What do Nick Kypreos, Chris Neil, Kenny Wharram, Rudy Steski and Nancy Olmsted have in common?
They're all part of a wonderful new book on North Bay sports history now available, and just in time for Christmas.
Hockey fans will recognize the first three as former NHL stars with links to North Bay, Steski was an Ontario Champion curler and Olmsted went to two Olympic games.
They are part of a book called Flashbacks - They Were Our Heroes (Part 2) written and researched by local sports broadcasting legend Pete Handley.
The book contains many photos of local sports greats and championship teams, but also tells five fascinating stories about the city's sports history.
One of the stories is the 20-year saga of the North Bay Centennials.
Handley gives an inside look at the team, after spending 14 years as the play by play man, which now has reached an almost mythical status in the minds of local fans.
"All the explosions around the team. When they came here there was a hassle for years before we got the club," Handley recounted to BayToday. "Nobody liked it, nobody liked the hockey...they were mad at Bert Templeton (coach and GM) because it wasn't the same kind of hockey. It was bang, bang, bang hockey, and people weren't used to that.
"Bert swore and people weren't used to having their coaches swear and then it gradually grew on people. Then there was the big schamozzle when Bert left and then the loss of the team. So there was their arrival, the Bert departure, and the team departure. They were all great focal points of local energy...good or bad. So that all added up to giving the team a mythical quality...that's a good way to put it."
"This is the first time that the Centennials story has been fully put together," North Bay Sports Hall of Fame Chair Bill Jacko points out.
One of the fan favourites was a tough guy named Dennis Bonvie who played 92 games in the NHL with six different teams. His claim to fame is being the most penalized player in professional hockey history with 4,804 career professional career penalty minutes, most of it being in the American Hockey League.
Handley loves telling the Bonvie story.
"Dennis was a brawler, that's what he loved to do. He was a nice kid and could have been a good hockey player without the fighting, but he loved to fight. We were in the playoffs heading down the road to Sudbury. We left about four o'clock.
"By the side of the road was a group of fans with a sign that said 'Dennis Bonvie dances with Wolves' and that was the same year the movie came out with Kevin Kostner, and that's exactly what Dennis did, he danced with the Wolves. Bang! Bang! Bang!
"I thought that was the cleverest thing I'd seen. I love it. It was a tiny thing. We just looked out the window of the bus and there it was."
The book (396 pages) is jammed full of other stories and statistics.
Beside the Centennials' tale, there are four other stories spanning more than a century.
There's "Berlin, Fate and the birth of the North Bay Canoe Club which sent athletes to five consecutive Olympic games. A chapter is devoted to Wallace Park, North Bay's original "Memorial Gardens."
One of the city's greatest hockey players, Kenny Wharram of the Chicago Blackhawk's Scooter line has his story told, and the history of the Nordic Ski Club is also detailed.
The book features 150 sports photographs and Handley writes in a conversational, easy to read style.
It's available at Gulliver's on Main St., Discovery North Bay Museum, Memorial Gardens box office, City Hall Parks and Rec and various NBSHF board members.
Pete himself probably will have one or two in his car he's willing to sell. Make sure you get it signed!
All proceeds go to the NBSHF to assist in its work of honouring the best of North Bay sport.
