The tradition continues – and what a tradition it is

By Roger Lajoie            

Some of the most famous names in hockey have worn the jersey of the Oshawa Generals over the years.

The old saying is “once a General, always a General” and it’s true – ask any Oshawa Generals alumni member. That goes for every player who has been a part of this franchise, even if he only played a game or two.

But there are many Generals – many, many Generals in fact – who have distinguished themselves far and beyond the call of duty and been star players in the OHL and many of them later stars in the National Hockey League as well. And the only danger of trying to acknowledge the great players that have worn the uniform over the years is the fact that it would take too long to mention every great player who has called Oshawa his junior hockey home over this franchise’s seven decade history.

So there are bound to be some omissions to the following look at just some of the great players who have worn the uniform over the years, but that’s only because frankly there have been so many of them.

How many? Well let’s start with the 153 players at last count who have played at least one game in the NHL. And how about the 146 players at last count who have been drafted into the NHL?

Oh, and then there are those players who didn’t shine beyond their junior careers, but were OHL award winners and OHL all-stars during their junior playing days. The Generals after all have a record 12 OHL championships and four Memorial Cups in their seven decades of competition, tying them for the second most Cups in history as well.

The Generals totally dominated Ontario junior hockey in the late 1930s up until the mid-1940s, winning seven Ontario titles in a row. The legendary Billy Taylor, considered one of the greatest players of that era, was a member of those teams. Taylor’s teammates included such early hockey greats as Frank Eddolis, Joe Joe Graboski, Les Colvin and Roy Sawyer, just to name a few.

Speaking of legends, the immortal Albert “Red” Tilson was a Generals star in the 1940s headed for hockey greatness before he was killed overseas in the Second World War. His name is now immortalized on The Red Tilson Trophy, given to the OHL’s Most Valuable Player every year.

Tilson’s teammates included such players as Ted Lindsay, who went on to star with the Detroit Red Wings, and Floyd “Busher” Curry, a future Montreal Canadiens star. Kenny Smith, Phil Samis, Gus Mortson, Bep Guidolin and Bill Ezinicki were other great names that wore the Generals colours in that decade.

Before he became the Mayor of Whitby, Bob Attersley was a great Generals star, as was Detroit Red Wing superstar Alex Delvecchio. Ted O’Connor, Frank Sullivan and long-time Boston Bruins general manager Harry Sinden also wore the Oshawa junior uniform in the 1950s.

Has there ever been a greater hockey player ever – period – than the legendary Number 4, Bobby Orr? Except that he wore Number 2 in Oshawa , coming here as a 14-year-old kid in the early 1960s.

That decade also saw such future NHLers as Wayne Cashman, Terry O’Reilly, Rick Kessell, Nick Beverley, Danny O’Shea and Dunc Wilson play in town, along with local heroes Ian Young and Billy Little.

In the 1970s Generals fans had lots of NHL teams to cheer for because alumni such as Rick Middleton, Lee Fogolin, Rick Lanz, Tom McCarthy, Bob Kelly, Ivan Boldirev, Dale Tallon, Rick St. Croix and Greg Malone all played their junior career in Oshawa.

The 1980s saw two OHL championship teams in Oshawa , and no wonder, with future NHLers like Tony Tanti, Dave Andreychuk, John MacLean, Mike Craig, Jeff Hackett, Joe Cirella, Jeff Daniels and Jarrod Skalde skating through town. Local hero Scott McCrory won a scoring title and an MVP award here too.

There’s a lot of hype surrounding John Tavares right now with the Generals, but it was just as crazy when a young kid named Eric Lindros made his debut with the Oshawa Generals in late 1989, helping the team to a Memorial Cup in 1990 in Hamilton .

Lindros was helped along by future NHLers like Rob Pearson, Brent Grieve, Craig and Fred Brathwaite, while as the 1990s decade moved on such players as Bryan Allen, Jason Arnott, Wayne Primeau, Stephane Yelle and two-time OHL scoring champion Marc Savard also put on the Generals jersey.  

