History of the A's

A's Move Indoors To Garden City Arena

LACROSSE HAS LONG, PROUD RECORD IN CITY NOW MOVES UNDER A ROOF

MANY CHAMPIONSHIPS

The St. Catharines Standard

Saturday May 9, 1953

For close to 75 years, lacrosse teams from St. Catharines have written an enviable number of records into the annals of Canada’s National Pastime. In the field days of the late Billy Fitzgerald, Billy Hope and George Kalls, teams from this city won the Ontario championship and Globe Shield so often that serious consideration was given to the building of a special vault in St. Catharines just to house the treasured trophy.

In the early thirties field lacrosse seemed to be dying on its feet and in an attempt to go “modern” the present brand of box lacrosse was substituted. This proved to be an almost instant success and once again teams with the famed St. Catharines double blue jersey started knocking off boxla championships with almost monotonous regularity.

For four straight years, 1938 – 41, St. Catharines clubs with name players like Bill Whittaker, Joe Cheevers, Billy Wilson, Tank Teather, Roy Morton, George Hope, and Bill Fitzgerald junior, to name just a few, were supreme rulers of senior lacrosse in Ontario. Three of those four seasons saw the Athletics defeat the West Coast to win the coveted Mann Cup.

Now in 1953 all those Mann Cup players of the late thirties and early forties have hung up their lacrosse gear permanently. The last to depart were Bill Whittaker and Tank Teather who completed twenty years of box lacrosse last season.

ANOTHER ERA?

This season may mark the beginning of another championship era in lacrosse for St. Catharines.

For the first time in the history of the game, all fixtures this year will be played indoors on the splendid new floor at the Garden City Arena. It was not without some real regrets that the current executive of the Athletics decided to abandon the venerable Haig Bowl, the scene of so many triumphs and turn to the comfortable surroundings of the more up-to-date arena.

The invasion of the great Orillia Terrier teams headed by Bucko McDonald and the late Jerry Connell, the battles against the rugged Hamilton Tigers and more latterly the Peterboro Timbermen, the picture of Big Alex McKenzie peaceably sitting between three or four lacrosse gladiators and preventing riots on the penalty box, all these and many more will be remembered with a good deal of nostalgia by veteran lacrosse patrons in the years to come.

However memories don’t pay the bills for equipment or prevent a sudden downpour a couple of hours before game time. This year in the Garden City Arena, games will be played regardless of the various moods of the weatherman and the seating, rest room and general comforts of the new home of St. Catharines lacrosse will doubtless appeal to a much wider range of sport followers than in recent years.

PARKS BOARD SUPPORT

In their sincere desire to present the best in summer sport for the Niagara District public, the men interested in lacrosse in St. Catharines have had a tremendous amount of co-operation from the Parks Board. Immediately following the removal of the ice this spring, the boards were painted green to give a contrast to the white ball, a removable wire screen was placed completely around the playing surface to protect the fans and a similar screen shields the large clock.

With these improvements and additions, spectators will agree that the lacrosse facilities in St. Catharines are absolutely the best anywhere in Canada.

Tonight the Brampton Excelsiors, another member of the Royal Family of lacrosse teams, visit St. Catharines for the official opener and the start of box lacrosse inside.

Under coach-elect Doug Cove, it is the belief of the Athletic executive that the 1953 edition of the St. Catharines Athletics will be worthy wearers of the double blue.

FAVELL BACK

For the first time in years, no player whose contract is owned by the Athletics has departed for other clubs. As a matter of fact, two players who had been playing with “foreign” teams have now come back in the fold in the persons of Doug Favell and Derry Davies. Unfortunately Favell will not be available for the opening game this evening as he is still recovering from illness, but until he rejoins the team his position will be capably filled by junior graduate Justin Howe.

Davies, a huskier and more experienced 190-pound speedster after his one year stint with the Mimico Mounties, should add a good deal of the needed scoring punch to the Athletic attack. A “whirling dervish” of the Max Woolley type, Davies is a certainty to be a favourite of St. Catharines and his native Port Dalhousie fans.

