The Saint Mary’s Juniors, which represented the Saint Mary’s Winter Gardens (not the university), was a team of homebrews that coasted through local and provincial competition. They gave teams from Quebec and Ontario all they could handle in a drive to win the Memorial Cup, Canada’s national junior championship trophy.

The 1947 team made a dramatic effort to advance in Memorial Cup play, but lost to the Montreal Junior Canadiens 5-4 and 7-5, ultimately being eliminated. The 1948 team ran out of local junior competition and faced senior teams, many unwilling to play them fearing a loss to teenagers. However, the Juniors compiled an 18-5-3 record. In the first playoff round of the Memorial Cup, they defeated an Ottawa club three games to one, outscoring the opposition 28-11. In the Eastern semi-finals, the farthest any Nova Scotia team ever advanced. Saint Mary’s lost two straight in the best-of-three series to Montreal Nationales in the Montreal Forum.

Several members of the star-studded team went on to play with the Halifax Atlantics and win the Alexander Cup in 1953 and 1954. Others played professional and senior hockey and some have been inducted as individual athletes into the Nova Scotia Sport Hall of Fame. Coach Marty Barry has been inducted into the NHL Hall of Fame.

Team members were: Marty Barry (coach), Doug Burns, Tim Burns, Hugh Campbell, Ron Cole, Harold (Red) Conrad, Gordon (Butter) Duggan, Ken Flynn, Bill Franklin, Gummy Gilfoy, Eddy Hagan, Bert Hirschfeld, Jack (Muckle) Hollett, Jimmy MacDonald (general manager), Elmer MacGillivray, Lou Mathieu, Don (Peanuts) McLaughlin, Dugger McNeil (playing coach), Jerry Reardon (manager), Robert (Puddy) Reardon, Ed Rowett, Art Stewart, Ernie Yeadon.