Rise again; effort underway to return N.S. hockey legends banner to Moncton arena rafters

Bill Riley's banner may rise again City of Moncton says it wants to see the banner honouring the hockey legend in the rafters at Avenir Centre. Paul Hollingsworth reports.

HALIFAX — An effort is underway to have a banner honouring Nova Scotia’s first Black NHL player prominently displayed once again, after it was sold at a yard sale three years ago.

Born and raised in Amherst, N.S., Bill Riley was the first black Nova Scotian to reach the National Hockey League, and went on to help lead the New Brunswick Hawks to the American Hockey League’s Calder Cup in 1982.

Riley says one of the highlights of his career was in March 1985 when a banner celebrating his achievments was hoisted to the rafters at the Moncton Coliseum.

A recent CTV Atlantic story detailed the events that resulted in the banner honouring Riley to be sold in a yard sale in 2018 to a Nova Scotian memorabilia collector.

Now there’s an effort afoot to get the banner back where it belongs.

One City of Moncton official says he was shocked to hear that Bill Riley’s banner had been taken down and sold in a yard sale.

“I was surprised that nobody really knew what had happened to them. It was kind of shocking actually,” says Lawren Campbell, Moncton’s Heritage and Culture Coordinator.

Campbell quickly contacted Dale Hubley, a sports memorabilia collector who is now holding Riley’s banner for safekeeping in his Beaver Bank, N.S. home.

“I think people realize that the history of Moncton with these hockey banners was taken away,” says Hubley. “So now I think is the time that someone needs to make it right again.”

Campbell wants to get the banner from Hubley and hang it in Moncton’s Avenir Centre.

“That is the best use and best significance,” says Campbell. “To have them hanging in the rafters of a building really is the right place.”

Bill Riley says he is pleased by these developments, but thinks all the banners that were sold when the Moncton Wildcats moved from the Coliseum to the Avenir Centre should be tracked down.

“Not just my banner. There are also two Hardy Cup banners and one Allan Cup banner,” says Riley.

The Executive Director of the Nova Scotia Sport Hall of Fame says the success of Riley’s career cannot be overstated.

“I say pioneer. First Black Nova Scotia to play a game in the NHL. Played with grit, could score,” describes Bruce Rainnie.

Rainnie says if Riley’s banner doesn’t end up hanging in the Avenir Centre, he would gladly take it to hang in the Hall of Fame’s new, yet to be announced location.

It appears Riley’s banner could soon find a new location, to help further celebrate the career of a Maritime hockey legend.