Mike Sleep

Michael William Sleep

Born: March 13, 1955 (Verdun, Québec)
Died: February 4, 2014 (Thunder Bay, Ontario)

 

Mike Sleep skated in 22 games over two seasons for the Phoenix Roadrunners of the World Hockey Association. The 6-foot, 180-pound forward scored four goals and added two assists for the Roadrunners. He did not appear on the scoresheet in three playoff games.

Sleep showed an adept scoring touch in junior and in minor professional leagues, scoring 23 goals in 69 games for the Tucson Mavericks of the Central Hockey League in 1975-76. He had a 21-goal seasons with the Oklahoma City Blazers the following season. He had his cups of coffee in the WHA in both of those campaigns.

Born in Verdun, Que., he moved to Winnipeg with his family at age 2. He played junior with the St. James Canadians (92 games), the Flin Flon Bombers (11 games), and the New Westminster (B.C.) Bruins (109 games). The right-winger played in the 1975 Memorial Cup final tournament at Kitchener, Ont., scoring a goal against the Toronto Marlboros in a 6-2 round-robin victory. The Bruins then lost the junior championship to the Marlies in the final game.

Sleep scored 28 goals and added 34 assists in his final season of junior with the Bruins.

The NHL’s New York Islanders selected him in the sixth round (No. 101 overall) of the 1975 NHL amateur draft, while the rival WHA Roadrunners took him in the fifth round (No. 68 overall) of the WHA’s draft.

Sleep then played two seasons of senior hockey with the Green Bay (Wisc.) Bobcats and a final season with the Thunder Bay (Ont.) Twins. In 1980, he went to Europe, where he played in Norway for three seasons.

After returning to Canada, he spent 28 years in the banking and financial services industry with Avco (coincidentally, the company that sponsored the WHA’s championship trophy), Guaranty Trust, TD Canada Trust. He retired from TD Waterhouse as a financial planner in 2010.

Sleep died at the hospice at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Thunder Bay. He was 58. He leaves Nowell, his wife of 32 years; a daughter; a son; a brother; and, two sisters.

Mike Sleep’s Phoenix Roadrunners sweater from 1976-77. Auctioned by Classic Collectibles.

 

Whitey Paul

Millard Nelson Paul

Born: January 12, 1922 (Merrickville, Ontario)
Died: February 18, 2014 (Bridgewater, New Jersey)

 

Born in Ontario, Millard (Whitey) Paul moved as a boy with his family to Syracuse, N.Y. The son of an apartment superintendent, he attended Syracuse University on a baseball scholarship, also playing hockey and field lacrosse under coach Fred Schermerhorn. On May 8, 1943, Paul, playing the in-home position, scored the lone Syracuse goal when the Orange suffered a 14-1 drubbing at the hands of the Nittany Lions of Penn State at State College, Pa. Paul received honourable mention at inside attack as a 1943 All-American in lacrosse.

He interrupted his studies to fight in the Second World War, serving as a ski trooper and rock climber with 87^th Infantry Regiment of the 10^th Mountain Division in Italy in the Northern Apennines offensive. By war’s end, Paul had risen in rank to lieutenant.

He returned to the university, graduating with a science degree. In 1951, he was recalled to duty, serving in Germany for two years before being discharged as a first lieutenant.

Paul worked for the Union Carbide Corporation, eventually becoming head of sales for the West Coast before retiring in 1984, after which he lived in New York, North Carolina, Virginia, and New Jersey.

Joe McCloskey

Joseph Martin McCloskey

Born: September 1, 1929 (Dungiven, Northern Ireland)
Died: February 23, 2014 (Oshawa, Ontario)

Member: Whitby (Ont.) Sports Hall of Fame (2002)

 

Born in Northern Ireland, Joe McCloskey grew up in Kirkland Lake, Ont., where he learned to play hockey. After moving south, he played junior hockey in the Detroit red Wings system, skating for the junior-C team based in Whitby, Ont., winning a championship in 1946. After two seasons, he was promoted to the junior-B squad.

