The Brampton team consisted of Wayne Thompson, John Ford, Bert Naylor, Bruce Wanless, Gord Thompson, Bob Pulford, Jim McClure, Jack Madgett, Kenny Richardson, Larry Kendall, and George Grasby. Three Peterborough Pete’s players, Larry Ferguson, Dan Quinlan and Roy Wood were on loan to Brampton for the playoffs. Ferguson and Quinlan finished regular season play in second and third spots respectively in the top 10 scoring race.
Bob Pulford was one of the standout players during regular season. He was lost to the squad during the playoffs because he had to report to the NHL Toronto Maple Leaf training camp.
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Jim McClure, whose nickname was ‘Punchy’, finished off his lacrosse duties with the Brampton Excelsiors and immediately collected his hockey gear and headed south to Dixie were he reported for the 1957-58 Dixie Beehive Junior ‘B’ training camp. McClure made the team, which went on to win its first ever All Ontario Championship, the Captain James T. Southerland Cup. McClure was said to be a better lacrosse player than a hockey player. According to his brother-in-law, fellow Beehive teammate Trevor Kaye, “Jim was one tough son of a gun on the lacrosse floor. He had great quickness and was just so aggressive that folks thought twice about getting near the Brampton goal when he was on the floor. And he was fearless,” said Trevor. Sadly, Jim ‘Punchy’ McClure passed away suddenly in May 2001.
Brampton had won its first Minto Cup five years earlier in a series held in British Columbia. Brampton became a powerhouse in the Junior ranks in the 1950’s. The Flower Town team followed up on its 1957 victory and defeated the Shamrocks again in 1958 by winning four straight games. In 1959 Brampton downed the British Columbia Salmonbellies four games to two.
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