Lou Cavalaris

Trainer Lou Cavalaris (right) celebrates Dancer’s Image victory in the 1968 Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs. The horse would be disqualified and the trainer suspended for drug use.

Louis C. Cavalaris Jr. 

Born: (Hamilton, Ohio)
Died: May 2, 2013 (Toronto)

Member:
Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame (1995)
Etobicoke (Ontario) Sports Hall of Fame (2006)

For three decades, Louis Cavalaris Jr was one of North America’s top horse trainers. He was Canada’s leading trainer in races won six times and, in 1966, he led all trainers in North America with 175 winners.

Two years later, a horse he trained, Dancer’s Image, became the first winner of the Kentucky Derby to have the victory rescinded. Traces of a banned drug were found in the horse’s urine.

Cavalaris, who was born in Hamilton, Ont., served in the Merchant Marine in the Second World War. He returned home to work as a short-order cook. He also began working in the backstretch in Detroit in 1946, gaining a trainer’s license to care for his restaurateur father’s horses. He saddled his first winner in 1949 in Toronto, when the $2,000 claimer Perfect Melody won a race at Dufferin.

By 1957, he was working for Peter Del Greco, helping turn War Eagle, a $11,000 claimer, into a stakes winner who brought home more than $100,000.

Big Lou, as he was known, became a Canadian citizen in 1960, at the start of a decade when he become a prominent trainer. According to the Daily Racing Form, Cavalaris led Canadian trainers in victories in 1966, 1969, 1970, 1972, 1973 and 1976, the year in which he won the Sovereign Award as outstanding trainer. He became the exclusive trainer for George Gardiner in 1969.

Dancer’s Image race at the 1968 Kentucky Derby was a dramatic one. A 7-2 second choice, Dancer’s Image rallied from last place to beat Forward Pass by a length and a half despite jockey Bobby Ussery losing his whip. The celebration was short-lived. Traces of phenylbutazone, a common anti-inflammatory drug known as bute, were found in the horse’s urine after the race and stewards ruled the horse disqualified and Forward Pass the victor. Phenylbutazone was legal in most jurisdictions but not allowed in Kentucky until 1974.

The dispute took racial overtones, as owner Peter Fuller had recently sent Dancer’s Image’s $60,000 winnings in a pre-Derby race to Coretta Scott King, the widow of Martin Luther King Jr., who had been assassinated the previous month. Fuller believed his donation angered Derby officials, who found in the drug test a means to punish him.

Cavalaris was suspended for 30 days. Though he had not administered the drug, he had known of its use.

A year earlier, the Cavalaris-trained Cool Reception suffered a broken right cannon bone while finishing second to Damascus.

He interrupted his training career to become racing secretary of the Ontario Jockey Club (now called the Woodbine Entertainment Group) for 10 years. He returned to training in 1988, retiring eight years later.

Among the horses he handled were Victorian Era, War Eagle, Carney’s Point, Mary of Scotland, Two Violins, Ice Water, Henry Tudor, Arctic Blizzard, Chatty Cavalier, and Yukon Eric.

In a 38-year career, he trained 2,004 winners, while his horses won $12.1 million US.

Dancer’s Image owner Peter Fuller (right front) and trainer Lou Cavalaris lead the horse to Winner’s Circle at Churchill Downs after running of Kentucky Derby in 1968.

Lou Cavalaris leads Dancer’s Image at Pimlico.

Maurice Camyré

Maurice Camyré

Born: March 10, 1915 (St. Vital, Manitoba)
Died: January 15, 2013 (Winnipeg)

Member: Canadian Boxing Hall of Fame (1977)

 

A left-handed fighter and a teamster by trade, Maurice Camyré won the Dominion amateur welterweight championship in 1935.

The Manitoba boxer still held the crown when he won a spot on the small Canadian team at the 1936 Olympics at Berlin. He was eliminated from the tournament after losing his only bout by a decision.

