All World Hockey by T. Michael Travers

If you’re young, you wouldn’t know Bernie Schwartz. If you’re older, you still may not know him but once he changed his name, you likely became a fan like me.  The name change came when he enrolled in acting school and became one of Hollywood’s most famous actors. When they say, “In America, you can become everything you ever dreamed of even the president “  — I always think of Tony Curtis. All the stuff you need to know about him, career-wise, you can access online. It’s impressive. His family was so poor, that his parents couldn’t afford to feed him and his brother so they put them into an orphanage. For me, his transition was remarkable and puzzling. How do you go from being that poor to becoming a Hollywood movie star? He was married to an equally famous actor, Janet Leigh. He was the father of actor Jamie Lee Curtis. He appeared in The Defiant Ones and Some Like it Hot  and Houdini and

I've had a long relationship with horse racing. There’s even a Stakes Race with my name on it … The Travers, run at the Saratoga Race Track every year since 1864. As a kid, my father would take me to the Dufferin Race Track in the heart of downtown Toronto. It was built in 1907 and made into a shopping mall in 1955. In 1958, as a 12-year-old, me and a few buddies got a Saturday afternoon job at the new Woodbine Race Track directing traffic in the parking lot @ 50 cents an hour. Note:  Next month, Woodbine will host the 163 running of The Queen's Plate - the oldest continuous race in North America. Superstar jockey Sandy Hawley won it four times. Somehow, he and I became friends more than 40 years ago. Now, jump to me as a newlywed homeowner in Toronto's Mississauga suburb with two kids in the early 1970s. It was a neighbourhood like no other ... actors, musicians, policemen, teachers -- 14 adults plus their children. Everyone loved a good time and enjoyed each other's