Hi, this is Fred Wallace with ” Off the Wire “.
Tomorrow is August 8th and the sports minded citizens in this area have made a point to relate that tomorrow would also be the 100th birthday of Tommy Burlington.
Is Tommy Burlington Owen Sound’s greatest athlete or greatest hockey player of all time ?
You could certainly make that argument, and even if Tommy Burlington isn’t your candidate, he’d have to be in the conversation for both categories.
As a Junior, Burlington played for the Owen Sound Greys until 1941 before departing for pro hockey.
After pro hockey, Burlington came back to Owen Sound to play for the Mercury’s.
According to one stats page, he put up 113 goals and almost 300 points during a half decade with the Mercs.
Checking this week, I found it unusual that Hockeydb has most of Tommy Burlington’s stats, yet, there’s no data pertaining to the 1950-51 season when Burlington and the Mercury’s won the Allan Cup.
Regardless, one of the earliest statements I heard pertaining to Tommy Burlington was that he was the greatest hockey player to never play in the National Hockey League.
And it’s not just the locals who said that….
Bill Hunter in his book, ” Wild Bill “, had a segment that echoed that sentiment.
Plus, I once heard Don Cherry say exactly the same thing.
Tommy Burlington died in January of 2000, just shy of his 80th birthday.
Twenty years later, the local sports community remembers the greatest player who never played in the National Hockey League; Tommy Burlington.
I’m Fred Wallace