The Minto Cup: Before the Juniors

Postcard of the Minto Cup, ca. 1909

Donated on March 16, 1901 by the Governor-General of Canada, Sir Gilbert John Murray Kynynmond Elliot, 4th Earl of Minto, the Minto Cup was awarded to the senior amateur lacrosse champions of Canada. Lord and Lady Minto enjoyed such outdoor recreation and activities as ice skating and bicycling during their stay in Canada – and, apparently, in the summer months, Lord Minto also liked to play lacrosse.

Originally restricted to amateurs, within three years the first under-the-table professional teams were already competing for it. After 1904, with efforts to keep the professionals out of competition proving to be futile, it was made open to all challengers.

The Ottawa Capitals were handed the cup in 1901 as its first holders on account of being champions of the National Lacrosse Union the previous season. The first Minto Cup championship game was played on September 29, 1901 between Ottawa Capitals and Cornwall Colts. Won by Ottawa 3 goals to 2, the future King George V and Queen Mary were both in attendance as spectators – and after the match, he was presented with a lacrosse stick and the game ball.

Montréal Shamrocks won the league play for the National Lacrosse Union in 1901 and took over possession of the silver trophy. Later that year, the Shamrocks defeated Vancouver YMCA 5-0 in the first challenge from the Pacific Coast.

The Shamrocks became the first Minto Cup dynasty team as they managed to retain their hold over the trophy for six of the next seven seasons between 1901 and 1907 through a combination of winning league play in the National Lacrosse Union and fending off challenge attempts from outsiders.

In 1902, the Shamrocks defeated New Westminster in a two-game, total-goals series by an aggregate of 11-3. Montréal then repeated in 1903, 1904, and 1905 as league champions – but did not face another challenge from outside the National Lacrosse Union until they defeated the St. Catharines Athletics, champions of the Canadian Lacrosse Association, 13-4 in a two-game, total-goals series in 1905.

Stereoscope image of the future King George V attending the first Minto Cup game played on September 29, 1901.

Next up was a challenge from Manitoba when a team from the small prairie town of Souris, located 23 kilometres southwest of Brandon, made a play for the cup, losing 10-2 in the first game and then throwing in the towel when the second game was subsequently cancelled.

Ottawa Capitals regained the cup in 1906. After the National Lacrosse Union finished in a four-way tie between Toronto Tecumsehs, Toronto Lacrosse Club, Ottawa Capitals, and Cornwall Colts each with 7 wins to their credit, a tiebreaker playoff series was required. The Tecumsehs defeated their crosstown Toronto rivals 12-7 in aggregate score while the Capitals defeated the Colts 8-2 in their two-game, total goals series. Ottawa then met the Toronto Tecumsehs in the two-game final and took the silverware on the heels of their lopsided 14-3 aggregate result in the two-game final.

Going against usual form, the Montréal Shamrocks collapsed in 1906 when they finished in last place. Goaltending was abysmal and the team suffered through many close losses, losing six games by a total of just eight goals. However the Irish would bounce back in 1907 and win the National Lacrosse Union with 10 wins from 12 games played for their sixth and ultimately final Minto Cup championship.

Tom Gifford standing on top of the world with the Minto Cup as the Salmonbellies reign supreme, ca. 1909

1908 was a pivotal year in the history of the Minto Cup when the New Westminster Salmonbellies defeated the Montréal Shamrocks 12 to 7 in their two-game, total-goals series. The first game of the series was a close 6-5 result before the Salmonbellies responded with a commanding 6-2 win in the rematch to clinch the silverware.

With the benefit of hindsight, the 1908 New Westminster-Montréal series signaled a changing of the guard and is probably the most historically significant event in the cup’s history until the juniors took over control of the mug. It saw the game’s first dynasty coming to an end with a brand-new one at the opposite end of the country ready to take its place. The victory for the Royal City was notable for two other important reasons: the New Westminster Salmonbellies were the last bonafide amateur team to challenge and win the professional trophy as well as the first club from the Pacific Coast to pry the silver mug from the hands of the Easterners.

The trophy then traveled out west on the Canadian Pacific Railroad with the Salmonbellies players and management – where it would remain entrenched on the Pacific Coast for the next 30 years. In the autumn of that year, New Westminster defended its new championship by winning all three games in a three-game, total-goals series 24-16 against the visiting Ottawa Capitals.

In defeating the professionals of the East, the amateur status of the Salmonbellies was now permanently tainted and revoked, like some irreversible mark of Cain staining both the team and its players forever. Because of this amateur vs. pro status conflict, a very serious and contentious issue in early twentieth-century athletics, the win by New Westminster also helped lay the groundwork for the start of professional lacrosse in British Columbia in 1909 when the British Columbia Amateur Lacrosse Association dropped the “Amateur” from its name and transformed into a professional organisation – albeit a league consisting of just two teams.

The actual game-ball from the 1908 Minto Cup series between New Westminster Salmonbellies and the Montréal Shamrocks.

Once the professionals had firmly secured their control over the Minto Cup, a new gold trophy called the Mann Cup was then donated in 1910 as a replacement trophy for the senior amateurs to battle over. Until the death of the professional game, the Minto Cup was regarded as the more senior and prestigious trophy – with the Mann Cup taking over that position and honour in the mid-1920s.

Saskatchewan then made a run for the Minto Cup when the Regina Capitals splashed the cash and loaded up heavy on some serious Eastern talent in their bid for the cup. However even with such legends of the game as Alban ‘Bun’ Clark, Johnny Howard, Édouard ‘Newsy’ Lalonde, Art Warwick, Harry ‘Sport’ Murton, Angus ‘Bones’ Allen, and Tommy Gorman on their roster, the Capitals were still no match for the Salmonbellies. Regina lost the first game 6-4 before getting trounced 12-2 in the second game of the series.

While the challenge may not have hit paydirt for the Regina Capitals, it did pay off well for some of their players’ wallets as Clark, Howard, Lalonde, and Allen were then picked up by Con Jones for his Vancouver Lacrosse Club. Eventually Clark and Howard would move on and join up with the rival Salmonbellies, but all four of these household names would nevertheless become fixtures in the Coast game.

New Westminster Salmonbellies would face three more challenges from Ontario during the next two years, taking down the Toronto Tecumsehs, Montréal Amateur Athletic Association, and Montréal Nationals all in succession without conceding a single loss in the six matches played. Neither of the Montréal teams offered much of a challenge but Toronto Tecumsehs kept the Salmonbellies honest by playing to within 4 goals of taking home the silver mug. This period saw the height of New Westminster dominance on the field, and in a poll of Canadian sports writers carried out in 1951, they voted the 1909 and 1910 New Westminster Salmonbellies team the second greatest team in history. The Montréal Shamrocks who preceded them took the top-spot honours as the greatest team.

The Minto Cup as it appeared in the Victoria Daily Colonist in July 1913.

When New Westminster finally did lose the cup, it was to their rivals in Vancouver in 1911. In the greatest season ever seen on the Pacific Coast, New Westminster and Vancouver finished tied in league play with 5 wins apiece. A two-game, total-goals playoff series was then required to break the tie and determine who claimed the Minto Cup. It was finally Vancouver’s year to be crowned Minto Cup champions as they downed the Salmonbellies 4-3 and then 6-2 to lay their hands on the cherished trophy for the first time. Vancouver Lacrosse Club then successfully defeated another challenge attempt by the Toronto Tecumsehs, winning their first game 5-0 but dropping the second match 3-2 to the ‘Indians’.

New Westminster regained the Minto Cup in 1912 after defeating the Vancouver Lacrosse Club in league play. Later that same season, in what would prove to be the last East-West series for the Minto Cup until the junior game, New Westminster Salmonbellies defeated Cornwall Colts handily in their two-game, total-goals series by an aggregate score of 31-13. It was the last national series played by the professionals and it would be another quarter-century before Ontario would compete for the trophy again.

The last challenge series came the following year when the New Westminster Salmonbellies faced the Mann Cup champions, the Vancouver Athletic Club, in a two-game, total-goals series for the trophy. The Athletics had won the Mann Cup back in 1911 and now wanted a new challenge by making the jump to the professional game. It would be the only time in Canadian lacrosse history when the Mann Cup champions faced the Minto Cup champions head-to-head – with the silverware, in this instance, on the line. Despite being the national senior champions, the Athletics were no match for the seasoned professionals and lost their first game 9-1. The second leg saw a closer result but still not enough for Vancouver to dig themselves out of the hole. New Westminster retained the cup when they took the series 14 goals to 4.

From this point onwards, competition for the Minto Cup remained entrenched in British Columbia between New Westminster Salmonbellies and the Vancouver professional teams.

