owensoundgreysbrianperry

- by Fred Wallace

With Scotiabank Hockey Day in Canada (Owen Sound, January 18 to 21) approaching, John Murdoch took me to view the massive collection of autographed hockey jerseys that belong to his late brother, Bill. There's got to be more than 1,000 jerseys in storage, many of which will be displayed during the festival.

I was fascinated by one in particular, an original Oakland Seals logo-jersey that was autographed by Brian Perry.

I asked John, "Who's Brian Perry?" John recalled that Brian Perry played for the Owen Sound Greys in the early 1960s.

I was doubtful; of all the NHL players to have come through Owen Sound (Lumley, Binkley, Lynch, Schoenfeld, Roberts, Hepple etc.) I'd NEVER heard of Brian Perry in my almost 40 years in the city. So we looked him up on Wikipedia, and sure enough, Brian Perry scored 40+ goals for the Owen Sound Greys in 1963-64.

The Great Paul Hill and I got talking about this sequence on 560 CFOS on Tuesday and the next day Gerry Holmes sent me this photo of the Greys. Brian Perry is in the front row, Assistant Captain, second from the left beside the goalie. Gerry Holmes is in the back row, 5th from the right, beside Jiggs Bowers. Brian Perry played for the Oakland Seals, played one game for the Buffalo Sabres, and then finished his career in the WHA with New York-Jersey and finally with the San Diego Mariners.