It’s the early to mid seventies and everybody in Sudbury knows CKSO Sports Director Cummy Burton.

How could one not?

His persona went so far beyond his role, one which already ensured regular contact with the whose who of local sports in the nickel city.

And for as much as I believed I had a decent general image of the man who first captivated the airwaves in what could only be described as an “Elmer Fudd like” twist to sports broadcasting, it turns out there were so many more layers to this character whose family roots continue to shine throughout our community.

“It was his personality that attracted me to him,” recalled his spouse of 49 years, the former Suzie Ebbs of Oshawa. “It was huge.”

That will come as absolutely no surprise to the many friends that still occupy the corner tables of the nearest Tim Horton’s, their friend sadly passing on in August of 2015 – but not before leaving an indelible mark on his hometown.

“He was a very complex person,” noted Suzie (Burton), having first made the acquaintance of her future husband when he was 29, his hockey playing days near done, and she on a trek from her stomping grounds in Oshawa, working for Eaton’s at the time and sent to Sudbury to help train new staff.

“We were staying at the Coulson – it was just so convenient for us to stay there – and Eddie Battiston introduced us,” she explained. Truth is, Suzie was a hockey fan, through and through.

Her father would take her and her sister to near every single Generals' game – and though she did not know it at the time, there’s a very good chance she first caught a glimpse of young Cumming as he toiled with either the Windsor Spitfires (1952-1953) or the Hamilton Tiger Cubs (1953-1955).

The youngest of three boys in the Burton household, Cummy had left home at the tender age of 15 to follow his hockey dreams as a junior. And for as much as I knew that he was a mainstay at forward with the Sudbury Wolves during their time in the EPHL (1959-1962), I had no idea this had come after he had suited up in 43 games with the Detroit Red Wings.

Google the 1957 Wings and you will find a team picture that includes young Cummy, not terribly hard to pick out, alongside the likes of Gordie Howe, Alex Delvecchio, Red Kelly, Norm Ullman, Terry Sawchuk, Al Arbour and Forbes Kennedy.

Pretty damn good company, it would seem.

In fact, the very notion of Cummy maintaining good and constant company is central to his entire storyline.

“He was a great friend with a lot of people,” said Suzie. “He just had a great rapport with everybody. And he was smart, quick witted.”

And social to a fault.

Following a botched knee operation in Detroit that pretty much derailed his NHL dreams for good, Burton would take one last stab at pro hockey in 1967-1968, joining the Florida Rockets on the urging of fellow Sudburian and friend Bob Sabourin.

Suzie and Cummy had already welcomed the birth of their two eldest boys (Michael & Marty), with Christine (first girl in the family in 100 yards) still a few months from seeing the light of day as the northern Ontario clan made their way to Jacksonville, Florida.

“He would bring people home all the time after the kids were in bed,” said Suzie. “He was always so proud of our children. And in Jacksonville, he invited the entire team over for Christmas Dinner.”

Pragmatics aside with two young kids running wild and a pregnant wife finding a way to make one and all feel comfortable, this was the social side to Cummy that would never disappear.

Yet the man who served as the Master of Ceremonies for a number of the Kinsmen Club of Sudbury annual Sports Celebrity Dinners of the seventies would offer the occasional unexpected glimpse of those parts of his vast personality that were not nearly as well known.

Well, perhaps not as well known to all but his closest of friends – and his wife, who remains to this day an absolute treat with whom to share coffee, snacks and stories. “His wit was almost poetic in a way; he did write poetry,” confessed Suzie, sharing some letters that Cummy had penned to his parents, still in his teenage years, the thoughts of a young man dearly missing home and family.

For as much as he was a sportsman, through and through, and that all five of his children shared that same passion (including the youngest two, George and Cummy Jr, not yet cited), the father resisted the urge to coach the boys, from start to finish – all for good reason, apparently.

“He coached playground a bit when the kids were really little,” said Suzie. “But he was very excitable, so I don’t think his heart would stand coaching anything much more serios than that.”

Digging into his dearest and closest friends was pointless – they numbered well into the dozens.

That said, Suzie recalled special times spent with the likes of Marcel Clements and Conrad Bonhomme, among others. “When you knew one of the Bonhommes, you know them all,” she stated.

Truth is, Cummy Burton knew “them all” – as in virtually every Sudbury sports fan of the sixties or seventies. And those that he did not know, well, they most certainly knew him.