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Down Memory Lane - The McKinnon Touch Down Memory Lane Articles - by Stan Shillington The Renfrew District in Vancouver's East End produced a great many excellent lacrosse players but how far could you go without a full time coach? Oh, they had reliable old "Pop" Phillips doing his best to teach the group of teenagers but, with several other teams of youngsters under his wings, his time was spread thinner than Twiggy. Then, one day in 1950, senior lacrosse sniper Jack McKinnon -- himself a Renfrew alumni -- was approached by one of the juvenile players, Dick Buzza, to take over the coaching reigns. The team, anchored by Buzza, Ed Gosse, Jock McGillivray, Ron Phillips and Bill Barbour, then went on to two provincial juvenile finals before moving up to the junior level under the Junior Futurity banner. The supporting cast of players in those formative years included Erle Winship, Don Smith, Eugene Comeau, Buddy Will, Ralph Jiles, Vern Chilton, Ron Bateman, Pete MacGregor and Stan Shillington. In 1954, with North Burnaby product Donn Wheating already under his wing, McKinnon recruited another four Norburn juvenile graduates, Bob Stewart, Gord Gimple, Don Cummings and Chuck Boucher. From the East Hastings district came Norm Lee and Al Jarvis and, from East Burnaby, Don Salter. The mixture was a resounding success. Now called the PNE Indians, the team lost the first game of the 1954 season and then went undefeated thereafter, climaxing the year with a three-game sweep over Manitoba All-Stars for the coveted Minto Cup. Hopes were high for a repeat in 1955. Buzza was the only player missing from last year's lineup, replaced by Fred Usselman, Alex Carey, Tom Murphy and Ed Bak. McKinnon's charges, now sponsored by Mt. Pleasant Legion, traveled to Winnipeg to play virtually the same all-star team they defeated the previous year. But, stale from the long train ride to Manitoba, Legion was ambushed 9-8 by the All-Stars. It was a reversal of form two days later; led by Gimple's three-goal outbursts, Legion knotted the series with a 13-7 victory. But success was not to be -- Manitoba exacted revenge for 1954 by taking the third and final game of the series 11-9 to progress to the Minto Cup championship, ultimately won by Long Branch, Ontario. But the 1955 loss of the Western Canadian playoff was a mere hiccup in a successful existence. Barbour, Gosse, Phillips, McGillivray, Lee and Jarvis were gone in 1956 but now on board were goalie Howie Smith, defensive specialists Joe Salley and Ken Anderson, Kelowna product Howie Carter, and forwards Henry Lapointe and Lorne Reelie, the latter a centreman who spent the previous two years in the senior league with New Westminster. Legion blasted through the season undefeated, a 10-10 tie the only blemish, before going on to meet the Brampton Excelsiors for the Minto Cup. Unfortunately for the Ontario boys, it was a wipeout. The first game ended in a 29-7 Western massacre, followed by 8-4, 17-9 and 9-7 decisions. Three BC titles and two Minto Cup championships in the 1954-1956 span that saw McKinnon's charges accumulate a record of 73 wins, one tie and just four losses. McKinnon moved the whole team up to the senior level in 1957. Five years later, the kids taught by McKinnon captured the Mann Cup. McKinnon, "Pop" Phillips, Gimple, Carey, Usselman and Barbour were all later inducted into the Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame. |