The Barrie Flyers were a Canadian junior ice hockey team in the Ontario Hockey Association (OHA) from 1945 to 1960. Based in Barrie, Ontario, the Flyers played home games at the Barrie Arena. The team was operated by Hap Emms as a farm team of the Boston Bruins, won the J. Ross Robertson Cup four times as OHA champions, and won the Memorial Cup as junior champions of Canada in 1951 and 1953.
History
The Barrie Flyers joined the Ontario Hockey Association (OHA) junior A division for the 1945–46 OHA season. The Flyers were owned and managed by Hap Emms, and were established as a farm team to the St. Louis Flyers of the American Hockey League. Barrie defeated the Windsor Spitfires for the J. Ross Robertson Cup. Barrie then defeated the Montreal Nationales to win the George Richardson Memorial Trophy as Eastern Canadian champions. In the 1948 Memorial Cup, the Flyers lost to the Port Arthur West End Bruins in a best-of-seven series played at Maple Leaf Gardens. The series was very physical and bitter between the teams. After the third game, Emms threatened that the Flyers would not continue to play without a change in referees. The series ultimately continued with the same referees.
In the 1948–49 season, Barrie won the OHA championship versus the Toronto Marlboros, Despite having won the OHA championship, Emms felt that operating the team in Barrie was not financially viable with renovations to their arena to increase capacity from 2,700 to 5,000.
thumb|1951 Barrie Flyers
In the 1950–51 season, the Bruins established a second farm team in the Waterloo Hurricanes, but gave priority to the Barrie Flyers for receiving prospects. Barrie won the OHA championship again versus the Toronto Marlboros. George scheduled game seven on neutral ice at Maple Leaf Gardens, despite protests from Flyers' coach Hap Emms who claimed that his team only agreed to resume the series if game seven was played in Barrie. The Flyers won the 1951 Memorial Cup played at Winnipeg and Brandon, Manitoba. They swept the Winnipeg Monarchs in a best-of-seven series.
In the 1952–53 season, Barrie won the OHA championship versus the Toronto St. Michael's Majors.
In 1955, the Flyers received five Boston Bruins' prospect players from the defunct Galt Black Hawks. In the 1955–56 season, Barrie reached the OHA finals and lost to the Toronto Marlboros.
Players
Award winners
- 1948–49 – Gilles Mayer received the Red Tilson Trophy as the OHA's most outstanding junior player.
- 1950–51 – Don Lockhart and Lorne Howes received the Dave Pinkney Trophy with the lowest goals against average for goaltenders on n OHA junior team.
Notable alumni
List of Flyers' alumni who played in the National Hockey League (NHL) or World Hockey Association:
- Barry Ashbee
- Blake Ball
- Bob Barlow
- Bob Beckett
- Bob Blackburn
- Ross Brooks
- Kelly Burnett
- Dick Cherry
- Don Cherry
- Real Chevrefils
- Murray Davison
- Marv Edwards
- Pierre Gagne
- Ray Gariepy
- Jeannot Gilbert
- Howie Glover
- Bill Knibbs
- Leo Labine
- Stan Long
- Wayne Maxner
- Gilles Mayer
- Don McKenney
- Sid McNabney
- Paul Meger
- Hillary Menard
- Doug Mohns
- Jim Morrison
- Keke Mortson
- Tony Poeta
- Dan Poliziani
- George Ranieri
- Gerry Reid
- Dale Rolfe
- Wayne Rutledge
- Myron Stankiewicz
- Ron Stewart
- Alan Teal
- Orval Tessier
- Jerry Toppazzini
- Ed Westfall
- Larry Zeidel
Season-by-season results
Regular season and playoffs results:
Legend: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against
{|class="wikitable"
|bgcolor="#FFBBBB"|<small>Memorial Cup champions</small>
|bgcolor="#FFFF99"|<small>Memorial Cup finalists</small>
|bgcolor="#B3FFB3"|<small>League champions</small>
|bgcolor="#D0E7FF"|<small>League finalists</small>
|}
{|class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|-
! rowspan="2"|Season !! colspan="9"|Regular season !! rowspan="2"|Playoffs
|-
! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! Finish
|-
|1945–46||28|| 8||18||2||18||0.308|| 89||171||7th OHA||Did not qualify
|-
|1946–47||35||17||16||2||36||0.514||129||144||6th OHA||Won quarterfinal (Toronto Marlboros) 2–0<br />Lost semifinal (Galt Red Wings) 2–1
|-
|1947–48||36||23||13||0||46||0.639||198||116||3rd OHA||bgcolor="#FFFF99"|Won quarterfinal (Stratford Kroehlers) 2–0<br />Won semifinal (Galt Rockets) 3–2<br />Won OHA final (Windsor Spitfires) 4–2<br />Won Eastern Canada semifinal (Porcupine Combines) 3–0<br />Won Eastern Canada final (Montreal Nationales) 3–0<br />Lost 1948 Memorial Cup final (Port Arthur West End Bruins) 4–0
|-
|1948–49||48||28||16||4||60||0.625||208||134||2nd OHA||bgcolor="#B3FFB3"|Won semifinal (Windsor Spitfires) 4–0<br />Won OHA final (Toronto Marlboros) 4–0<br />Won Eastern Canada semifinal (Porcupine Combines) 4–0<br />Lost Eastern Canada final (Montreal Junior Royals) 4–0
|-
|1949–50||48||21||24||3||45||0.469||180||217||5th OHA||Won quarterfinal (Toronto St. Michael's Majors) 3–2<br />Lost semifinal (Guelph Biltmores) 3–1
|-
|1950–51||54||38||14||2||78||0.722||276||161||1st OHA||bgcolor="#FFBBBB"|Won quarterfinal (Galt Black Hawks) 3–0<br />Won semifinal (Windsor Spitfires) 3–0<br />Won OHA final (Toronto Marlboros) 4–2<br />Won Eastern Canada final (Quebec Citadelles) 4–3<br />Won 1951 Memorial Cup final (Winnipeg Monarchs) 4–0
|-
|1951–52||53||22||30||1||47||0.425||225||230||7th OHA||Did not qualify
|-
|1952–53||56||37||17||2||76||0.679||258||187||1st OHA||bgcolor="#FFBBBB"|Won semifinal (Toronto Marlboros) 5–2<br />Won OHA final (Toronto St. Michael's Majors) 5–3<br />Won Eastern Canada final (Quebec Citadelles) 4–1<br />Won 1953 Memorial Cup final (St. Boniface Canadiens) 4–1
|-
|1953–54||59||25||33||1||51||0.432||260||285||7th OHA||Did not qualify
|-
|1954–55||49||18||31||0||36||0.367||169||251||7th OHA||Did not qualify
|-
|1955–56||48||20||25||3||43||0.448||179||207||6th OHA||bgcolor="#D0E7FF"|Won quarterfinal (Kitchener Canucks) 4–3–1<br />Won semifinal (Toronto St. Michael's Majors) 3–2<br />Lost OHA final (Toronto Marlboros) 4–1
|-
|1956–57||52||13||37||2||28||0.269||147||218||6th OHA||Lost quarterfinal (St. Catharines Teepees) 3–0
|-
|1957–58||51||18||29||4||40||0.392||201||234||6th OHA||Lost quarterfinal (Toronto St. Michael's Majors) 3–1
|-
|1958–59||54||21||27||6||48||0.444||178||192||5th OHA||Lost quarterfinal (Peterborough Petes) 4–2
|-
|1959–60||48||24||18||6||54||0.562||19 ||172||3rd OHA||Lost quarterfinal (Peterborough Petes) 3–1–2
|}