History of the A's
1936 - Junior Champion Saints
The transition from field to box lacrosse was so
swift and complete that by 1936 the box game was fully entrenched into the
St. Catharines sporting scene. The Garden City now had a well-established
and promising senior team, a thriving junior feeder system (with three
provincial champions in the previous four years), and a newly revamped
outdoor box lacrosse stadium. The city would bring the seating capacity of
the “cushion” up from 900 to 2,800 for the ’36 season, paint the
boards dark green to provide good ball contrast, add a second ticket booth
at the stadium’s entrance and even expand Pleasant Avenue out to Ontario
Street to handle the expected traffic flow. Depression-era St. Kitts was
taking to the game in a big way.
The grand, old, field game had completely
vanished from the city leagues as the sons of “Hopey”, “Fitz”,
"Tip" Teather and more were leading the way into the new era. The junior
Athletics kept their old haunts on the Collegiate grounds but were now
playing out of their own lacrosse box, while the Tecumsehs took up
full-time residence at the seemingly massive lacrosse stadium. In midget
and juvenile, the A’s and Tecs were joined by the Erins from the
west-end and by the Thorold Maroons to engage in some heated local
rivalries.
The O.A.L.A. asked St. Catharines to join into a
sanctioned junior league with Hamilton, Fergus and New Toronto but the
local association wanted none of that. The city leagues were still
thriving on the floor and at the box office, and the added expense of
travel was thought to be just too large a burden. Besides, the city’s
best juniors could continue to play in the city league and also moonlight
with the traveling senior team. After all, junior-aged Tom “Tank”
Teather, Roy “Pung” Morton, George Hope, Frank Madsen and rover Eddie
Kalinoski (a.k.a. Kelly) were already integral parts of the senior
Athletics.
When the Hamilton-Burlington Combines closed out
the senior Athletics season on September 4th, the two-tier
players could now focus on the up-coming O.A.L.A. junior playoffs. As in
previous years the team would be a city all-star aggregation, but new to
this year, the team would alternate wearing the uniforms of the Athletics
(blue) and the Tecumsehs (red) in appreciation of their team’s sponsors.
Thus they carried the generic name, the Saints.
Their first inter-city opponent was the Toronto
Marlboros and it couldn’t have been a more disastrous start, a crushing
21 – 8 defeat at Maple Leaf Gardens. Fortunately for the Saints, they
had agreed to play a best two-of-three series rather than the traditional
two game, total goals-to-count series. Starting a second game with a
13-goal deficit to overcome would have seemed insurmountable.
After a rebound win in St. Catharines, the third
and deciding game was played at the Burlington Arena on September 17th.
The Saints trailed 5 to 3 at the half before “Pung” Morton rifled in
six goals in the last two quarters to help St. Catharines win by 14 to 13.
Now it was on to the semi-finals and the young
Orillia Terriers. The Saints took the opener in Orillia by a 17 – 12
count before the blue-shirts swept the short series with a 15 – 14
overtime win back in St. Kitts (the “seniors” accounting for 13 of the
markers).
The stage was now set for the 1936 Ontario finals
and it would be against an old rival, the juniors from Cornwall.
The first game slated for Cornwall on Saturday
October 3rd would feature a remarkable fourth quarter comeback
by the visitors from St. Catharines. Trailing the Colts by 15 – 9 at the
end of the third quarter, the Saints soon found themselves on the short
end of a 17 – 10 score with only ten minutes remaining in regulation.
That’s when the “twisting and dodging” Eddie Kalinoski went to work
and ignited a truly incredible rally. He would score 4 goals in four
minutes and suddenly the hunt was on.
When the home side scored with just two minutes
remaining to give them a 19 – 16 lead, it may have seemed to the
easterners that they would indeed preserve their hard-fought victory. But
the unrelenting Saints would score three times in the last 90 seconds to
even it up at 19 – 19 (young Dougie Cove, “Tank” Teather and lastly,
“Pung” Morton doing the honours).
And that’s how the game would end. When the
word was received back in St. Kitts as to how the match was played out,
the tie felt just as good as a win. On October 5th the Standard
would report, “That their sterling efforts were appreciated was
evidenced in the throng of lacrosse-minded residents who welcomed them
home when the C.N.R. train pulled in here last night.”
All that was needed now to complete their third
Ontario junior championship in three years was to pull on their old
city-league Tecumsehs red sweaters and defeat the good team from Cornwall
before their own enthusiastic fans at the St. Catharines Lacrosse Stadium
(no one as yet had thought to call it the Haig Bowl).
And, the rest is history.
1936 Junior Athletics
See later photo: 1936 Junior Champions
ST.
KITTS JUNIORS TAKE THIRD STRAIGHT ONTARIO
BOX TITLE
REDSHIRTS
DEFEAT
CORNWALL 15 – 8
IN
RETURN
GAME
FOR
HONORS
HOMEBREWS
LEAD
IN
EVERY
PERIOD
RAN
TALLY
TO 14 – 5
IN 4TH
TO
EASE
UP
FOR
DECISIVE
VICTORY
The
St. Catharines Standard
Tuesday,
October 13, 1936
St. Catharines today hails the junior Ontario
lacrosse champions. On Saturday night at the city stadium with 1,200 loyal
fans braving a raw, gusty night that had nearly threatened to transfer the
final to the indoor Burlington arena, the Soper-Stuart scarlet-clad Saints
tossed off the challenge of Cornwall Colts and captured the provincial
pennant by 15 to 8. With the opener deadlocked in the St. Lawrence river
town last weekend at 19 – 19 after overtime, the pennant clincher lived
up to all expectations and the bitter rivals practically matched goal for
goal until the halfway mark was reached.