In 1948-49, McCloskey played for the Windsor (Ont.) Spitfires of the Continental League, before joining his brother, Pat, on the Collingwood (Ont.) Shipbuilders. The McCloskey brothers were inducted into the Whitby Sports Hall of Fame in 2002.

McCloskey was a union activist throughout his working life, serving on the executive board of Local 222 of the United Auto Workers.

He was later elected to the national executive board of the Canadian Auto Workers after the Canadian section of the UAW split to form its own union.

Tom Podivinsky

Thomas Joseph Podivinsky

Born: July 9, 1965 (Brno, Czechoslovakia)
Died: February 16, 2014 (Whitefish, Montana)

Born in Czechoslovakia in 1965, Tom Podivinsky immigrated to Canada three years later as the events of the Prague Spring roiled his homeland. He began skiing at age six with the Snow Valley Ski Club of Edmonton, later competing on the Nor-Am and National Championships circuit in North America and Europe.

Podivinsky was a contemporary of Rob Boyd and Brian Stemmle, while racing against such older Crazy Canucks skiers as Ken Read and Steve Podborski.

“I was probably better at the aprés ski than on the snow portion of the competition,” he said in an interview published earlier this year.

Podivinsky’s younger brother, Edi, born in 1970, would have greater success on the ski hill, winning a bronze medal at the 1994 Winter Olympics, the last Canadian male to win an Olympic alpine medal until Jan Hudec took the bronze in the Super-G at the Sochi Olympics earlier this month.

Tom Podivinsky said before the Sochi Games it would be bittersweet if his brother’s achievement would be matched by a fellow Canadian.

On that very day, Tom Podivinsky died in a skiing accident while on vacation with his family in Montana. He was found upside down in a tree well at the Whitefish Mountain Resort and could not be revived.

Tom Podivinsky was chief geophysicist for Athabasca Oil Corporation at the time of his death. He leaves Mary Beth, his wife of 14 years; a son; a daughter; his brother Edi, also known as Ed; and, his parents, Ed and Ina.

Bill Popowich

William Popowich

Born: November 8, 1930 (Burnaby, British Columbia)
Died: February 11, 2014 (Burnaby, British Columbia)

Member: Burnaby (B.C.) Sports Hall of Fame (2010)

 

For more than five decades, Bill Popowich dedicated himself to coaching, training and promoting amateur sports in the Vancouver suburb of Burnaby. He was named to the city’s sports hall of fame in recognition of his efforts.

He coached soccer, basketball, and track and field, also serving as a referee and official when needed.

As a youth, he was named rookie of the year of the Pacific Coast Soccer League while playing as a centre forward with Vancouver St. Andrews. He scored five goals in a 1951 game to eliminate the Calgary Callies from competition for the Challenge Cup as Dominion soccer champions.

Popowich also coached high school sports. He spent 35 years at New Westminster (B.C.) Secondary, finishing his career as an educator as principal of the school.

Si Miller

Silas Miller

Born:
Died: February 22, 2014 (Cornwall, Ontario)

Member: Cornwall (Ont.) Sports Hall of Fame (1975)

 

The old indoor hockey rink in the Ontario border city of Cornwall was named Si Miller Arena in honour of the city’s longtime parks and recreation director. Miller held the position from 1963 until retirement at the end of 1994, when the Water Street Arena was renamed in his honour. The building was demolished in 2012.

Miller served as a director of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association from 1969 until 1971. He was a director of the Ottawa district hockey governing body for eight years, including two as president. He also coached hockey teams from atom to juvenile and regularly attended the annual peewee tournament in Quebec.

As a youth, Miller played hockey, lacrosse, softball and baseball under the Our Citizens of Tomorrow program. He later played senior baseball for five seasons in the Northern New York League. He also played hockey with the Inkerman (Ont.) Rockets and other local intermediate teams.

