History of the A's

Athletics Retrospective - Alex McKenzie

THROUGH THE SPORTS GATE

by JACK GATECLIFF

The St. Catharines Standard

Wednesday March 21, 1956

New York Rangers’ Lou Fontinato set a record in penalties for one National Hockey League season this year eclipsing the old mark set 20 years ago by Toronto’s warlike redhead, Reginald (Red) Horner. If you want to get technical, there’s a man in St. Catharines who could spot both Horner and Fontinato a few hundred hours in the penalty box and have plenty to spare.

His name is Alex McKenzie, recently promoted from parks foreman to parks manager of the St. Catharines Parks Board. Since 1923 when he first took over his unpaid  duties as unofficial custodian of St. Catharines lacrosse penalty boxes, Alex McKenzie has prevented more riots, broken up more fights and probably smoked more pipes of tobacco in the process, than any other person in the Niagara district.

For 33 years, this easy-going mountain of a man (six feet four inches, 260 pounds) has been one of the real landmarks of St. Catharines. Anyone even remotely connected with sport in that time has come under his almost paternal influence to some extent.

Alex has his own theory about the best way to handle crowds and calm down players who get overly exuberant during the heat of a lacrosse game. It is a theory which could be studied with benefit and copied to advantage by other men in authority.

Regarding crowds, he has found that it is best to treat them firmly but with every consideration. “Nobody likes to get pushed around and once you start that, trouble isn’t far away.”

He remembers the days at Haig Bowl when games between Orillia Terriers and the Athletics drew as many as 4,300 fans. “I could have made a fortune accepting bribes I was offered by fans who couldn’t get in but when I explained to them that all the seats were full and there was nothing we could do about it, they just kind of got a sad expression on their faces and went home.”

Those were the days when the public address announcer would implore the fans to “move just a little closer so we can crowd a few more inside.”

As for the penalty box-sitting job, Alex has a simple formula. “When the boys come in the box with blood in their eyes, I just sit between them and don’t bother with any words of advice. After all when you’re all worked up in a game, the last thing anyone wants is a lecture.”

“Sometimes I have to use a little force but usually if they start arguing, I just move my body back and forth so they can’t see each other. By the time their penalties are up they’ve usually forgotten what the trouble was.”

It wasn’t always this easy to discourage fights. Alex well remembers many brawls in the days of field lacrosse.

One of the best . . . or worst depending on your point of view . . . took place on the Thomas Street grounds when Toronto Riversides visited the Athletics. The fight started between the two biggest men on both teams, the late Lionel Conacher of Toronto and St. Catharines’ Ed Sheehan, and soon spread to the other players and fans.

“It was harder to keep things under control then,” says Alex. “There was only a three-foot fence separating the spectators from the players and it was only a hop onto the field. Now with the high screen around the bowl it’s almost impossible for the fans to get out on the crease.”

Alex McKenzie was born in the town of Fearn, Scotland, and came to Canada with his parents at the age of 14. His father worked for the Robertson Farm on Ontario Street and Alex also took up farming there before working at McKinnon Industries for three years.

The St. Catharines Parks Board came into being in 1922 and one year later Alex was hired under foreman George Dingman (now over 90 years of age and one of St. Catharines oldest citizens). H. L. (Bert) Gray, now General Manager of the Parks Board, joined the staff one year later and to a large degree these two men have supervised the tremendous expansion of sports and park facilities in this city.

When Alex started with the Parks Board, the extent of the facilities here was Montebello and Thomas Street and at least 30 per cent of the latter was used as the city dump. The list now includes Walkinshaw, Memorial Park, Oakhill, Cameron, Bartlett, Facer Street, Lincoln Park, Kernahan, Fitzgerald, Burgoyne, Riordon, the new Lancaster Park, which is still being developed and of course the original Thomas Street (now City Sports Park) and Montebello. Alex’s duties now also include the general supervision of Municipal Beach while Lee Blank is manager of the other Parks Board “holding”, the Garden City Arena.

For more than 30 years he has seen individual players and teams develop into championship form, then finally give way to that relentless enemy of all athletes . . . age.

There isn’t a sport that Alex doesn’t “get a kick out of” but admits that lacrosse is his first love, baseball a close second. Like many others he considers that the 1938 – 41 Athletics were the best team he has ever seen and that Bill Partington who pitched for St. Catharines in the late twenties was one of his favourite ball players. Top official was the old field lacrosse referee, Lennie Smith. “Many’s the time he had to be rescued by police down here but he’d be right back the next Saturday with the same amount of courage.”

For 32 years, Bert Gray and Alex McKenzie have worked together. “After that long you’d think we’d be sick of the sight of each other,” Mr. Gray told us the other day in the lobby of the Garden City Arena.

“However in all that time I can honestly say that we’ve never had one real disagreement. No one could be a more loyal worker and I consider myself fortunate to be among the thousands in St. Catharines who can call big Alex a friend. You might not believe this but in the more than three decades I have known Alex, I’ve never heard anyone say one word against him.”

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