It was Hockey Night in Lindsay!
Belleville was entered in a tournament against Lindsay when, before the night was over, all hell broke loose!
The Lindsay arena was located on Lindsay and Russell Streets back in the year 1926-27. It was then that Lindsay's Mayor Tom Wilkinson read, for perhaps the first and only time in the town's history, "The Riot Act."
The incident I refer to was a result of a hockey game shortly before the old arena burned to the ground.
According to a reliable source, the Lindsay Intermediates and Belleville met in a championship tournament when a referee by the name of Lou Marsh of Toronto, consistently made bad calls against Lindsay. (Some say Lou was half-tanked at the time.)
As a result, Lindsay lost the game and fans became infuriated and threatened to "get" Marsh.
In some miraculous way Marsh was able to escape from the arena and went to the Royal Hotel where he was registered as a guest.
Hotel proprietor Joe McConnell received a tip that fans were gathering together and were about to storm his hotel in an attempt to locate Marsh.
Joe immediately barred his doors and advised Marsh to "get out of town the best way you can if you value your life."
Seeing the mob of people gathering, the town's sole Police Officer, Tom Short, contacted the Mayor and advised him there was a group of some 200 to 300 hockey fans about to storm the Royal Hotel in an effort to "get" the referee.
As the fans gathered they found out that Marsh had made an escape and became more infuriated. Since so many were gathered together, they decided to take their frustrations out on someone else. That person happened to Chong Sun, proprietor of a Chinese laundry on William Street North. Why Sun, no one knows.