The First World War put a temporary hold over lacrosse in British Columbia for the duration of the war, as playing sports was viewed by many to be unpatriotic when one’s activities were better served focused on the war effort. By the time the professional game was revived in British Columbia, it was on its last, dying legs in Ontario. The teams there had neither the will nor the means to challenge for the Minto Cup.

Salmonbellies and the Minto Cup, September 1921

In 1918 there was controversy surrounding the awarding of the cup. The Mainland Lacrosse Association had been formed that year with New Westminster and Vancouver as a pro league replacement to the then-inactive British Columbia Lacrosse Association. However a year later at the BCLA Annual Meetings held on May 8 and 15, 1919, the Minto Cup Trustees and British Columbia Lacrosse Association refused to recognise the results of the Mainland Lacrosse Association series as being official. Vancouver had won the eight-game series but would not be awarded the Minto Cup.

Vancouver claimed that they were in perfect order to organise a new league in lieu of the BCLA, which had suspended operations for the duration of World War One. New Westminster disagreed and claimed surreptitiously, somewhat well after the fact, that their club did not actually operate in 1918 despite the obvious. Out of disgust with the situation with New Westminster, Con Jones walked away from the pro game and turned his attention to supporting the amateurs. This was not the first time Jones had disagreements with the Salmonbellies and vice versa – and it wouldn’t be the last time either.

The professional game died in Eastern Canada on July 3, 1920; its demise in the East coming as no surprise for most observers of the game. For the remainder of the Minto Cup’s days as a professional trophy, league play in the British Columbia Lacrosse Association would determine the national champion. New Westminster Salmonbellies would dominate with five cup titles between 1919 and 1924 – with the Vancouver Terminals taking the trophy in 1920 in what was somewhat of an upset series, winning the three-game playoff series which was played even though New Westminster had won league play that year.

The last bastion of the professionals finally gave way when the game died more suddenly on the Pacific Coast, on June 2, 1924, when Con Jones once again walked away from the game, due to health issues.

This time, however, his departure was final – and the Minto Cup then went into cold storage as there were now no teams remaining in Canada, apart from the New Westminster professionals, who could now challenge and compete for it.

Or, rather, there were no amateur players nor amateur teams willing to issue a challenge for the trophy and be subsequently branded as professionals for the rest of their lives with no future opposition to play against. Any challenge made at this point would have been a one-way departure ticket from playing any further lacrosse, and other amateur sports that players were also involved in.

Charles A. ‘Charlie’ Welsh in 1911. He was the last trustee of the Minto Cup before it came into the possession of the Canadian Lacrosse Association in 1938.

In 1929, there was some talk of offering it up for international competition. Cup trustee Charles A. ‘Charlie’ Welsh made an offer to the Canadian Lacrosse Association to turn the trophy over to them so it could be placed back into competition – this time as the world championship trophy. The plan never came to fruition, and instead the Lally Trophy would be inaugurated in 1931 for the amateur world champions, in the hopes the new trophy could somehow spark interest in the international game.

Finally, after twelve years of inactivity, the Canadian Lacrosse Association decided to revive competition for the Minto Cup – this time to be awarded to the national junior champions of Canada, starting in 1937. However, before the juniors were able to get their hands on the silver mug, one last chapter of drama was still left to play out: the trophy went missing when Charlie Welsh, the last remaining cup trustee, passed away suddenly on February 25, 1938.

While the Canadian Lacrosse Association had decreed the trophy for the national junior champion of Canada, at the time they actually did not have the legal authority to award the cup.

That was Charlie Welsh’s job as cup trustee, but he died before he would be able to officially rule that the Mimico Mountaineers were entitled to the silver mug when they won the series in 1938. Orillia Terriers had won the national championship the year before but had never actually been presented the cup except in name only. In December 1937, the Terriers received medals from the Canadian Lacrosse Association for their OLA junior championship, as the trophy was still residing out west in New Westminster with Welsh. Delivery of the Minto Cup had been promised for Orillia’s opening game of the 1938 season, but that never happened due to Welsh’s death.

The original Minto Cup trophy on display at the Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame induction dinner in 2012.

Welsh’s successor, his wife, would have had the power to turn the cup over to the Canadian Lacrosse Association – if she hadn’t passed away herself just an hour after her husband. So a letter was drafted up and mailed off to Lord Minto in Scotland, the son of the original Lord Minto who had donated the cup, to ask him if he would deed the trophy over to the authority of the Canadian Lacrosse Association.

While the legal aspects were sorted out, another, more critical problem cropped up: where exactly was the cup? Charlie Welsh had never bothered to tell anyone where he had stored it. After a search lasting seven months it was eventually found, hidden away under a desk in his harbour commission office in the first week of October 1938.

However the legalities surrounding the grand old silver would not be settled until August 10, 1939. During an informal dinner held by the Canadian Lacrosse Association, the trophy deed was finally handed over in person by T.R. Selkirk, the estate administrator for Charlie Welsh, to J.A. McConaghy, president of the Canadian Lacrosse Association.

In August 1940, the cup was sent to Montréal for restoration work at a jewelry firm as the 39-year-old trophy began its new-found, second-wind with the junior game.

(PHOTO SOURCE: CLHFP006.60.1; stereoscope image courtesy of Todd Tobias collection;  New Westminster Columbian 1921 and 1909; X979.115.1 author’s photo; CVA #99-41; photo by author)

Fred ‘Mickey’ Ion

‘Mickey’ Ion, 1912

FREDERICK JAMES ‘MICKEY’ ION
(February 25, 1886 – October 26, 1964)
Toronto Tecumsehs (1909-1910)
Vancouver Lacrosse Club (1911-1913; 1915)
New Westminster Salmonbellies (1914)
Vancouver Terminals (1919)

Fred Ion, better known in sporting circles as ‘Mickey’ Ion, was born in Paris, Ontario and grew up playing lacrosse in Brantford.

He made his debut as a teenager with the Wellingtons in the local city league in 1904. He played the following year with a local ‘Shamrocks’ team, then spent a couple seasons with the Brantford senior team. While his playing whereabouts are unknown in 1908, he turned pro and signed with the Toronto Tecumsehs in 1909 and was described as a hard man for midfielders to get away from.

Ion gained national notoriety for his “brutal and unprovoked attack” on George Kalls during an all-Toronto meeting on August 2, 1909. Described by one reporter as a “bloody battle” and a “butcher’s barbeque”, Ion had already served 5 penalties (total of 15 minutes) on the sidelines as both he, and the match, devolved into a foul mood. He then incurred the ire of Referee Joe Lally when he re-entered the game before serving all his time, and was sent off again with another 10 minutes added to his name.

Kalls made a shot on goal which, probably accidental in nature and not deliberate, deflected off Ion’s head – but Kalls nevertheless laughed at the unfortunate defender as he rubbed his sore head. Now fully riled up, Ion wanted pay-back – and while Kalls was down tying his shoe, Ion rushed at him and kicked him square in the jaw.

Judge of Play McIntyre, with assistance from some players, ushered Ion off the field, all the while deliberately and slowly giving ‘Mickey’ a piece of his mind – that it was “the dirtiest thing I ever saw on a lacrosse field”. Unrepentant, Ion sulked back at the referee: “Now you go on, you’ve said enough!” For his own safety, Ion was escorted to the clubhouse to keep him away from spectators calling for his arrest, while the dazed Kalls required assistance from his teammates to get off the field.

In total, Ion clocked up 35 minutes in penalties (plus unrecorded ejection time) in a game that saw an incredible three-hours and thirty-five minutes of infractions dealt out between both teams. The situation on the sidelines became so bad that the penalty timekeeper got fed up and disgusted arguing with team officials, that he simply quit while the game still raged on.

Ion was charged with aggravated assault and appeared in court after Toronto manager Charles Querrie posted $200 bail. He was found guilty by a jury the following month and sentenced to ten days in jail on November 1, 1909. Expecting a fine, a surprised ‘Mickey’ Ion simply smiled it off as he was taken away.

Despite the controversy and a ban for the remainder of the season, he returned to the Toronto Tecumsehs the following season when Manager Querrie spoke for his good conduct.

‘Mickey’ Ion, 1913

Harry Griffiths met with Ion at his Brantford home in March 1911 in a pitch to go west and sign with the Vancouver Lacrosse Club. After initially turning down the offer, “the difficult man to handle” changed his mind the following month and signed with Vancouver.

He would have further run-ins with the police after fighting Pat Feeney in a 1912 game versus New Westminster, and he led the BCLA league in penalties and minutes in 1912, the only player to record more than 100 minutes (136) sent off.

When the Vancouver Lacrosse Club folded, Ion then signed with New Westminster Salmonbellies when they faced the Vancouver Athletic Club in the 1914 season. He returned to Vancouver the following year when Con Jones reformed his Vancouver Lacrosse Club.

