By JOSIE LIVINGSTONE For This Week
A northside resident has collected over 100 pictures spanning decades of Fredericton sports history.
Robert Mabie, a member of the Fredericton North Heritage Association said that his collection consists of photos he owns himself and some that were contributed by friends. "I have from way back 1821. I have a baseball team I think from Marysville in 1845 maybe. "There's a number of other teams that were from Marysville too that were old," Mabie said.
A bulk of Mabie's collection is from the years between 1946 and 1965. Mabie, a former Fredericton city recreation director for 30 years said he started collecting the photos for the benefit of the heritage association. "Of course I played hockey and baseball for a number of years so I have a lot of baseball and hockey and other sports too," he said.
But Mabie pointed out that the association wanted to have the photos from 1895 to 1945 but there are not a lot available from the said time period. "It's tough to get pictures in that era," he said. Mabie's friends have contributed to his collection including local hockey historian Ernie Fitzsimmons.
The Fredericton North Heritage Association which was formed in 2007 to celebrate the heritage of the city's north develops the old roundhouse on Union Street and they would like to get a spot in there to put their stuff in there, but we don't know whether it's going to come about or not," Mabie said. Mabie said that the association displays their items to the public by holding events. The first and the second exhibit they had were held at the Kinsmen Centre on School Street.
They also had a booth in the Fredericton Exhibition Centre this year. Mabie said his sports memorabilia help maintain the city's heritage. "What we're trying to do is to expose people to that heritage that we've had on the northside for many years and there's a lot of history in particular on the York Arena, the first covered rink in Fredericton," he said.
Mabie said the old pictures evoke pleasant memories. "They bring back great memories when you just go through to look at them because a lot of the people that played on those teams I know them personally and they were great athletes and the only unfortunate thing about it - there were not a lot of females," he said.
"They bring back great memories when you just go through to look at them because a lot of the people that played on those teams I know them personally and they were great athletes and the only unfortunate thing about it - there were not a lot of females." Robert Mabie Collector
