EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the last of seven profiles we've run this week highlighting this year's Midland Sports Hall of Fame inductees. Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, the induction ceremony scheduled for last month has been postponed until September of 2022. However, the Town of Midland declared September to be Sports Hall of Fame Month.
Today, we profile the Jim Wallace, a special recognition inductee.
Picture this: A ruddy-cheeked boy, with ‘Midland’ emblazoned diagonally in gold down a blue jersey, with a head full of 1970s hockey hair.
It’s a moment frozen in time. In the case of Jim Wallace, it’s a moment frozen thousands of times.
For over a decade and a half, Jim Wallace was the man behind the camera, the eyes of Midland Minor Hockey.
Born in Midland, Jim was an avid athlete and outdoorsman in his youth. He backstopped the Penetanguishene Intermediates to the Ontario Hockey Association semi-finals in 1948. He also served in the Canadian Navy and on the cruise ship SS Keewatin before being hired with Canada Post in Midland. Jim was also part of the strong corps of volunteers that was the backbone of minor hockey and baseball in town.
Jim’s long tenure as the unofficial official photographer of Midland Minor Hockey came about almost by accident. An accomplished wildlife photographer, Jim decided one day in 1966 to step onto the ice to snap a quick picture after his six-year-old son Fred’s hockey game/
A pair of parents from Fred’s team witnessed the scene, and asked Jim if he would mind taking a photo of their sons as well. Several more parents made a similar request, followed soon by parents of another team, and before long, Jim was in demand as the photographer of record for all teams that took to the ice at the old Midland Arena Gardens.
House-league teams, rep teams and even the Jr. B Flyers, and their Jr. C successors, the Centennials, were all captured by Jim’s lens.
One of his photos was featured in Val James’ book Black Ice, James’ account of himself as the first U.S.-born, African-American player in the NHL. The photo was taken during his days as a Flyer.
It has been estimated that Jim took over 6,000 photos of Midland hockey teams and players, a collection now carefully housed for posterity in the Huronia Museum.
Jim’s photographic talents were not limited to the ice.
His love of nature and keen eye for detail produced many professional-quality shots of wildlife and the southern Georigan Bay landscape. But it was his work on the ice in Midland, with the challenging lighting and old bench seats in the background, that has lived on the longest.
To this day, there are many former Midland Minor Hockey players who have Jim Wallace pictures stored in well thumbed-through, old photo albums. Not only do those players live on in Jim’s crisp colour photos, so does the stately-old, concrete building in which they all played.
Jim Wallace left an important legacy to the town of Midland. His memory deserves its place in history alongside his photos.