A defensive-end midfielder he scored just 2 goals during his 52 games played on the Pacific Coast – both occurring during the month of July 1911. As time progressed, his positioning slowly shifted more and more towards the rear and he began to slot in some times on the defense. During the course of his six seasons of play in British Columbia, he accrued 41 penalties and 305 penalties minutes – which rank him 8th overall and 6th overall respectively for career numbers.

‘Mickey’ Ion’s referee career in professional ice hockey is well-documented elsewhere and will only be briefly detailed here: He began refereeing in the Pacific Coast Hockey Association in the 1912-13 season after league mogul Frank Patrick selected him to referee in his league because he felt Ion looked the part of someone who could manage games. When the PCHA folded in 1926, Ion moved east to work in the National Hockey League. His last, active on-ice game was in Montréal in 1937 when he refereed the Howie Morenz memorial game held at the Forum. He then become referee-in-chief for the NHL until his retirement.

In 1942, ‘Mickey’ Ion retired to Seattle, Washington where his wife had grown up. Suffering from diabetes in his later years, he contracted phlebitis in 1957 and doctors amputated his left leg. Three years later, he lost his other leg to the same condition and ended up in a wheelchair confined to the Redmond Nursing Home in suburban Seattle.

One of the most-highly rated referees in hockey, ‘Mickey’ Ion was inducted into the National Hockey League’s hockey hall of fame in 1961 for his accomplishments and performance as a referee. He was deeply humbled by the act and said it was the happiest day of his life. Incredibly enough, he never played any hockey – as lacrosse and baseball were where his personal athletic talents lay.

Frederick Ion passed away three years later; his wife Minni Nordhoff had predeceased him by five years. He was survived by two brothers Thomas and Austin and a sister Emma (Gillen) as ‘Mickey’s passing was reported in the sports pages all across Canada and even into the United States.

(PHOTO SOURCES: CVA 99-43 excerpt; CVA 99-35 excerpt)

Jack Gifford

Jack Gifford in 1921

JOHN ‘JACK’ JARDINE GIFFORD
(November 25, 1893 – August 5, 1974)
New Westminster Salmonbellies (1914-1915; 1919-1923)

Jack Gifford was the youngest of the five lacrosse-playing Gifford brothers (Bill, Tom, Jim, Hugh, and himself) who plied the family name for the New Westminster Salmonbellies in the first two decades of the 20th Century.

His earliest association with the Salmonbellies name came in 1908 when he appeared in the team photograph as the club mascot. He played junior lacrosse in 1909 in the local city league and by 1911 had progressed into the senior ranks. By the time of his final amateur campaign in 1913, he was considered the backbone of the New Westminster senior team and an inevitable signing for the professional squad.

He made a successful transition into the professional game when he made his debut with the New Westminster Salmonbellies in 1914 – filling positions vacated by Cliff Spring and Len Turnbull, who had gone east to play in Toronto. Gifford originally had committed himself to play senior ball but a couple weeks later and the Salmonbellies weakened from signing raids by Eastern teams, he changed his mind. He was expected to replace ‘Doughy’ Spring on the midfield attack but ended up moving into Turnbull’s outside home spot on the enemy crease. It took him a few weeks to find his place and form but he showed notable improvement as the season progressed.

There was talk of him suiting up for a proposed Victoria team in 1915 when it seemed unsure whether New Westminster would field a team, and Con Jones was trying to create some competition for his Vancouver Lacrosse Club. However a few days later the Salmonbellies managed to muster up enough bodies and interest and Victoria was then quietly dropped.

The years of the Great War raging at that time then saw him absent from lacrosse for around three to four years, as he left to go overseas on July 18, 1915. A machinist by trade, Gifford was accepted for war duty in England as a mechanic. Despite his talent, on his departure one Vancouver newspaper criticised his play and attitude, when compared to his older brothers, as being “indifferent”, and he was probably eager to find himself lured away from the playing field. Indifferent or not, his departure created a difficult hole to fill in the Salmonbellies line-up.

Jack Gifford returned home and resumed playing lacrosse in 1919. His best efforts occurred the following season when he led his team – and the league – for goals with 25 scored. He then took on more of a substitute role during the latter half of the 1921 season, while the following year saw him split time both on the attack and deep defense, which explains his lowly 3 goals that season. He returned full time to the attack line in 1923, his final playing season. Construction employment called him to Newfoundland in 1924, and he thus missed out the final dying gasps of professional lacrosse when it suddenly ground to a halt in June 1924.

Jack Gifford played in 90 games over seven seasons, scoring 79 goals and a lone assist – numbers which rank him seventh overall for career scoring during the professional era as well as seventh for penalties (44) and tenth for penalty minutes (228) spent in the sin bin.

Apart from suiting up in the second benefit game held for former Salmonbellies teammate, now ailing invalid Irving ‘Punk’ Wintemute on August 17, 1933, Jack Gifford never returned to active playing once his professional days were over.

With his brother Jim Gifford managing the show, Jack Gifford became the head coach for the defending Mann Cup champions New Westminster Adanacs in 1940. He replaced his older brother, who had threatened to quit the team due to work and family reasons. Around a year later, Jack himself quit the Adanacs on the day prior to the annual organisational meeting when all of the Gifford clan associated with the New Westminster Adanacs stepped away from all but honourary positions.

John ‘Jack’ Gifford passed away on August 5, 1974.

(PHOTO SOURCE: CLHOF X979.150.1 excerpt)

Paddy McDonough

McDonough appearing in a 1920 newspaper.

PATRICK ‘PADDY’ McDONOUGH
(1883/84 – April 3, 1958)
Vancouver Greenshirts (1918)
Vancouver Terminals (1919-1920; 1923-1924)
Vancouver Lacrosse Club (1921)

Long-forgotten and obscure today, with a couple of blurry newspaper images to his name, Patrick ‘Paddy’ McDonough was a well-regarded journeyman player for Vancouver teams in the immediate years after the First World War and into the early 1920s.

An easterner hailing from the shores of Lake Simcoe in Ontario – with both Orillia and Beaverton mentioned as his hometown – nothing concrete is known of his early years nor where he learnt the game.

McDonough excelled both in ice hockey and lacrosse and in his early years as an athlete he moved about considerably between teams and cities, in both sports, from year to year, until ultimately finding his way out west to Vancouver and calling it home. He seems to have acquired the nickname ‘Paddy’ in Vancouver, while everywhere else tended to call him ‘Pat’.

Pat McDonough was referred to as “the famous lacrosse player” in an article printed in the Toronto Star in 1908. This is a rather surprising and astonishing statement considering the earliest mention of his name in a game report occurred only the year before. He had turned senior in 1904 and had played previously with such small-town teams as Port Hope, Fort William, and Beaverton – the latter location where he seems to have made his ‘famous’ name – but none of these were hardly any sort of world-beaters or powerhouses.

An early practitioner of the money game, McDonough was gaining enough attention around this time to try selling his services. He was slated to sign with the Toronto Tecumsehs of the professional National Lacrosse Union in 1907, but then got lured away the following month by an intermediate team from Peterborough playing two-tiers down in the Canadian Lacrosse Association league (no relation to the modern national governing body).

Toronto was rumoured to be offering him $300 for the entire season – which was expected to work out being $20 per game – while Peterborough upped the ante by offering him $25 per game. He went with the better deal on the table – but it ended up being a poor decision that backfired on him, as he ended up playing less games and Peterborough was always in danger of folding that season, and may have actually done so.

He then signed the following season with the Tecumsehs’ rivals in the National Lacrosse Union, the Toronto Lacrosse Club (the ‘Torontos’) in May 1908, but then much like he did with the Tecumsehs the year before, he soon jumped ship to play for the Chicago Shamrocks in a handful of games.

It is unknown whether any sort of employment had taken him stateside, nor the quality or type of league in which Chicago played, but by the following year he was acting as player-manager for the Shamrocks and had recruited over a dozen Canadians to fill their ranks. Two years later he was reported to be coaching the lacrosse team at Hobart College in upstate New York.

Around this time, he was also playing ice hockey in the winter months. He started out with teams in the Thunder Bay area, such as Fort William Wanderers in 1908 and a Port Arthur team around 1910; there may have also been some confusion which sport he was playing there, as lacrosse was experiencing a sudden boom in that area at this same time.

By 1911 he had moved on to Saskatoon and signed with a hockey team there. When the Great War came along, he was now in Nelson, British Columbia with three seasons of hockey there under his belt. It was likely during this time spent in the West Kootenay that he first came into contact with the Patrick brothers, Lester and Frank, whom would later employ him as an emergency referee and scout for their Pacific Coast Hockey Association.

