Club 240 set to celebrate 50th anniversary of All-Ontario hockey title
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While a half century has passed, the memories have not faded.
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Members of the Club 240 juvenile team will gather Saturday to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the team's All-Ontario championship, which remains the only AAA title in the history of the Windsor Minor Hockey Association.
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'You think, 'Wow, time has flown by' and it does go by fast,' said Barry Waddick, who was the head coach of the Club 240 squad. 'We had a good group of kids.'
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One-by-one, the Club 240 squad picked off the competition en route to the title.
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'I've played a lot of hockey since I was 10-years-old,' said 69-year-old Kirk Marshall, who was an alternate captain on the team and later play for the Windsor Spitfires. 'To win this and be the only team ever in Windsor Minor to do this is quite a feat. We went down (Highway) 401 knocking off everybody.'
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Few playoff journeys today can compare to what the squad accomplished on the way to the title. To start the playoffs, Club 240 beat Sarnia, London, Waterloo, St. Catharines and Oshawa just to win the Ontario Minor Hockey Association title. From there, the club beat out Wexford the Southern Ontario title and then swept Northern Ontario champion Rouyn-Noranda in a best-of-three series to claim the All-Ontario title at Windsor Arena on April 13, 1975.
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'You were basically in the playoffs form mid-January to mid-April,' the 74-year-old Waddick said.
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But the journey had its twists and turns. Star goalie Larry McCrae spent late August in camp with the Kingston Canadians, but opted to head home to continue his studies at the University of Windsor.
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'Larry McCrae was a fabulous goalie,' Marshall said. 'The best around.'
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However, in early January, the Canadians again came knocking trying to get McCrae, who would later be selected in the National Hockey League Draft and World Hockey Association Draft, to head north.
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'They called and said they wanted me to come up and join the team,' said the 69-year-old McCrae, who would later go on to play for the Spitfires. 'I said, 'No thank you.' They said, 'You don't understand, we want you to be our starter.' I said, 'You don't understand, this (Club 240) team's going to win an Ontario championship.''
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