Miller died at St. Joseph’s Continuing Care Centre in Cornwall, aged 84. He leaves Joan (née Laperle), his wife of 60 years; a son; two daughters; five grandchildren; two step-grandchildren; and, two sisters. He was predeceased by a brother.

Joe Bell

Joseph Alexander Bell

Born: November 27, 1923 (Portage la Prairie, Manitoba)
Died: February 17, 2014 (Bothell, Washington)

Member: Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame

 

Joe Bell had two stints with the New York Rangers sandwiched around wartime service in the Canadian navy.

Though his NHL career was limited, as he lost three seasons to fight the Nazis instead of NHL rivals, Bell showed a terrific scoring touch in the minor professional leagues. He led two leagues in points and four leagues in goal scoring.

The left winger played junior hockey with the Portage (Man.) Terriers for three seasons, leading the league in goal scoring in 1941-42 with 38 goals in 18 games. His brother, Gordie, younger by 16 months, nicknamed Tinkle Bell, was the goalie and his father, army Staff Sgt. Addie Bell, was the coach. In 1941-42, the Terriers were a scoring powerhouse. Portage steamrolled the St. James Canadiens by 12-1, 9-6 and 5-4 in the first round of the Manitoba playoffs before dispatching the St. Boniface Athletics by 11-8 and 15-3 to claim the Ollie Turnbull Trophy as league champions.

The Terriers rode a 22-game winning streak into the Memorial Cup final series against the favoured Oshawa (Ont.) Generals. In four games played before packed houses at the Amphitheatre arena in Winnipeg, the Terriers won the best-of-five series by 5-1, 8-7, 4-8, 8-2.

In 12 playoff games in 1942, Bell scored an astounding 31 goals.

The New York Rangers signed the 18-year-old as a free agent on Oct. 30, 1942. The 5-foot-9, 165-pound left-winger made his debut at Maple Leafs Gardens in Toronto the following night. The Rangers lineup had been depleted by the demands of war and Bell skated on an all-rookie line with Terriers teammates Lin Bend and Bill Gooden. Bell assisted on a goal by Bend, as the defending Stanley Cup champions defeated the Rangers, 7-2.

Baby Face Bell only managed to play 15 games with the Blueshirts before receiving his callup notice from the Canadian army. He had scored two goals and added five assists before going off to fight the enemy.

Bell managed to enlist in the navy, his preferred service, and he skated for three different naval teams during the war — Winnipeg Navy, Cornwallis Navy, and St. John’s (Nfld.) Navy. He also saw service on the treacherous waters of the North Atlantic.

After the war, he played in the American Hockey League with the Hershey Bears and in New Haven with the Eagles and Ramblers before rejoining the NHL Rangers midway through the 1946-47 season. He scored six goals and recorded four assists in 47 games.

He later played minor pro hockey with the Buffalo Bisons, Dallas Texans, Louisville Blades, Cincinnati Mohawks and the Seattle Ironmen (later Bombers). With the Ironmen, he led the Pacific Coast Hockey League with 46 goals in 63 games in 1950-51.

In 1954-55, he was top scorer in the Western International Hockey League with 78 points in 38 games for the Nelson (B.C.) Maple Leafs.

Bell was predeceased by Jo Anne (née Ryan), his wife of 59 years, who died in Seattle in 2012, aged 79. He was also predeceased by a daughter, Julie Walters, and by his goaltending brother Gordon, who died in 1980, aged 55, after a long hockey career that included 10 NHL games with the Leafs and Rangers as well as an Allan Cup senior championship with the Belleville (Ont.) McFarlands in 1958.. He leaves a son, two daughters, and four grandchildren.

The Portage Terriers celebrate Memorial Cup victory in 1942.

 

Joe Bell with the Buffalo Bisons.

 

 

 

 

 

Staff Sgt. Addie Bell coached the Portage la Prairie Terriers to the Memorial Cup in 1942. His son Gordie was the goalie and his older son Joe was a star scorer.

 

Jim Fregosi

 Blue Jays manager Jim Fregosi argues with umpire Ian Lamplugh of Victoria, B.C.

