An Invitation

Written by Paul Lewicki

It was a simple invitation from a friend
Little did Brian Watts know at the time - it would lead to a long hockey career - and a path in
life he could never have imagined at the time.

The Watts family moved from the small town of Hagersville to Toronto in the fall of 1951.
The family settled into a home on June Avenue in Downsview where young Brian attended
Yvonne Avenue Public School. At the time organized hockey for younger boys was not as developed as the structure of the
game today. Like a lot of kids at the time Brian played only outdoor shinny on the neighbourhood outdoor
rink. Winters in the 1950’s were consistently cold allowing for outdoor natural ice rinks to flourish
from early December through early March. He also played for the school team that ran a limited schedule on outdoor artificial ice for
games, while practicing on natural ice North York set up at Yvonne. They went on to win the
North York Public Schools Championship, played at Weston Arena, as North York had no indoor
rinks at the time.


In the fall of 1958 Brian’s friend Alex MacNicol invited him to tag along to a tryout for the
Coxwell Sporting Goods sponsored Pee Wee team at Weston Arena.
Coxwell Sports was the Marlboros second team - playing in the same division - with their
Marlboro cousins sponsored by the legendary Toronto food company “Shopsy’s”.
In those days the length of the Pee Wee games consisted of two – 20-minute periods – both
running time and with that in mind most teams only carried two lines, two defence pair and a goalie.
Brian and his friend Alex both made the Coxwell Sporting Goods team that year.


Because Brian played that first year as an underage Pee Wee - he was eligible to play at the
same level the next season in 1959 – 1960
He was invited to try out for and made the Pee Wee team - sponsored by local manufacturer
Canadian Scale.
The Canadian Scale team would play their home games at Lakeshore Arena - while the Shopsy’s
Marlboros were based out of the old Ravina Gardens in the south Junction area of Toronto
Under the guidance of coach Jack Thompson. The 1959- 1960 team would go on to win the
“THL” championship - facing teams such as Fiat 600, the Dixie Bee Hives and the
aforementioned Marlboros Shopsy’s.
In that era teams from Scarborough played in their own league and the champions of the two
leagues would playoff to crown a Metropolitan Toronto Champion.
Canadian Scale would face a strong Scarborough Lions team - lead by future Hockey Hall of
Famer Brad Park - and Syl Apps Junior – another future NHLer - and son of the Leaf’s legendary
captain
The Lions won that closely contested affair and took home the Pee Wee crown to finish the
season
The Canadian Scale record that year was 41 wins – 12 losses – 11 ties

The following year for the 1960 – 1961 season the Marlboro organization decided to combine the graduates of the Shopsy’s and Canadian Scale Pee Wee teams to form one Minor Bantam team – 7 players from Canadian Scale and 6 players from Shopsy’s - to be sponsored once again by Canadian Scale.

Brian was one of those chosen for this strong group.

It should be noted that the GM of the Marlboro system at the time – and the man who was the architect of this combined team - was the legendary “Buck” Houle – the name’s sake for our current award – presented annually to the top player in our Minor Bantam (U14) through Midget (U18) age groups.

In this era the Marlboro minor teams had a direct link to the not only the Major Junior A Toronto Marlboros – but to the parent Toronto Maple Leaf’s as well.

Marlboro minor teams would practice at the famed Maple Leaf Gardens (the home of the Leaf’s in this era) on weeknights or early Saturday and Sunday - prior to the Leaf’s morning skates or the Marlboro Junior A games

The Leaf’s also passed equipment down the line from the NHL team – to the Junior A Marlboros – to the Marlboro minor teams

Young players often received pieces of equipment labelled with the names of their local NHL hero’s!

The team won the THL crown with a convincing 21 win – 1 loss – 5 ties record

Moving forward to the 1961 -1962 Bantam year and 1963 – 1964 Midget seasons - the team not only won the THL crowns – but were also All Ontario Champions in both years.

Brian had the pleasure of playing for and learning from such legendary Marlboro coaches as Jack Thompson, Alex Davidson and Vic Sluce.

