Writing for the Bay Today, reporter Chris Dawson, describes the 50th Reunion Event for the 1976 Trappers.
Bob Witiuk was only 14 years old in 1976.
Holding a Claude D’Amour-autographed Trappers stick, he remembers like it was yesterday the way North Bay embraced the North Bay Trappers who went on to win a thrilling eight-game series on home ice over the North York Rangers 50 years ago to win a Provincial Junior A Championshp for the city.
“They won it all here,” said the longtime North Bay hockey fan.
“I think we were all hanging off the rafters at the top.”
Witiuk was one of the many fans, former players, family and staff who gathered at Boart Longyear Memorial Gardens on Wednesday to share stories of a championship they hope won’t be forgotten.
Witiuk was on a fan bus that watched North Bay finish in an overtime tie in North York, which forced a decisive game eight in North Bay the next night.
He recalls his family driving home to North Bay that night, only to head back to Memorial Gardens to get in line for tickets to game eight.
“I was in line as a kid, way over by the Trappers’ dressing room, and you weaved your way around the rink, and you were allowed to buy four tickets, I think, at the time,” he said.
Jimmy Fox was a 15-year-old star player on the Trappers squad. The Coniston product went on a great NHL career with the Los Angeles Kings and has been part of their broadcasting team for more than 35 years.
“I remember the fans,” recalls Fox, who made the trip from California.
Fox iced a 5-2 victory in game eight with an empty-net goal, which sealed the victory, dropping a North York team which had future NHL Tom McCarthy in its lineup. Ironically, McCarthy would go on to coach the North Bay Jr. Trappers to an NOJHL championship in 2013.
“We were the only northern team in the league, so to speak, so I think everyone really bonded together here, and I remember it being full all the time, at least it sounded like that, and it felt like that,” he said about Memorial Gardens in North Bay.
Mike McParland, current Nipissing Lakers varsity men’s hockey coach, remembers how North Bay loved the Trappers that season.
“Just the number of people in the rink, it was four deep along the boards, and there was no glass around the boards, then, so it was pretty dangerous, but the whole city was behind us,” said McParland.
