The legends of Windsor Park Collegiate

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 04/01/2016 (3594 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Quick now, how many readers can name the small high school where former students amassed championship silverware in curling, football and hockey?

 If you answered Windsor Park Collegiate, head for the top of the class because the small high school — current enrolment is 475 students — has produced: Butch Goring who won four straight Stanley Cups with the New York Islanders; Cam Connor, who won Lord Stanley’s Cup with the Montreal Canadiens; Bob Dyce, who sipped from the Grey Cup in 2013; Doug MacIver, who was a key player in the Winnipeg Blue Bomber Grey Cup victory in 1984; plus five-time Canadian champion curler Jennifer Jones.

 Goring was the Conn Smythe Award winner in the 1980-81 Stanley Cup final when he led the Isles to the first of four straight Cups. In Game One of the final, Goring missed only one period despite suffering a 40-stitch gash to his tongue, lower lip and chin. He finished his career with 375 goals and 513 assists in 1,107 games, during which he took a mere 102 penalty minutes.

 Connor earned his Stanley Cup ring in 1979 when his double overtime goal eliminated the Toronto Maple Leafs in the quarter-finals.

 Jennifer Jones gave up playing volleyball to pursue her curling dream and went on to skip her team to five Canadian titles, a World Championship in 2008 and an Olympic championship in Sochi Russia where her rink became the first female team to go undefeated.

 Dyce sipped champagne from the Grey Cup in 2013 as special teams coach with the Saskatchewan Roughriders. Dyce began his CFL coaching career in 2003 as receiver coach with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers before joining Rider Nation in 2010. He was elevated to interim head coach midway through the 2015 season and is now the special teams co-ordinator with the Ottawa RedBlacks.

 The late Doug MacIver began his CFL career in Toronto in 1978 where the defensive tackle scored a touchdown on a fumble recovery. After four years in Saskatchewan,, he joined the Blue Bombers in 1982, posting seven sacks and a Grey Victory in 1984.

 But the list of successful graduates doesn’t stop there.

 Mike Ridley played 13 seasons in the National Hockey League, nine with the Washington Capitals, amassing 292 goals and 486 assists in 856 games.

 Jason George is the conditioning coach with the Chicago Bears, of the National Football League following similar stints with the Denver Broncos and Jacksonville Jaguars.

 Bea Broda, a schoolmate of Connor and Rodney Toombs, was known in Winnipeg as the weather girl on CKND-TV. Today she is known worldwide as a top producer of travel documentaries. She is a past president of the Society of American Travel Writers.

 Rod Toombs is better known as professional wrestler Rowdy Roddy Piper. Toombs once quipped he had better legs than the WPC cheerleaders. The world lost a true character last July when Toombs passed away of a heart attack in his Hollywood, Calif. home.

 He and Connor became the best of friends in their early teens.

 WPC had a weight room and the pair took full advantage of the facility.

“After school, Rod and I would go down and work on the weights, just the two of us; nobody else was ever in there,” Connor recalled.

Bob Holliday is a community correspondent for St. Vital. Email him at
docholliday90@me.com