Hood was born in Campbellville, Ontario, Canada (now part of the Town of Milton) on March 14, 1936, and moved into Milton in 1947. In the late-1940s and 1950s, Hood wrote an occasional sports column for the Milton Canadian Champion newspaper; played for Milton junior and senior hockey clubs; was the statistician for the Milton Minor Hockey Association, the Milton Industrial Hockey League and the Central Ontario Hockey League; secretary of the Halton County Baseball Association; referee in chief of the Tri-County Hockey League and the Milton Referees' Association; as well as having played junior hockey with Oakville, Georgetown and Brampton, juvenile with Acton and commercial hockey in Burlington.