And of course, there have been even more great players than these, and even more are on the way. The slogan of the new General Motors Centre is “The Tradition Continues” and it is easy to see why…what a tradition it is to continue.

2008 marks the 70th anniversary of the Generals as a franchise and part of the honor of getting to host the tournament is the host city’s team getting a bye to play in it as well. If that happens for Oshawa , it’ll be the first time the Generals haven’t had to play their way into Canada ’s junior hockey showcase event.

There have been a lot of great junior hockey organizations in Canada ’s history, but none as storied as the Oshawa Generals, who became known as the “Generals” for the first time in the 1937-38 season.

Sponsored by General Motors of Canada – hence the name of course – few junior hockey teams in Canada are as familiar with the Memorial Cup tournament as the Generals have been in their history.  

The Generals have won the Memorial Cup four times, in 1939, 1940, 1944 and 1990. Only the fabled Toronto Marlboros with seven Cup titles and the Toronto St . Michael’s Majors, also with four championships, have won as many titles as the Generals.

Just seven teams have won back-to-back Cups, as the Generals did in 1939 and 1940, and the Generals have also been runners-up in the title game or final series (before 1972 the Memorial Cup was a playoff series, not a tournament as it is today), another six times.

That’s 10 times as either a Memorial Cup champion or runner-up, in addition to 12 OHL championships over the years, which is another record – including a remarkable run of seven straight titles between 1938-44. The other OHL titles came to Oshawa in 1966, 1983, 1987, 1990 and 1997.

In 1939 the Generals put away the Edmonton Athletic Club to claim the city’s first national championship and in the following year, the Kenora Thistles were the Generals victims as coach Tracy Shaw led Oshawa to back-to-back titles, becoming the first team ever to accomplish that feat.

Another Canadian legend, Charlie Conacher, took over as coach in 1944 as the Generals celebrated their seventh straight Ontario title by winning the Memorial Cup for the third time, defeating the Trail Smoke Eaters in the final.

As the years went on the Memorial Cup became a bigger and bigger event and therefore that much harder to win. The Generals continued to ice outstanding teams and come close, but it would be another 46 years before a Generals player would sip from the Memorial Cup again.

In 1966, led by Bobby Orr, the Generals made it to the Memorial Cup final but fell to the Edmonton Oil Kings in the final series. In 1983, the Generals again would claim the OHL title but come up short at what was now a round-robin tournament, losing to the Portland Winter Hawks in the final game.

In 1987, the Memorial Cup was held right here in Oshawa , at Civic Auditorium. The OHL format for hosting the event that year saw a “Super Series” played at the start of the playoffs, featuring the two regular season Conference champions in a unique best-of-seven series, with the winner hosting the Cup and both teams going back into the regular playoffs when the series was done!

Oshawa beat North Bay in a thrilling seven game series, then went through the playoffs and beat North Bay again in seven games to win the OHL title and the right to host the tournament.

The Generals went undefeated – until the final game, losing the title to the Medicine Hat Tigers in front of a heartbroken sell-out crowd at the Civic.

Ah, but the draught would end just three seasons later, again under unusual circumstances regarding the host site. The Dukes of Hamilton were awarded the Cup and an automatic bye, but the Dukes were such a bad team halfway through the season they were forced to pull out to allow the two OHL finalists the right to play in the tournament, along with the WHL and QMJHL champions. The tournament would remain in Hamilton , but with no “host” team.

The Generals won the OHL crown that year in a seven game series over the Kitchener Rangers. In Hamilton the Generals beat the Rangers in double overtime during the round-robin to advance to the final game.

Kitchener was their opponent yet again and yet again, the title game went into double overtime! Bill Armstrong scored the game-winning goal to give the Generals the dramatic win and their fourth and final Memorial Cup.

That is, until now. The OHL has invited teams to apply to host the Cup tournament in 2008 and get a bye and the Oshawa Generals have applied for that great honor.

For the rest of this story – please stay tuned.