History of the A's

Jack Gatecliff Remembered

Dean of Community Sports Journalism

Jack Gatecliff Dead at 74 

The St. Catharines Standard

Tuesday September 5, 2000

ST.CATHARINES -- Jack Gatecliff, one of Canada's foremost community sports journalists and a life-long resident of St.Catharines, died early today after a lengthy battle with cancer. He was 74. Gatecliff joined The Standard as a sports reporter in 1947. He often joked that his career with the newspaper began years earlier when he had a delivery route. He became The Standard's second sports editor in 1953 and was promoted to executive sports editor in 1987. He retired in April of 1991, but only because he had to. Retirement is something Gatecliff always felt was for other people. 

"I have mixed emotions about it," the renowned workaholic once said. "It would be nice to get away from all the phones and relax, but writing is how I relax. It will be hard." To make leaving easier, Gatecliff embarked on a post-retirement career which consisted of writing his column and continuing to represent The Standard at various functions and sports events. Gatecliff was born April 20, 1926, in St.Catharines.  Except for brief periods - such as playing hockey in Scotland or attending school in Toronto - he never left. It's not that there weren't any opportunities; he just never wanted to live anywhere else. 

Gatecliff unabashedly promoted St. Catharines as the best place in the world to live and raise a family. "There is no better spot to live," he once said. "I've had chances to move, but never considered taking them. I've had over 50 years at The Standard and enjoyed every one of them." 

As a youngster, Gatecliff was a better-than-average athlete with a special affinity for lacrosse and hockey. He was always a sports fanatic, whether it be as a participant or an observer. One of his fondest boyhood memories was being among the throng which welcomed home the 1938 St. Catharines Athletics after they won the city's first Canadian Senior lacrosse championship. "I was 12 years old and I rode on the fender of the truck that carried the team along St. Paul Street," he once said. "It was about midnight, but the street was packed. No one wanted to miss it. Those guys were genuine heroes." 

Six years later, Gatecliff was a member of that team, helping it to another Mann Cup title. The thought of writing for a career was first presented to Gatecliff by a high school teacher. It resurfaced a few years later while he was in Scotland playing hockey. "I was there (in 1947), wondering what to do with the rest of my life, and decided to write to (then Standard sports editor) Clayton Browne. I had known him from playing so many sports and he wrote back telling me to come and see him. I went into the paper two days after I came home and got the job right away." 

Gatecliff began his popular Through the Sports Gate column in 1955 and figured he had written more than 9,000 when he retired. In more than four decades of watching and chronicling the Niagara sports scene, Gatecliff developed a reputation as an ardent supporter of local and amateur events. "I've always been most proud of our local coverage," he frequently said. "Minor and amateur sports get little or no coverage in major cities, and that's where The Standard has it over the larger papers. We give as much attention to the local athletes as to those who are well-known nationally and internationally." 

In recognition of that devotion, The Standard sports department in 1990 established The Jack Gatecliff Award which is presented to the area person judged to have demonstrated an especially high level of dedication to sports. The award was unveiled on the occasion of Gatecliff's retirement and The Standard's 100th birthday. The first winner was Olympic wrestler Marty Calder. "When one thinks of The Standard, one thinks of 'Gate', former Standard publisher Henry Burgoyne once said. "He (was) The Standard's goodwill ambassador for nearly 50 years. He was one of Canada's finest sportswriters - the finest in my opinion." 

Gatecliff, who would often stay up half the night writing a story and then be back in the office at 6 a.m. the next day, was respected by his peers for his devotion - sometimes obsession - for his job. 

"You knew if Jack asked you to cover something and you couldn't, he'd go out and do it himself," said Bill Potrecz, a 15-year veteran of the Standard's sports department. "His dedication was legendary." In 1990 Gatecliff became a charter member of the St.Catharines Sports Hall of Fame. He is also a member of the Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame, builder's division and a lifetime member of the National Hockey League Writer's Association. He won 17 Western Ontario Newspaper Awards. He was named best American Hockey League writer in 1984. In 1986 he received the Bob Reinhart Memorial Award from the St. Catharines Chamber of Commerce for community service, and he administered a $1,000 annual scholarship in his name, set up in 1987 and funded by St.Catharines native and ex-pro hockey goalie Gerry Cheevers. 

In addition, Gatecliff was master of ceremonies for the Shriners-Knights of Columbus Sports Celebrities Dinner for 34 years. He was a charter member of the Grantham Optimist Club, a past-president of the Ontario Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association, was a chairman of the St.Catharines Parks and Recreation Council and was actively involved with the Leonard B. Herzog Memorial Foundation to aid St. Catharines Hospitals. Perhaps his crowing glory of achievement was in 1995 when he was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in the media section. 

"I'm here and I still can't believe it," he told then Standard sports editor Peter Conradi upon his induction. "This is such a big deal for me. I'd like to say it's like a dream come true, but it isn't because I never dreamed anything like this could happen." 

The honours kept on coming a year later when Garden City Arena, a spot Gatecliff might have called his second home, was re-named Jack Gatecliff Arena. 

"For someone who grew up on Russell Avenue and enjoyed sports all his life ... this is something I never believed could come true," he said. "This is phenomenal." Gatecliff is survived by wife Alice and son John and daughter-in-law Janet, all of St. Catharines, and sister Joyce Trull of Oakville.

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