The Athletic line-up for the opening game of course lies strictly in the hands of Coach Cove. Thirty players tried out for the team when practices started at the Garden City Arena two weeks ago and it has been the inevitable task to make the selection of the young men who will be the double blue standard bearers during 1953. Twenty players can be signed during one season but only 14 played in a single game.

GALA EVENING

To make the evening as attractive as possible and to re-kindle the spark of lacrosse interest in this area, Athletic President E. J. Graves and Publicity Director Jim Lomore have arranged a real gala evening to mark the debut at the Garden City Arena.

The Collegiate bugle band will provide the martial music prior to the game and at half time. One hundred pairs of nylons will be given away at the first interval and following the third quarter, some fortunate person will win an all-expense holiday trip for the entire family or the equivalent of $300. A gold ring will also be given at the end of the third stanza.

The Athletics will be completely attired in newly designed uniforms, which is just another attempt on the part of the Athletic backers to restore the game to its former “Big League” prominence. The 1953 A’s will be the best-dressed club in the seven-team circuit and they’ll be playing under ideal conditions at the Garden City Arena. As O. L. A. President Art Brown stated, “If lacrosse doesn’t click in St. Catharines this year, the entire subject might just as well be forgotten.”

The executive and Parks Board has done it share in promoting the revival this year, from now on its up to the players and the lacrosse public to carry the ball. Tonight is the night to start.

THROUGH THE SPORTS GATE

by Jack Gatecliff

The St. Catharines Standard

Saturday May 9, 1953

This is it. All the plans and preparations that have been carried on here since last lacrosse season closed will be brought to a head tonight when the Brampton Excelsiors meet the St. Catharines Athletics at Garden City Arena. The game marks the opening of the 1953 senior schedule and also the first time in St. Catharines history that lacrosse has been played under a roof.

Literally thousands of words have been written and spoken concerning the plans for the official start of lacrosse inside. Prizes amounting to close to $500 have been secured, including the one big award of $300 or the choice of an all-expense holiday trip for the entire family. The Collegiate band will provide the fanfare…players of both teams introduced and the entire evening will be dressed up and made as attractive as possible. It should be one of the truly memorable events in Garden City sports annals.

Regardless of all the above-mentioned activities, the one thing that all real lacrosse lovers in St. Catharines are asking is…“What are the Athletics prospects this year?” While not wishing to go overboard in the way of claims or promises, the Athletic executive, from President Ted Graves and Coach Doug Cove all the way down the line are frankly optimistic. The same sense of better days ahead seems to have been incorporated into the thinking of the players as well.

One thing is certain. Coach Cove has an abundance of players to call on to form a team, which, if it can consistently maintain peak form, could be a definite threat for Ontario and Eastern Canada senior honours. Bill Whittaker has retired this year and it will indeed be strange to see someone else guarding the nets in a double blue jersey.

However A’s were very fortunate in securing Doug Favell from Hamilton Tigers just at the time Whittaker decided to hang up the big pads. “Percy” is ranked among the best net minders in Canadian senior lacrosse and at 29 years of age, should be just reaching his top form. In case of illness or injury, Justin Howe will move up from junior to senior and this youngster is not too far off senior calibre right now.

Until a few days ago, Athletics were in the same predicament as the 1952 – 53 junior “A” hockey Teepees. Their weakness seemed to be in the defence department. Doug Smith was the only experienced defender since Coach Cove decided to try Bill Nelson on the forward wall and of course Don Frick is still on the sidelines because of a late season hockey injury.

However one large hole was plugged with the signing of massive Jerry McTaggart. A good pal of Max Woolley and a teammate of the St. Catharines speedster on the McMaster University Intercollegiate football team, McTaggart was a standout member of the Dundas intermediate lacrosse team last year but during the off-season expressed a desire to play with the Athletics.

