In 1967, John “Stoney” Martin left Wallaceburg District Secondary School and moved St. Andrew’s College in Aurora, Ontario to finish high school. It was St. Andrew’s where he started playing rugby. For the next two years, he played 7-a-side for St. Andrew’s placing 2nd in OFSCA both years. After graduating from St. Andrew’s, he attended the University of Western Ontario where he played rugby for 4 years. During that same time frame, he also played for the Sarnia Saints and had a tryout with Team Ontario.

After completing university, Stoney played for the Toronto Barbarians for a year before competing for Barrie. He sustained a foot injury there that kept him off the field for two years. He came back to take the field for the St. George Club in London from 1979 to 1981. It was at this time that he was called back home to work in the family business, while still playing for St. Thomas. He, and a few other Wallaceburg boys, played in a tournaments in Findlay, Ohio, and Albuquerque, New Mexico. After that, they created a local rugby team and the Wallaceburg Mercenaries were born.

They would compete for six years playing against teams such as the Windsor Borderers, the Windsor Rogues, Kincardine, London, Chatham, the University of Michigan, and Sandusky, Ohio. The Mercenaries travelled to tournaments in Sandusky, Ohio, Batavia, New York, Wake Forest, North Carolina, Kentucky, Kansas City, Memphis, Washington, and Las Vegas. From time to time, after those six years, they would reassemble to play games against Bowling Green, Flint and Detroit.

For John Martin it was never just the game... although he loved hitting people...it was the experience, and the community. Shortly before he died, he was asked if he would do it all over again and he replied, “Absolutely, except I would pass the ball more!”