MONTREAL – It is with great sadness that McGill University Athletics and Recreation announces the death of Reggie Sinclair, who played for the New York Rangers and Detroit Red Wings, and was a 2003 inductee to the McGill Sports Hall of Fame. He passed away on Nov. 14 in Rothesay,  N.B. He was 88.
 
In three National Hockey League seasons, from 1950 to 1953, Sinclair scored 49 goals with 43 assists to go along with 139 penalty minutes in 208 regular season games. He played in two NHL all-star games (1951 and 1952).
 
Born Reginald Alexander Sinclair on March 6, 1925 in Lachine, Que., he was the youngest of four children born to Elizabeth Clelland Sinclair and James Taylor Sinclair. He excelled at sports, especially hockey, and was a member of numerous city and provincial championship teams.

Sinclair went on to serve with the Royal Canadian Air Force from 1943 to 1945. While stationed in Calgary for pilot training he met Ronnie Bloom, who he later married. After his discharge from the Air Force, he enrolled at McGill, where he was a member of the Phi Kappa Pi fraternity and an all-star right winger and centre with the hockey Redmen from 1945 to 1949. He earnined a commerce degree in 1949.
 
In 52 career games overall with McGill, he tallied 53 goals and 29 assists with 109 penalty minutes, twice leading the team in scoring. He guided the Redmen to the league's Queen's Cup championship in 1946. During his senior year (1948-49), Sinclair served as captain of the Redmen and was voted MVP of the Senior Intercollegiate Hockey League after winning the conference scoring title with 21 goals and 14 assists in 12 games.
 
A prolific scorer, he tied a McGill single-game record, which still stands, scoring 10 points, including seven assists, against the University of Montreal Carabins on Feb. 25, 1949.
 
Sinclair also established a number of other McGill records, including most assists in a period (5), most assists in a game (7), fastest five points and assists in a game (10:39), fastest four points and assists in a game (2:39), fastest three points and assists in a game (0:48).
 
After graduation, he helped the Sherbrooke Saints of the Quebec Senior Hockey League earn a berth in the 1950 Eastern Canadian Allan Cup finals, where he scored 14 points, including eight goals, in 10 post-season games.

Months later, he signed as a free-agent with the Rangers on Oct. 3, 1950. He was only rookie to make Rangers roster out of training camp that season and led all NHL rookies with 39 points, including 18 goals in 70 games, tying for the team point-scoring lead and earning a berth in the NHL all-star game. The following year Sinclair hit the 20-goal plateau and once again represented the Broadway Blueshirts at the all-star contest. Despite his scoring prowess, the Rangers traded Sinclair and Johnny Morrison to Detroit on August 18, 1952 in exchange for all-star defenceman Leo Reise, Jr. With the Red Wings, he posted an 11-12-23 record in 69 games and retired after that season.
 
When Sinclair left the Red Wings, he moved to Beaconsfield, Que., and resumed his business career with Pepsi Cola where he had worked during the off-season.

He was eventually promoted to vice-president of Pepsi International in New York City and moved his  family to Franklin Lakes, NJ. In 1967, he joined the Royal Crown Cola Company and moved again, initially to Chicago, and then to Columbus, Georgia. In the late 1970s, he relocated to Rothesay, N.B., and was appointed president and partner of Maritime Beverages Ltd., a Pepsi bottler, located in Saint John, N.B.

Sinclair served as president of the Saint John Board of Trade, was a member of the board of the Children's Hospital in Halifax. He coached the Rothesay Collegiate School hockey team and was a founding member of the Montreal Canadiens oldtimers team in the early the 1960s which raised money for the Children's Hospital. He was the only member asked to join the oldtimers team who had never played for the Canadiens. He also played for the Ken-Gents Oldtimers hockey team in Rothesay.
 
He is survived by Ronnie, his wife of 63 years, his offspring Jim (Carol) of Indianola, Iowa, Colleen (Greg) of Jupiter, Fla., Linda (Michael) of Calgary and six grandchildren, Greg (Jen), Kevin, Taylor, Jesse, Amanda, and Kathryn, as well as many nieces and nephews.

Visitation will take place at Brenan's Funeral Home, 111 Paradise Row, Saint John, on Nov. 22 from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. A funeral service will be held on Nov. 23 at 1 p.m. from St. David's United Church, in Rothesay.

In lieu of flowers, remembrances may be made to the Michael R. Shaw Outdoor Development Foundation, 1113 Valois Avenue SW, Calgary, AB T2T 1L4 or to the Saint John Regional Hospital Foundation, P.O. Box 2100, Saint John, NB E2L 4L2.

Online condolences and remembrances may be placed at www.BrenansFH.com.

SOURCE:

Earl Zukerman
Communications & Publications Officer
Athletics & Recreation
McGill University
514-398-7012 (tel.)
514-398-1956 (fax)
www.mcgill.ca/athletics