By JOHN LAW, Niagara Falls Review
Saturday June 12 2010

When author John Hewitt approached local businessman Bob Gale about funding his book on Junior A hockey in Niagara Falls, he was met with good news and bad news.

No problem, said Gale. But he wanted it finished in time for the grand opening of the city's new hockey arena - named after him - on June 27.

It took five years for Hewitt to do his first book on St. Catharines Junior A hockey. For the new one, The Flyers and the Thunder: Major Junior Hockey in the Road City, he had less than two years.

"I walked out of (Bob's) office, went to my car and was sick," joked Hewitt during the book's unveiling Thursday at Marcel Dionne Inc. on Montrose Road.

It was not only finished on time but with a few weeks to spare. Boxes of the 200-page hardcover book arrived hot off the press for Hewitt to sign at Dionne's sports memorabilia shop, where nostalgia ran thick.

Between the book's 500-plus photos and the former Niagara Falls Flyers and Thunder players in the crowd, the city once again embraced its hockey history.

"John knows everything about hockey," raves Gale, who recalls "line-ups around the block" for Flyers games during the Memorial Cup championships in 1965 and 1968.

"We really hit it off. I was proud of the book he did (for St. Catharines), and thought, maybe he could do it here."