page_title: Windsor Spitfires
section_title: Conflict, renewal, tragedy
hierarchical_section_title: Windsor Spitfires / History / Conflict, renewal, tragedy
caption_attribution_description: English: Self-taken photo of Andrew Engelage of Windsor Spitfires
context_page_description: The Windsor Spitfires are a junior ice hockey team in the Ontario Hockey League. The team is based in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1971, the franchise was promoted to the Ontario Major Junior Hockey League for the 1975–76 season. An unrelated OHA Jr. A Spitfires team, founded in 1946, moved to become the Hamilton Tiger Cubs in 1953 and went through other iterations/moves to become the present OHL Erie Otters in 1996.
context_section_description: On October 18, 2005, Head Coach Moe Mantha was handed a 40-game suspension and later terminated without pay, for a hazing incident that occurred aboard a bus after a pre-season game versus the London Knights. An altercation involving players Steve Downie and Akim Aliu, in which Aliu lost four teeth, led to public exposure of the compulsive hazing within the Spitfires organization. Downie was traded to the Peterborough Petes, and Aliu was traded to the Sudbury Wolves.
  On April 6, 2006, the Ontario Hockey League Board of Governors announced the approval of a new ownership group for the Windsor Spitfires, composed of Bob Boughner, Warren Rychel and Peter Dobrich.  All three men had history in Windsor with OHL hockey, and the group had expressed hope to move the team into a new arena. Boughner assumed the roles of President, CEO and head coach of the Spitfires, Rychel was named director of player development, and Dobrich the new business manager.
  On February 18, 2008, team captain and Calgary Flames prospect Mickey Renaud died of an undetected heart condition in his Tecumseh, Ontario home. General Manager Warren Rychel referred to Renaud's death as "the biggest tragedy in Spitfire history".  His number was retired by both the Spitfires and the Tecumseh Chiefs Junior B franchise that he played on before graduating to Major Junior. Mayor Eddie Francis named a road leading to the WFCU Centre in Renaud's honour, Mickey Renaud Way. At the 2009 OHL All-Star Game at the WFCU Centre in Windsor, OHL Commissioner David Branch announced that the Mickey Renaud Captain's Trophy would be awarded to the "team captain that best exemplifies leadership on and off the ice as well as hard work, passion and dedication to the game of hockey and their community" in honour of Renaud.
caption: Andrew Engelage looks on, wearing Spitfires throwback jersey (November 2008).
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