History of the A's

A Trip to the Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame 

FITZGERALD, PEART LATEST ADDITIONS

13 ST. CATHARINES MEN NOW IN LACROSSE HALL OF FAME

by Jack Gatecliff

The St. Catharines Standard

Tuesday September 22, 1970

NEW WESTMINSTER – The selection Saturday of Bill Fitzgerald, Jr. and Max Peart brought the number of St. Catharines men to 13 in Canada’s Hall of Fame.

Following are brief sketches of each man:

Pete Barnett, born 1886. Started lacrosse in St. Catharines, signed by Toronto Lacrosse Club (Professional) in 1909 and played with them until league disbanded in 1915. Lived in Toronto until his death in 1965. (Barnett only played with the Senior Athletics for part of 1904 and the entire season of 1905)

Joe Cheevers, born 1915. Started lacrosse in St. Catharines. Signed by Oshawa in 1934. Transferred to Orillia in mid-season when Oshawa team disbanded. Won Ontario championship in Orillia 1935-36-37, Mann Cup in 1937. Returned to St. Catharines in 1938 where he played with Ontario championship teams in 1938-39-40-41, Mann Cup teams in 1938, 1940, 1941 and 1946, Hamilton Mann Cup team in 1948. Considered one of the best centres in box lacrosse history.

Ed (Moose) Downey, born 1912. All-round athlete in football, baseball, hockey and lacrosse. Started lacrosse in St. Catharines, played with 1933 Hamilton Mann Cup team, Orillia 1934 and 1935, moved to New Westminster in 1936 and played with the Salmonbellies until 1945. Still lives in New Westminster. A tough, aggressive player in all sports. ("Moose", son of turn-of-the-century Athletics great, Tod Downey, never played senior for hometown St. Catharines. In 1944 he played against the A's in the Mann Cup finals as a member of the New Westminster Salmonbellies)

Doug Favell, born 1924. Only player to be with bantam, midget, juvenile and junior Ontario championship teams in same year (1939). Won Minto Cup (Canadian junior) championship with Orillia in 1940; Mann Cup teams in St. Catharines 1946, Hamilton 1948, Owen Sound 1950. Father of Philadelphia Flyers goaltender Doug Favell, Jr. Ranked with Bill Whittaker and Lloyd (Moon) Wooton as greatest goaltenders in box lacrosse.

Bill Fitzgerald, Sr. born 1888. Played with St. Catharines senior team which never lost game 1906 – 1908. Signed to professional contract by Toronto Lacrosse Club in 1909. Paid $5,000 for one season in Vancouver in 1911. Returned to Toronto 1912 – 1915. Retired then played with Cornwall 1919. Won Minto Cup, at that time for Canadian Professional championship, in 1911. Only St. Catharines member of Canadian Sports Hall of Fame. Died in 1926 at 38 years of age from peritonitis. (Fitz also played with the 1918 semi-pro Athletics)

Bill Fitzgerald, Jr. born 1914. Played all lacrosse in St. Catharines, starting with the Ontario juvenile championship team in 1930. St. Catharines Ontario senior champions 1938-39-40-41, Mann Cup champions 1938, 1940 and 1941. Refereed five years. Also played with St. Catharines (basketball) Grads and bowled a perfect five-pin game (450) in 1945. Took advantage of great speed to overcome slight build. Weighed only 140 pounds while playing senior.

George Kalls, born 1886. Starts with St. Catharines junior team. Played professional with Toronto Lacrosse Club 1909 – 1915. Moved to Lockport in 1923. Died in 1963. (Kalls also played with the Senior Athletics from 1903 - 05, 1908, and 1918)

Carl (Gus) Madsen, born 1915. Started with 1930 St. Catharines junior Tecumsehs, turned senior in 1934. Captain of St. Catharines Ontario senior championship teams in 1938-39-40-41-44. Mann Cup teams with St. Catharines 1938-40-41-44. Picked up by Mimico-Brampton for 1942 Mann Cup finals, won deciding game on a penalty shot. Played briefly with Hamilton in 1945. Refereed for six years. Often described as Canada’s best two way lacrosse player. Died in 1961 of heart attack.

