Local Lacrosse History
From Frozen Ponds to Beehive Glory
Lacrosse - Our National Game
Source: www.bigredmaple.com
http://bigredmaple.com/history/dc/from-frozen-ponds-to-beehive-glory/lacrosse-our-national-game/lacrosse-our-national-game-1.html
On June 14, 1952, after months of negotiating, Johnny Dunne, manager of Dixie Arena Gardens, officially announced that major league lacrosse would become a regular Saturday night feature at Dixie Arena Gardens.
Dixie executives completed arrangements with the Mimico Lacrosse Club to combine forces with its Intermediate team to field a team that would operate in the Ontario Lacrosse Association (OLA). The team would compete in an eight- team northern division composed of teams from Brooklyn, Orillia, Orangeville, Alliston, Scarborough Maitlands, Bradford and Dixie. The OLA Intermediate southern division consisted of teams representing Dundas, Acton, Burlington, Streetsville, Ohsweken and Simcoe.
The team was formed largely by using players and team personnel from the Mimico Intermediate and Junior groupings. Manager Howard Rock put together the new entry to be known as Dixie-Mimico and Dixie Arena became its home.
One of the sport's best-known coaches, George "Scoop" Hayes, was selected over another outstanding coach of the day (Billy Brunskill) to guide the squad.
The league schedule was set and all that remained was for the historic face off at Dixie. Col. Thomas L. Kennedy once again was given the honour of doing the ceremonial face off. Actually, Col. Tom was a big lacrosse fan and didn't miss a single game at Dixie for the first month.
In front of a modest crowd of more than 400 fans, Dixie-Mimico faced Brooklyn, a team that the previous season had reached the OLA finals. Dixie's Don Meeke scored the first goal at the 38-second mark of the opening stanza. Dixie fans suddenly realized they had a team to cheer. By the end of the first quarter, Dixie was up 5-1. The new team went on to win over Brooklyn 21-9.
The fans were treated to lacrosse being played by several of the boys who, a year earlier, had copped the Dominion Junior title. Players included the likes of Jim McIntyre, Ross Kelly, Don Haye, Norm Newman, Don Meeke, Bill McLean, Fred Ladley, Frazer Rock and goalies Jack Mitchell, Bob Streeter and Herb Lowe. Later in the season, some top Mimico players would join the team for the playoffs. They were Len Cook, Ray Mortimore, Vince Paddy and Pat DePiffo.
The Dixie-Mimico team had no trouble attracting players. Many years later, Herb Lowe would say in an interview that there would have been more than 50 players on the teams roster that season. "I don't think we had the same team twice all year. It was a nightmare for the people scheduling the players," he said.
But, by mid season, the crowds dropped off despite Dixie having a stronghold on second place in the league standings. It was a foregone conclusion that they would be in the playoffs in their inaugural season. It was at about this time that the team suffered its first setback in a game against the Orillia Terriers with a stinging 16-6 loss.
Dixie Arena management, concerned about the drop in attendance, decided to open the playing floor up to all youngsters on hand for the games one hour before game time. They also sold lacrosse sticks at cost. It worked and soon people started to arrive early and would enjoy their own playing time on the floor before each game.
By mid-August, crowds were increasing and, when Dixie hosted their arch rivals, Orillia, it produced the largest paid gate to-date. The press reported it was also the finest game ever seen to that point, ending in a 10-10 tie.
Playoffs proved to be a dramatic affair against the Orillia Terriers. The Orillia squad opened the best of five series on home turf with a pair of victories by taking the first game 18-7 and the second 24-16. All that remained was for Orillia to sweep the series by winning one at Dixie.
But it wasn't to be that easy. Orillia and Dixie put on a show in game three that the press said would go into the record books as the game that topped all games. With all the action possible to jam into one lacrosse game wit hcuts and bruises. Bodies being strewn all over the place was the order of the night as both clubs asked and gave no quarter. There must have been a gallon of blood on the floor that night, reported the Port Credit Weekly.
The game ended in a 16-16 tie. The two teams actually tied it up nine times before the buzzer ended regulation time. The overtime was set up with five minutes for each end. Orillia opened the scoring with six goals and it looked as if it was all over for Dixie. However, municipal curfew regulations brought the action to a halt at 11:45 p.m. The Orillia Packet and Times newspaper reported that Dixie employed every trick in the book to delay the game as the curfew approached and the game was actually called with Orillia leading 21-16 with two minutes remaining in the game.
