Ron Duguay and the Wolves
To most fans and insiders, Ron Duguay’s association with the game relates to his 12-year career in the National Hockey League as a star forward, mostly with the New York Rangers — a marquee player with exceptional good looks, an infectious smile, and long, flowing hair as someone who was made for the neon lights of Broadway.
But to many of us who either grew up, lived or worked in northern Ontario, Duguay was one of us — born and raised in the mining town of Sudbury, a likeable and respectful lad who was a superstar for his hometown Wolves of the Ontario Hockey League — and was part of a nasty rivalry with the nearby Soo Greyhounds.
Duguay had skill, size and could skate like the wind. And not only could he score, he could play in traffic and stand up to the goons of the OHL, of which Sudbury’s arch-rivals from the Soo had more than their share of.
Improving his stats every year for all of the four OHL regular seasons that he played for the Wolves, Duguay finished with impressive totals of 131 goals, 228 assists, 359 points in 245 games. He also spent 326 minutes in the penalty box. In fact, in Duguay’s final OHL season in Sudbury — the ’76-77 campaign — he not only had 109 points but 109 penalty minutes as well.
It was during the ’75-76 season that I first met — and interviewed — Duguay as part of my job as a part-time sportscaster with Sault Ste. Marie radio station CKCY. The first-place Wolves and the middle-of-the-pack Greyhounds formed a bloody rivalry that season, largely fuelled and instigated by Soo head coach Muzz MacPherson.
While the Wolves were a skilled team that would finish atop the standings of the OHL’s Leyden Division with 102 points from a record of 47-11-8, the Hounds were aptly known as the Bay St. Brawlers. While the Hounds had skilled players of their own, MacPherson employed a half dozen goons whose main purpose who to create mayhem and fight at the drop of a hat.
A first-round playoff upset of the Oshawa Generals led the upstart Greyhounds — who had finished the regular season just above the .500 mark with 67 points from a record of 27-26-13 — into the Leyden Division finals against Duguay and the powerhouse Wolves.
Sudbury would prevail over the Soo in the seven game series — which was four games to two for the Wolves with one tie match — but the Greyhounds would not go down without a fight. Dozens of fights, actually.
The Hounds tried every dirty trick in the book to get Duguay off of his game — but it didn’t work as the Sudbury star scored seven goals in the seven game series.
But what really stood out to me about Duguay is how the Sudbury standout treated me as a member of the Sault Ste. Marie media at a time when hostilities were at a high between the northern Ontario hockey foes. I visited the Sudbury dressing room after all three games in the Soo and asked to interview Duguay — and not once did he say no.
In fact, not only was Duguay respectful and cordial, he was downright friendly and accommodating, even after the two games that the Wolves lost in the Soo. Even though the Soo fans hurled nasty insults at him and MacPherson as the Greyhounds coach sent his goons out after Duguay, he still went out of his way to accommodate me as a radio sports guy from the rival Soo.
After he left Sudbury and the OHL, I kept up with what Duguay did as an NHL star, who went from glamour boy in New York to the Detroit Red Wings, Pittsburgh Penguins and Los Angeles Kings. Throughout his 12-year NHL career, Duguay remained a favourite player of mine.
I never did see Duguay in person again after he left Sudbury and the OHL. But it deeply saddened me when I heard of his passing on Thursday of this week at the young age of 69. I will never forgot, for all of his stardom, even as an OHL teenager, how respectful and mature he was to me, in enemy territory.
Rest in peace, Ron.
above, 1975-1976 Sudbury Wolves team photo includes Ron Duguay, first row, far right.