Jack (Wandy) McMahon, born 1914. Started with Ontario juvenile field lacrosse championship team in 1930. Went to Orillia for 1935-36-37 senior seasons. Returned to St. Catharines in 1938 and continued playing, with the exception of three years in Canadian Armed Forces, until 1946. Rated greatest player in box lacrosse for killing penalties. Played with Ontario championship teams in 1935-36-37-38-39-40-41, 1946. Mann Cup champions in 1936, 1938, 1940, 1946.

Roy (Pung) Morton, born 1916. Played all lacrosse in St. Catharines starting as field lacrosse goaltender in 1933. Changed to forward and for 10 years was the greatest goal-scorer in Canadian lacrosse. Played with St. Catharines senior teams from 1938 to 1948. Ontario senior champions 1938-39-40-41-44-45-46. Hard shot, one of the most colourful players of his era. Also outstanding quarterback in football and guard in basketball.

Max Peart, born 1907. Only St. Catharines man in Builders Division. Played junior and senior lacrosse with St. Catharines. Captain of 1931 St. Catharines Grads who reached Canadian senior basketball finals. Refereed 1937 until 1952 and handled more than 50 Mann Cup games. Moved to Port Colborne as town clerk in 1934. (Max's senior playing career spanned the last Athletics field teams in the late 1920's and their first boxla teams in the early 1930's.)

Bill Whittaker, born 1912. Played senior in St. Catharines 1933, Cornwall 1934, returned to St. Catharines 1935 and continued until early 1950’s. Rated as one of the greatest and most aggressive goaltenders, box or field lacrosse and last to play without shin-pads or face mask. Ontario senior champions 1938-39-40-41-44-45-46. Mann Cup champions 1938-40-41-44-46.

Bill Wilson, born 1911. Started lacrosse at 19 after excelling in baseball, football and hockey. Played with Hamilton 1933, Orillia 1934-35, New Westminster 1936-37, St. Catharines 1938-39-40-41-42. Only player to lead both eastern and western senior leagues in scoring. Won seven Mann Cup championship medals. Finished career in 1942 as playing coach with Athletics. Has lived in Rochester, N. Y. last 20 years. One of the most talented all-round athletes produced in St. Catharines. (note: Jim McNulty of St. Catharines won senior scoring titles in the east and west in the mid-1950's)

THROUGH THE SPORTS GATE

by Jack Gatecliff

The St. Catharines Standard

Tuesday September 22, 1970

NEW WESTMINSTER, B.C., Canada’s Lacrosse Hall of Fame is not as pretentious as Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame at the Canadian National Exhibition. Not yet, that is. As Canadian Lacrosse Association President Fred Conradi of St. Catharines said here Saturday during the induction of players and builders, you’ve got to creep before you can walk. The Lacrosse Hall of Fame is already far beyond the creeping stage and if sufficient financial assistance can be obtained, it will, some day, match the CNE showpiece.

The field and boxla Hall of Fame occupies one fairly large room in the New Westminster Community Centre, a sprawling sports complex which includes everything from curling rink to inside tennis courts to meeting rooms, banquet halls and an auditorium. Wood panels cover the walls of the Hall of Fame. Two sides are completely filled with glass-enclosed show cases displaying pictures of the great players and teams of field and box lacrosse, balls used in the 19^th century, a cap won by a New Westminster player in 1899, casket containing two bottles of rum and various other sports memorabilia.

Two bottles of rum?

Well there were a thousand and one stories during the inductions and Post-Mann Cup parties, but one of the more intriguing was the item about the rum. It seems that the 1928 New Westminster Olympic lacrosse team held its first reunion in 1951. The entire 12-man squad was there and accounted for and two bottles of rum were set aside with the stipulation that they were not to be touched until there were only two survivors. Those two were to consume the two, a bottle each at one sitting.

The bottles have a place of honor in the centre of one display but a slight modification has been made to the regulations concerning their consumption. Only six of the original 12 are still living and on a unanimous vote they decided that when the number is reduced to four – that’s when the rum will be consumed. Even lacrosse players apparently become more moderate in their behaviour as they grow older. One other wall has three huge lacrosse murals, the fourth brass plaques with the names of hall of famers in three categories – field lacrosse, box lacrosse and builders.

The only disappointment for us was that there are not more pictures of eastern players and teams. None of the many Peterborough championship clubs are included, only one of five St. Catharines Mann Cup teams (1938) are on display. Western pictures of course were more readily available, but Conradi has promised the Hall of Fame Board of Governors that pictures of St. Catharines teams will be on the way west within the next week.

