Garry Young was a promising 17-year-old defenseman with the Toronto Marlboros organization when a serious back injury ended his playing career in 1951. His career ending injury was the result of a hit from NHL defenseman Gus Mortson, during a scrimmage between the Marlboros and the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Born in Toronto in 1934, Garry Young moved to Kingston as a teenager with his mother, after losing his Dad, a WW2 Flight Lieutenant, near the end of the war.

In his early 20’s he was coaching minor hockey in Kingston and working at the local nylon plant where he met his wife, Verna Bishop, and they raised four children. He rose to prominence in hockey circles when he coached the 1960-61 Kingston Midget All-Stars to an OMHA championship led by future NHL’er Wayne Cashman, Charlie Convery & leading scorer Gary Lavallee, who had seventeen goals in the play downs. It was just the second Ontario midget title for the City of Kingston and the Boston Bruins took notice. The Bruins sponsored the Kingston Frontenacs, a minor league pro team playing in the Eastern Professional Hockey League. Wren Blair was coaching the Frontenacs and he helped Young land a part-time scouting job with the NHL team.

In the early 1960’s Garry founded the ‘Hawks’ organization in the competitive Kingston Rotary-Kiwanis Minor Hockey Association, and they iced strong teams each year. In the 1963-64 season the Hawks swept all three RKMHA titles, winning the Bantam, Midget and Juvenile championships, with Garry coaching the Bantam and Midget teams. He was also the curator at Kingston’s new International Hockey Hall of Fame on York Street, working to promote the museum and that included having his kids hand out flyers to cars coming into town from Highway 401.

In 1965, Garry was hired as coach of the Kingston Jr B Frontenacs and led his team to an Eastern Ontario title. It was then the Bruins offered him a full-time scouting position and in 1966 he left Kingston, moved his family to Oshawa, where Boston had their junior-aged players playing for the Generals, including Bobby Orr and Wayne Cashman.

He would be elevated to Boston’s Director of Player Development, scouting and drafting many players who helped the Bruins win two Stanley Cups in the early 1970s, including Kingston’s Wayne Cashman and Rick Smith.

In 1971, Young left the Bruins for an opportunity to become General Manager of the California Golden Seals, working for flamboyant owner Charles Finley. It wasn’t easy working for Finley, and Young had two stints with the Seals, working at the NHL office in between. One of the deals Young made was with the Bruins, acquiring Kingston’s Rick Smith from Boston in February, 1972 for Carol Vadnais. Smith would miss out on winning a second Cup in Boston that spring.

In the early 1970’s, for several years Young brought the Golden Seals team and prospects to Kingston, where they held their annual training camp at the local Kingston Memorial Centre. They regularly hosted pre-season games against other NHL teams in Kingston.

Eventually he was fired by the Seals in 1974.

His next move was to St. Louis, hired to coach the Blues. It only lasted a season and a half, and ultimately he would finish his hockey career near his home in Oshawa back in junior hockey. He was hired by Peterborough in 1976 to coach the Petes, replacing Roger Neilson. It would be the last stop of his hockey career.

Tragically, in 1994 at age sixty, Garry Young died in a drowning accident at his family cottage. He left his mark in the hockey world, is fondly remembered by long time Kingston hockey fans and for his work helping Boston build teams that won two Stanley Cups.

Born & raised in Kingston’s Portsmouth Village , Mark Potter is an honoured member of the Kingston & District Sports Hall of Fame. A former award winning sports broadcaster and Past President of the Original Hockey Hall of Fame.