Finding Bill Barilko

Published September 25, 2008 @ 12:06 in The Best of Toronto Mike, Toronto Maple Leafs

Those who Google Bill Barilko usually end up at my tribute to Bashin' Bill. Here's the summary I wrote for that page.

It was April 21st, 1951, game 5 of the Stanley Cup final between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Montreal Canadiens. At the 2:53 mark of the first overtime period, Bill Barilko scored the last goal of his life winning the Stanley Cup for the Leafs.

The 24 year old defenseman perished in a light plane crash that summer while on a fishing trip to Northern Ontario. Not until his body was recovered 11 years later in the bush near Cochrane, Ontario, did the Leafs win another championship.

Marlene Pearce found my Bill Barilko page via a Google search and sent me the following note.

I am the daughter of Ron Boyd who was the helicopter pilot who found the crash site of Bill Barilko and Dr. Hudson's Fairchild 24. If you'd like more information and articles, government letters, etc. from my dad's scrapbook, I would be happy to share this with you. The story of the discovery of the site is quite interesting.

As you can imagine, I was very interested in everything Marlene could share with me about the discovery of Barilko's crash site. This is something I want to share with fellow fans of the legend of Bill Barilko. This, in essence, is why I blog.

Marlene sent me four images I'm sharing below. The verbiage above each image are Marlene's words. If you click a picture, it will take you to the Flickr page for the image where you can view it at a larger size.

1. Newspaper Article explaining the entire situation around the discovery of the plane and crash site. I think you'll find it interesting. My father's name was Ron Boyd and he was with his engineer, Mr. Phil Weston.

2. A photo from the newspaper of the wreckage, along with original photos my father took with his camera of the wreckage, and the crash site as he and Mr. Phil Weston flew over it.

3. A letter from the Department of Lands and Forests giving a commendation to my father and to those involved in the discovery.

4. A letter from F. A. MacDougall, Deputy Minister to the Department of Lands and Forests re: my father's work in this case.

Thanks, Marlene, for taking the time to scan these images and send them to me. It pleases me that this exercise brought back wonderful memories of your father and his career.

He's our Buddy Holly, immortalized by the Hip's "Fifty Mission Cap", and scorer of the 1951 Stanley Cup winner for my beloved Maple Leafs. Every year, Bill Barilko's legend grows.