The boxer was born in St. Vital, Man., now part of Winnipeg, to Agnes Rose (née Genthon) and Maurice Joseph Camyré. He learned to fight at the local Eagle Club inside a converted store before moving in 1932 to the Eclipse Club, which raised a modest sum in the midst of the Depression to supplement his meagre Olympic allowance.

Camyré, whose name was often rendered in newspaper accounts as Camyree, made his first national championship challenge in 1933, when he was outpointed by Paul Frederickson, also from Winnipeg, at the Amphitheatre. “There was little to choose between the two mitt-men,” the Winnipeg Free Press reported.

Frederickson, who had been an alternate for Canada at the 1932 Games, offered his crosstown rival another shot.

“He said he would give me a rematch,” Camyré told the Free Press in 1977. “He did, but he beat me even worse.” 

The 1935 Canadian amateur championships were held in Edmonton over two days in late May. Camyré won his preliminary bout over Donald Carmichael of Stony Plain, Alta. His hometown newspaper reported Camyré was “in better condition and making the most of it,” adding “both were willing but towards the finish the St. Vital boxer had a wide edge.”

Camyré next defeated Orville (Fishy) Heron, of Regina, a former Roughriders backfielder and provincial champion. The two victories on the opening day earned him a showdown against Nick Nickelo of Montreal, a 3-to-1 favourite. Nickelo “was outpunched and outgeneraled, and although he was the defending champion, the Winnipeg boy was obviously the superior,” the Free Press reported. Camyré then claimed the title over Gordon Schmalz by a decision. (Schmalz, of Kitchener, Ont., would win the crown the following year and hold it until 1938.)

The fighter was one of four Canadian boxers to do battle against American and British fighters at the first International Golden Gloves contest, held at Yankee Stadium in New York on July 3, 1935. He was joined by Bill Marquart, Winnipeg featherweight; Bob Carrington, a Calgary lightweight and a printer’s devil; and, Walter Franklin, of London, Ont. The quartet held a final workout at Stillman’s Gymnasium three days before the fight. 

About 48,000 fans crowded into the ball park, paying between 40 cents and $4.40, to see the amateur showdowns, some of which were refereed by former world heavyweight champion Gene Tunney.

Camyré won a decision over Pete Caraccilo, a Brooklyn fruit dealer, “in a close-range slugging match that had the rapidly filling stands agog,” the Canadian Press reported. “Things rocked along on pretty even terms until the third (round) when the Canadian uncorked a beautiful left to the head that sent Caraccilo spinning half way across the ring.”

In 1936, the welterweight (up to 147 pounds) champ then beat Schmalz once again to earn a spot on the four-fighter Olympic delegation.

Camyré’s Olympics lasted just the regulation three rounds of a single bout, as he was outpointed by Chester Rutecki of Chicago. (Rutecki would be eliminated by Finland’s Sten Suvio, the welterweight gold medal winner.)

The fighter returned home, to turn professional. He “decisively defeated” Vic Zyicki in a 1937 fight in Detroit, but retired as a fighter that same year after suffering an elbow injury. He worked occasional fights in Winnipeg as a referee. 

In 1941, he became an aircraft technician for Trans-Canada Airlines (later Air Canada), his employer until retirement.

He leaves three daughters, seven grandchildren, three great-grandchildren, and a sister. He was predeceased by three brothers, as well as his wife of 67 years, the former Mary Stewart, known as Polly, who died in 2007. The couple had met at the Eclipse Club.

Wally Patch

 

Wally Patch appears in naval uniform (third row, far left) for 1944 championship photo after  St. Hyacinthe-HMCS Donnacona (Navy Combines) team won the Grey Cup.

Wallace Norman Patch

Born: 1925 (Montréal)
Died: December 18, 2013 (Montréal)

Wally Patch was a sprint star at West Hill High in Montréal who also played for the school hockey team. He joined the navy during the Second World War. He also played football as a spare guard on a Montréal navy team that defeated the Hamilton Wildcats, 8-7, to claim the 1944 Grey Cup championship.

