Hugh Matheson‘s career in coaching, facilities development, and sport leadership has benefited countless Nova Scotians. After a stellar senior hockey career with the Brookfield Elks in the 1950s and 60s, Matheson turned to coaching in 1967, beginning with the Truro Bearcats of the APC and Metro Valley Junior hockey leagues.

In the next eight years, Matheson led the Bearcats to success on the ice, at the box office, and in the community. In the Bearcats’ first year, they captured the APC League title. The next year, the Bearcats joined the Metro Valley Junior Hockey League and advanced to the final before losing to East Hants. In 1969-70 and 70-71, the Bearcats won the Metro Valley, Nova Scotia, and Maritime junior hockey titles. The 1973-74 Bearcats retained these three titles.

Matheson was an easy choice to head the first Nova Scotia hockey team to play in the Canada Winter Games. The team finished a strong fourth. In 1975, he coached the Canada Games team to a silver medal. Even though he retired from coaching hockey, Matheson was asked to guide Nova Scotia in the 1979 Canada Winter Games where he once again captured silver.

Matheson’s coaching career expanded to senior softball and he became head coach of the Brookfield Elks in 1974. He recognized the talent in the minor system and selected five members of the Maritime junior championship Elks for the senior team. While not a popular move, it proved successful. In 1977, the Elks began an unprecedented run of six consecutive appearances at the Nationals, three of which produced medals. In 1980, the Elks became the only team east of Ontario to capture a Canadian Senior Men’s Softball Championship.

Matheson’s greatest legacy may be the development of the Don Henderson Memorial Sportsplex in Brookfield. In 1972, Matheson operated a one-day hockey school at the Brookfield outdoor rink. Despite starting with a perfect sheet of ice, the sun made it necessary to move the program to a neighbouring lake. At the end of the day, Matheson pledged that the children deserved better and that a new arena would be built. With volunteer support led by Matheson, the Sportsplex opened in fall 1975. Matheson left his job to become the Sportsplex’s full-time manager, retiring in 2003.

Annual Program

When you reflect on the sporting life of Brookfield’s Hugh Matheson, it is, indeed, impossible to describe, in a few paragraphs, the man’s contribution to his home area and the province of Nova Scotia.  

His story began in Brookfield as a member of an amazing hockey family, which included brothers and teammates John, Win, Gordon (Gully) and Vaughan (Gab).  

Besides being a big, rugged defenceman with Brookfield Elks in Nova Scotia intermediate and rural hockey, Matheson had a fine career in both the Nova Scotia Senior and Maritime Senior hockey leagues with the Elks, Halifax Schooners, New Glasgow  Rangers and Moncton Hawks. For about 10 years, the 6-foot-2 inch, 220 lb rearguard earned the respect of players, teams and fans throughout the Maritimes.  

 In softball, first baseman Matheson was a clutch hitter, known for both hitting for average and crushing the long ball with  Brookfield teams successful at intermediate and senior levels.  

 As a playing coach in hockey, Matheson and his Elks achieved three Nova Scotia Intermediate A titles from 1965 to 1969. Taking over Truro Junior Bearcats as a further challenge, he was behind the bench for five league titles, four provincial championships and three Maritime championships during an out- standing era in Truro junior hockey.  

 He coached Brookfield Senior Elks in 1974 and was assistant to Nova Scotia Sport Hall of Fame inductee, coach Terry Henderson, when the Colchester County team won the Canadian Senior Men’s Softball Championship in Saskatchewan in 1980, a feat for which they have been recognized with induction to the above-mentioned Hall of Fame.  

 But Hugh Matheson’s greatest contribution is probably the development of the Don Henderson Memorial Sportsplex, named for his father-in-law. Pledging to both children and parents in 1972 that an indoor ice arena would be built in Brookfield, Matheson, Don Henderson, an inductee to the Nova Scotia Sport Hall of Fame as a builder, and countless arena volunteers ensured the much-needed Sportsplex would open its doors in the fall of 1975.  

 From 1975 until he retired in 2003, Matheson was general manager of the two ice surface complex, which encompasses a  hockey arena and curling facility, sitting beside a softball stadium. In that period, Matheson and the board of directors faced their share of tough financial times. But through determination, creativity, fundraising and the introduction of the annual Brookfield Lotta Truck (Freightliner) draw, the Sportsplex today rates with the top recreational facilities in the province.  

 Hugh Matheson, the hockey player. Hugh Matheson, the softball player. The curler. The coach. The capable promoter. The planner.  

 To list his personal awards and the times he has been honoured would be secondary to his main goal.  

 That number one priority? Matheson points to the kids and young people, to the opportunity for them to develop while playing competitive sports.  

 “Give the kids a chance” has long been the big guy’s motto. That describes what the 2004 Nova Scotia Sports Hall of Fame inductee is all about.  

Annual Program Courtesy of Lyle Carter