Ron MacLean - Fond Memories of Quinte

RON MACLEAN

Has Fond Memories of the Quinte Region

By: Jeff Gard Total Sports Media

Rogers Hometown Hockey returned to Belleville for the fan festival Oct. 30-31 and was also the broadcast site for hosts Ron MacLean and Tara Slone from the mobile studio on Nov. 1. Heading into the event, MacLean fondly remembered the show’s 2018 stop in Belleville. “The Hasty P’s right, that was a really nice thing. The Regiment helped us out,” MacLean said, referring to the Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment also known as the Hasty P’s. “They’re one of the most decorated, if not the most decorated Regiment in World War II so we had an opening there with the Regiment. We had Andrew Raycroft as a guest, it’s the home of the Belleville McFarlands, the Crawford family. Those were at the forefront. The Belleville Senators were just kind of coming into vogue so we had the history of international play, we had the Belleville Bulls and a lot of junior hockey reminisces that year.” MacLean, also the longtime host of Hockey Night in Canada, has memories of Belleville and the Quinte region that extend beyond hockey. “I was going to answer immediately, the Hull family and Bobby specifically,” he remarked. “I always get a huge kick out of the fact that at his home in Point Anne he had a big fireplace mantle, spotlit, none of his trophies from hockey were there like his replica Stanley Cup and the Hart and Art Ross...they were all tucked away on the other side of the room. All that was on the fireplace mantle were red and blue ribbons for his cattle. I loved that, being a boy from central Alberta.” Belleville was always a key stop for MacLean and company when sailing to the Thousand Islands. “Friends of ours had a 35-foot sailboat and my wife Cari and I used to go with Pat and Linda up through the Murray Canal and head to the Thousand Islands and we would be all through the area whether it was Picton and Waupoos, just a beautiful part of the world. One of the great harbours is Belleville so I think a lot about the marina and sailing in that neck of the woods as well as the hockey.” This year’s Hometown Hockey stop in Belleville was the backdrop of the broadcast of the game from Chicago between the Blackhawks and Ottawa Senators. MacLean was looking forward to having the recentlyretired Andrew Shaw as a guest. “Andrew’s now dabbling in TV, he’s down doing some Chicago Blackhawks work so that will be nice to have him as the ambassador for this particular show,” MacLean said. “They used to have an expression about, I think it was the McFarlands, they said they had ‘acres of heart’ and that’s a great description of Andrew Shaw.” Sharing the stories of players like Shaw and other individuals involved in hockey is what MacLean believes makes the show great. “It has to begin somewhere and success has roots. We get to experience those beginnings and there’s lots of great lessons,” he said. “How did Andrew Shaw get to be Andrew Shaw? Every kid wants to know that. Where does the competitive drive come from, the skill sets come from, so when you go into the communities, you see it first hand and it goes deeper. It could be referees, it could be the 50/50 ticket sellers, there’s so many people that make it come together. For us it’s a balancing act over the 25 shows to just find a few of those great volunteers and in some small cases hired guns whole drive the sport.” A change from previous Hometown Hockey seasons is moving the live broadcast from Sunday evening to Monday. A meet-and-greet with local dignitaries that used to be held the afternoon of the show now moves to Sunday evenings with more preparation available for the hosts on the day of the broadcast. Heading to show locations on time, especially on the west coast, following Hockey Night In Canada would often be a challenging endeavour for MacLean.

“It was stressful and in addition to running on very little sleep,” he said. “I used to arrive the morning of the show and we’d go right into a meetand-greet and we barely get on the air having talked to one another, Tara Slone and myself, and that was tough. The show moves a hundred miles an hour and there’s all these different stories to try and weave. I hope it will make the show smoother from a production point of view and easier for Tara and me and the crew.”

MacLean has lots of praise for his co-host who is on the ground in the communities gathering stories leading up to the show’s broadcast, though he’s hoping the new format will enable him to help out more with that as well.

“She has done a lot of the heavy lifting over the years,” MacLean said of Slone. “She’s a great storyteller, really hard worker and does a fabulous job on the air of course so we’re blessed to have her.” The Quinte region is loaded with teams to support, including the American Hockey League’s Belleville Senators, junior A Wellington Dukes and Trenton Golden Hawks of the Ontario Junior Hockey League, junior C Picton Pirates and expansion Frankford Huskies and nearby Campbellford Rebels and Napanee Raiders of the Provincial Junior Hockey League, and the senior A Deseronto Bulldogs and expansion Tweed Oil Kings of the Eastern Ontario Super Hockey League. MacLean said he visits so many great communities with great hockey programs “and that’s what you have all through the Belleville area.

“The backbone of our game, it’s just such an incredible thing,” he added. “I’m grateful Hometown Hockey came along to find that. We always say “let’s get to the local organizing committee and ask them ‘who are the ones that deserve the spotlight, who inspires the game in your region and there’s always a great story about such a person.” In addition to Hometown Hockey, MacLean recalled coming to Belleville for a Kraft Hockeyville broadcast, though noted it was StirlingRawdon that won the competition that year.

“We could go there 10 times and not tell all the stories,” MacLean said of the Quinte region. “The history of supporting hockey is incredibly rich. They used to joke that at the old Memorial Arena (downtown) they would walk 99 steps to the Queen’s for a beer during the period intermissions.”

MacLean, who refereed for 23 years, has fond memories of officiating games in Trenton as well as Dukes games, though never in Wellington, but wishes he would have had the opportunity. He’s just fond of the whole area which provides a great backdrop for Hometown Hockey.