The game results were sent to the OLA for a ruling. It was declared "No Contest. The next game wasn'tt as dramatic as the previous encounter, but this time Dixie edged their rivals 22-18 and forced another do-or-die contest in the best of five series. But once again, it wasn't to be. When Dixie-Mimico travelled to Orillia for the final game, Orillia defeated the spunky Dixie-Mimico club 22-12 to win the series. The Orillia newspaper boasted that their local teams had won Ontario titles in four divisions during that season.
Four years after the Dixie-Mimico Lacrosse Intermediate team left Dixie Arena, lacrosse nets were pulled out of storage. On Monday, May 7, 1956, a practice and meeting was held for players and potential mangers, coaches and helpers for the newly established Toronto Township Lacrosse Association. Plans were to enter pee- wee, bantam and midget teams into the Ontario Minor Lacrosse League's Lakeshore Lacrosse Association. The teams in the league were Alderwood, Long Branch, Mimico and Brampton. These were all well-established teams.
Reports in the media announced that the Township would be supplying goal equipment and insurance and that the Provincial Government would also be providing some equipment. The organizing committee for the new Toronto Township Lacrosse League consisted of Bill Hare, Township Director of Recreation, and community members Larry Loftus, Les Barton, Gord Nair, Earl Hiltz, Cliff Kelly, Jim MacDonald, Brian Saville and Art Townley. The season opened in June.
House league games continued and interest grew in the sport. By 1959, the arena became the site of its first officially sanctioned OLA major Novice Lacrosse Tournament, which was hosted by the Toronto Township Lacrosse Association (TTLA). The association was in its third year of operation by that time and had established more than 15 teams in the township.
Two years earlier, however, on May 16, 1957, there was an attempt to start a Junior "B" team when the Lakeshore Lacrosse League announced plans to form a 20-man team to play an interlocking schedule. Nothing came of that attempt.
Dixie Lacrosse fans received major news with the announcement that Dixie Arena was selected to be the site of two games in the 1957 Minto Cup series between the Brampton Excelsiors and the British Columbia Victoria Shamrocks. The Brampton host had earlier booked its arena for other purposes on the two play-off dates and couldn't support a complete playoff schedule.
The Port Credit Weekly carried a small front-page news item announcing that on September 12th and 14th, 1957, there would be two games played at Dixie Arena in the Canadian Junior Lacrosse Association Finals for the Minto Cup. The Brampton Excelsiors had won the Eastern Canadian finals. The newspaper, for whatever reason, however, didn't cover either of the two games held at Dixie. Could it be that the game didn't feature local teams? The Brampton Excelsiors won both encounters at Dixie with 14-9 and 16-7 scores respectively. The Excelsiors went on to win the best of seven series by four games to two.
The Brampton team consisted of Wayne Thompson, John Ford, Bert Naylor, Bruce Wanless, Gord Thompson, Bob Pulford, Jim McClure, Jack Madgett, Kenny Richardson, Larry Kendall, and George Grasby. Three Peterborough Pete's players, Larry Ferguson, Dan Quinlan and Roy Wood were on loan to Brampton for the playoffs. Ferguson and Quinlan finished regular season play in second and third spots respectively in the top 10 scoring race.
Bob Pulford was one of the standout players during regular season. He was lost to the squad during the playoffs because he had to report to the NHL Toronto Maple Leaf training camp.
Jim McClure, whose nickname was "Punchy", finished off his lacrosse duties with the Brampton Excelsiors and immediately collected his hockey gear and headed south to Dixie were he reported for the 1957-58 Dixie Beehive Junior "B" training camp. McClure made the team, which went on to win its first ever All Ontario Championship, the Captain James T. Southerland Cup. McClure was said to be a better lacrosse player than a hockey player. According to his brother-in-law, fellow Beehive teammate Trevor Kaye, ""Jim was one tough son of a gun on the lacrosse floor. He had great quickness and was just so aggressive that folks thought twice about getting near the Brampton goal when he was on the floor. And he was fearless," said Trevor. Sadly, Jim "Punchy" McClure passed away suddenly in May 2001.