His arrival in Vancouver, like much of his playing career, was just as murky. He was reported in June 1917 to be suiting up with the Vancouver squad in the patriotic lacrosse series games played for the war effort relief, however his involvement was limited to that of one of the timekeepers.

He then appeared for the ‘Greenshirts’ in the opening and closing matches of the 1918 Mainland Lacrosse Association campaign, picking up a couple of goals in his second appearance.

‘Paddy’ McDonough signed on with the Vancouver Terminals fulltime in 1919, and he could be found top of the midfield line at first home, or on the attack at inside home and occasionally outside home. As the season wore on, however, he started about half the matches as a substitute.

‘Paddy’ McDonough, June 1920

He paired by with ‘Dot’ Crookall on the attack in 1920 and became noted as one of the sharpshooters on the Terminals. This would be by far his most outstanding season, scoring 19 goals in 17 matches and finishing second in scoring for Vancouver, as well as winning much praise in the press in the process.

Returning to his team-jumping ways, he quit the Terminals in 1921 and signed with Con Jones’s upstart Pacific Coast Lacrosse Association. When the league folded in the second week of June, he found himself on the sidelines.

He was signed to referee PCHA pro hockey games in an emergency capacity for the 1921-22 season. After working one game, he was then sent off by the league on a scouting mission across the prairies in early 1922.

After sitting out the 1922 lacrosse season, he returned to the Vancouver Terminals the following year, but the two-year break from the game seems to have impacted and diminished his ability as he was often relegated to substitute duty.

When goaltender Jake Davis suddenly quit the team at the end of August 1923 to move to California for work, the Terminals were left scrambling to find a new backstop. Veteran keeper and future hall-of-famer Dave Gibbons had been out practising with the team, but he refused the role, claiming his eyesight was no longer good enough. Regarded as somewhat of a jack-of-all-trades, ‘Paddy’ McDonough stepped up and filled the hole in the crease.

His lone appearance in goal took place on September 3, 1923 in a close 9-7 loss to the New Westminster Salmonbellies. Despite previous club confidence with McDonough going into the match, he was replaced in the crease five days later by newcomer Andrew Jack.

McDonough’s lacrosse career ended the following year with the demise of the professional game in June 1924. Looking back at his lacrosse career in Vancouver, he scored a total of 36 goals and 2 assists in 48 games – good enough to place him 14th overall for career goals in the league and 5th in Vancouver team scoring. Statistically he is the best Vancouver pro field player from that era not in the Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame.

In 1942, lacrosse beater writer Andy Paull was asked who he thought “was the roughest player that had ever played”, and he replied with McDonough’s name. With ‘Paddy’ in his later years sometimes providing occasional ‘opinion quotes’ to fill space in the papers, it is difficult to tell if Paull was actually serious or just being humourous and witty with a knowing audience, as McDonough’s 7 penalties and 31 minutes made him practically a saint in the old rough and tumble field game.

In the mid-1930s McDonough returned to his ice hockey roots and scouted for NHL teams, notably for Frank Patrick when he was coach of the Boston Bruins for two seasons. Otherwise nothing is known about his employment nor any personal details, apart from living in the Lonsdale area of North Vancouver from 1941 onwards and operating a pool room there until a year before his passing. He seems to have remained a bachelor, as when Patrick McDonough passed away in 1958, his obituary mentioned he was only survived by a sister.

(PHOTO SOURCES: Vancouver Province unknown date; Vancouver Province June 3, 1920)

George Feeney

GEORGE WILLIAM FEENEY
(December 28, 1895 – August 21, 1975)
New Westminster Salmonbellies (1920-1924)

George Feeney, younger brother of the outstanding Salmonbellies speedster James ‘Pat’ Feeney, was a versatile athlete whose lacrosse career spanned an awkward and transitional era of the game – bridging the twilight years of the professional game, the doldrum years of the amateur field game in the late 1920s and early 1930s, into the nascent days of the indoor box game. Feeney also successfully navigated the contentious divide between professionalism and amateurism in Canadian sports, and the obstacles he faced exposed some of the first cracks of double-standards and hypocrisy in the amateurism debate which dominated all sports in Canada in the early 20th Century.

Born in New Westminster in 1895, he started out in lacrosse as a goaltender with the West End intermediate team in 1911. He played between the posts for two seasons until he found his true talent at the opposite end of the playing field as an attacking midfielder.

Still in his teens, George Feeney moved up to the senior amateur ranks in 1914 when he joined the New Westminster Salmonbellies in the Pacific Coast Amateur Lacrosse Association.

1915 prove to be a very busy year for him, as he helped New Westminster Salmonbellies win their first-ever Mann Cup when the formidable Vancouver Athletic Club dynasty was dethroned after four years’ dominance.

He played baseball in the local church league that year as a shortstop, helping the Electrics team win the championship – in the process being heralded as the team’s ‘star player’ in their title game. He also played soccer in 1915 with Westminster United at inside right wing. Along with lacrosse, baseball, and soccer, he was well-regarded as a bowler, on the athletic track, and in trap-shooting.

However, “one of the most versatile athletics in the Pacific Northwest” ran into problems with the British Columbia Amateur Athletic Union in 1916. Feeney was banned from playing soccer, after the local New Westminster amateur baseball league was disrupted by the war and he was then induced to suit up for few games for a team in a league deemed ‘outlaw’ and semi-pro by the amateur authorities.

George Feeney as soccer player in a newspaper image, circa 1917.

In October 1916 he applied for reinstatement – or “whitewashing”, as it was disparagingly referred to in the parlance of the day. The issue was plagued by poor and murky communication when it ended up going to the national authorities and his case was used by some newspapers as glaring evidence of the inconsistent state of amateur sports at the time in regards to fringe or questionable ‘professionals’ inadvertently caught up in the bureaucracy that was chronic between different athletic endeavours.

Although never explicitly saying outright, it was clear in the minds of some in sporting circles and the press that their thinking was ‘who cares if a pro athlete in one sport partakes as an amateur in a completely different athletic activity?’ This thinking was compounded by the war years, when double-standards arose when those professionals who were serving military personnel, were given a free-pass exemption from the ban on playing against amateurs due to a belief about helping the war effort.

After six months spent on the sidelines, he was finally reinstated by the BCAAU on April 9, 1917, and a month later he resumed his sporting activity when he signed with the National Biscuit team in the local Commercial baseball League. He also signed on with the Vancouver Hearts soccer team. Despite the six months of inactivity, Feeney had not lost any of his form.

George Feeney suited up for some of the Patriotic lacrosse matches held in 1917. These were a series of exhibition matches which saw professionals and amateurs mixed together on the playing field to help raise money in support of the war relief effort.

In November 1917, Feeney enlisted with the Royal Flying Corps but did not leave for overseas until the last week of February 1918.

He arrived in England around April 13, 1918 and was quartered at Seaford Camp, located near the town of Eastbourne on the Sussex coast. During the trip there, he witnessed firsthand the excitement and dangers of a submarine hunt when his transport narrowly missed being torpedoed by a German submarine, by about twenty feet, before it was then sunk by some convoy destroyers.

Stationed in England, he managed to find time to play baseball with the local Seaford team versus convalescing hospital soldiers. While George Fenney had his heart set on becoming a flyer, he did not pass the medical qualifications. He was assigned to the reserves at Seaford and the only wartime action he would experience – apart his journey across the Atlantic – were those battles fought on the playing field, with lacrosse, baseball, and soccer teams in the south of England while wearing the colours of the First British Columbia Reserve Depot.

He returned home from England on July 25, 1919. Within weeks of his return, he was back out playing lacrosse with the senior Salmonbellies.

In April 1920, he was poached from the amateurs to sign with the professional New Westminster Salmonbellies.

George Feeney would play 5 seasons in the professional game, scoring 36 goals in 64 games. He was generally found in the second home position on the midfield wings, although he did play half a season as the centreman in 1920. His 1923 campaign saw him filling mostly a substitute role – although with the tabulation of assists introduced that year, his numbers showed him to be an adept player maker and set-up man. During those two seasons (or 19 games) where assists were officially recorded, George Feeney led with 15 career assists to give him a total 51 career points. He finished tied in 15th for career goals and 11th for career points – impressive numbers for such as short career as his, as well as for being a midfielder.

George Feeney as a member of the Salmonbellies team at the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics.

After professional lacrosse died suddenly in June 1924, George Feeney once again applied for reinstatement to the amateur ranks. He ran into problems in 1925 whilst playing soccer for Westminster United and was once again suspended. He was reinstated, for a second time, as an amateur sometime in December 1926.

