Roy Oke, not a name, many are familiar with today, but in the late 40’s,
the 50’s and 60’s everyone knew him. Roy was a Manager for many
Huntsville Minor Hockey teams. In 1949 he coached the Muskoka
Construction Team, he also worked for the company. In 1953 during
the building of the new arena in Huntsville, he drove 12 -14 Bantam
hockey players week after week to Bracebridge, for practice, in the
back of the Muskoka Construction Company Panel truck. The kids all
perched on top of their equipment bags for the ride down and back. A
highlight for the players, was that Roy without fail, would always stop at
the Dairy Bar on the way home to buy the boys a treat. Every kid in
town` wanted to play on any team that Roy was involved with, because
not only were they winning teams, but the kids got treated to ice
cream..
Roy managed many teams during this time frame, the 1956 Bantams,
the 1957-58 Ontario Midget “B” finalists and the 1958-59 Ontario
Juvenile B Champions. He, along with his buddy Lavern Reynolds,
managed and cheered on so many successful Huntsville Minor Hockey
teams. A number of years ago, the 1958-59 Ontario Juvenile B
Championship team was inducted into the Huntsville Sports Hall of
Fame.
Roy was in inducted into the HUNTSVILLE SPORTS HALL OF FAME
in 2017.