History of the A's
Sizing Up The Innovative Adanacs
ATHLETICS
AND ADANACS OPEN MANN CUP SERIES TONIGHT
COAST
CHAMPS
TOUTED
AS
BEST
TEAM
WEST
EVER
HAD
BLOCK
PLAYS
SAID
TO
BE
THEIR
FEATURE
GARDEN
CITY
FANS
STAND
LOYALLY
BEHIND
SAINTS
TO
WIN
OPENER
The
St. Catharines Standard
Friday
October 7, 1938
Take
the word of the New Westminster Adanacs and some high-powered press
agenting, and the Mann Cup is destined to remain in the golden west again.
Which is something for St. Catharines lacrosse officials, Coach Art Brown
and his Garden City Athletics to ponder over. With the first conflict of
the famous Mann Cup finals coming up tonight at Maple Leaf Gardens in
Toronto.
Adanacs
are either as starry as they are touted, or the publicists are planning to
pack Leaf Gardens with wide-eyed patrons of lacrosse, who will gaze in
amazement at the “boxla-styled by Adanacs”, as the Pacific Coast
champions are advertised. Coach Jimmy Gifford has perfected a system of
all his own, one that paid grand dividends in their finals out west with
New Westminster Fishermen. He has taken the finer points of box lacrosse
and welded them with block, or interference, plays of basketball. With the
result that Adanacs have that down to a point of finesse where they are
said to be the greatest scoring threats ever seen on a senior lacrosse
squad that ever came out of the west.
“Razzle-Dazzle”
Plays
All
the east knows of these tactics are what the west cares to tell. Other
clubs on the coast tell plenty, but St. Catharines and Ontario has to wait
until tonight to get their first inkling of what is supposed to
revolutionize box lacrosse. Combined with a defence style that is reported
to be the last word, is the fastest and most dynamic passing attack
imaginable. It is during that race up the cushion that the insidious
interference plays come into being, that puts an uncovered man right on
top of the rival goalie. It is said to be a combination of the
“razzle-dazzle” plays of the North Shore Indians, mingled with Yankee
basketball block plays that is supposed to fender the opposition helpless.
Needless to say, it is all very confusing to the east and Athletics but
they refuse to be shaken from their idea that lacrosse is played just as
well in the east as out at the coast. Tonight will tell fandom a whole
lot.
After
Four Years
Adanacs
are the result of four years of intensive building. They started with one
object in view…to beat out their inter-city rivals, New Westminster
Fishermen. They did that trick in three straight and Adanac boosters point
out that Bob Phalen is said to have raced Ed Downey right into the soil
during those three title games. When that is done, Adanacs must have
something. Phalen will likely be sent out to tag Billy Wilson of
Athletics, and that will be worth watching.
Youth
And Speed
Adanacs
base and bank everything on their youth and speed. Averaging under 21 ˝
years, they are the youngest squad ever to win the Pacific coast title,
also the least experienced in playoff warfare. So Gifford has built
basketball into lacrosse and it is that glowing spectacle that the east
awaits with highest anticipation. Pyper, sub-goalie and Mathison, at 25
and 24, are the veterans of the western champions, yet Carter at 18 is
said to be nothing short of a marvel of coolness and smoothness under
fire. Carter is rated the fastest checker of the west and so swift as to
hold his man and yet get into his own team plays.
Bob
“Steamboat” Lee, who came east last year with Vancouver Bluebird
juniors, is the defence star of the Adanacs and picked up five goals
against Medicine Hat in the final game out west. St. Catharines fandom
wonders if Lee is any better than Capt. Gus Madsen, who is rated the best
two-way defenceman in the O. L. A. Adanacs have a player nicknamed
“Punk”, the same as the A’s. He is Kennedy, a winger, the same as
Saints ace sniper, Roy “Punk” Morton.
Goalies
Are Rated
Eddie
Johnston captured the lowest scoring goal honors in the coast league. Our
own Bill Whittaker captured the banner in the O. L. A. Hence many eyes will
watch for net efforts with feverish anxiety as the rival A’s tee-off
tonight in Leaf Gardens, and it will be a loyal Garden City throng of fans
who line up behind the bench of the double-blues and cheer their every
move toward a hoped-for victory in the opener. It is no secret that first
blood is going to be a potent factor in the Mann Cup finals and unless
Coach Art Brown has suffered a quick change of mind, he will send his
Saints out to snare that opener.
Highway
Parade
All
busses and private cars available have been pressed into service by St.
Catharines and adjacent fandom for the Mann Cup starter tonight. Athletics
will leave this afternoon at 5:30 for Toronto where Adanacs worked out
yesterday. It is expected that between 1,000 and 1,500 loyal backers of
the A’s will be in the Gardens tonight when Max Peart and Clarence Huff
face off the ball at 8:30. St. Catharines fans scarcely know what to make
of the ballyhoo from the west on Adanacs, but they really want to see the
squad of lacrosse warriors that can and will take the Ontario champions
into camp in three straight, as is confidently expected by the west. It
will be a real battle that an hour of play will decide. The big problem is
who will fortune favour?
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