Pro hockey came to Kingston, Ontario in 1959 with the arrival of the Eastern Professional Hockey League. ‘Red’ Ouellette and Willie O’Ree were two players from New Brunswick among the original EPHL Kingston Frontenacs.

Longtime Kingston hockey fans will tell you the best hockey played here was in the days of the Eastern Professional Hockey League (EPHL) in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s.

Many future NHL players played in the EPHL. Some had long NHL careers, others only had a brief cup of coffee in the big leagues.

Gerry ‘Red’ Ouellette and Willie O’Ree were two players from New Brunswick that arrived in Kingston for the inaugural 1959-60 season of the EPHL. Kingston was a farm team of the Boston Bruins.

Sadly, we learned this week that Ouellette died earlier this month in St. Leonard, New Brunswick, just a few weeks shy of his 87th birthday.

From Grand Falls, NB, Red Ouellette was 20-years-old when he joined the EPHL Frontenacs in 1959 from the Junior B Waterloo Siskins. Decades later former teammate Wayne Nichols is still amazed a kid like Ouellette could make that jump from Junior B to pro hockey without missing a beat.

Nichols saw it up close, the Junior B Frontenacs goaltender was also the extra goalie for the EPHL team. Teams only used one goalie in those days and it was the veteran Norm Jacques (who passed away last month at age 87) that played all 70 games.

Red Ouellette was only 5’7” and a solid 168-pounds, with red hair and a brush cut. Nichols remembers Ouelette as an “up and downer,” a player who stayed on his wing, won puck battles and had a scoring touch.

Player-coach Cal Gardner and Carl ‘Buddy’ Boone played on a line with Ouellette. The 34-year-old Gardner was a smooth playmaker that had played a dozen NHL seasons. Boone, one of many players in that era from Kirkland Lake, had a heavy shot and had already played NHL games with Boston.

Bob Bell, a longtime Kingston hockey supporter and still a Frontenacs season ticket holder, followed the EPHL in those days. Bell still remembers Boone’s great shot, “he had a half slap shot, one of the hardest shots in the league.” 

Nichols describes Ouellette as a “choppy skater who worked hard, never missed a practice and always gave it everything he had.” He may not have had the big league stride, but Ouellette made it look easy and had an amazing rookie season.

Ouellette finished among the league’s Top Ten scorers (teammate Orval Tessier ran away with the scoring race). Ouellette had 35 goals and put up 77 points. His 35 goals were sixth best in the league. It’s no wonder Ouellette and O’Ree played in Boston the next year.

Willie O’Ree was already a seasoned pro when he arrived in Kingston. The 24-year-old from Fredericton, NB had played for the Quebec Aces and during the 1957-58 season he got into a couple of NHL games with Boston. O’Ree had suffered an eye injury a couple years earlier and was legally blind in one eye. That first year in the EPHL O’Ree had 21 goals and 46 points in 50 games for the Frontenacs.

In 1960-61, Ouellette and O’Ree were in the Bruins lineup. Two years earlier Ouellette was playing Junior B, and now he was patrolling the wing at the famed Boston Garden.

In 34 games for Boston he had five goals and nine points. Ouellette’s first NHL goal was scored against Detroit’s Terry Sawchuk – one of the all-time greats.

O’Ree played 43 NHL games for Boston that season and collected 14 points.

The Bruins had just 15 wins in 70 games, one of the worst years in franchise history. Changes would be made, O’Ree, Ouellette and others would not be part of the Bruins the following season.

Milt Schmidt stepped down as Bruins coach and Phil Watson took over. It was one of the worst periods in Bruins history, the start of five straight last place finishes – waiting for Bobby Orr to arrive.

Looking like his NHL days were over, Ouellette split the next season between Providence & Kingston. In 1962-63 he was back fulltime in Kingston, posting another 30-plus goal season and the Frontenacs won the Tom Foley trophy as EPHL champions. That summer the EPHL folded and most of the Kingston players wound up in Minneapolis in the Central League.

Willie O’Ree became a legend with the San Diego Gulls. O’Ree still makes his home in San Diego, and will celebrate his 90th birthday on October 15th. They threw a party for Willie this week, hosted by the San Diego Gulls and the NHL Player Inclusion Coalition, acknowledging O’Ree for his “powerful contribution to hockey.”

Former NHL’er Anson Carter paid tribute to O’Ree, “I think it’s important for us to highlight Willie’s contributions to the game of hockey, not just on the ice but off the ice, too.”

O’Ree, the NHL’s first Black player, was presented with a gold-plated stick with the phrase that Willie has repeated to inspire more than 130,000 young boys and girls playing in grassroots hockey programs,

“If you think you can. You can. If you think you can’t, you’re right.”

Red Ouellette would spend the rest of the 1960’s in hockey’s minor leagues, always among the top scorers on every team he played on. He made stops in Kingston, Providence, Minneapolis and briefly in San Francisco before finding a home in Buffalo.

Ouellette joined the American Hockey League Bisons, spent five years there and was named team captain. In his final season in Buffalo in 1969-70 the Bisons won the Calder Cup championship.

The NHL expanded to Buffalo in 1970, the Bisons folded and Ouellette played one more year. Suiting up for the Omaha Knights of the Central League and winning another league championship.

Ouellette retired from pro hockey in 1971 and returned home to his beloved New Brunswick, where he would make a significant contribution to the game in his home province.

Ouellette was hired as Recreation Director for the City of Campbellton, but his work in sports went way beyond the job title. Ouellette became coach of the local Campbellton Tigers of the New Brunswick North Shore Senior Hockey League.

Late in the season Ouellette was reinstated as an amateur player becoming player-coach. Campbellton made it all the way to the Hardy Cup, winning the Canadian Intermediate ‘A’ championship in 1971-72.

For Ouellette, it was three championships, in three years, in three different leagues. That’s quite a run.

Campbellton would become the only team to win the Hardy Cup three times. With Ouellette as coach they won two more Canadian championships in 1977 and again over a decade later – in 1988.

Ouellette also ran the minor hockey and minor baseball programs in town, and coached the Junior Northstars hockey team. Helping young players learn, grow and move to the next level.

Ouellette was inducted into the New Brunswick Sports Hall of Fame in 1989 and is also a member of the Campbellton Sports Hall of Fame.

After retiring from his position in Campbellton, Ouellette moved back to his hometown of Grand Falls. There he devoted countless hours to the Junior Golf Program. Nurturing young, aspiring golfers with the same passion and dedication that defined his legendary hockey career.

Mark Potter is a longtime Kingston broadcaster and honoured member of the Kingston & District Sports Hall of Fame.