James Louis Fregosi Jr.

Born: April 4, 1942 (San Francisco, California)
Died: February 14, 2014 (Miami, Florida)

Jim Fregosi managed the Toronto Blue Jays to consecutive third-place finishes in the American League East in 1999 and 2000. He had a 167-157 record as manager of the Blue Jays.

He replaced Tim Johnson as Toronto skipper during spring training in 1999. He was replaced by Buck Martinez, a former Blue Jays catcher and now a broadcaster.

The one time he reached the World Series as a manager came in 1993 when his Philadelphia Phillies were defeated by the Toronto Blue Jays in six games.

Jim Fregosi was a seven-time all-star who won a Gold Glove as a shortstop in 1967 with the California Angels. The son of San Francisco grocers broke in with the expansion Angels as a 19-year-old in 1961.

Over 18 seasons, he hit .265 with 151 home runs. He collected runs batted-in. In played in 1,902 games for the Angels, New York Mets, Texas Rangers and Pittsburgh Pirates.

He was a key player in one of the most notorious trades in New York baseball history as the player the Mets received in exchange for Nolan Ryan, a hard-throwing but wild pitcher who went on to build a Hall of Fame career.

Fregosi handled more than 2,000 games as a manager, beginning with the Angels (1978-81) and then with the Chicago White Sox (1986-88), Phillies (1991-96) and Blue Jays.

For the last 13 years, Fregosi served as a special assistant to the general manager of the Atlanta Braves.

Fregosi suffered a stroke while aboard a cruise ship in the Caribbean with other former major league players. He died in hospital in Miami.

Pete Titanic

Pete Titanic (far left, No. 78) and his fellow Toronto Argonauts (from left) Les Ascott (52), Bill Zock (80), Doug Turner (66), Frankie Morris (59), Steve Levantis (51) and an unidentified player.

Peter David Titanic

Born: August 13, 1920
Died: January 20, 2014 (Markham, Ontario)

Pete Titanic, a big man with a big name, won three postwar Grey Cups as an end with the Toronto Argonauts.

Titanic starred as a three-sport athlete in high school in the Toronto suburb of Mimico, where he played fastball, basketball and football. The school’s gridiron team won a city championship and Titanic went on to join the Toronto Indians of the Ontario Rugby Football Union in 1942, a season in which the circuit challenged for the Grey Cup.

He spent the next two seasons with Balmy Beach of the Interprovincial Rugby Football Union, before briefly rejoining the Indians. As Indians coach Lew Hayman saud, “That Pete Titanic, what a sweetheart of an end he’s going to be.”

The 5-foot-11, 175-pounder played both ways. He saw in the Indians the making of a championship squad. “I thought we had a chance for the Grey Cup with the Indians in 1945, but we ran into too many injuries,” he told Paul Patton of the Globe and Mail in 1984. “The guys used to play for almost nothing, but we all had jobs on the side.”

The Indians went 7-1 in 1945, ahead of Balmy Beach (6-2) in the five-team circuit. But the Indians season ended after the Beachers in a two-game, total-points series by 2-1 and 15-0.

Titanic joined the Argos in 1946. Titanic caught two key passes from Joe Krol in the drive to score the decisive touchdown in a 12-6 victory for Toronto in the 1946 IRFU title game against the Alouettes in Montreal.

He helped the Boatmen win the Grey Cup over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in both his rookie and sophomore seasons with the club. Toronto recovered from a 9-0 deficit to win the 1947 classic by 10-9 after Krol kicked the ball through the end zone for a single point as time expired. Titanic called the game the biggest thrill of his career. He was also part of the 1950 championship team, which yet again defeated the Blue Bombers, by 13-0, in a game remembered as the Mud Bowl for the terrible field condition.

In the offseason, Titanic played basketball in a city league and fastball with Toronto Tip Tops and People’s. The Tip Tops won a world championship in 1949, but they had to do so without their regular catcher as Titanic had Argonaut commitments.