Patch appears in the St. Hyacinthe-HMCS Donnacona team’s championship photograph. He is also listed in the game-day program, though the Canadian Press list of players from the game report does not list Patch. The Navy Combines, as they were known, had a revolving roster for the handful of games played in 1944, as military duties trumped athletic ones.

After the war, he studied ceiling acoustics and won contracts for buildings at Expo 67. He later became president of the Ceiling & Interior Systems Construction Association, traveling the globe to lecture on the topic.

A longtime resident of Dorval, Patch was predeceased by his wife, the former Mavis Porteous, who died in 1989. He was also predeceased by a sister. He leaves two daughters and five grandchildren.

Bronzell Miller

Bronzell LaJames Miller 

Born: October 12, 1971 (Federal Way, Washington)
Died: December 21, 2013 (West Jordan, Utah)

Bronzell Miller brought foot speed and a quick tongue to the locker room of the Calgary Stampeders, where he played parts of four seasons.

Miller, a 6-foot-4, 285-pound defensive tackle, has died of cancer of the plasma cells. He was 42.

His unapologetic braggadocio included frequent references to himself in the third person.

“I’m not Muhammad Ali, so I can’t predict exactly what will happen, but Bronzell is going to get his team some quarterback sacks,” he bragged before one game. His nickname was said to be B Smooth.

Miller played 29 games for the Stampeders over four seasons from 1996-99. He had 12 career sacks. He was a member of the 1988 Grey Cup winning squad, which recorded a 26-24 win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in Winnipeg.

Miller skipped football in his senior year at Federal Way (Wash.) high school. After two years at eastern Arizona Junior College, where he played defensive end for the Gila Monsters, Miller gained a scholarship to the University of Utah. In 1994, he had 12 sacks and five forced fumbles. He played for the Utes in the Freedom Bowl.

The St. Louis Rams selected him in the 7^th round (No. 239 overall) of the 1995 NFL draft. He was cut in training camp, but was picked up by the Jacksonville Jaguars. He played three games that season.

In a three-month period in 1997, Miller played for three different teams in three different leagues with three different sets of rules. He wore the uniform of the Amsterdam Admirals of the World Football League and the Nashville Kats of the Arena Football League before rejoining the Stampeders. He also later played arena football with the Los Angeles Avengers.

Away from the gridiron, Miller wrote country music songs and acted in such television series as “Promised Land” and “Touched by an Angel.” He had minor roles in such movies as “Mr. 3000” in which he played a first baseman.

He was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, an incurable cancer, three years ago. Last year, he was charged with 12 counts of violating a domestic abuse injunction involving an ex-wife. After representing himself in court, Miller was found guilty of class B misdemeanours. Miller died at the Utah home of his first wife. He leaves his birth parents, a stepfather, three brothers, a sister, and 10 children, including Bronzell II and Elijah Bronzell III.

Joan Allison

Joan Barr (back row, far left) led the Kopper Kweens high school basketball team from Flin Flon to the provincial title in 1950.

Joan (née Barr) Allison

Born: November 28, 1932 (The Pas, Manitoba)
Died: April 28, 2013 (Fort Frances, Ontario)

Member: Manitoba Basketball Hall of Fame (1985)

 

As a young woman, Joan Barr played on two legendary Manitoba basketball teams from Flin Flon — the Legionettes club team and the Kopper Kweens from Hapnot Collegiate.

In 1950, Barr and the Kweens beat Kelvin 17-15 to claim the high school provincial championship. The Kweens would go on to win seven consecutive titles, a record that still stands, earning them induction in 2012 into the hall of fame of the Manitoba High Schools Athletic Association.

Barr was a key player for the Legionettes, who won the Rosebowl Trophy as Manitoba junior champs in 1948, ’49 and ’50. Barr led all scorers with 19 points to lead the Legionettes to a 64-52 win over Winnipeg Dominion Knits for the title in 1950. They won the opener of the best-of-three final by 35-25 with Barr scoring 12 points.

After moving to Winnipeg, Barr played for a Dominos club that won four senior ladies’ provincial titles (1951-53, ’55).