Reds Never Headed
By periods, the homebrew Saints were always in
the driver’s seat. They assumed the first quarter lead of 5 – 3,
lifted it to 8 – 5 at the rest interval, and then exerted the pressure
in the third stanza, when they blanked the Lallyites and ran in four
registers for a 12 – 5 vantage. This they hopped up to 14 – 5 in the
early stages of the fourth chukker, for a nine goal margin. With the
victory safely tucked away, they relaxed their offensive efforts and in
the dying minutes contented themselves with matching the Colts once, then
saw Al Quennville’s visitors rally to snare the final duo that were
gathered in a lost cause.
Brisk, But Clean
In the absence of George Collins of the east,
Bill Whittaker, who had minded nets for Cornwall seniors last year, teamed
up with Jerry Kendall as referee and beyond keeping a close tab on the
rival youngsters, had only to untangle them twice for group penalties. All
told, 15 rests were meted out, 8 to Cornwall and 7 to St. Kitts. Jerry
Connell was the “bad man” for the night with half the Colts total,
which marred an otherwise magnificent game, both offensively and
defensively. Connell was the hardest man to stop on the crease, once in
possession and he set up the plays for the majority of their goals—when
he was on the crease. Passes to Pilon gave the latter 4 goals to lead the
Colts, singles going to Payette, Secours, Deebank and Merpaw. “Windy”
Deebank, who topped all snipers in the opener with six, was held to one
here, being checked so effectively that most of his efforts were
restricted to wild shots of the submarine brand. He tried badly in the
later stages and practically asked for the twin rests in the fourth, when
the going took on the rocky-road angle.
Colts switched to Desrosiers here, after finding
Bergeron too penetrable at home and the substitution proved wise. The
former played a smart game and the ones that beat him would have worsted
anyone, which also applies to Lamb. With the tally set at 14 – 5 in the
fourth, Lamb retired for Kirtland, who had been out of the playoffs since
the first-string goalie had his nose broken in the Marlboro opener at
Toronto. Kirtland got in the nets in time to be charged by Deebank on a
behind-crease play and when George Teather assisted Kirtland, the latter
duo were benched. The only other tangle was in the first, when the trio of
Nicholson, Connell, and Kalinoski clashed after a “dogging” bee that
existed all night where Connell, Deebank and Pilon were concerned, by
strictly attentive checking.
Get Hop on Colts
The homester Reds snared nearly every draw and
with that asset held a big edge on primary thrusts. St. Kitts coaches kept
tabs on the potential scorers of the river squad and rarely was one
permitted to break away unchecked. The bodying was severe and with
Connell’s exception, so legal that play never halted. Matching his
progress for Colts was that of Hope for the Reds, who turned in a starry
game and his intercepts and play-making were most noteworthy. Morton
topped the sniping list with six counters, “Tank” Teather having two
and three assists and two each to Cove, Kalinoski, and Baker, with one to
Cunningham. Baker’s duo were brilliant, while he had four successive
tries on the net later that failed. The running passes of the Morton-Teather
pair merited the laurels when they flashed in and across the Colt citadel
and gave Desrosiers not a chance to save.
In capturing their third consecutive junior flag
of the province, St. Catharines established a rather unique record. During
the past three seasons, they have lost but one game, to Toronto Dukes by
21 – 8 and been tied twice. The latter were both to Cornwall, by 15 –
15 in 1935 and at 19-all last Saturday. Their victory column has only been
eclipsed by Toronto Beaches with five wins, during 1915-6-7-8-9 and
matched by Toronto St. Simons in 1923-4-5 and Toronto Irish Canadians in
1926-27-28. Although they lose four juniors next season, the juvenile
ranks will furnish sufficient material to warrant the hope that the Garden
City youngsters can at least aspire to the O.A.L.A. mark of Beaches.
Cornwall—Goal, Desrosiers; defense,
Pilon, Nicholson; rover, Connell; center, Payette; wings, Moore, Deebank;
subs, Secours, MacDonald, Merpaw.
St. Catharines—Goal, Lamb, Kirtland;
defense, Hope, Madsen; rover, Kalinoski; center, Morton; wings, Cove, T.
Teather; subs, G. Teather, Masterson, Mackie, Baker, Cheevers, Cunningham.
Officials—Jerry Kendall, Brampton, Billy
Whittaker, St. Catharines
Summary
1st Period:
St. C. Cove (Kalinoski) 0:40
St. C. Morton (Teather) 1:30
Corn. Pilon (Payette) 3:00
St. C. T. Teather 3:40
St. C. Cove (Madsen) 10:07
Corn. Pilon (Moore) 10:45
Corn. Pilon (Deebank) 13:30
St. C. Cunningham (Baker) 14:00
Penalties: Nicholson, Connell 2, Payette, Hope,
Kalinoski.
2nd Period:
St. C. Morton 0:30
St. C. T. Teather 3:00
Corn. Payette (Connell) 3:10
Corn. Deebank 7:20
St. C. Morton (Cove) 10:00
Penalties: Hope, Mackie.
3rd Period:
St. C. Kalinoski 0:30
St. C. Kalinoski 6:15
St. C. Baker (Hope) 12:00
St. C. Baker 12:10
Penalties: Connell, Cunningham, Connell.
4th Period:
St. C. Morton (T. Teather) 1:00
St. C. Morton (Cove) 1:10
Corn. Secours 11:40
St. C. Morton (T. Teather) 12:00
Corn. Merpaw (Payette) 14:50
Corn. Pilon (Connell) 14:55
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Goaltender Bob Lamb