After retiring from sport, he worked as a furniture salesman, including a quarter-century as a manager at Leon’s Furniture.

He leaves Margaret, his wife of 64 years. He also leaves two sons, four grandchildren and a great-granddaughter. Both his sons played collegiate hockey — Peter Titanic played for Cornell University, while Paul Titanic played at Bowling Green State University and later coached the University of Toronto varsity team.

Doug Jarrett

Douglas William Jarrett

Born: April 22, 1944 (London, Ontario)
Died: February 10, 2014 (Fort Erie, Ontario)

Member: London (Ont.) Sports Hall of Fame (2011)

 

Doug Jarrett patrolled the blue-line of the Chicago Black Hawks for nine seasons, a steady figure whose control of play earned him the nickname Chairman of the Boards.

Jarrett used a long reach (he stood 6-foot-3) and a devastating hip check to make life miserable for opposing forwards. He had a reputation as a clean hitter. He was never assessed more than 78 penalty minutes in an NHL season. 

Often overshadowed by flashier players on teams known for scoring, Jarrett’s dependable play allowed teammates to take risks.

He appeared in three Stanley Cup finals with the Hawks — in 1965, 1971 and 1973 — losing each time to the Montreal Canadiens. Jarrett never had his name engraved on the cup.

Douglas William Jarrett was born in 1944 in London, Ont., where he became the first player in the city’s midget program to rise to the NHL. Chicago signed him to the organization as a teenager and he spent four seasons playing junior hockey with the St. Catharines (Ont.) Teepees (later Black Hawks), a team whose roster was filled with future NHLers. The defenceman was named to the First All-Star team in his final year in the Ontario Hockey Association.

Jarrett was called up to the parent club for the 1964-65 season, during which he also played 17 games for the St. Louis Braves and one game for the Buffalo Bisons. Jarrett made such an impression as a rookie that he played in 11 playoff games with the Black Hawks, scoring a single goal.

Later in his career with Chicago, Jarrett was paired with Keith Magnuson, an intimidating — and bruising — blueline duo.

Jarrett missed more than a month of the 1970-71 season after undergoing surgery to repair a dislocated shoulder. He rebounded the following season by recording career highs for goals (six) and assists (23) in 1971-72.

It was an era in which some fans were less interested in goals than fistfights.

“For a while, it didn’t matter who was playing,” Jarrett told the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times in 1980. “It was who spit out the most teeth.”

He played in the NHL all-star game on Jan. 21, 1975.

On Oct. 28, 1975, he was traded to the New York Rangers for goalie Gilles Villemure. He would only play in 54 games with the Rangers over two seasons before winding up his playing career with the New Haven Nighthawks of the American Hockey League.

The end to his playing days was not a happy one. He blocked a shot by Guy Lafleur late in the 1976-77 season. He assumed he had a swollen ankle, but days later his back was so sore even a sneeze caused agony.

“When I blocked that shot, I flipped into the air,” he told the Globe and Mail five years later. “I must have done something to my back. I didn’t realize it because my ankle was so sore. Finally, I went to a specialist and he told me, ‘Doug, you might as well go home to Niagara Falls. Your career is probably over. You’ve got a ruptured disc.’ ”

For a few years, the only income he had was a disability fund from the NHL Players’ Association.

Before the injury, he figured he had a few more seasons left and was planning on the income, now that he was making $75,000 per season.

“I was bitter at the way I was treated. I got sick of the game because of the raw deal the Rangers gave me.”

In 11 NHL seasons, Jarrett scored 38 goals with 182 assists in 775 games. He was assessed 631 penalty minutes. He also skated in 99 playoff games with seven goals and 16 assists.

Angry at the way he had been treated, Jarrett refused even to watch a hockey game for three years. He returned to the game as a coach for the Niagara Falls (Ont.) Canucks of the junior-B Golden Horseshoe League in 1980.

Away from hockey, he worked in sales for the steel industry.

His death was announced by his brother-in-law, who said Jarrett died only 10 days after being diagnosed with lung cancer.