and got to the Canadians, I think we thought anything was possible,” said Atkins. “I was just happy to be there and cheering us on.”

While the Brockville team had to fly from Montreal to Williamsport, local fans flocked to the World Series site by bus and car.

Brockville dropped a 3-2 loss to Hawaii in its opening game. Collison gave up the three runs on four infield hits in the first inning and then shut down Hawaii after that. Gerry Crooke hit a solo home run in his first at-bat and narrowly missed another one that would have tied the game in the sixth inning.

“I was thinking this is a dream. It isn’t even normal,” recalled Gerry Crooke of his home run.

In the second game, Brockville lost 5-2 to Puerto Rico and Robertson had what would have been a grand slam home run hauled in at the fence in the fifth inning.

In the consolation game, Brockville beat Kentucky 4-1. Collison earned the pitching win while Gerry Crooke hit another home run but Larry Crooke had a .555 average over the three games.

“We walked with a confidence, not with a swagger,” added Wyatt. “It was outrageous fun. They were a great group of kids.”

For the players, it was a disappointing outcome but the Brockville team was still excited as what it had accomplished.

They went to the White House to meet Vice President Spiro Agnew, met astronaut Neil Armstrong (the first man on the moon) and took in a Baltimore Orioles baseball game where they met Orioles first baseman Boog Powell.

Then, that feeling of being discouraged turned to shock and surprise when they arrived home to the parking lot in the former Zeller’s mall to an awaiting crowd of 1,500 people. The team was then celebrated by a tickertape parade through the downtown streets of Brockville in front of 10,000 people with The Recorder and Times putting out a 14-page special edition for the Canadian champions.

“It’s not about playing the game. It’s about who you meet along the way. We were just out there playing ball with our friends. How can you not be happy playing on a field like that (Williamsport)?” said Gerry Crooke. “I still get excited about it. I can’t help it.”

It was a pretty special group of players, the majority of whom went on to play junior hockey, amateur golf at a high local level, Inter-County baseball, spreading out across the country.

Now, they are always connected to each other by that special summer in 1971.

Peter Hoy Anniversary

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PETER HOY ANNIVERSARY

By RON SMITH

Time seems to be flying by. It’s been 30 years since Peter Hoy was in the major leagues.

On April 4, 1992, the 25-year-old rookie relief pitcher appeared in the opening game of the season for the Boston Red Sox in Cleveland against the Indians in front of more than 65,000 fans. The sinkerball pitcher gave up a couple of hits and got himself out of trouble with a double play in his inning of work in what ended up being an 18-inning marathon game.

“It’s hard to believe it was such a long time ago,” said Hoy, who will turn 56 in a few weeks. “No one was even paying attention to me that day.”

It was a good start to what marked a too-short time in the big leagues. In a rainy, soggy spring, with not many opportunities for the rookie to show what he could do, Hoy made five appearances in the first month of the season.

“It was a dream come true,” said Hoy of his time in Boston. “It doesn’t happen to too many players but I wish I would have stayed up a little bit longer. I enjoyed the experience and it’s something you will remember for the rest of your life.”

Hoy was the first area player to reach the major leagues. He was followed in 1997 by catcher Andy Stewart who had a five-game stint with the Kansas City Royals.

The fact that he even made it to the big leagues at all was a longshot.

The six-foot, seven-inch, 220-pound Hoy was a standout at South Grenville High School in Prescott in football and basketball while also starring as a starting pitcher for the Brockville Bunnies.

“Growing up, you’re thinking about playing in the pros,” said Hoy. “I’d watch the (Montreal) Expos play and I was certainly hopeful. I thought I had three or four different options.”

Hoy made his way to LeMoyne College in Syracuse where he amassed a won-loss record of 19 wins and five losses and a 2.30 earned-run average over three seasons, prompting legend Dick Rockwell to call him the best pitcher he had ever coached.

In 1988, Hoy was drafted in the 33rd round of the major league draft by the Red Sox but postponed his professional career to pitch for Canada in the 1988 Summer Olympics in South Korea.

In 1989, he started on his journey in the Red Sox minor league farm system, posting decent numbers in his first two years.

A pitching coach tweaked his delivery a bit, making his sinkerball do a bit more dipping and diving. In 1981, in time between AA and AAA, he pitched in 62 games with a record of five wins and six losses with 20 saves and a 1.69 ERA.

That earned him an invitation to spring training in Florida.

Hoy still remembers when he found out he had made the big-league team.

“It was near the end of spring training and things were going pretty well. I was working in the outfield and manager Butch Hobson came up to me and asked if I thought I could do the same thing in the regular season,” recalled Hoy, who had a humble but emphatic answer for him. “That was it.”