Woolley immediately informed the double blue brain trust and they promptly brought him to this city for a tryout. McTaggart was so impressive that he was signed to a playing certificate and will be a definite starter this evening. Incidentally he weighs in at 198 pounds and stands 6 ft. 2 in. Importing lacrosse players to St. Catharines is like carrying coals to you-know-where but he should be a big favourite and a real aid to the Garden City Club.

Delegating the two other defence posts for the opener tonight is of course strictly up to Cove. Could be that he will move burly John Dewar back temporarily and Sig Taube who is attempting to make a comeback may also be included in the line-up. Other possibilities are the three junior defence candidates Fred Martin, Bill Allan and Doug Baldwin, all impressive in pre-season workouts.

Up front the big problem is deciding which players to use. Max Woolley, Jim McMahon, Emil Uhrynuk, Bill Nelson, Al Frick, Norm Corcoran, Ted Howe, Bob Melville, Don Culp, Bill Bradshaw, and Don Moore. All-star junior Jim Bradshaw, who made the trip west with Brampton last year, is a strong candidate for a regular position and Athletics also welcome back Derry Davies who played some great lacrosse for Mimico last year. Picking just 9 forwards out of that group is a real problem.

Athletics still have a couple of irons in the fire for additional playing strength but for the first couple of weeks or so they will ride along with the capable gents listed above.

The big boy in the Brampton camp is Jack Bionda, the most discussed player to reach senior lacrosse in a good many years. Bionda averaged just under seven goals a game last year after moving from Huntsville to play with the Minto Cup Excelsior juniors and he has apparently lost none of his effectiveness in senior, sniping 15 goals in two exhibition fixtures against the improved Orillia West Yorks.

Al (Cowboy) Garbett, who caused the Athletics considerable misery when playing with the Peterboro Timbermen in the O. L. A. playoffs last year, has returned to his home town of Brampton and other players of proven senior calibre with the Excels are George Masters of Mimico-Hamilton fame and Chuck Simpson of Mimico. The remainder of the squad will be formed of erstwhile Brampton seniors and members of the junior 1952 champs. Should be real test for both clubs.

The one thing still to be proven is whether lacrosse still has the appeal it formerly held in the Niagara District. Personally we think it has. With the added comfort of the Garden City Arena, the certainty that games will be played, rain or shine, and the undoubted increased speed of games on a hard surface, this should be the year of the great comeback. A crowd of better than 3,500 this evening would prove that all the preliminary organization work of lacrosse lovers here has not been in vain.

ATHLETICS OPEN NEW SEASON, SWAMP EXCELSIORS 22 – 9

THAT OLD SCORING PUNCH

The St. Catharines Standard

Monday May 11, 1953

Displaying a scoring punch that hasn’t been associated with St. Catharines senior lacrosse teams in more than a decade, the Garden City Athletics swamped Brampton Excelsiors 22 – 9 on Saturday night in the opening game of the O. L. A. season.

The game marked two firsts for lacrosse in this city. Never before had a game been played under a roof in this cradle of Canada’s National Pastime and it also marked the debut of Doug Cove as the senior coach. Both events can be written down as genuine successes.

The largest crowd in years (over the 2,000 mark) witnessed the start of lacrosse at the Garden City Arena and the vast majority of that number was full of praise for the new facilities. Despite the unseasonably hot weather outside, the majority of the shirt-sleeved spectators were not uncomfortably warm and Parks Board officials promise that even more work will be done in ensuring fans the utmost of comfort during the summer months.

ATHLETICS SUPERIOR

The game itself could not be described as a pulsating epic or one to go down in the list of outstanding sports events in St. Catharines. However this was not in any way the fault of the Athletics. Fielding a fast-breaking and solidly defensive team, the double blues simply overpowered the Excelsiors in every quarter and it was only their good nature that prevented them running the score well into the thirties.

