Robbins, Arnie

Arnie Robbins was a gifted athlete who excelled at numerous sports and was a multi-sport
champion at the local, provincial and national levels.
Arnie won nine championships on the ball diamond, an amazing 16 racquetball club
championships and was an outstanding high school football player.
He played on four Ontario Baseball Association championships with the 1961 Chatham
Peewees, 1965 Chatham Juveniles, 1966 Chatham Juniors and 1970 with the Chatham Kent
Concrete Seniors, a team inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2016.
Arnie also won two Canadian baseball championships as a call-up with the Sarnia Juniors in
1968 and 1969.
He won Ontario Amateur Softball Association Intermediate 'C' championships as a first baseman
with Merlin in 1972 and 1974, as Arnie played fastball from 1972-1978 with the
Legionnaires.
Arnie was a member of three more provincial championship teams as a member of the Chatham
Sport Mart team that won Ontario Slo-Pitch titles in 1980, 1981 and 1986. Arnie batted .630 in
the 1985 Ontario slo-pitch championships as Sport Mart finished second to Chatham Nautilus.
Fergie Jenkins was the tournament MVP.
As a teenager, Arnie played first base for the 1967 Thompson Lumber Kings that featured
eventual Chatham Hall of Famers Ed Wright at second base, Mel and Herb Wakabayashi at
short and third, respectively.
Arnie was Chatham's best racquetball player for a decade (1978 to 1988) at the Wheels Fitness
and Racquet Club, winning nine singles and seven doubles club championships.
Arnie played in tournaments in Waterloo, Buffalo, Toronto and Hamilton. For four years, he
played once a week in a Windsor racquetball league, where he was the top player on his team.
He also played for a Windsor team in an Eastern Michigan league. While playing for Windsor,
Arnie competed in the Ontario 'B' Racquetball Championships held in Toronto.
Arnie was an outstanding football player for the McGregor Panthers in the mid-1960s, serving
as team captain. All-star teams were not chosen until 1970-71, but Arnie surely would have
been selected during his Panther days.
During Arnie's distinguished teaching career, he coached both boys and girls basketball and
volleyball teams to county championships at four different elementary schools: W.T. Laing, King
George, Ridgetown Public and Harwich Raleigh.
Arnie continues to support local elementary, high school and community sports!