Feeney travelled with the New Westminster Salmonbellies team to participate in the lacrosse demonstration at the 1928 Amsterdam Summer Olympics, but was disqualified from playing due to strict Olympic regulations thanks to his former professional status. He ended up watching and assisting the team from the sidelines along with his also-banned teammates Harold ‘Haddie’ Stoddart and the Patchell brothers.

George Feeney’s best years as a lacrosse player probably occurred during the mid-1920s and early 1930s when the field game was dying its slow and inevitable death from disorganisation and spectator indifference.

He was at the top of his game during the 1930 season. Paired up with Harold ‘Haddie’ Stoddart, they made for a deadly scoring duo against their hapless Vancouver opponents in provincial play. He fractured a rib during the Western Canada finals against the Edmonton Native Sons and missed the Dominion semi-finals that followed versus Winnipeg Argonauts, but healed enough to return and help lead New Westminster in their losing effort against the Brampton Excelsiors in the Mann Cup finals.

His final season of field lacrosse followed in 1931, when he participated in very the last Mann Cup series played under field rules. The series was memorialised by a 360° spherical panoramic photograph taken of the players of both teams positioned on the playing field (some who devilishly moved about to appear multiple times in the same image) and crowd at Queens Park. The Salmonbellies once again fell to the Excelsiors in three games.

George Feeney travelled to Los Angeles as a spectator at the 1932 Olympic Games and ended up as the judge of play for all three lacrosse demonstration matches played.

He made a comeback in 1933, this time in the box game and scored 8 goals for the Salmonbellies at the age of 38. He broke his wrist (some reports say his arm) playing in the playoffs after being checked into the boards. He returned for the final Mann Cup game in October 1933. He started in the game in bandages (and pain) before leaving and watching the final half of the game in civvies.

There were rumours of him jumping for the rival New Westminster Adanacs in 1934 but he never played any games in the purple and gold; he later became manager of the team. He refereed in the women’s league in 1937. In June 1938 he played in an oldtimers game versus a junior squad.

George Feeney at the time of the 1931 Mann Cup.

In 1938, when some of the former 1908 New Westminster Salmonbellies players were upset and “raised beef” about the re-classification of the Minto Cup, George was one those who voiced his support in favour of the kids getting their hands on the silverware.

In 1952, he attended the first reunion of the 1928 Salmonbellies team, held at the Elks Club in New Westminster.

George Feeney was inducted into the Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame in 1969, in the field player category.

There is not much information regarding his employment, although a newspaper article from 1915 mentions he worked at New Westminster City Hall in the engineering department, until he was then transferred to the treasurer’s office at reduced wages to replace a resigned staff member. Eleven days after his transfer, Feeney quit his job at city hall and was hired by the Dominion Bank.

He was a life-member of the B.P.O. Elks Lodge in New Westminster.

His only daughter Norma Phillips passed away suddenly on April 10, 1971. George Feeney passed away on August 21, 1975 and was survived by his wife Verna, 2 grand-daughters and 9 great-grandchildren. His funeral took place just two days later and he was interred at St. Peter’s Cemetery in New Westminster. His last place of residence listed was at the Edgewater apartments located at 707 Seventh Avenue in New Westminster.

(PHOTO SOURCES: CLHOF X994.98b; Vancouver Daily Province February 3, 1917; CLHOF X994.16 (excerpt); Vancouver Sun September 5, 1931)

Cliff Cao

Cliff Cao, 1905

CLIFFORD (CLIFF) CHRISTIE CAO
(ca. 1880 – May 21, 1941)
Vancouver Lacrosse Club (1902-1905)
Mount Pleasant Maple Leafs (1906; 1908-1909)

Although his playing career was a brief span of just seven or eight years, Cliff Cao was one of the more notable and talented players to suit up for the Vancouver-based teams during the first decade of the 20th Century.

Born in Liverpool, England, Clifford Cao was of mixed Italian and Scottish background. His father Angelo Cao was born in 1842 in Venice, Italy and passed away in 1888, while his mother Ada (Christie) Cao was born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1846 and passed away in 1924. Young Cliff moved to Canada around the age of 9 or 10 with his mother and family in 1889.

His slight build did not seem to be a detriment although a newspaper article in August 1902 noted that his speed was not fast enough to be an effective midfield player. The following season saw him moving up to the attack line, slotted in at the inside home position, a move which clearly improved his performance. His 1904 and 1905 campaigns were described in the press as playing a ‘star game’.

During the fall of 1905 he was suspended by the British Columbia Amateur Lacrosse Association for being part of a Vancouver line-up that played against professionals, but he was reinstated in May 1906.

He had already retired from the game the previous month and it was during this down time in 1906 when Cliff Cao’s serious interest in yachting began – and once removed from lacrosse, sailing become his life passion which continued into the 1930s.

After his sailing commitments in the Bellingham regatta had come and gone, he was back out practising and playing three months later, when he signed with Mount Pleasant Maple Leafs in mid-July 1906.

When Cao made a return late in the 1906 season, the press noted that his “oldtime speed” and stick-handing ability was badly needed by the Maple Leafs, although confusingly noting that his speed was hampered by his size, compensated by his expert stickhandling and accurate shooting. While it does seem the newspapers were inconsistent and contradictory about the nature and deficiency of his running game, what was always consistently positive was his personal ability and skill with the lacrosse stick.

Cliff Cao (seated) with his mother Ada and two brothers Rico and Chris, ca. 1905-1910.

When 1907 came along, there was talk of him once again leaving lacrosse after becoming injured. Cao was listed on some suggested or potential rosters put into print that year for the Vancouver team, but it is unknown whether he actually suited up for any games due to a chronic absence of game reports and box scores during those years, which include his name. The nature of his injury is unknown, but he did recover to re-sign with Mount Pleasant Maple Leafs in July 1908.

During a meeting held in March 1909 looking into the contentious issue in of professionalism lacrosse, Cliff Cao spoke out how every amateur player was out looking for the money, but in the past there was unfairness between those who got paid and those who played for the love of the game and this created favouritism leading to demoralisation within some teams.

He signed once again with Mount Pleasant in the senior amateur league, so in the short term we can perhaps surmise where Cao may have stood in regards to the pro vs. amateur debate – however any dislike he may have had for the money game disappeared by the time he was invited out by Con Jones to try out for the Vancouver Lacrosse Club in May 1910. He gave it his all during pre-season practises and test matches, but Cliff Cao retired for good after his comeback attempt failed, at age 30 and already feeling the pace of the game to be a struggle.

He did suit up for an old-timers game played at Brockton Point on Empire Day (May 25) 1929 but otherwise his involvement in lacrosse would be relegated to name appearances in “20 years ago in sports today” recollection articles published by the newspapers.

Cliff Cao became a prominent member of Royal Vancouver Yacht Club, with local fame won as the skipper of Spirit I and Swipe. Looking back over his life, his experience and achievements on the water impressively eclipsed his experience on the grass field.

He won races organised by the RVYC in July 1919, beating the second-place finisher by three hours. His boat, Spirit I, was considered to be one of the two best sailing crafts in the RVYC. When the Cao Brothers sold Sprit I in August 1924, the trusty racing yacht had won 46 trophies for the Cao family.

Cliff Cao never married – however both his brother Rico and his wife were also expert coxswains, with Mrs. Rico Cao winning the Julian Cup for women’s sailboat racing in 1912. His employment is reported as a tinsmith. At the time of his passing, Cliff Cao resided at 216 East 27th Avenue in Vancouver. He was survived by his two brothers Chris and Rico Cao, as well as three sisters.

(PHOTO SOURCES: CLHOF X994.204 excerpt; courtesy of Brian Vivian family collection)

Special thanks to Brian Vivian (Cao’s grand-nephew) for providing biographical information and photograph.

Vernon Green

EDWARD VERNON GREEN
(August 20, 1885 – April 28, 1944)
Mount Pleasant Maple Leafs Intermediates (1903)
Seattle Lacrosse Club (1905)
Mount Pleasant Maple Leafs (1906-1907)
Vancouver Lacrosse Club (1908)
North Vancouver Lacrosse Club (1911)
Vancouver Lacrosse Club (1922)
played in California (1925)
Vancouver Waterfront Workers (1929)

Vernon Green was a tough, feisty player whose claim to fame – or infamy – was being the spark that set off the notorious ‘rotten eggs and gunshot’ riot which played out at Queens Park on Saturday, September 26, 1908.

Green would earn a reputation for being a somewhat decent player who was prone to fisticuffs and rough play, however after the gunshot riot he seemed to never land anywhere for any substantial length of time. He was often injury prone in his early years and much of his playing career seems to be spent making occasional, fringe appearances here and there over the subsequent 20 years.

Apart from a cigarette card produced with his image in 1910, some two years after he last played for Vancouver Lacrosse Club, photographs of Vernon Green and his involvement in lacrosse are very rare – just his appearances in team photographs and photo-collages from 1905, 1906, and 1922.

