The team that launched junior hockey in Sarnia – the 1949-50 Sarnia Sailors – will be honoured with a banner raising ceremony at the Brock Street Barn.
 

The Legionnaires have announced they will celebrate surviving members of that pioneering squad prior to the start of their Saturday, Oct. 24 game against the Leamington Flyers.
 

The Legionnaires recently hung a pair of banners in the rafters to commemorate their 1958 and 1959 Sutherland Cup championship teams. And there are plans to hang more banners to honour other champions, in the months ahead.

In all, Sarnia's Jr. 'B' franchise has won seven Sutherland Cups as all-Ontario champs.
 

The 1949/50 Sailors didn't win the provincial crown, but they came close. In fact, they won 14 of 16 regular season games, then captured the Western Ontario title by knocking Chatham and London out of the playoffs. After emerging from their own group, they defeated the Windsor Spitfires in the Sutherland Cup quarter-finals before bowing out in the semi-finals to the Guelph Biltmores.
 

Former Sailor Dirk Kirkland says the late Ted Garvin provided the coaching expertise the club needed to get ahead.

“Teddy was our coach and Tommy Norris was our manager and both were super,” he recalled. “We played as a team and had good team spirit.”
 

The original Sailors quickly proved that Sarnia could support Jr. 'B' hockey. Playing out of the brand new Sarnia Arena, they attracted crowds in excess of 3,000 once the playoffs got under way. Today, the fire marshal will not allow such gatherings in the rink.
 

The first Jr. 'B' game ever played in Sarnia came on Nov. 21, 1949, with the Sailors crushing the Chatham Monarchs 12-4. Chuck Glaab led the way with four goals.
 

From there it was one spectacular win after another. The Sailors thumped St. Thomas 18-7 in game two, with Glaab, Leo Houhlihan, Murphy Allen and Kirkland all getting hat-tricks. Goalie Tommy Hodgins picked up two assists. In their third contest, Hodgins, who still plays pickup hockey today, limited himself to saves, registering the first shutout in Sarnia junior hockey history.
 

The club's biggest win came when it destroyed the Monarchs 20-2, with defenceman Eric 'Red' Graham scoring five goals and three assists. According to a report in The Observer, the Sailors were credited with three goals in just seven seconds during that contest. However, it would appear that whoever was operating the clock was a little slow at starting it because the second and third goals went into the record book as being separated by exactly one second!
 

Members of that trailblazing squad included:

Murph Allen

Ted Baines

Allan Brown

Al Clements

Bob Dunham

Frank Emmons

Chuck Glaab

Red Graham

Tubby Hodgins

Clarke Horner

Leo Houlihan

Dick Kirkland

Butch Lennan

Flash Martel

Don Savage

Bill Slack

Pep Thomas

Ted Tompkins