At time the A’s merely toyed with the visitors, who despite the fact that they played two pre-season exhibition games while the Athletics merely held inter-squad scrimmages, were simply no match for the very, very impressive St. Catharines club. Athletics ran the score to 6 – 3 in the first period, increased that margin to 12 – 5 at the half and 19 – 7 in the third. They then tapered off in the final fifteen minutes and only outscored Brampton by 3 – 2.

McMAHON SCORES SIX

With the exception of Norm Corcoran (who contributed two assists) and goalie Justin Howe (who helped out on one goal) every member of the Athletics shared in the barrage of counters. Number one sniper of the evening was Jim McMahon, one of the few veterans on the team. McMahon scored six goals, assisted on two others for a tremendous eight-point output. His second goal in the first was a masterpiece of timing. Taking a pass from Bill Nelson, McMahon cut in front of the Brampton goal, and then flipped a backhand shot that goalie Dave Dodds merely gaped at as it passed.

Bill Bradshaw was next in line in goal scoring with three counters while Ted Howe, Doug Smith and Max Woolley had two apiece. Chuck Simpson, the transplanted Mimico player, topped the invaders with four goals while slim Nick Ferri had two.

Jack Bionda, the whiz kid of last year’s Brampton junior champions, was a marked man all night. He scored once on a “Bucko McDonald type” shot which clicked in under the cross bar but failed to produce the kind of lacrosse which netted him 15 goals in the two pre-season games against the Orillia West Yorks.

BRIGHT FUTURE

Coach Doug Cove, who is usually “Mr. Pessimistic” personified, had a wide grin following the game. “One decisive victory doesn’t produce a championship, especially this early in the season. However, if the boys continue to give out with the lacrosse they showed tonight, it will take a really good team beat,” stated Cove.

On their showing Saturday, no one would be brave enough to say that Cove is far from the truth.

ROUNDUP…Although he only scored once, Bill Nelson turned in a great two-way game…Late in the third period he simply outfought every Brampton player on the floor, burst in from the side and scored the most sensational goal of the game…Although the score was 18 – 7 at the time, the roar which followed that counter would have done credit to a game-winner in a Mann Cup final.

Big Bill McKenzie, who has prevented several thousand fights by just sitting on the penalty bench at the Haig Bowl, was back at the old stand on Saturday in the Garden City Arena penance pew…He did his usual chore in the third period when Bradkin of Brampton and Ted Howe of the A’s attempted to take each other apart after a spirited fist and stick fight immediately in front of the Athletic bench.

Justin Howe played very well in goal, taking the place of the still recuperating Doug Favell…Howe stopped 22 shots and three times robbed Bionda at point blank range…Dodds in the Brampton goal also saved 22 Athletic drives…Jerry McTaggart of McMaster University made his first start in an Athletic jersey…The huge defenceman is willing but still needs the confidence which goes with playing lacrosse.

Rex Stimers acted as M. C. for the brief opening ceremonies involving Parks Board Chairman Col. E. H. Lancaster, QC, O. L. A. President Art Brown, Alderman Jim Newman and Athletic President Ted Graves…Col. Lancaster’s remarks must have been the shortest on record at such an event…“Let’s get on with the game,” he said and the enthusiastic crowd gave a warm reception to that statement.

The big prize of the night, the all-expense holiday trip for the entire family, was drawn by Athletic executive member Hank Goldup…The winner was Mrs. Edith O’Toole, a regular attendee at lacrosse games for years.

The Collegiate band under Evan McDonald, entertained before the game and at half time…the players were introduced prior to the first whistle and the Athletics lined up to form a “A”…Inverted it looked like a “V”…Could that stand for a Mann Cup Victory?

BRAMPTON EXCELSIORS: goal, Dodds; defence, Simpson, Steele; rover, Bionda; centre, Sibbald; forwards, Ferri, Hilson; alternates, Bray, Foster, Bradkin, Archdekin, Russell.

ST. CATHARINES ATHLETICS: goal, J. Howe; defence, Nelson, Smith; rover, McMahon; centre, J. Bradshaw; forwards, Davies, T. Howe; alternates, Dewar, B. Bradshaw, Woolley, A. Frick, Corcoran, Melville, McTaggart.