St. Catharines names previously include Bill Fitzgerald, Sr., and George Kalls from field lacrosse, Bill Wilson, Gus Madsen, Ed Downey, Doug Favell, Wandy McMahon, Joe Cheevers and Bill Whittaker from box lacrosse as well as Blain MacDonald from Mimico who played briefly with the Athletics. Added this year were referee Max Peart, the first St. Catharines native to make it in the Builders Division (although there are dozen of others also well-qualified) and box lacrosse player Bill Fitzgerald, Jr.

St. Catharines was not in the Mann Cup finals this year but over-all it was almost a St. Catharines show from the time the eastern contingent left Toronto International Airport. Pilot of the DC-8 was Desmond McCabe, son of former St. Catharines Bank of Montreal manager H. P. McCabe. 21 St. Catharines people made the trip for the inductions and Mann Cup games. John Boyle, a St. Catharines teacher-artist, was commissioned by the Canada Council to paint pictures of the 1970 Canadian finals. To top it off Rick Foote, who rowed singles for the St. Catharines Rowing Club in 1922, was in New Westminster to greet the visitors.

Every player in the Hall of Fame has yards of credentials. But perhaps the most unusual are owned by Favell and Wilson.

Favell in 1939, played with St. Catharines Ontario championship teams in bantam, midget, juvenile and junior “B”, the Orillia Minto Cup (Canadian junior championship) team in 1940 and has Mann Cup medals from St. Catharines (1946), Hamilton (1948) and Owen Sound (1950). His record of four Ontario titles in one season will never be matched as, the following season, a rule was passed limiting a player to one division. Without question it was Favell, father of Philadelphia goaltender Doug Favell Jr., who prompted the O. L. A. to pass the one team in one season regulation.

Wilson never played a game of lacrosse until he was 19. He was an outstanding football and baseball player, one of the top Niagara District goaltenders in hockey but did not play lacrosse until Bill Fitzgerald Jr. virtually forced him into the sport. He had however “thrown the ball around” with Jay MacDonald. According to Wilson, Fitzgerald told him that he didn’t have the “guts” to play the tough sport of lacrosse.

Wilson turned out the next night with the Tecumsehs in the city juvenile league, scored one of three goals the first game, two of four the next and three years later was with the Hamilton Mann Cup team. In 1934 he transferred to Orillia where the Terriers won the Mann Cup two straight years, then came to New Westminster will Bill Wilkes to form the backbone of two more Canadian championship clubs. In 1938 he was persuaded to return to St. Catharines with Wandy McMahon and Joe Cheevers who had spent the previous three years in Orillia and the Athletics promptly won the Mann Cup three times in four years.

Wilson and his pal Wilkes faced off to officially start the third game of the 1970 Mann Cup finals here Saturday night and continued his winning record, taking the draw from Wilkes who still lives in New Westminster.

There were more laughs over the weekend than you’d get at a week-long run of Laurel and Hardy films. But perhaps the most spontaneous came from an old, oldtimer who came up to Bill Fitzgerald at the Saturday night game and said: “It’s about time you got in the Hall of Fame. I remember when you played out here in 1911.” The gentleman of course was referring to Bill’s dad, a charter member of the Field Lacrosse Division. “Now there,” said Fitz, “is a guy who really knows how to hurt a fella.”

THROUGH THE SPORTS GATE

by Jack Gatecliff

The St. Catharines Standard

Wednesday September 23, 1970

Last weekend we spent little more than 48 hours in New Westminster and Vancouver for the induction of players and builders into Canada’s Lacrosse Hall of Fame. There was so much going on, so many hilarious stories, that it seemed more like two weeks than two days.

The trip was organized by Bill DeMars and Fred Conradi. Conradi was tied up with his duties as president of the Canadian Lacrosse Association and how DeMars ever kept track of 30 or so Easterners who arrived together but left on a dozen different flights is not only a mystery but should qualify him for some sort of medal.

One thing which was proven was that athletes and officials – even older ones – have just about the greatest sense of humor you’ll find anywhere. We’ll grant you that some of the stories were funnier in retrospect than at the actual time of the incidents. But, as has been said so often, players after they retire get better as the years go past and the stories produce more laughs.

