March 28, 2020, Mississauga, ON – ….  The Ontario Junior Hockey League announced today that Bob Graham of the Pickering Panthers is the league’s Volunteer of the Year for the 2019-20 season.

“Bob Graham is by far the biggest fan of the Pickering Panthers,” said Scotty Nicholson, Pickering’s assistant general manager. “Bob tries to never miss a Panther home game and often rides the bus to away games.”

Graham, 74, first attended Panther games with his sons in the 1980s when they were a Jr. B team playing out of Don Beer Arena.

But he’s much more than a follower of the franchise.

Graham has been volunteering with his hometown Jr. A team for 13 years.

Amongst his duties, he’s religiously written player profiles and game recaps for the team website since then.

Last summer, team staffers asked the long-time Pickering resident if he wanted a bigger role this season.

“Without missing a step, he said ‘How can I help’,” Nicholson recalled.

Graham took on the role of billet co-ordinator for the team.

It was a big job. The Panthers billeted 11 players during the 2019-20 season, up from the two or three billets annually in recent years.

“He was working long hours to find kids' homes,” Nicholson said, “going into houses to inspect, meeting the billet families and then doing weekly check-ups with players and families.”

“Bob had a tough job as he had to find over six billet families to start the season and he did not stop until he had every kid a home, plus two extra spaces in case more players come in. He is a hard worker and helped us through a busy time with his tireless work and deserves this award.”

"Bob defines the character on what it means to be a part of this great staff in Pickering,” Nicholson said. “He went out and found all those billet families and followed up, always letting us know how things were going – and he would even tell me to give the coach a tip on how to fix the power play. We love having Bob around and we know he will be a Panther for life." 

No problem there, Graham says. He’ll be back when the OJHL hits the ice again.

“I love to help out,” the retired consulting engineer said. “It’s nice being part of the team.”

“I love getting to know the players. It’s more meaningful for me when I know them. That’s the part I really like, getting to watch our players as they develop year to year.”

The OJHL is announcing the winners of its annual awards this spring.

About the OJHL – “League of Choice”

The Ontario Junior Hockey League is the largest Junior ‘A’ league operating under the auspices of the

Canadian Junior Hockey League with 22 member clubs. A proud member of the CJHL and Ontario

Hockey Association, the OJHL was originally named the Ontario Provincial Junior ‘A’ Hockey League and it was formed out of the Central Junior ‘B’ Hockey League in 1993-94. With a long and storied history of developing players for the next level, including U Sports, the NCAA, CHL, minor pro ranks and the NHL, the OJHL had more than 125 commitments in 2018-19 – including more than 65 NCAA Division I scholarships.