Art Jones will forever be loved by Portland hockey fans for his integral role with the Portland Buckaroos of the Western Hockey League.

Jones grew up in Saskatchewan and reached the WHL as a 22-year-old center with the New Westminster Royals in 1957. In reaching the Royals, he began a stretch of 17 straight seasons in which he played 60 or more games.

After two solid seasons with the Royals and another with the Victoria Cougars, Jones signed with the expansion Buckaroos for the 1960-61 season and played in Portland until the team disbanded in 1974. With Jones as a scoring power, the Buckaroos won the league title: the Lester Patrick Cup, in their expansion season and also in 1965, and ‘71. Jones, who stood 5-foot-10, led the league in scoring six times and was named league MVP in 1968 and ’71. In 1970-71, he scored a league record 127 points on 43 goals and 84 assists.

After the Buckaroos folded in ’74, Jones played sparingly with other teams for three more seasons before retiring in 1976 at age 40.

In 17 seasons of WHL action, Jones in credited with having scored 578 goals, with 1,002 assists and 1,580 total points.

Following his playing career, Jones remained in Portland. He was inducted to the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame in 1984.

Andy Aitkenhead brought the National Hockey League to Portland after having been a goaltender for the New York Rangers, and helped the original Portland Buckaroos build a fan base in the Rose City.

Born in Scotland in 1904, Aitkenhead grew up in Saskatchewan, Canada, and found his way into minor league hockey at age 17. Just 5-foot-8, he developed his skills over the course of the next 10 years with a variety of teams, including the 1924 Saskatoon Nationals, and 1926 Saskatoon Empires, both of which played for the prestigious Allan Cup.

Aitkenhead moved to Portland to play for the Buckaroos of the Pacific Coast Hockey League in 1929 and played two seasons for the team before being signed by the Rangers and assigned to the Bronx Tigers for the ’31-32 season. He moved up to the Rangers the next year.

During his rookie season, the Rangers won the Stanley Cup with Aitkenhead in goal for all eight playoff games. He started in goal the next season, but became a reserve in 1934-35 and found his way back to Portland that season.

In 106 games in the NHL, he won 47, lost 43 and was in goal for 16 ties.

Aitkenhead started in goal for the Buckaroos to close the ’34-35 season and for five more seasons before retiring from the game early in 1940. He is credited with having played 303 games for the Buckaroos with 148 wins.

He died in 1968, and was inducted to the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame in 1987.

Don Head, star goalkeeper for Canada’s silver medal winning team in the Squaw Valley Olympics, joined the Portland Buckaroos in 1960. In the 1960-61 season, he was named Rookie of the Year in the Western Hockey League and selected for the all-star team as goalkeeper with a 2.74 goals again average. He was named to the WHL all-star team a league record five times (three 1st teams and two 2nd teams). He held the all-time WHL record for lowest goals against average with 2.87 for 407 games. Three times he was the WHL’s outstanding goalkeeper and two times he led the Buckaroos to the Lester Patrick Cup Championship (1961 and 1965). Don Head currently lives in Portland.