Raise a large double double to Peter Moffat.
The owner of numerous Tim Hortons franchises in North Bay was inducted into the Illinois Hockey Hall of Fame on January 28th.
See: Illinois Hockey Hall of Fame Inducts Nine New Members into the Class of 2017!
Moffat told BayToday he was impressed with the induction.
"It was quite a trip down memory lane. I hadn't seen a lot of those individuals since 1965. I loved officiating and did it for a number of years at all levels and I started in Illinois and was the first referee in chief in the state for amateur hockey. That was pretty thrilling.
"It was a wonderful time, it caught me by surprise. I had nine or 10 family members come to Chicago and they had a wonderful time. I was honoured and thrilled. It was pretty neat, there's a lot of big people in that hockey hall of fame.
Moffat has one memory that stands out.
"I worked with some pretty memorable guys and one was Torchy Peden, the top cyclist in the world. In the old Hockey Hall of Fame building in Toronto he had a solid gold bike that had the name Torchy Peden on it It was a thrill to work with him.
According to Historica Canada, "In pro sports in the 1930s, only Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig made more money than cyclist William “Torchy” Peden. After representing Canada at the 1928 Olympics, Peden turned pro. In 1929, just before the market crashed, he set a world speed record. It stood for 12 years."
The Hall's official biography site says in 1959 Moffat traveled to Chicago to visit some friends and he ended up staying for 10 years.
See: Peter Moffat, Officials’ Category ~ Class of 2017
"As a young man who grew up loving the game of hockey in North Bay, Ontario, Canada, the city had captivated him and the local arena would obviously be one of the first places he would go. It was there, at Rainbo Arena, that Peter met Alan Carvell Jr., the owner of Rainbo, who with his wife June opened Chicago’s first indoor ice surface a few years earlier in 1956. Mr. Carvell was looking for someone to start running hockey programs and officiating clinics and Peter was looking for work.
"Peter’s experience with playing the game easily parlayed into officiating it. The clinics started small, but soon grew in size and would catch the attention of many National Hockey League officials such as Vern Buffey, John D’Amico, Art Skov and Bruce Hood.
"He received a call from Bill Beagan, the commissioner of the International Hockey League, who hired Peter to be their first full-time official. From there the list of stops include officiating the Central Hockey League, the American Hockey League, the Western Hockey League, the NCAA, the World Hockey Association and the National Hockey League.
After an on-ice collision in Winnipeg that left Peter injured he decided to step away from refereeing and pursue a career in camping.
"Peter was hired to be the director of the Tim Hortons Children’s Foundation by Ron Joyce in Oakville, Ontario. After ten years of that Peter, his lovely wife Cheryl and their son Brandon moved back to North Bay to operate some Tim Hortons restaurants. Today Peter is still active in the family business of 27 years. He’s an avid golfer and enjoys spending time with his grandchildren."