John Arthur James "Jack" Bionda (September 18, 1933 – November 3, 1999) was a Canadian

lacrosse Lacrosse is a team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensiv ...

and

hockey Hockey is a term used to denote a family of various types of both summer and winter team sports which originated on either an outdoor field, sheet of ice, or dry floor such as in a gymnasium. While these sports vary in specific rules, numbers o ...

player. He was a lacrosse superstar, dominating the sport throughout the 1950s and early 1960s. In hockey he played for the

Toronto Maple Leafs The Toronto Maple Leafs (officially the Toronto Maple Leaf Hockey Club and often referred to as the Leafs) are a professional ice hockey team based in Toronto. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Div ...

and

Boston Bruins The Boston Bruins are a professional ice hockey team based in Boston. The Bruins compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference. The team has been in existence since 1924, making t ...

of the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

between 1955 and 1959, mainly spending his career in the minor

American Hockey League The American Hockey League (AHL) is a professional ice hockey league based in the United States and Canada that serves as the primary developmental league for the National Hockey League (NHL). Since the 2010–11 season, every team in the le ...

and

Western Hockey League The Western Hockey League (WHL) is a major junior ice hockey league based in Western Canada and the Northwestern United States. The WHL is one of three leagues that constitutes the Canadian Hockey League (CHL) as the highest level of junior h ...

Lacrosse

Bionda was born in

Huntsville, Ontario Huntsville is a town in Muskoka. It is located north of Toronto and south of North Bay. Of the three big Muskoka towns, it is the largest by population (21,147 per 2021 census) and land area (710.64 km2). Huntsville is located in the ...

. From the time he was eleven years old he loved lacrosse, practicing for four to five hours per day. Just before his 19th birthday, Bionda led the Brampton Excelsiors to victory over the Kerrisdale Kerries of

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

in the 1952

Minto Cup The Minto Cup is awarded annually to the champion junior men's box lacrosse team of Canada. It was donated in 1901 by the Governor-General, Lord Minto. Originally restricted to amateurs, within three years the first under-the-table professional ...

playoffs. In 1954, he joined the

Victoria Shamrocks The Victoria Shamrocks are a Senior A box lacrosse team, based in Victoria, British Columbia. The team competes in the 7-team Western Lacrosse Association (WLA). The Shamrocks entered the former Inter-City Lacrosse League, which is now the WLA, i ...

, capturing the league scoring title and leading the Shamrocks to the

Mann Cup The Mann Cup is the trophy awarded to the senior men's box lacrosse champions of Canada. The championship is a best-of-seven, East vs West series played between the league champions of Major Series Lacrosse, the East, and Western Lacrosse Associa ...

tournament, won by Peterborough. He played some games in 1955 and returned to the team in 1957, taking his second scoring title. The Shamrocks won the Mann Cup in 1955 and 1957, but Bionda was unable to play in either tournament due to hockey commitments. Bionda then played for the New Westminster Salmonbellies in 1958 and 1959, winning the Mann Cup both years, and receiving the Mike Kelly Memorial Trophy as series MVP in 1959. He joined the Nanaimo Timbermen in 1960, registering his fifth scoring title with 70 goals and 48 assists, while again leading his team to the Mann Cup tournament, won by Port Credit. He made it to the Mann Cup one last time in 1962 with New Westminster, sweeping Brampton in four games to take the championship. After being held scoreless in the first game, Bionda scored eight goals and eight assists in the next three games to lead his team to the Cup. He was again named the series MVP. In 1970, Bionda played for the Huntsville Hawks senior team in the Ontario Lacrosse Association. Outside of sports, he ran a restaurant in Huntsville.

Hockey

At the same time that Bionda was establishing himself as Canada's greatest lacrosse player, he also had a full career in hockey. He played junior hockey for the

Toronto Marlboros The Toronto Marlborough Athletic Club, commonly known as the Toronto Marlboros, was founded in 1903. It operated junior ice hockey and senior ice hockey teams in the Ontario Hockey Association and later the Ontario Hockey League. The Marlboros ...

of the Ontario Hockey Association from 1951 to 1954, and was signed by the

of the

. Bionda played 13 games with the Leafs in the 1955–56 season, but spent most of the year with the Pittsburgh Hornets, the Leafs' affiliate in the

. He led the AHL in penalty minutes with 190, despite playing only 46 games of the league's 64-game schedule. Bionda was claimed by the

in the intraleague draft in June 1956, and would split the next three seasons between the Bruins and their AHL affiliates, the

Springfield Indians The Springfield Indians were a minor professional ice hockey franchise, originally based in West Springfield, Massachusetts and later Springfield, Massachusetts. The Indians were founding members of the American Hockey League. They were in existe ...

and the

Providence Reds The Providence Reds were a hockey team that played in the Canadian-American Hockey League (CAHL) between 1926 and 1936 and the American Hockey League (AHL) from 1936 to 1977, the last season of which they played as the Rhode Island Reds. The t ...

. Over four seasons in the NHL, Bionda played 93 games, with three goals, 12 points, and 113 penalty minutes. Bionda then played eight seasons in the minor professional

: one year with the

Victoria Cougars The Victoria Cougars were a major league professional ice hockey team that played in the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA) from 1911 to 1924 under various names, and (after the PCHA's merger with the Western Canada Hockey League) in the W ...

(1959–60) and seven years with the Portland Buckaroos. Bionda was the biggest and most popular defenceman of the Buckeroos during those first seven years of the team's existence. They made it to the league championship in six of those seven years, winning twice: 1960–61 and 1964–65. Bionda retired in 1967.

Honours

Bionda has been inducted into the Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame (1974), Canada's Sports Hall of Fame (1982), and the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame (1998). Bionda died in

London, Ontario London (pronounced ) is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, along the Quebec City–Windsor Corridor. The city had a population of 422,324 according to the 2021 Canadian census. London is at the confluence of the Thames River, approximate ...

at age 66. In June 2001, Huntsville, Ontario named its arena the Jack Bionda Arena. After the arena got a major overhaul in 2010 for the G8 Summit, the new building was named the Summit Centre and a new, Olympic size ice pad was placed alongside the old ice surface. The old ice surface kept the Jack Bionda name, and a permanent display showcasing historical pictures, newspaper and magazine clippings, old lacrosse sticks used and designed by Jack, and some other memorabilia is on display.

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

References

BC Lacrosse: Jack Bionda
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bionda, Jack 1933 births 1999 deaths Boston Bruins players Canadian ice hockey defencemen Canadian lacrosse players Canadian sportspeople of Italian descent Ice hockey people from Ontario Lacrosse forwards Lacrosse people from Ontario People from Huntsville, Ontario Pittsburgh Hornets players Portland Buckaroos players Providence Reds players Springfield Indians players Toronto Maple Leafs players Toronto Marlboros players Vancouver Canucks (WHL) players