Jack Roxburgh

John Maxwell Roxburgh (February 14, 1901February 27, 1975) was a Canadian ice hockey administrator and politician.

John Maxwell Roxburgh was born on February 14, 1901, in Phoenix.

His family was temporarily living in the Arizona Territory, until his parents relocated the family to Cache Bay, Ontario while Roxburgh was a youth.

He attended secondary school in Sturgeon Falls, Ontario.

He graduated from Ontario Agricultural College in Guelph in 1926, with a degree in horticulture, and played on ice hockey and rugby teams in college.

Roxburgh worked at a cannery in Wellington County, Ontario, for a year, then relocated to Norfolk County, Ontario, in 1928.

He worked for a year at the Government of Ontario turkey farm, near Turkey Point, Ontario.

In 1929, he purchased a farm in Woodhouse Township, and began breeding a flock of 1700 turkeys which won prizes at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair and the 1933 Chicago World's Fair.

During the 1930s, he served as president of the Ontario Turkey Breeders Association for three years, operated a life insurance business, and served as a Woodhouse Township Council member and deputy reeve.

He organized minor ice hockey in his hometown of Simcoe, Ontario, co-founded the Ontario Juvenile Hockey Association in 1934, and the Ontario Minor Hockey Association in 1940.

Roxburgh assisted in organizing a Sunday school league in 1934, in Simcoe, Ontario.

Later that year, Roxburgh and Roger Matchett organized the Ontario Juvenile Hockey Association (OJHA) in southwestern Ontario, and Roxburgh volunteered to manage and coach of the Simcoe juveniles team.

He served as secretary-treasurer of the OJHA from 1934 to 1936, and then as its president from 1936 to 1938.

His team evolved into the Tiger Cub Juveniles, then was later known as Roxy's Reformer Cubs.

The team's players were chosen from the Sunday school league, and reached the Ontario Hockey Association (OHA) junior ice hockey semifinals during the 1937–38 season.

Roxburgh's OJHA operated with four teams, and he sought to increase the numbers of teams and competition level.

He arranged games with the Ontario Midget and Bantam Hockey Association based in St. Catharines, Ontario.

Roxburgh was involved in negotiations for the two organizations to merge, founding the Ontario Minor Hockey Association (OMHA) on November 30, 1940.

The new league began its first season with eight teams, and Roxburgh convinced the new OMHA to sign an affiliation agreement with the OHA in 1940.

By 1941, he began cultivating orchards of cherries, apples, peaches and strawberries, and served as secretary of the Norfolk Federation of Agriculture.

He served as president of the Ontario Hockey Association from 1950 to 1952, improved its finances to become profitable, and appointed Bill Hanley as a full-time manager to operate the association as a business.

Roxburgh later became a convenor and an executive within the OHA, then served as OHA president from 1950 to 1952.

Historian and writer Scott Young credited Roxburgh for being an astute businessman and improving the OHA's finances by increasing profits from the playoffs in junior ice hockey.

In 1951, Roxburgh appointed Bill Hanley to become the full-time manager of the OHA to assist in running the association as a business.

In 1951, the OHA was faced with a mutiny in the senior ice hockey ranks in Kingston, Ontario.

After an inquiry, Roxburgh and fellow OHA executives George Dudley, Frank Buckland and W. A. Hewitt, handed out a lifetime suspension to George Patterson who coached Kingston's senior B-level team, for conspiring to deliberately lose a playoff series to avoid moving into a higher-level of playoffs, rather than staying in a lower level and potentially make more profits at home playoff games than on the road.

Roxburgh was succeeded as OHA president by S. E. McTavish, and later represented the OHA at the national level as its past president.

Roxburgh was elected second vice-president of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association (CAHA) on May 30, 1957, and served in the role for two years until 1959.

He chaired the minor ice hockey committee which organized Minor Hockey Week in Canada in 1958 and 1959, and oversaw scheduling at the 1959 Memorial Cup.

He was elected first vice-president of the CAHA in 1959.

He remained chairman of the minor hockey committee, and reported at the 1959 annual general meeting that minor hockey registrations had increased by 2700 players from the previous season.

Roxburgh served as president of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association from 1960 to 1962, arranged exhibition games between Canada and the Soviet Union amid an increased rivalry between the respective national teams, and pushed for the separation of politics and sport when the Cold War threatened to cancel the 1962 Ice Hockey World Championships.

He was opposed to changes in the Olympic Oath and the international definition of amateurism, and later recommended the formation of a student-athlete team coached by Father David Bauer to become the Canada men's national ice hockey team.

Roxburgh graduated from Ontario Agricultural College and farmed before he venturing into municipal and federal politics.

He remained in charge of scheduling for the 1960 Memorial Cup playoffs, and directed the referees to be tougher on physical play and stick-swinging in the 1960 finals, due to aggressive and dangerous play.

He served as a Liberal Party of Canada member of the House of Commons of Canada for the Norfolk electoral district from 1962 to 1968.

He was elected three times, defended the Canadian tobacco industry, pushed for university students registering as voters, and lobbied for increased grants to promote physical fitness in Canada.

During the Great Canadian Flag Debate of 1964, Roxburgh introduced legislation to declare ice hockey as the national game of Canada after he disproved the myth that lacrosse held the distinction.

He was a life member of multiple hockey organizations and received the Order of Merit from the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association.

He died from injuries sustained in a boating accident, and was posthumously inducted into the Norfolk County Sports Hall of Recognition.