Team

The Smiths Falls Bears trace back to when the Central Junior Hockey League was formed in 1961 under the act of the Montreal Canadiens. The Bears are one of the oldest franchises in Canadian Junior A hockey, despite a 9-year leave of absence from 1976 to 1985, and a 2-year absence from Smiths Falls as part of a re-location to Lanark, and being known as the Lanark Thunder from 2000-2002. When the Bears first surfaced, the team wore maroon and white - identical colours of the American Hockey League's Hershey Bears. The Bears won their first Art Bogart Cup in 1965 as Central Junior Hockey League champions. The Bears won back-to-back CJHL championships in 1974 and 1975. In 1976, the Bears took a leave of absence from the league. In 1985, the Bears returned to the league wearing the colours black, gold, and white - identical to the Pittsburgh Penguins uniforms in the 1980s. In the early 1990s, the Bears went back to their original colours of maroon and white, but with grey. In 1998, the Bears changed their colours to teal and black, which confused CJHL supporters around the league. In February 2000, the Smiths Falls Bears lost all their equipment in a dressing room fire at the Smiths Falls Memorial Centre. The equipment was replaced through donations and charities and the Bears finished off the 1999-00 season. In the summer, the Bears announced to relocate to nearby Lanark, Ontario and became the Lanark Thunder. The new owner promised to draw attendance at the Lanark Arena for the 2000-01 season. The Thunder drew a decent attendance, but attendance dropped in the 2001-02 season causing financial trouble and the Lanark Thunder folded after the 2002 playoffs. The Smiths Falls Bears returned as an expansion team for 2002-03, because the Lanark Thunder ceased operations. Most of the Lanark players went on to play for the Bears, while other players were recruited through the expansion draft. The Smiths Falls Bears missed the playoffs in their first three years back. In December 2004, a new head coach Bill Bowker was assigned to turn the team around. The Bears won just 1 game before January 2005, and fans were criticizing the team's performance and asked what was wrong with the team and how long they would be in Smiths Falls. The coaching change paid off as the Bears made the playoffs four-consecutive years. Their best post-Lanark Thunder season was 2007-08, when the Bears made the CJHL finals after knocking off arch-rivals Brockville Braves in 6 games to compete against the other arch-rivals Pembroke Lumber Kings. The Lumber Kings won the finals in 5 games. In July 2008, three Bears were chosen in the NHL Draft. Mike Bergin (Dallas Stars); Nicholas Tremblay (Boston Bruins); and Mark Borowiecki (Ottawa Senators) became the first trio of players from the same CJHL club to be chosen in the NHL Draft. Mark Borowiecki left Clarkson University after the 2010-11 season as he signed a 2-year minor league contract with the Ottawa Senators minor league affiliate the Binghamton Senators.
On February 27, 2010, the Smiths Falls Bears played their final game at the Smiths Falls Memorial Centre as the Bears moved to the new Smiths Falls Memorial Community Centre. After the 2010-11 season the Bears let go their longtime head coach and manager Bill Bowker and replaced him with the Ottawa 67's former assistant coach and assistant coach of the Bears during the 2010-11 season, Mark Grady. Grady stepped in and took over the coaching position for the 2011-12 season with local assistant coaches Rob Dopson & Walt Dubas. Longtime CCHL manager & scout Hugh Craig took over as general manager. The Bears decided to rebuild & went with a young team to start the season. They recovered from a 6 loss start to continue to develop & improve. The young Bears eventual finished the season at 30-30-1-1 to place 8th in the 12 team CCHL. Smiths Falls was eliminated in the 1st round of the playoffs by the eventual Bogart Champion Nepean Raiders in 4 games. The 2012-2013 season brought optimism to the Bears with a strong number of returning players. The Bears climbed as high as 2nd overall in the CCHL & were ranked 14th nationally at one point of the season. The injury bug hit after Christmas and the Bears fell to 7th overall in the CCHL with an impressive 36-22-1-3 record. Again they were eliminated in the 1st round this time by their highway 15 rivals from Carleton Place in 5 games. Entering the 2013-2014 season the Bears were trying to reload as they had lost 14 players from the previuous season. And reload they did as they ended the regualr season in 2nd place overall and ranked nationally. Smiths Falls tied the franchise record for most wins in a season with 41 & set a new franchise record with 19 road victories. The team fell 1 point short of the record for points in a season & 3 goals over the record for least amount of goals allowed in a season.The Bears disposed of the Raiders in 4 games in the opening round. The Ottawa Jr Senators took the Bears to 7 games in the semi final with over 1500 spectators in the new Memorial Community Centre in attendance to watch the Bears win 4-1 and advance to the Bogart Cup Finals against their rivals, the Carleton Place Canadians. The Bears lost the final in 5 games but not before 1800 fans set a new attendance record in the new rink for the Bears game 4 victory.

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