Brampton had won its first Minto Cup five years earlier in a series held in British Columbia. Brampton became a powerhouse in the Junior ranks in the 1950's. The Flower Town team followed up on its 1957 victory and defeated the Shamrocks again in 1958 by winning four straight games. In 1959 Brampton downed the British Columbia Salmonbellies four games to two.
Major lacrosse returned to Dixie on May 27, 1959 when it was announced that the Dixie Arena management and the Long Branch Lacrosse Association negotiated a deal to form a Senior team and play 12 home and 12 away games in a four-team loop consisting of Dixie, Welland, Brampton and Peterborough. This time the Dixie team would be known as the Long Branch-Dixie Combines. The Long Branch Combines were an established club that had played in Long Branch for the previous four years.
Lou Vipond, a well-known referee, was named to his first ever coaching position with the new team. Turk Davis was the manager, while Alex Ray was appointed the team's trainer.
The team opened its play as the Long Branch-Dixie Combines but quickly became sponsored by the Lakeshore-based Wakefield (Castrol) Oil Company and the name was changed to Long Branch-Dixie Castrols.
Players for the Long Branch-Dixie Castrols included popular goalie Dave "Porky" Russell, Florrie Tomchyshyn, and brother Joe Tomchishen (the brothers spelt their surnames differently), George Kapasky, Bruce Spears, Chub Brown, Morley Kells, Jake Rawson, Larry Ruse, Bob Hanna, Chuck Ludlow, Paul Henderson, Leo Teatero, Ray Shipway, Peter Ruse, and Bill Davenport and rookie Brian Aherne. Both Morley Kells and Florrie Tomchyshyn were popular in the Dixie community. They had previously played hockey for the Dixie Beehive Junior "B" team.
Morley Kells was well known in Dixie and coach Lou Vipond made it known he wanted Morley on the newly established Long Branch-Dixie team.
The Long Branch-Dixie Castrols had a difficult season and could only manage to finish third in the four-team loop. They were defeated in the playoffs by four games to one against Peterborough.
The powers-to-be decided that for 1960 they would leave Dixie and establish a new home at the recently opened Port Credit Arena. The Castrol sponsorship was then assigned to the Long Branch Junior squad and the seniors became known as the Port Credit Sailors. Under the guidance of a new coach, Elmer Lee, the Sailors went on to win the Mann Cup in Port Credit Arena when they defeated the British Columbia Nanaimo Labatts by four games to one. The Port Credit Sailors became the only area team (in what is now Mississauga) ever to have won Canada's most prestigious lacrosse title. The team consisted of Captain George Kapasky, Larry Ruse, Brian Aherne, Bill Allan, Florian Tomchishen, Ken Crawford, Leo Teatero, Porkie Russell, Wayne and George Thompson, Bruce Wanless, Ron Roy and Metro Toronto police office Lon Nickle. It was Nickle's job to "police" legendary B.C. player Jack Bionda in the series. He certainly did his job well holding the super star (70 regular season goals, 48 assists and 118 points) to just one marker in their first encounter. The Sailors won the first three games with scores of 10-9, 12-11, and 17-13. However, they suffered an 11-4 loss in game four. The fifth match-up produced a 9-7 win for the Port Credit squad.
Junior lacrosse returned to Dixie in 1962 for a brief period when the Mimico Mountaineers used the arena as its home turf while their Drummond Street Bowl was under renovations.
In 1965, the PCO Juvenile lacrosse team moved up into the Junior ranking. While they played home games out of Port Credit Arena, the PCO team opened their season by playing one exhibition game at Dixie Arena. They met the powerful Oshawa Green Gaels on May 19, 1965 at Dixie but lost by an 11-6 count. The PCO team made it to the first round playoffs against the Mimico Mountaineers that year. One of their standout players was a Dixie Beehive hockey player and future NHL star, Barry Salovaara.
In 1967 the Dixie Beehive Junior "B" Lacrosse team was formed. It played in a league against Elora, East York, Kitchener, Huntsville, Brooklyn, Rexdale and Mimico. The Beehives made it through to the finals but lost four straight to Elora. The Dixie Beehive Junior "B" Lacrosse team, however, never played at Dixie Arena, but rather used Port Credit as its home base.
Major lacrosse never returned to Dixie but flourished elsewhere in Mississauga and produced several standout players.
