The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

12 stouffville suntribune thursday dec 30 2004 stouffville suntribune illl sip v ill feii staff photosteve somerville it s just me and my shadow chris sykes was the only person to take to the buttermakers rink at boyds source for sports tuesday morning as he worked on his skating and piickhandling skills burrows has concerns with junior hockey proposals spirit gm agrees midget hockey needs to be bolstered ken burrows hasno prob lem with the intent of a pro posal to make junior hockey teams in this country younger and more canadian but he has a question the stouffville spirit junior a club general manager says the hockey canada plan should strengthen midget hockey and avoid nightmar ish situations for some out- oftown players the organization proposed at its recent semiannual meeting that 14- and 15-year- old players be forbidden from playing junior hockey and that all junior teams including major junior clubs be limited to only one 16yearold on their rosters see proposal page 13 toppings career as hockey official one he wont forget ballantrae resident had brief stint in nhl as linesman by jim thomas correspondent a striped jersey hangs in the clos et of ted and peg toppings ballantrae residence forever a reminder of the days when ted roamed the ice lanes in the national hockey league and the ontario hockey association if the sweater could talk it could tell a thousand stories for 10 years ted topping now 81 and retired officiated in the nhl and the oha whistling down plays involving some of the most prolific players in the 50s era of the sport names like syl apps gordie drillon bob davidson carl brewer and bobby baun are as familiar to topping today as they were to fans 50 years ago while toppings stint in the bigs lasted only three games they left indelible marks both physically and mentally marks hell never forget like a night at maple leaf gardens when toronto was playing chicago the leafs were shorthanded recalls the former clothing industry entrepreneur tim horton retrieved a loose puck in the toronto end and in an attempt to ice it rifled a shot off the side boards i could see it coming remembers ted i did my best to avoid it to no avail the puck the speed of which topping estimates at more than 100 miles an hour hit him in the but tocks squarely on his wallet despite the auxiliary piece of padding topping recalls collapsing to the ice tears of pain streaming down his face i thought for sure my back was broken he says nevertheless he gathered himself together and con tinued the next day however he had a black and blue welt the size of a pumpkin emblazoned on his back side topping also vividly recalls work- ing his first nhl game at the gardens experienced butterflies referee red storey linesman jim primeau and i were set to skate onto the ice suddenly i looked up and saw 14000 wildly screaming fans looking down isaid to red im not going out there this is crazy he storey grabbed me by the shoul der and literally shoved me through the door i spent the next few min- ted topping has vivid memories of work ing his first national hockey league game at maple leaf gardens utes checking the nets this helped settle my nerves because topping was an excep tionally strong skater he had no trouble keeping up with the play the fact each linesman had only his own section of ice to patrol helped also at age 32 topping was forced to make a decision hed been asked by carl voss the nhls referee-in- chief to go boston and do after noon games there at the time however he was climbing the business ladder with a bradshaw and son a major clothing company in toronto he chose to stay with bradshaw and eventually rose in rank to the position of president overseeing a multitude of stores across canada but that didnt end his hockey officiating career he returned to the oha where he remained several more seasons ted topping grew up in a hockey family his father ted sr and his uncle percy topping were involved with the toronto hockey league ted sr with the wychwood rats junior champions in 1920 1921 and 1922 and percy a longtime sched uler of games ted jr attended vaughan road collegiate where he played football and hockey he would graduate to the senior division of the thl received good advice it was his uncle percy who sug gested if you want to stay in the game hockey you should try offi ciating he did and hes never been sorry following service with an rcaf lancaster bomber crew topping and wife peg moved to stouffville where he was immediately contact ed by bill hanley and assigned see business page 13