“Dominos possessed too much class for Bisonettes, especially with Joan Barr on their side,” the Winnipeg Free Press reported after one 1953 game in which Barr led all scorers with 18 points.

Barr missed winning the league scoring title in 1953 by four points.

She married Bill Allison in 1953 and two years later moved to Fort Frances, Ont. She worked as a teacher until the first of her four children were born. Her father, Ernie Barr, was a prominent curler in her hometown of The Pas.

Joan Barr, her mouth open, drives to the net in a 1951 game. She won four provincial titles with the Dominos.

Jean Gauthier

Joseph Jean-Philippe Gauthier

Born: April 29, 1937 (Montreal)
Died: February 20, 2013 (Montreal)

At 6-foot-1, 190 pounds, the Montreal Canadiens hoped young prospect Jean Gauthier would develop into a second Butch Bouchard. Instead, the capable but occasionally infuriating defenceman spent most of his career in the minors, occasionally filling in for an injured player.

His inability to crack Montreal’s lineup with a permanent job did not prevent him from getting his name engraved on the Stanley Cup in 1965. He also won a Memorial Cup championship as a junior and a Lester Patrick Cup championship in the minors.

Born in Montreal, the young moon-faced defenceman began his junior hockey career with the St. Boniface (Man.) Canadiens at age 18. He led the Manitoba Junior Hockey League in penalty minutes in his rookie campaign of 1955-56, being punished 99 minutes in just 23 regular-season games. He was whistled for another 27 minutes in just four league playoff games. The “hustling Habitants” won the league title by sweeping the Winnipeg Monarchs in four straight, ending with an 8-4 victory in which Gauthier scored a goal.

He skated for the Fort Williams (Ont.) Canadiens of the Thunder Bay Junior Hockey League the following season, once again leading his circuit in penalty minutes with 133. For the Memorial Cup playoffs, he was loaned to St. Boniface and, after they were eliminated, to the Flin Flon (Man.) Bombers, who claimed the Memorial Cup junior championship by defeating the Ottawa Junior Canadiens. (The Canadiens owned Gauthier’s rights even as he contributed to defeating a Canadiens farm team.) The rugged defenceman recorded four assists in the tough, seven-game series, “swinging and hacking at his Quebec cousins” to win the 1957 championship.

After a season with the Kingston CKLCs, Gauthier joined the Hull-Ottawa Canadiens, where he would spend four seasons being groomed for promotion to the NHL and the parent club. He twice earned First Team All-Star honours and shared league’s top defenceman award with Harry Sinden.

Gauthier made his NHL debut in a game at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto on Dec. 28, 1960. Montreal’s defensve corps was on the mend, as Doug Harvey played with a shoulder separation and Bob Turner was out with an injured wrist.

Gauthier recorded his first NHL point in his first period of NHL hockey. Taking the puck from Bernie (Boom Boom) Geoffrion, Gauthier fired a shot high and wide past Johnny Bower in the Toronto goal. The puck bounced off the glass onto the stick of Jean-Guy Gendron, who tucked it home. Gauthier also got on the scoresheet with two hooking minors, as the Canadiens defeated the Maple Leafs, 4-1. It would be Gauthier’s only point in a four-game tryout.

A hockey writer’s thumbnail evaluation of his skill: “a bit crude, good shot may earn him job.”

At the Canadiens’ 1961 training camp in Victoria, B.C., Gauthier lost an open roster slot to junior teammate Al MacNeil. That Canadiens called up Gauthier for 12 games as a fill-in. At the 1962 camp, he was determined to become a regular.

“I came to camp last year with the idea I had already made the team,” he said. “This season I knew I would have to work.”

His challenger that year — a young Jacques Laperriere. Gauthier would play 65 games for the Canadiens that season, his longest stint with the club, but it would be Laperriere who would go on to take a fulltime spot on the blue line in a career that would end with his induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Gauthier recorded three assists in an 8-0 shellacking of the Boston Bruins on March 7, 1963.

Gauthier’s play sometimes delighted, sometimes infuriated the Montreal staff.