Vernon Green was born in 1885 with both Vancouver and Port Simpson, British Columbia referenced as his birthplace. His full given name has been cited as Edward Vernon Green and as Ebenezer Vernon Edward Green – but he was known by all as Vernon Green. His father was the Reverend Alfred Eli Green, a pioneer Methodist missionary in British Columbia and pastor of the Fairview Methodist Church while his mother was Elizabeth Jane Gilbert.

At the tender age of 17, with the Boer War raging half a world away, he enlisted with the Canadian Mounted Rifles in April 1902. He never saw any action as the war had ended by May 31, 1902, many weeks before he arrived in Durban where his unit was stationed. He returned home from South Africa in August 1902.

Vernon Green’s early playing days saw him associated with the Mount Pleasant Maple Leafs intermediate and senior teams between 1903 and 1907, although he made his senior debut with the Seattle Lacrosse Club in 1905 when the Emerald City joined the British Columbia Amateur Lacrosse Association, playing third defense and centre for Seattle. He was the captain (coach) for the Fairview Shamrocks junior lacrosse school team in 1904

In a December 1906, in a human-interest article which may now seem strange but was quite typical for its day, the Vancouver Province reported how Vernon Green and his older brother Walter shot two “panthers” (as cougars or mountain lions were sometimes called back then) on Vancouver Island. The front-page article described how the brothers hunted and shot the two eight-foot long beasts, “the largest ever shot in the neighborhood” and resulted in a bounty collected by the brothers from the government agent in Nanaimo.

Vernon Green playing for Seattle in 1905.

Green was the centreman for Mount Pleasant Maple Leafs in 1906 and 1907 although most of the 1907 campaign saw him sidelined from a broken ankle (or knee cap) from May 1907 until late August. His season was quickly cut short again, when, in a match played at Brockton Oval on August 24, 1907 between Vancouver Lacrosse Club and the Maple Leafs, Vernon Green was involved in a “regrettable” and “shameful” fight with Referee Bob Cheyne.

The incident resulted in Cheyne, a former, well-known goaltender for the Salmonbellies, feeling obliged to resign as an official after his momentary loss of temper (he is alleged to have called Green “a vile” or “foul name”) despite blatant provocation by Green, who had punched the referee and as a result was potentially facing suspension for the rest of the season and all of the next.

Surprisingly enough, in August 1908, there were rumours that Green was going to sign with the New Westminster Salmonbellies however he ended up signing with the Vancouver Lacrosse Club.

In no time at all Vernon Green would find himself once again embroiled in conflict and controversy.

On September 26, 1908, in a game played before 10,000 fans at Queens Park, Vernon Green went off the rails as Vancouver suffered from an early 8-0 rout by New Westminster. During the course of the meaningless match (the Salmonbellies had secured the championship title earlier, and Vancouver showed up having to borrow a goaltender), Green went after Gordon ‘Grumpy’ Spring, gashing the young rookie’s head. After serving penalty time, Green followed up by a hard hit laying out Irving ‘Punk’ Wintemute, before zeroing his sights on New Westminster’s captain, Tom Gifford. Two of the toughest men in the game engaged in a sticking-swinging bout from which Gifford suffered severe cuts to his face and a broken nose, but not before he managed to butt-end the tempestuous Green.

By this point, Tom Gifford’s brother Jimmy had seen enough of the mayhem and he made a mad dash for Green, as the crowd then flooded out on to the field and what was once a lacrosse game now erupted into a full-blown riot.

As Vernon Green bolted for the Vancouver dressing room seeking refuge, rotten eggs began to be pelted at the Vancouver trainer, a well-known ‘coloured’ boxer by the name of George Paris, who retaliated by pulling out his pistol and firing off a shot that almost injured (or lightly grazed) the backside of a city worker caught up in the fracas.

Vernon Green as a member of Mount Pleasant Maple Leafs in 1906.

Eventually, the riot was brought to an end when Tom Gifford walked into the Vancouver dressing room and shook hands with Vernon Green; some witnesses say that the Salmonbellie apologised to the Greenshirt.

While much of the fall-out from the ugly incident ended up focused on George Paris, the New Westminster police nevertheless issued a court summons against Vernon Green to answer charges of assault against Gordon Spring. After repeated and delayed attempts by the British Columbia Amateur Lacrosse Association to hold an inquiry into the matter and levy punishment on the worst perpetrators involved, which obviously included Vernon Green, the matter was dropped and buried under the growing concern over professionalism in the sport, which soon dominated off-field discussion.

There is no evidence or mention in the press whether Vernon Green faced suspension in the aftermath of the riot, but he did not return to the lacrosse field in 1909 as he went north with his brother Walter, where they spent the summer months from May through September on their ranch in the Kispiox Valley near Hazelton.

In March 1910, Vernon Green took his pugilism into the boxing ring to compete in the annual championships held for the Pacific Northwest, but lost the main event bout versus his better trained opponent, heavyweight Frank Westerman of Seattle, who knocked out the outclassed and lacrosse player in two rounds. The Vancouver Province remarked wryly afterwards how in the future Green should confine his fighting proclivities to the lacrosse field.

The following month he tried out and played in test matches with Vancouver Lacrosse Club but failed to make the team. Later that season, Green was then involved in the formation of the Vancouver Shamrocks lacrosse club in June 1910. He played third home for the Shamrocks in an exhibition match versus the Vancouver Athletic Club, bagging a goal in the third quarter – however the Shamrocks then disappeared into history.

He tried out again for Vancouver Lacrosse Club in 1911 and was initially listed as a reserve player – but he appeared in no games with the professional club. He was then associated with the North Vancouver Lacrosse Club outfit that unsuccessfully applied for admission to the professional ranks that same year. Vernon Green suited up in the third defense position for North Vancouver in their two pre-season test matches that were played versus Vancouver Lacrosse Club and New Westminster Salmonbellies, with lopsided results in favour of the established teams.

These were the closest instances of him seeing professional ball – and although he was branded a professional by the amateur authorities, Vernon Green never saw any actual competitive pro lacrosse action.

In 1911 he appears to have taken up competitive bowling along with some of his Vancouver lacrosse mates, Archie Adamson, Frank Ronan, and George Matheson, forming a team at the Shamrock bowling alley.

Vernon Green as a Mann Cup champion in 1922.

The following year saw him turning out for New Westminster senior practises in but he does not appear to have made the team. It was around this time in March 1912 when he was applying for reinstatement as an amateur, but he must have been unsuccessful as he was trying yet again to apply for reinstatement many years later in 1921.

This time reinstatement (or ‘whitewashing’, as it was sometimes called) must have been granted as Vernon Green signed with the amateur Vancouver Lacrosse Club team in 1922 to compete for the Mann Cup. After defeating the Victoria Capitals in BCALA league play, Vancouver were briefly Mann Cup champions for around one month until they met and subsequently lost to the PCALA champions, New Westminster Salmonbellies in a three-game series for both the Mann Cup and provincial Kilmarnock cup titles. This is the only instance of two Mann Cup champions occurring in the same year.

Green did not play any lacrosse in 1923 nor 1924 but 1925 found him playing in a series of games in California.

Along with ex-pro player John Howard, he co-coached the Vancouver Waterfront Workers lacrosse team in the 1929 BCALA Kilmarnock Cup series and suited up for at least one game. He also appeared in some old-timer games that season, including the benefit game on June 17, 1929 for ailing former Salmonbellies player Irving ‘Punk’ Wintemute – but 1929 appears to have been Green’s last involvement in the sport.

Cpl. Vernon Green (backrow left) appearing with his war comrades in the Vancouver Province in 1917.

Vernon Green served during the First World War in France and Belgium. Corporal Green convalesced in May 1917 at Woodcate Park in Epsom, England. A photograph of him and some of his military comrades appeared in the Vancouver Province holding a copy of the newspaper, which had been sent from home. He then later volunteered as part of the Canadian contingent fighting against the Bolsheviks during the civil war in Russia.

Shortly after the war, he returned to Vancouver and assisted with the dismantling of the Mount Pleasant Brewery, which was then sold to interests in Japan. He was in that country at the time of the 1923 earthquake.

Vernon Green was later employed as a plumber, and at the time of his passing he worked for Boeing Aircraft of Canada at their Sea Island Plant No.3 maintenance facility. His last residence was located at 525 West 20th Avenue.

