‘It’s the brotherhood’ Burlington hockey players come together to celebrate and remember

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Burlington Central's 1975 hockey season was special.

Arguably the best team in the school's 101-year history, the Central Blues achieved a record of 13-2-1 while outscoring opponents an average of 5 to 2. They won the Halton-Peel championship and became the first school from Burlington to ever advance to the OFSSA hockey championships.

That kind of performance will build a strong bond among teammates — one that can last for decades. As part of the 100th-anniversary celebrations for Burlington Central School, alumni from the school came together for a game that featured Central players from teams as far back as 1972 to as recently as 2014.

Vic Roy, the captain of the 1975 Central Blues hockey team and a coach at the June 1 alumni game, said the match was important for so many people because of how special it was for the players to be on those high school teams.

"It's the brotherhood of all the Blues alumni players from five decades getting together. From 1972 to 2012, a wide range of players were on the ice. Enjoying the game, but more importantly, being together. The locker-room before and after the game and the pub afterwards was spectacular," said Roy.

Burlington Central School first opened its doors in 1922. Since that time, thousands of students have come through its doors and the crucial place the institution played in the community was highlighted by the roughly 2,500 who came back to take part in the four-day, 100-year reunion festivities that began on June 1. The reunion was originally planned for last year, but COVID concerns forced the one-year postponement.

Brian Cross, from Central's class of 1976, believes the response the reunion generated from the alumni community demonstrates the value many placed in their time at the school.

"High school is important to a lot of people. It develops you and you learn. Our hockey coach, Rod Frith, taught us life lessons when we were playing hockey and we appreciate that. It's just great to reconnect," said Cross.

Frith was a longtime coach at Central, who, at one time or another, coached every one of the 32 players who took part in the alumni game. He is credited by many former players as being an inspiration to them.

To honour the big day, the players commissioned a set of hockey jerseys that are replicas of the school's 1929 team. They then took it further and recreated a photo of the 1929 team on the steps of Central School posed the same way the players did 94 years earlier.

Phil Stober, the driving force behind the photo idea and a member of Central's Class of 1975, said the photo is about putting themselves into the bigger context of the school's sporting history.

"It's realizing that we're part of a bigger, ongoing piece. We all laugh about this that maybe someday they're going to be looking at our photograph along with the guys from 1929 in another hundred years," said Stober.

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