Max Peart, who still regards St. Catharines as home although he has been town clerk in Port Colbourne for 36 years, recalled the fall of 1939 when he was flown out to referee the third game of the Mann Cup finals between St. Catharines Athletics and New Westminster. The Athletics had lost the first two games of the best-of-five series and felt that the refereeing – well – had been slightly less than impartial. St. Catharines appealed to Mike Kelly, the Canadian Lacrosse Association President, and funds were provided to bring Peart in from Port Colbourne.

He took the quickest plane out of Toronto, refereed the third game, the Athletics lost and were eliminated. “My fee for the game was $12,” said Max. “I don’t imagine that anyone else ever traveled more than 7,000 miles (round trip) for so little money.”

The following night he was asked to referee an exhibition game in Victoria. He accepted, the crowd was rather slim and after the game the Victoria management said that they were sorry but they just couldn’t afford to pay him what he probably expected. To Peart’s surprise he got $25, more than double the amount for officiating in a Canadian championship final.

Two years later the Athletics again won the Ontario championship and Peart was assigned to referee the full series on the West Coast. However this time they stopped off for exhibition games in Winnipeg, Regina and Red Deer, Alta. Max was told that the players would not receive any money for these extra games so in all fairness he should referee for nothing as well. He went along with the proposal but fortunately the Mann Cup series went five games, the referees’ fee had been lifted to $15 a game, so he made the magnificent sum of $75. Max Peart, like the players of that era, were not in lacrosse for monetary gain and that was one reason the St. Catharines native was a most popular choice to the Builders’ Division in the Hall of Fame.

One reason for the success of the Athletics in the late 1930’s and 1940’s was that despite their enormous talents, they never took themselves too seriously. Bill Wilson was, and still is, a master at ribbing his team-mates and how Rex Stimers ever tagged him “Silent Bill” is beyond us. He started his one-man vocal campaign before the plane left Toronto Saturday morning and while reduced to a croak by Monday night, was still going strong when those who returned early got back into Toronto Monday night. Everyone was his target.

He accused Wandy McMahon of not passing the ball enough and McMahon in turn told Wilson he had spoiled a perfect season. “One year I had 49 goals and no assists,” said Wandy. “You intercepted my shot and scored in the last game of the season and it was the only assist I got all that year.”

Bill Fitzgerald recalled a game in Brampton in “about 1939.” On that trip to Brampton for the Friday night game Wilson, a Protestant, had been describing in great detail to Fitzgerald the steak he intended to order later. “Fitz,” a devote Roman Catholic, was restricted to fish. In the second period in the Brampton Rose Bowl, Wilson zigged when he should have zagged, was caught by a high stick and lost four front teeth. The team stopped at its usual watering hole, the Day-Night just outside Hamilton, and Wilson could no more eat steak than a canary could devour a cat. His meal consisted of a chocolate milkshake sipped rather tenderly through a straw. “The fish I’m eating is nice and soft,” Fitzgerald told Wilson. “I’d be more than willing to share it with you.”

As the only Brampton member of the party travelling to British Columbia, “Mush” Thompson came in for his full share of joshing from St. Catharines players such as Sid Wright, George Coles, Bill Mackie, George Urquhart, Tony D’Amico, “Wandy” McMahon, Fitzgerald, Bill Whittaker, Doug Favell, Roy Morton and, naturally, Wilson. To his credit Thompson, although out-numbered, held his own. During the Sunday night dinner tendered by the C. L. A., Thompson sat opposite Wilson. “I always liked playing against Brampton,” Wilson said. “Art Brown (the Athletics coach) would get us together Monday and say ‘Well we’re playing Brampton next Saturday night so we won’t have to practice this week,’ we could always beat you guys by 30 goals.”

And that’s the way it was the entire weekend and, we would imagine, all this week for those who stayed longer. A lot of laughs, stories which undoubtedly were embellished upon as are most sports anecdotes as the years go by. Sport is probably taken a little more seriously now than it was when Orillia, Brampton, Mimico, Hamilton and St. Catharines were battling for Ontario senior lacrosse championships.

Gord Heaton, Jay MacDonald, Hilton Slater, Tom Garriock, Jim Lomore, Ed Sheehan and George Simmonds were among the Ontario group on the coast and while they did not play with the box lacrosse teams, they were just as much a part of it as the former players. “I’m not knocking the modern athletes,” said Heaton, who grew up with many of the 1938 – 46 Athletics, “but somehow I think a lot of the fun has gone out of sport.”

He could be right.

Footnote:  three years after filing this report, Jack Gatecliff would himself be inducted into the Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame in the builders category.

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