He passed away on April 28, 1944. Green was survived by his second wife Lila Enda, three daughters, Rita, Gloria, Patricia, and son Wendell – as well as two sons from his first marriage, Calvin and Vernon. His first wife was Viola Chadwick (later Viola Wilson), whom he married on Christmas Eve 1909 but later divorced. He was given a military funeral ceremony on May 2, 1944 at Mount Pleasant funeral chapel. Reverend E.F. Church officiated the service as Corporal Vernon Green was interred in soldiers’ section of Mountain View Cemetery in Vancouver.

(PHOTO SOURCES: Imperial Tobacco Card 1910; Seattle Times; CLHOF collection; CLHOF X994.155 excerpt; Vancouver Province June 5, 1917)

Canadian Lacrosse Almanac 2024 Edition

Click this link to view and download: CANADIAN LACROSSE ALMANAC 2024

First compiled and self-published in 2002 as a 102-page softcover book with a print-run of 200 copies, the Canadian Lacrosse Almanac was inspired by Jim Hendy [1905-1961] and his pioneering work The Hockey Guide which first hit the shelves in 1933 and remained in yearly production until 1951.

The almanac’s initial focus was primarily on the statistical history of British Columbia lacrosse leagues – namely, annual league standings along with post-season play. It was the first publication to research and examine the pre-1932 era in British Columbia, which until that time had never been documented at any statistical level.

Over time, further research uncovered new data and new material was made available to the author. Cost and production issues made the author switch from a print format to releasing it in a digital PDF format – made available for free – when he completed a second edition in 2005. Annual digital copies have been released every year since 2007.

With the current 2024 edition now at 1,043 pages (containing 91 additional pages of new content compared to the 2023 edition), the almanac has expanded over the years to cover not only the Canadian lacrosse scene, but also American NCAA collegiate, major and minor professional leagues, international competitions, the women’s game, and foreign domestic leagues where such information is available.

Thanks as always for your interest in lacrosse history and continued support.

Laurie Nelson

Laurie Nelson, 1922

LAWRENCE (LAURIE) NELSON
(May 6, 1893 – August 14, 1972)
New Westminster Salmonbellies (1918-1924)

Always known as Laurie or Lawrey – and never by his given name Lawrence – Laurie Nelson played for the New Westminster Salmonbellies during the years after the Great War.

Laurie Nelson was born in New Westminster, but his parents Nels Nelson and Annetta Sorenson were both born in Denmark. His father, not to be confused with the famous Revelstoke ski jumper with the same name, arrived in Canada in 1881. While the elder Nelson had some connection to lacrosse, as the president of the New Westminster Salmonbellies around 1906, he was much better known in the Royal City as a businessman. He owned a brewery in Sapperton from 1896 until 1928, which later became the Labatt’s brewery site on Brunette Avenue that operated until 2005.

The Nelson family later owned Nelson Laundry Service which operated in downtown Vancouver from 1931 to 1939 – managed by Laurie Nelson, who was living downtown on West Georgia Street at the time. After the business was sold, the Nelson business name remained with it until its closure in the late 1960s.

When the former Labatt’s brewery site in Sapperton was redeveloped in 2011, two new streets that were put in by the city, Nelson’s Court and Nelson’s Crescent, were named in honour of Nels Nelson, his brewery, and his contributions to the city.

Laurie Nelson as a teenager with Sapperton in 1912.

On the lacrosse field, Laurie Nelson was a defensive player who slotted in at point, coverpoint, and any of the midfield positions behind the centre line. Not much of anything is known about his early playing career prior to his debut professional campaign during the post-war Mainland Lacrosse Association season in 1918, although he did play intermediate lacrosse with the championship Sapperton club around 1910-1912 range.

Once he became a pro player, Nelson found himself bouncing between starter and substitute duty until the 1922 season when he finally became a regular starter for the Salmonbellies. While seeing more scoring opportunities and production in those years as a substitute, and regarded early in his career as a promising scorer, once he became an established regular starter he took a much more defensive approach to the game – bagging only just a solo goal during his final three seasons playing professional ball. He scored his only hat-trick on June 21, 1919.

In terms of career statistics, Laurie Nelson played in 87 games over 7 seasons, which puts him 13th overall for games-played during the professional field era. He scored 19 goals and 4 assists, neither of which saw him dent into the top-20 numbers. His 36 penalties and 153 minutes sent off places him 12th and 20th overall in those categories. At the team level, Laurie Nelson was fourth in team scoring in 1919 with 6 goals in 12 games – his best offensive season with the Salmonbellies. The rest of his career, he was usually in the middle third for on-field production. During his seven seasons of professional ball, he won 5 Minto Cup champions with the New Westminster Salmonbellies.

Laurie Nelson, 1920.

Laurie married 17-year-old Iverna Troop Crouse in a quiet ceremony on Monday evening, December 1, 1913 at St, Mary’s Anglican Church in Sapperton. The young couple honeymooned in Victoria and Seattle before returning to reside in a home located on Brunette Street. Sadly, Ivera passed away on March 14, 1925 after a short illness at Royal Columbian Hospital, just 29 years old. She left a young son, Vorhes (Vody) Nels Nelson. Laurie’s sister Edna Nelson was married to his Salmobellies team-mate Gordon ‘Dode’ Sinclair.

Prior to his professional lacrosse career, Lauire Nelson enlisted on May 6, 1916 with the 131st Overseas Battalion CEF in New Westminster. He served in France with the 47th Battalion but was later discharged on July 31, 1917 for being medically unfit.

Lawrie Nelson passed away on August 14, 1972 at Royal Columbian Hospital and was interred at Ocean View Cemetery in Burnaby, British Columbia, the final resting place for many lacrosse players he would have played alongside and against. He was survived by his son Vorhes (Vody) Nelson as well as a daughter named Ardath Paulson and three of his sisters. Since there is no mention of Ardath when his wife Iverna passed away, it seems probable that Nelson remarried later in life although also outliving that subsequent wife as well.

(PHOTO SOURCES: CLHOF X994.8 excerpt; CLHOF X994.26 excerpt; CLHOF X979.150.1 excerpt)

Revisiting the Earliest Action Photograph

Over the years, perhaps the most viewed and shared image on Old School Lacrosse is the photograph labelled as MONTREAL vs TORONTO, 1864. SAID TO BE THE FIRST INSTANTANEOUS SNAPSHOT EVER TAKEN.

This photograph print resides in the archival collection of the Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame as item CLHOF X994.29. The hall has no documentation how and when this image ended up in its collection, although X994 would imply 1994 as the year it was first noted in any ascension records by curators or archivists, records which are now unfortunately lost.

Since publication of the original post in June 2016, some further details and information surrounding this image have surfaced that both debunk claims as well as confirm some factual knowledge about this very intriguing and unique photograph. Lots of questions have also arisen during that time as well – because if the claims are indeed true, then its nature and value goes beyond the history of the sport into the realm of photographic history itself.

Recent correspondence with colleagues in Australia (John Nolan) and Ontario (Dan Bowyer) regarding this photograph and its historic claim sparked this author to revisit this topic and re-approach the photograph anew from the start.

During the research into verifying the factual nature this image, four aspects need to be taken into account:

1) the photographic technology used in the era
2) the involvement of Archie Macnaughton with verifying the August 1864 claim
3) the location of the image
4) newspaper reporting on the match in question

PHOTOGRAPHIC TECHNOLOGY

Crucial to the phrase “first instantaneous snapshot” are the photographic processes used during the 19th Century and exposure times required by cameras to produce an image from moving subjects – in this case, lacrosse players at play.

Advancement in photographic technology was haphazard while imagery development costs and complexity limited access in the photographic medium to professionals until the arrival of George Eastman’s Kodak box camera patented in 1888. Suddenly photography was made available to the amateur masses.

Shutter speeds on models prior to the Kodak camera had reached 1/50 sec speed by 1870, fast enough for outdoor photography although still slow enough that moving objects, like people walking, or running in a lacrosse game, would appear blurred. That was a vast improvement from the start of the 1860s where exposure speed was anywhere from 20 to 60 seconds – which limited photography to still portraits. However, to show someone walking with no blur, a shutter speed of 1/250 sec is needed; to freeze a running object, such as a running lacrosse player, then a shutter speed of 1/500 sec would then be required.

There were some experimental cameras back in the 1870s that could shoot 1/1000 sec, but 1/50 sec was generally the most advanced available well into the 1920s – and what was available in 1864 would have been slow(er). Another factor that we cannot know, is what type of film speed (ISO) would have been used in the camera. Slower film would require less movement / longer exposure.

With this knowledge in mind, for such an action shot to be produced in 1864, either the photographer (who is unknown) had access to some rare, ground-breaking equipment or the image was taken later than the date claimed.

