Editor’s note: This is the second part in a series on Midland hockey player Morley Spiker. To read the first instalment, click here.
Despite years of great plays on the ice, and the many spirited battles of the '50s between Midland and visiting squads from Meaford, Parry Sound, Gravenhurst and Collingwood, the unthinkable then happened.
Because of financial problems, and a shortage of available players, the town's hockey officials decided not to operate any intermediate or senior men's team for the 1956-57 season. Morley's ability and experience were in demand by other Simcoe County clubs, however, and the 30-year-old signed with the Intermediate C Elmvale Harvesters.
That year, Spiker helped the Harvesters claim the Barrie and District league's regular-season title. During one game, Morley potted four Harvester goals, as Elmvale defeated Coldwater, 7-4. The Harvesters were later the group playoff champions of the OHA, but unfortunately, they lost their best-of-five quarter-final series, three games straight, to the Aurora Belairs.
By 1959, the Midland Flyers were again competing at the Intermediate A level, with Morley continuing to be a high-scoring forward in their line-up. One of his most prolific performances took place on January 6, 1960.
Spiker was “a whirling dervish all game,” said the Midland Free Press, after he piled up five of the home team's six markers which went past Meaford Chevies' goaltender Elgin Cubitt, and the Flyers beat the Chevies, 6-4.
His determination to score goals was extraordinary. The Free Press once described him (in 1954) “doing everything but standing on his head to push one in the Gravenhurst cage” (he notched four counters in that game), and a decade afterward reported, “Morley Spiker batted the puck into the empty cage following a dogged display of puck perseverance” while recording a pair of goals during Midland's 5-2 victory over the Orillia Pepsis.
The latter result had come in the 1963-64 campaign, in the middle of an era remembered for Jim (Chickens) Johnson bringing “Senior-A calibre” hockey to Midland, and several outstanding amateurs and former NHLers carrying the town's traditional green and white colours.
Spiker fit right in skating with Flyer teammates George Westfall, Tom O'Connor, and Dave Nicholishin (OHA stars from the Oshawa/Whitby area), local products Johnson, Murray Yorke, Edgar Dorion, and Ted Brady, and ex-Boston Bruin Ray Gariepy.
He fired shots at Hockey Hall of Famer Harry Lumley guarding the Collingwood Shipbuilders' net, and battled against Bob Hassard, once a Toronto Maple Leaf, of the Bradford Expressmen.
For five seasons, '61-'62 to '65-'66, those Flyer clubs, though officially classed as Intermediate A and Senior B entries, displayed a brand of hockey that was arguably the closest thing to professional Midland has ever known.
Following the Flyers' disbandment, Morley would, not surprisingly, anchor the next Midland squad, this one being a new Intermediate B franchise named the Mustangs.
At 40, Spiker finished the Mustangs' first campaign as their fourth-leading scorer, placing twelfth overall in the Georgian Bay league's individual points race. His career had now spanned some 20 years, and on March 10, 1967, the town honoured the lifelong Midlander by holding “Morley Spiker Night” at the Arena Gardens.
More than “500 enthusiastic sports fans” gave Morley “three rousing cheers” and “the red carpet was rolled onto the ice.” Midland Mayor Herb Beauchamp presented Spiker with a special recognition award, while his teammates brought out “the throne of honour” – a huge, green-coloured rocking chair.
An advertisement for Morley Spiker Night at the Midland Arena Gardens. | Image courtesy of Thomas Paradis
During the festivities, held between the second and third periods of the Mustangs-Stayner Lions playoff contest, Morley received $750 in gifts donated by community merchants “to pay tribute to one of Midland's great sportsmen.”
As well, the crowd was introduced to Spiker's family: wife Shirley (nee Hendrickson), sons Terry and Ron, and daughter Gayle.
Morley's tenure in the OHA ended with the 1968-69 Midland Flyers, but only after he'd contributed goals and assists across the regular schedule, and during the team's exciting post-season run. Midland's roster of talented players featured Alvin Robillard, Edgar Dorion, Larry Banks, Ken Edgar, Don Wilcox, and 17-year-old Wayne King.
The Flyers were winning playoff rounds in April, and reached the province's Intermediate B final, taking the Durham Huskies to five games, before the Huskies captured the best-of-seven championship series.
Spiker's veteran presence was a positive factor in Midland's success. For Ken Edgar, the way he handled himself, both on and off the ice, turned out to be inspirational.
“He led by example,” said Edgar. “You'd watch how hard he'd work in the practices and games, and see how good he was. You'd want to play that much better.
“Morley was quiet, but he was a great team guy; great in the (dressing) room. If any of us younger guys asked, he'd give you tips or advice. I called him 'Papa,' and Shirley, 'Mama.'”
Spiker remained part of the club over the following few seasons, serving as the assistant trainer for Midland when the Flyers were twice Ontario Intermediate A finalists. (Alas, in 1970 the Port Colborne Centennials defeated Midland, 4 games to 1, and the next year, the Brantford Foresters pushed past the Flyers in six games.)
The future Midland Sports Hall of Famer kept active playing-wise, too, skating for the Midland '75 Oldtimers, a squad stacked with familiar names like Jim Johnson, Murray Yorke, Doug Wright, Harvey Benoit, Terry (Tiger) Moore, and bolstered by former Pittsburgh Penguin forward Wally Boyer.
On January 2, 1976, Morley was Midland's captain for a memorable exhibition game that saw the hometown '75 Old-timers tie, 2-2, against the swift and classy Leksand IK Veterans crew from Sweden. Twenty years earlier, the majority of the touring Swedish players had made up the 1956 “Tre Kronor” national team.
Spiker and his fellow Midlanders later travelled overseas themselves during the '70s, after the town's contingent of “legends” entered international tournaments in Holland and Denmark.
According to Terry Spiker, his father played competitive old-timers' hockey until well into his late fifties. Morley also worked “over 30 years” at the Midland grain elevator, owned by such companies as Canada Steamship Lines and Ogilvie Flour Mills, located alongside the freighter's berths of the Town Dock.
Before he died, at the age of 90 in 2017, Morley lived on Midland's Russell Street, where he enjoyed watching sports on his TV at home, especially action involving his favourite hockey team, the Detroit Red Wings – the same NHL club his brother-in-law, Jack Hendrickson, suited-up with across the 1950s and 1960s.
Sadly, Morley's “number one supporter and fan,” Shirley Spiker, had passed away 12 years before her husband, but for the remainder of his life, Morley was surrounded by much family, including six grandchildren and a great-granddaughter.
The friendships he made through hockey also stayed strong, as well. In 1996, many of those lasting connections were evident during the Centennial Arena's hosting of a Georgian Mid-Ontario Junior C contest and subsequent reunion for the 1969-71 Midland Flyers.
Well-wishers and long-time supporters came and went, sharing their memories with the ex-intermediates inside the facility's booster club. The evening's tributes hinged on the pre-game spotlight introductions the local heroes were to receive. So, when the coaching staff of the then Midland Thunder asked for a Flyers' representative to drop the ceremonial puck at centre ice, there was only one choice.
Morley Spiker served as assistant trainer of the Midland Jr. B Flyers in early 1970s. | Photo courtesy of Thomas Paradis
Spiker's career symbolized the numerous hockey achievements the town had relished. His more than two decades of outstanding play for its OHA teams bridged the various championships won.
And in extending to Morley this welcomed task, they demonstrated their appreciation of past glories and acknowledged the respected place he held within Midland's sports history. A place that is still remembered today.
Thomas Paradis lives in Midland and is a writer of sports history.