REFEREES: Joe Murphy, Mimico; Mickey McDonald, Toronto.

First Quarter:

Second Quarter:

Third Quarter:

Fourth Quarter:

Goal stops: by Dodds (5-9-6-2) 22; by Howe (6-6-2-8) 22

THROUGH THE SPORTS GATE

by Jack Gatecliff

The St. Catharines Standard

Tuesday May 12, 1953

A well-conditioned group of athletes sporting the colours of the St. Catharines Athletics brought back memories of the 1937 – 38 double blues on Saturday night when they romped through the Brampton Excelsiors by a score of 22 – 9. It was just fifteen years ago that the Athletics started out a season of lacrosse that culminated in their winning the first senior boxla championship in the history of this city.

We aren’t trying to say that at the present time the 1953 Athletics are on a par with that great machine headed by Coach Art Brown. However, the material is definitely here in abundance this year and with Doug Cove wielding the big stick and keeping the entire team on its collective toes there is no reason to doubt that the blueshirts will be very, very serious contenders this year.

For once Athletics have a team that, with the exception of the Peterboro Trailermen (that’s their new tag this year), doesn’t need to concede an inch in height or a pound in weight to any other club in the loop. Big boys like Bill Nelson and Jerry McTaggart and solid citizens like Jim McMahon, Ted Howe, Don Moore, Doug Smith, John Dewar, Max Woolley, etc., are predominant this year and the “slim Jims” are few and far between.

The Bradshaw boys, Bill and Jim, were the only members of the Saturday night roster not on the stocky side and they both turned in excellent games. Bill scored three goals and Jim notched the opener in his first game since graduating from junior ranks. Both can take care of themselves in the heavy going.

In a scoring sense, Jim McMahon made a great start in his 12^th season of senior boxla. A half dozen goals is pretty fair sniping at any time and augurs well for another good year by the speedy Jimmy. Everything being considered, it was a fine opening for inside lacrosse in St. Catharines and the 2,000 fans were more than satisfied that the Athletics have something to offer in the way of entertainment for the summer season.

Athletics have a full week to practice before their next test that is also booked for Garden City Arena. Next Saturday the opposition is Fergus Thistles with the St. Catharines boy, Ralph Speck, in goal. Thistles have strengthened this year with the addition of several Owen Sound players and their minor set-up is also finally producing some results in the way of senior calibre performers.

Before Thistles check in on Saturday, Parks Board officials promise two important and necessary changes will be made in the lacrosse facilities. Number one is the loud speaking system…several fans wondered why the words of wisdom from P. A. announcer Pat Smith could be heard crystal clear in the side sections and only a mumble jumble at the ends. The reason is simple. The speakers at each end of the arena had been turned in toward the playing surface for the Kiwanis Motor Show and were still that-a-way. They’ll be turned back well before either wrestling or lacrosse attractions this week.

The other big problem is that well-worn subject…the weather. It is surprising the wide variance in opinion as to the heat at Garden City Arena on Saturday night. Some thought it was uncomfortably warm but the vast majority to whom we spoke had nothing to complain about.

In a sincere attempt to make Garden City Arena a real home for lacrosse in St. Catharines, the St. Catharines Parks Board is doing everything in its power to prevent any criticism that the building is too hot. This week under the direction of Commissioner Ed Moir and Arena Manager Lee Blank, all casement windows in the arena will be removed and screens inserted. With the cooling system turned on and the windows open it is hoped that the air will circulate sufficiently to make even the most warm-blooded fan happy.

An interested spectator in the press box on Saturday night was Stratford Beacon – Herald Sports Editor Chick Appel. The veteran scribe hitched a ride here with Bill Inkol, a St. Catharines boy who is the popular sports announcer on the Stratford radio station. Appel took a busman’s holiday and witnessed his first lacrosse game in several years.

RETURN