The most popular photographic methods used in the 1860s and 1870s prior to the Kodak camera were the tintype process – which has low light sensitivity and the exposure times can be anywhere from 3 to 8 seconds, if not longer for sharper image results – and the albumen silver process – which required exposure times of 5 to 15 minutes. Regardless which process was used, if this photograph were indeed from the 1860s, everyone would have needed to stand motionless as we see no movement blur whatsoever appear amongst the players’ images. Notice how most of the players’ sticks do not appear, too thin an item to be picked up at long distance with a short exposure. We do know the subject matter was indeed a lacrosse game due to the upright goal posts matching what were used back them, as well as one or two faint hints of a lacrosse stick appearing.

Keep in mind the typewritten text that was attached to the bottom of the photograph was obviously added later and not contemporary – as typewriters were not invented until 1867 and did not become commercially and readily available until 1873.

ARCHIE MACNAUGHTON

Archie Macnaughton [1861-1937] was an individual who at some point came into contact with the photograph to verify the nature of its image. He was born in Montréal and was one of the first nationally-acclaimed, ‘star’ lacrosse players to emerge in the 1880s, before relocating across the country to the Pacific Coast in 1891-1892 where he lived for the remainder of his life.

Having seen and handled the actual photographic print of this photo in the hall’s collection, this author found the paper stock much too modern for 1860-1900s photography – which was usually printed on heavy firm cardstock. Macnaughton’s print must have been reproduced somehow much later than the image’s original creation. Macnaughton died in 1937, so we do know the photograph print dates no later than his death, as it contains his handwriting and signature on the back of the print.

Macnaughton would have been much too young to have observed and recalled any specific details of such a game in 1864 firsthand, nor any reason at that tender age to possess such a rare photograph of any sort. Therefore he must have received the image second-hand and been told verbally in passing the nature of the photograph image – and this is where human failures of memory-details can easily enter the picture (excuse the pun), because the original creator of the photograph, plus anyone else who may have possessed it prior to Macnaughton coming into contact with it at some point, could easily forget date details. Macnaughton was quite well known in lacrosse circles both in the East and in the West later in life, 1880s onwards, so he would have been a natural recipient or caretaker of such an item. But not in the 1860s or 1870s before he played the sport. If this image were produced in 1864, it would have taken some years if not decades to find its way into Archie Macnaughton’s hands.

We also do not know what the photograph’s fate would have been in the years between Macnaughton’s passing in 1937 and the establishment of the hall of fame in the 1960s. The photograph must have passed through at least three sets of hands (the photographer, Macnaughton, and the unknown person who donated the image to the hall of fame), if not many more, to find its way into the hall’s collection at some point prior to 1994. We do not even know if this photo print was ever owned by Macnaughton or simply shown to him for verification.

Of course, there is the possibility that the image claims could all be downright fake or embellishment. The sport’s early days are full of misreported and embellished events. Could this photograph have been taken, say in the 1870s, 1880s, or early 1890s, but then later passed off to Macnaughton (or passed off by Macnaughton) to be from August 1864? Possible, yes – but Macnaughton’s character over the years reads to be one highly respected and honourable enough to likely preclude any outright false or deceptive claims – although lapses in memory are very possible indeed. It is highly doubtful Macnaughton would deliberately make up any stories about the image, but he could have been told incorrect information when the photograph was shown or passed along to him, or himself making an inaccurate guess as to its nature. The most logical line of thinking is this image was shown to Macnaughton decades after its creation, with he still very much a living connection back to those early Montréal days of the sport, for his personal assessment regarding details about the image.

LOCATION

There was an ‘old-timer recollection’ article printed in the Montréal Gazette dated December 26, 1959 that mentioned how the Montréal Lacrosse Grounds were sold in 1887 (although reports of games played there persist a few years beyond), and lacrosse then relocated to the Westmount Athletic grounds where Montréal AAA played. This same article identifies the location of the Montréal Lacrosse Grounds in what is now downtown Montréal – between Montagues, Sherbrooke, St. Catherines, and Mackay Streets – a location that was also known locally back in the day as Phillips Field.

The modern Westmount Athletic Grounds are in fact bordered by a line of old row homes at one end of the playing field – which at first glance does seem to match somewhat, but not exactly, the buildings that appear in the photograph’s background. The first lacrosse game played at Westmount Grounds was in 1889, so that would discount the 1864 claim if Westmount were the actual location. The term ‘Montréal Lacrosse Grounds’ did get used in newspaper reporting for both the downtown Phillips Field site and then later for the Westmount Grounds, as the latter was the home field for the Montréal Amateur Athletic Association lacrosse team. The same team, which coincidently, Archie Macnaughton was a member between 1882 and 1891.

However, in the collection of the McCord Museum is a team photograph dated from the 1870s which was taken at Phillips Field, and the background detail appearing in this image, namely the row homes and fencing, matches up almost precisely with our photograph in question. Until the 1890s, Sherbrooke Street (one of the boundaries of the Montréal Lacrosse Grounds) would have been regarded as the edge of the city – and the area surrounding Phillips Field does fit well with such a rustic location. Between the two locations, this author believes the location of the photograph is Phillips Field, which became the Montréal Lacrosse Grounds, and would therefore book-end the imagery creation date no later than 1887-1890 range. With so many doubts and questions about authenticity, it is nice to see some facts that do seem to align accurately with some of the claim – namely, the location.

NEWSPAPER REPORTS

Back in this era of the sport, newspapers were focused first and foremost on local events and issues – and sporting events of practically all calibres received mention in the press. Thus, it is safe to assume that such an important, inter-city match-up between “Montreal vs Toronto” would be reported in the Montréal press. After the famous 1860 match played for the Prince of Wales, the next reported mention of any lacrosse games played in Montréal is not until 1867. It is safe to assume a game played in 1864 would have been reported by the press – but no such mention can be found.

George Beers is credited for codifying the first rules for lacrosse – either in 1860 in a now-lost publication called “The Game of Lacrosse”, written under his nom-de-plume ‘Goal-Keeper’, or in June 1867, which later became the basis of his book “Lacrosse: the National Game of Canada” published in 1869. In his latter, famous publication, Beers alludes how the sport dried up in Montréal between 1860 and 1867. One would think a match, if played in August 1864, would have been known and noted by Beers – and yet again, no such recollection is made by him.

One glaring contradiction the photograph contains is the typewritten text “MONTREAL vs TORONTO” versus Macnaughton’s notation “Montreal vs Shamrocks” on the back – the Shamrocks being another famous Montréal lacrosse club. Any such Montréal-Toronto inter-city game would have drawn the attention of the newspapers (as well as George Beers in his writing), but the earliest press about any clubs from Toronto is 1867 range. Meanwhile there were a number of Montréal-Shamrocks matches played from 1870 onwards – for example, the June 18, 1870 match “for the championship of Canada”. Macnaughton writes of “August 1864” – but so far, no mention of any lacrosse games of any sort in 1864 Montréal newspapers has turned up in searches.

It is possible, too, the image was staged for the camera – as there appears to be no audience whatsoever, apart from one shadowy figure along the right fence line, observing this match from the sidelines of the playing area. No spectators would be a rather odd occurrence for any arranged match, which would be expected to draw some sort of crowd. Was this simply a scrimmage or practice? The 1870 team photo in the McCord Stewart collection (item MP-0000.2897) also shows no observing crowd apart from three or four youth who also made their way into the photograph alongside the team. Some detail differences between the two photos rules out the images were taken on the same day or around the same time – namely clothing worn, as well as a bush or tree and some clutter along the fence line corner which appears in the 1864 photo but not the later 1870 team photo.

CONCLUSION

Previously this author felt the image dated from 1880-1895 range (possibly 1894, thinking 9 and 6 got mistaken in the retelling), however with further investigation and re-assessment of the four framing boundaries described above, 1870-1887 range now seems more plausible – although with the same serious doubts about its August 1864 origin claim.

With all written above considered, this author would like to think and believe it was from one of the 1870 matches between Montréal Club and Montréal Shamrocks, but in the absence of further facts to back up that date, it would be simply guesswork and wishful thinking. We will likely never know the true nature of this unique, incredibly fascinating lacrosse (and incredibly fascinating photographic) image.

If readers have any input or insight to lend on this topic, Old School Lacrosse would love to hear from you.

10th Anniversary of “Old School Lacrosse” book

Ten years ago in 2012, the original print edition of Professional Field Lacrosse in British Columbia 1909-1924 was published.

Since that time, the Old School Lacrosse website came into being and an expanded, second edition – renamed to match the website title – was published two and a half years later.

To celebrate this 10th Anniversary milestone, an updated book PDF of Old School Lacrosse – Professional Lacrosse in British Columbia 1909-1924 has been uploaded and made public today – including all the player biographies and stories written to date. Enjoy!

Click this link to view and download: OLD SCHOOL LACROSSE – PRO LACROSSE IN BRITISH COLUMBIA 1909-1924