EDITOR’S NOTE: On Saturday, April 27, the Orillia Sports Hall of Fame will welcome its newest inductees. The class of 2019 includes athlete Stuart Burnie and builders William (Bill) McGill and Donald Stoutt as builders. Today, we wrap up the series with a profile on Bill McGill.
Bill McGill was one of those original characters - a larger-than-life personality who helped put Orillia on the map in the 1960s and 1970s.
The colourful local businessman was known, affectionately, by an unusual nickname; but being called 'Bullshit’ Bill never seemed to bother him.
He loved his city and his people and he went out of his way to promote it. He made no apologies for stretching the truth a wee bit if it meant helping Orillia prosper.
While successful as a businessman and an ardent Chamber of Commerce booster and executive, he poured his passion for sports, once his playing days were behind him, into building winning baseball and hockey teams.
It was hockey where he really made his mark. His fingerprints were all over the Orillia Terriers team that, in 1973, won the Allan Cup championship.
He founded the team and brought Don Stoutt on board and the dynamic duo turned the team into a winner. The Terriers almost won the Canadian title the year before in Spokane, making the hard-fought win on home ice a season later even sweeter.
Perhaps most importantly, he was instrumental in forging a relationship with Joe Kane, coach of the vaunted Toronto Marlboros. When that team folded, he convinced the core group of players to come to Orillia and play for the Terriers.
It was that core group, along with Kane as coach, that led the Orillia Terriers to glory.
McGill was known to take liberties with the rules and would find unique ways to entice players to come to Orillia.
On more than one occasion, he went to The Orillia Packet & Times and strong-armed them to write a story about the team’s newest acquisition.
He would then use that story to shame the player into coming to Orillia. “Look,” he would say. “You have to come … there’s already been a story about you in the paper!”
He also loved to stir the pot and create headlines.
In December of 1975, in a Canadian Press story that started in Orillia and went as far as Winnipeg, McGill ripped the rival Barrie Flyers for trying to forge a relationship with the Toronto Toros of the upstart World Hockey Association (WHA).
He talked about how he, as a convenor of the Ontario Hockey Association’s Sr. A League, was working behind the scenes to broker an agreement with the WHA that would see that league use the Sr. A loop as a development league of sorts.
“We as a league are working to have the Canadian teams in the WHA use the senior league as a place to form a players pool,” McGill said. “It would give them a place to keep players in shape and would upgrade the senior loop by 30 per cent.”
He went on to say he would be asking the league executive “to have the Flyers halted in their bid to do things on their own. They should be working to help the league not just the Barrie Flyers.”
It was vintage McGill.
Sadly, McGill died in 2001. However, his son, Thom, will be on hand April 27 to accept the honour on behalf of his family.
When it was announced earlier this year that McGill was one of the inductees, Thom, noting it’s been decades since his late father put his mark on Orillia, said his dad likely would have said: “Where the hell were you 25 years ago?” he joked.
He said the family is quite proud that their patriarch will be recognized. He said his dad worked tirelessly on behalf of Orillia, its business community and its various sports teams.
“I don’t think a lot of people appreciate what goes into running a hockey team,” Thom said. “The hours they put in … it was incredible.”
That was a sentiment shared by Stoutt, who, fittingly, is also being inducted this year. While he was instrumental in the Terriers’ success, he credited McGill with laying the foundation.
He called McGill "one of Orillia’s greatest promoters" and said "Bill and his wife Agnes worked tirelessly to make the team what it became.”
To hear more stories about McGill and the Terriers, this year’s Orillia Sports Hall of Fame Gala will be held April 27 at Casino Rama.
There are a limited number of tickets still available. To purchase tickets or for more information, visit the website.