At the conclusion of the 1963 – 1964 Midget campaign the Marlboro players were eligible for not the OHL draft – but the NHL draft

This was only the second draft ever in NHL history, where the idea was for these “Original 6” NHL teams to draft graduating Midget age players - and then place them on one of the Major Junior A teams they sponsored.

For instance, the Boston Bruins sponsored the Niagara Falls Flyers and the Oshawa Generals. New York Rangers sponsored the Guelph Biltmores and Kitchener Rangers. The Chicago BlackHawks had the St Catharines Tee Pee’s. The Montreal Canadiens had the Junior Canadiens in Montreal and the Peterborough Pete’s in Ontario.

But it would be the Detroit Red Wings who called out Brians name – and assigned him to their sponsored club, the Hamilton Red Wings.

Other notable Marlboros drafted from the team included Bob Graham, Tom Martin, Gord Lowe, Mike Pelyk and goalie Gary Edwards

Brian was invited to his first “Hamilton Red Wings” Junior A camp in the fall of 1964.

The two years in Hamilton alongside future NHLers Peter Mahovlich, Gary Doak, Bart Crashley and Nick Libett saw Brian develop to the point that he earned a scholarship to Michigan Tech University

In those days a player could play Major Junior A and remain eligible for an NCAA scholarship.

Shortly after that Major Junior players were ruled ineligible based on the small allowance the players received for incidentals each week. The NCAA considered them “Professionals” based on the meager wage they received each week.

In 2025 after a 50-year ban, that rule was changed back to allow Major Junior players to accept scholarships once again.

After four years at Michigan Tech Brian was deemed ready to begin his pro career in the Detroit Red Wings system.  Note before 1970 freshmen were not allowed to play any varsity sport and basically could only practice, possibly playing the odd game against other university freshmen teams.

Starting with the 1970 – 1971 season Brian had stops in Port Huron of the IHL, Fort Worth in the Central Pro League and Virginia in the AHL. All were Detroit Red Wings affiliates at the time.

For the 1973 – 1974 season the Red Wings decided to try something radically different and sent their American league calibre players over seas to spend a year as the London (England) Lions.

The Lions played their home games at what was then known as Empire Pool in Wembley (northwest of London), an arena that housed the swimming events for the 1948 Summer Olympics. The ice surface had been installed over a wooden floor, placed atop the original swimming pool.

The team would play teams based in Finland, Sweden, Scotland and the Czech Republic. In that era a visit to a Communist run country like the Czech Republic was not without its perils. During one game a fight erupted on the ice, prompting local Police to jump on the ice and mace the players to stop the brawl.

In between periods the local Police were also interested in talking to one of the Lions about a stick altercation that happened on the ice.

Realizing an arrest could prove to be a nightmare for the team and the player, the team quickly hid the players #23 sweater and gave him another number.

As the Police walked unsuccessfully through the room looking for #23, they were forced to give up their search.

The following year it was back to North America and two more years in the Red Wings system.

1974 – 1975 with the AHL Virginia Red Wings and 1975 -1976 New Haven Nigh Hawks of the AHL.

It was in this same 75-76 season that Brian finally achieved his dream – playing four games with the parent NHL Red Wings

Realizing that an NHL future was not in the cards - in a league that had only 18 teams at the time - Brian spent his last year of pro hockey playing in the Swedish Elite League with Bjorkloven IF.

The following year, although Brian had graduated from Michigan Tech in 1970, he decided to return to Tech to complete his accounting degree and was rewarded with a position with the prestigious Coopers-Lybrand agency, while also becoming a CPA.

Brian held a number of prestigious positions with US based companies culminating with his final stop as CFO for Spectrum Laboratories in California.

Upon his retirement in April of 2014 Brian and his wife Noel decided to make Southern California their permanent home

Brian has two children – Alan who graduated from the University of Southern California is a Certified Financial Planner and Heather who is a CPA graduated from Indiana University.

In the spring of 2019 Brian came home to Toronto for a ceremony honouring his former Marlboro teammate and NHLer Mike Pelyk - for his work with the Etobicoke Sports Hall of Fame.

They used the trip to enjoy a mini re-union of former Marlboro teammates with a BBQ and a couple rounds of golf!

And to think this incredible journey all started with a simple invitation to a minor hockey tryout….