BUILDER – HOCKEY – INDUCTED IN 2011
When the Ontario Junior Hockey League established a Hall of Fame 2024, Bob Hooper was among the first class that included NHL stars Paul Coffey and Adam Oates.
Hooper was the league’s commissioner from 1996 until 2009. Under his watch the league doubled in size from 17 teams to 35, becoming the largest junior league in Canada.
He steered the league through a battle with the rival Metro Jr. A Hockey League, which the OJHL won, eventually absorbing several Metro League teams. Under his leadership, the league reversed the flow of players leaving for other Canadian leagues, instead making it a destination for top talent. That led to Aurora becoming the first Ontario team to win the Canadian Jr. A championship.
But before Hooper joined the OJHL, he’d already compiled a Hall of Fame resume.
He began coaching at 19 and was the manager of Georgetown’s only hometown grand champion in the Georgetown International Bantam Tournament.
Hooper’s biggest achievements would come on the management side. In 1977, he was the general manager of Georgetown’s OHA Intermediate B champions. He won three more championships in a four-year span as team president, capped by Georgetown’s Hardy Cup title in 1982 – the only OHA team to win the Canadian intermediate championship.
The team was not only a success on the ice, but off as well. It was the only team to not lose money hosting the championship.
Hooper later became the general manager of the Georgetown Gemini Jr. B team from 1986-90.
Hooper is known as the silent seventh founding member of the Georgetown Hockey Heritage Council.
He was the inaugural recipient of the Ontario Hockey Federation’s Junior Hockey Award in 2002, received the Georgetown Hockey Heritage Award in 2007 and earned the Ontario Hockey Association’s Gold Stick Award in 2010.