Don Fleming
Bell Memorial - Inducted 1976
Don “Buckets” Fleming began his journalism career in 1938 at the Nelson Daily News. He spent four years in the air force before returning to the Nelson paper in 1945. He then joined the Trail Times. In 1948, he rode the train to Edmonton to work at the Edmonton Journal. The "Edmonton Flyers had just won the Western Canada Hockey League title the first thing had to do was go right back to Trail, where I just came from, to cover the Flyers."
In the beginning, Don Fleming was able to cover many sports beats for the Journal - including the Flyers and Eskimo teams, baseball, curling and wrestling. While attending a baseball game he had the opportunity to watch a star football player named Rollie Miles play for the Regina team. Don Fleming went to the Edmonton Eskimos coach and reported his finding. The rest is history – as Rollie helped the Eskimos win three straight Grey Cups championships.
After the Edmonton Flyers hockey team folded in 1962, Don Fleming's career focused on covering curling and horse racing. He has attended more than twenty Briers and many World Curling Championships. Don "Buckets" Fleming continues to be one of the more colourful characters in sports journalism.
After Induction
After retiring from journalism, Don became a track publicist with Edmonton Northlands.
1990’s – track archivist for Edmonton Northlands and wrote daily articles for the thoroughbred and standard programs. He used the pen names “Willie Ketchum” and “Shudda Haddim”.
1992 – Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame – Builder category
2005 – Canadian Curling Hall of Fame - Media category
2006 – Passed away on August 13
