The sights and sounds of the Windsor Spitfires training camp have certainly changed a lot since I first started following the team as a pre-teenager.

Back then, watching the proceedings at the venerable Windsor Arena was like watching shinny in a sauna as more often than not the hot and humid weather conditions outside caused the glass above the boards to fog up. Pre-season games and scrimmages often had unscheduled time-outs so arena staff (sometimes all three of them) could come out and wipe off the glass at the most inopportune of times. That was not the case the other day as things got under way at the WFCU Centre, which, unlike The Barn, has climate-control features such as air conditioning. In fact, if I didn’t know any better, I might have thought that I was watching a mid-season team practice the other day at the WFCU Centre, the arena and ice conditions were so good.

Way back when, fighting was not frowned upon during intra-squad practices and certainly not during exhibition games. And while the Spitfires have yet to play an exhibition game this pre-season, in light of the OHL’s ongoing crackdown on fisticuffs, it’s a safe bet that games will be a lot tamer than they used to be.

I can remember one exhibition game at The Barn during the late ’70s between the Muzz MacPherson coached Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds and the Wayne Maxner led Spits that lasted five hours due to constant brawling. That game put an end to pre-season games between the Soo and Windsor for years for some unknown reason. And exhibition games between Maxner’s Spits and the Niagara Falls Flyers of Bert Templeton were also events that would have made both Don King and Vince McMahon proud. Damn, those were the days!

There were numerous training camps that saw upwards of 80 players attending the Spits training camp over the years.. In 1979 exactly 100 players attended the camp when it was held at the now-gone Riverside Arena. This time around, between 40-50 players registered for training camp with the Spits.

In the olden times there was no archaic and ill-advised NCAA rule that forced players who were considering playing college hockey to leave camp after 48 hours if they wanted to maintain their eligibility to play hockey while attending school in the States. Back then it was the way it should be today, players could not only play OHL exhibition games but could play a season or two in the O before leaving to go play college hockey if they so chose. Detroit native Mark Hamway made the Spitfires as a 20^th round pick and played the 1978-79 season in Windsor before leaving for Michigan State University and winning a Stanley Cup with the New York Islanders.

If you didn’t get to the first couple of days of the Spits training camp this week no doubt you missed many players who left camp early so they could keep their options open.

In the big picture, the reality is that the 2016 Spitfires training camp will produce many great memories for players and their families, team management and fans alike. And hopefully I’ll be fondly looking back on these days decades from now too.