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Inducted
into the Hall of Fame in 1955. The Ice Hockey World
citation on Bert Peer’s induction to the Hall of Fame stated,
“possibly the greatest right winger in the history of senior amateur
(sic) hockey…If he had taken his hockey more seriously in North
America, there is no doubt he would have made the NHL.” Sources vary as to the
exact year of Bert Peers’s birth in Port Credit, Ontario, with either
1910 or 1913 quoted, whichever it was certainly on November 12th.
Peer played for the juvenile inter-church champions of the province,
then the intermediate winners, joining the senior ranks in 1934 with the
British Consuls of the Toronto League and the Oakville Villans of the
OHA circuit. The newly formed
Harringay Racers in north London lured him across the Atlantic in 1936
and he made an immediate impact. As the Racers finished runners-up in
the English National League, Peer finished as the third highest scorer
with 60 points and an All Star A-team selection. Amazingly, Peer refused
offers to turn professional in North America in order to return to
Harringay for the 1937/38 campaign, where despite him missing several
weeks through injury in the early part of the season, the Racers won the
league and he was selected to the All Star B-team. Those two seasons saw
him amass 107 points made up of 57 goals and 30 assists with 78 penalty
minutes. From 1938, the 5’11”
winger, whose deceptive changes of pace and swerve mystified other
players, plied his trade in North America. A season with the Valleyfield
Braves in the Quebec PHL was followed by a winter split between the
senior Ottawa Senators and the Omaha Knights of the American Hockey
Association, sandwiching in one game in the National hockey League for
the Detroit Red Wings. Whilst with the Fort
Worth Rangers in the AHA for the 1941/42 season, his 85 points gained
him an All Star B-team ranking. The following season saw him serving
with the Canadian Navy, but still find the time to ice ten games for
their Toronto squad in the OHA Senior League. He returned full-time to
the ice in 1945 for three more seasons, finishing his career in the OHA-SL
with the Hamilton Tigers. Compiled with research, provided by Martin C.Harris – July 1999 |
