Full marks to those running the St. John’s Junior Hockey League, and their decision to recognize Gerry Taylor and have him drop the first puck last night to open a new season.
There’s no such official designation that we know of, but if there was, no question Mount Pearl’s Taylor would be Mr. Junior Hockey around these parts.
He’s been a driving force in the junior game for as long as anyone can remember. The league opened its 41st season Friday night at Jack Byrne Arena.
A soft-spoken Bell Islander who made Mount Pearl his adopted home, Taylor has been a mainstay on the local junior hockey scene for over four decades. His track record speaks for itself.
And that’s it for this one folks.
— St. John's Junior Hockey League (@mbsjjhl) February 6, 2021
Shots:@MPJblades - 53@ne_eagles - 15
Tomorrow night we’ll be live-tweeting the game between the @pmhajrwarriors and the @AvalonCapitals at 7pm. pic.twitter.com/yqXwArEblX
The St. John’s Junior Hockey League came into play in 1955 with the opening of St. John's Memorial Stadium, and continued to operate until 1976.
In 1977, Taylor and a few others formed a metro junior league involving Mount Pearl, Kilbride, Petty Harbour and a Mount Pearl midget squad.
That circuit lasted two years, but another was about to start up.
“Danny Williams called,” Taylor said of the young St. John’s Capitals hockey executive, “and asked me to come to a meeting at the Newfoundland Brewery.
“He wanted to start a new junior league,” Taylor recalled in a Telegram interview with yours truly a couple of years ago. “That was in the spring of 1979. We kept at it all summer and in January, 1980, Danny was elected first president of the St. John’s Junior Hockey League.
“The league started the following fall and Mount Pearl and Bro. Rice Junior Celtics played the first game on Oct. 20, 1980 at Bro. O’Hehir Arena.
“I remember like it was yesterday.”
6-2 is the final score in Bay Roberts as the Renegades top the Stars!#HockeyIsBack pic.twitter.com/tCPVKDfQT2
— St. John's Junior Hockey League (@mbsjjhl) February 6, 2021
Gerry’s done it all in junior hockey.
He served as junior league president, vice-president, secretary-registrar, statistician, and did some coaching.
He also served as provincial Junior Council chairman.
He was first elected junior league president in 1984, and held that post until 1989.
He returned to the position in 1992 and ’93, and then took some time away from the game. Then he came back to the top job again for a few years.
He’s in the Bell Island Sports Hall of Fame, the Mount Pearl Sports Alliance Hall of Fame, and Hockey Newfoundland and Labrador’s Hall of Fame.
He’s a 2006 honouree of Hockey Canada’s Order of Merit. There’s also a junior recognition award he’s received from Hockey Canada, and he recently received the Hockey Canada outstanding volunteer award.
Nobody asked me, but …
Derm Dobbin had his battles with Mile One Centre during the days of the QMJHL’s St. John’s Fog Devils. Lord knows Danny Williams had his squabbles with the rink when he had the AHL’s St. John’s IceCaps. Now Dean MacDonald, the Newfoundland Growlers’ ECHL franchise owner, is so fed up that he wants to buy Mile One, or at least climb into an operating partnership with the city, pump a ton of money into the building to see the rink reach its potential. But he can’t get anyone to answer his phone call. How is it there was none of this acrimony during the days of Memorial Stadium and the St. John’s Maple Leafs? Because there was one owner. The city owned the Stadium, and was leasing the AHL team. There are now three owners (the city and Mile One, MacDonald and his Growlers, and the Edge basketball team and its ownership) vying for a piece of the pie, even if it’s the size of a cupcake. Why would the city not take a big cheque from MacDonald for the building, rid itself of the Mile One subsidy and still continue to gain from the arena spinoffs downtown? Meanwhile, the hockey and basketball teams could benefit from what could be less-than-demanding lease agreements. Makes sense all around from this corner …
Robin Short is The Telegram’s Sports Editor.
