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I am a freelance writer, who, for the past two decades has written about a broad range of topics. But, no matter what the venue (my newspaper column, magazine articles, books or the internet) I always come back to my favorites, sports and history.
I am a member of the Society for International Hockey Research (SIHR).
Since 1997, I have written three books. Yep, you guessed it! Two are about hockey and the third is the history of my hometown.
I have a BA (Honors History) from Trent University. I really enjoy writing about the history of the Great Lakes region (especially the Georgian Bay area). In the early 1990s I worked with my friend Larry Turner to create a history of Georgian Bay for Parks Canada.
In 2000, Natural Heritage published my history of my hometown, Owen Sound: The Port City. Shortly after the release of this book I was honored to receive a Heritage Ontario Award.
In 1997 I wrote The Hockey Scrapbook which featured brief descriptions of the careers of hockey players from the Bruce County region of western Ontario. I enjoy writing biographical sketches, especially of hockey players. During my writing career I have had the honor and privilege of interviewing some of the greatest and most interesting hockey players. Some of the players who I have interviewed include “Rocket” Richard, Bill Gadsby, Jack Lynch, Harry Lumley, and Paul Henderson. But possibly the most interesting interview of them all was Tommy Burlington.
Tommy Burlington is perhaps the greatest North American hockey player to NEVER play in the NHL (a short bio of this hockey legend is my first story for Suite101).
For more than forty years Burlington refused to talk to the media. Then, in November 1999, he contacted me to tell his story. I was delighted to interview and write a story about this fantastic hockey player. Sadly, less than three months after I talked with Tommy he passed away.
In 2006 Altitude Publishing of Calgary released Great Centremen: Stars of Hockey’s Golden Age. This book features some of the greatest centremen in the history of the National Hockey League. I was especially delighted to be able to include a profile of my hockey hero, Alex Delvecchio.
Always looking to broaden my writing base, I have ventured into the world of travel writing with my own website about our favorite sunny destination, Englewood Florida. My website, enjoy-englewood-florida.com, focuses on retirement and vacation life in this gulf coast community.
This is not my only venture into the world of internet writing. I have made several contributions to my wife’s website www.the-scoop-on-wild-birds-and-feeders.com.
I hope that you will enjoy reading my profiles of hockey players form hockey’s past and present, as well as interesting events in the world of hockey.