“It was just something you dream about in your whole life to have that happen,” he continued.

Rain put the damper on his career. In May, after a one-two-three inning against the Minnesota Twins, Hoy was returned to Pawtucket and was never called back to Boston.

Hoy spent two more years in the Red Sox system and then two more years pitching in Independent Leagues before he retired. He ended up with a minor league record of 28 wins and 35 losses with a 3.11 ERA in 286 games from A to AAA.

He wasn’t sure what he wanted to do after that but became the pitching coach at LeMoyne College from 1997 to 2009 where his pitching staff led the league in earned-run average on five occasions. He became the head coach at St. Lawrence University in Canton in 2010 … earning coach of the year honours in the Liberty League in 2012… before he was forced to retire due to health reasons in 2020.

After losing his wife Lisa to cancer in 2013, Hoy watches his two talented daughters play high school sports in Canton, NY. Madison is in Grade 12, preparing to play basketball at a prep school this fall. Ava is in Grade 10 and has attracted university attention in basketball and as a fastball pitcher.

Hoy was inducted into the LeMoyne Hall of Fame in 1989 and into the Brockville and Area Sports Hall of Fame in 2012.

Ramona Braganza

RAMONA BRAGANZA

By RON SMITH

Ramona Braganza has experienced a great deal of fame and success in Canada and the United States.

And, she credits what she learned in growing up in Brockville as providing the background and basics for making it all happen.

After leaving Brockville at the tender age of 21, the 57-year-young Braganza has been an NFL cheerleader for 10 years, a fitness contestant, appeared on the cover of fitness magazines and shows and enjoyed appearances on television.

She’s probably most famous now for making a strong career as a fitness trainer to some high-profile Hollywood actors and actresses while promoting her own successful fitness training videos. She’s heading up her own charity events to empower young women who require much-needed help.

“It’s been a journey and I’m still on that journey and I’m trying to see what is the next step,” said Braganza, when contacted as she was visiting Los Angeles to work on her charity event that took place in early February.

She believes what she has accomplished and achieved points back to Brockville.

“Coming from a smaller city helps when you go out into the world,” said Braganza. “The lessons you learn, the values you still have from being a child… A small town is only so big and you have to get along with everybody. You have to treat everybody the same. When you go to the big city, you need all that.”

That means it all started when she was seven years old at Westminster Public School when Cheryl Mitchell was coaching gymnastics. Braganza became involved in gymnastics in public school, in her years at Brockville Collegiate and TISS and with the Brockville Gymny Krickets.

“It’s a huge part of everything I do now,” credits Braganza. “Gymnastics gave me a leg up on other girls when I was auditioning. I played volleyball, basketball and track but, for me, I was good at gymnastics. It was easy for me.”

Growing up as a child, she dreamed about going to Los Angeles and Hollywood to become a star actress.

After high school, she started by going to Toronto, taking acting classes, looking for roles and being a cheerleader for the Toronto Argos of the Canadian Football League. Once she turned 21, Braganza and a group of other girls headed to Los Angeles.

She worked in restaurants and trained in a Gold’s Gym before she placed in the top-10 against 100 other competitors in a fitness competition. Her ability to do back handsprings made her stand out from the others.

That led her to be a cheerleader for the Los Angeles Raiders for 10 years with another three years as a dance choreographer for the team. However, she still had dreams of pursuing an acting career.

Working at a sports club, a television producer came in, recognized Braganza from her cheerleading and found her appearances in a couple of television shows.

In 2000, another producer asked Braganza if she would be interested in working with and training a young, up-and-coming actress by the name of Jessica Alba. For the next 12 years, Braganza became the fitness trainer for Alba.

“It turned out I was better behind the scenes than in front of a camera,” said Braganza with a laugh. “That turned into my career. I’ve worked with a lot of people since then. That shows me how lucky and fortunate I am to have fitness in my life.”

Since then she has worked with Hale Berry, Scarlett Johansson, Anne Hathaway, Kate Beckinsale, Ashlee Simpson, Michael Weatherly from Bull and the cast of Fifty Shades of Grey on the sequels.

She owns a condo on the water in Vancouver, travels to New York or Los Angeles to train actors and actresses and owns her own fitness trailer.

As busy as her work schedule keeps her, she still enjoys coming back to Brockville to see her mom and friends.

“You might leave for a while. But, that’s the thing with Brockville. It’s a very nice place. Brockville has a lot to offer,” she explained. “The river (St. Lawrence) is a big thing for me. It always brings me back.”

Braganza is still looking at expanding her horizons.

Motivational speaking is something she’s looking at and that’s certainly a possibility to channel her personality and positive nature.

She still sees her future as wide open for potential and possibilities.