“Jean Gauthier, whose mental lapses have caused Toe Blake to almost tear his hair out from time to time this season, has been coming up with some good performances in recent weeks and may make the grade after all,” Pat Curran wrote in the Montreal Gazette. “He played well in both games last weekend.

“The 25-year-old defenceman has a lot of natural ability. He is a strong skater, has a powerful shot and can carry the puck well. The rap against Gauthier is that he’s not thinking all the time and is inclined to make costly mistakes.

“Describing Gauthier some time ago, a former teammate remarked: ‘He has all the natural talent to be a great defenceman but goes into a mental fog every once in a while.’ ”

Once, he threw a stick at an opponent on a breakaway at a practice scrimmage, an act that caused Blake to lose his cool.

Gauthier became a utility defenceman, a spare part to be used when a regular was injured. He had the good fortune to be called up to play two games in the 1965 playoffs, getting his name on the Stanley Cup.

He spent most of the 1960s playing for such minor league teams as Quebec Aces, Omaha Knights, Providence Reds and the Seattle Totems, who won the Patrick Cup as Western Hockey League champions in 1967.

He would get another shot at a roster spot when the NHL doubled in size before the 1967-68 season. The Philadelphia Flyers took him in the 12^th round (No. 69 overall) of the expansion draft. He skated in the first game in Flyers history, a 5-1 loss to the Seals at Oakland, appearing on the scoresheet when assessed a minor penalty in the second period. He played 65 games for the Flyers, who won the West Division that season.

Gauthier’s big, lumbering style was taken by some coaches as a sign of laziness. When Keith Allen of the Flyers gave him grief in practice, Gauthier replied, “Don’t worry, coach. When de bell ring, Gauch be dere .”

The Boston Bruins plucked him in the off-season intraleague draft, but he would see only spot dury over 11 games with the Bruins. The minor-league Cleveland Barons took him in the reserve draft in the summer of 1969 before selling his rights back to the Canadiens. He played his final four games with the bleu-blanc-et-rouge when called up from the Montreal Voyageurs after Serge Savard suffered a severe broken leg by crashing into a goal post in March, 1970.

His hockey odyssey continued on to the minor pro Baltimore Clippers, Rochester Americans and Long Island Ducks. He also played 31 games with the New York Raiders of the World Hockey Association.

His NHL totals included 166 regular-season games with six goals, 29 points and 150 penalty minutes. He played 14 playoff games with one goal and three assists.

Though he scored but one goal for the Canadiens in 89 games, Gauthier was a welcome regular with the Anciens Canadiens old-timer teams and was regular fêted by the club on ceremonial occasions.

Jean Gauthier reaches to cover the puck with his gloved hand. No penalty was called.

The St. Boniface Junior Canadiens with Jean Gauthier (back row, seventh from left).

Jean Gauthier (right) with the Philadelphia Flyers closes in on Dave Keon of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Les Ascott

Leslie Ascott 

Born: October 2, 1921 (Peterborough, Ontario)
Died: August 8, 2013 (Peterborough, Ontario)

Member:
Peterborough (Ont.) and District Sports Hall of Fame (1981)
All-Time Argo (2004)

 

Les Ascott won five Grey Cups as a tackle and guard with the Toronto Argonauts in a 15-year career playing professional football.

Ascott played guard and tackle in both directions, switching to defence when platooning was introduced to Canadian football late in his career. He was named to the Canadian Press all-star football team in 1945 as a middle, the same season in which he came third in voting for most-valuable player honours.

The 6-foot, 238-pounder was a steady presence in the Argos line for 11 seasons. He played for Grey Cup championship teams in 1945, ’46, ’47, ’50 and ’52. 

Ascott played high school football at Peterborough Collegiate Vocational School in 1937, winning the provincial championship against St. Mike’s while still in Grade 9. He dropped out of school the following year to work with his father on the family farm.

He played middle wing for the Peterborough entry in the Ontario Rugby Football Union, a squad known as the Orfuns, from the circuit’s acronym, in 1939. Peterborough lost all six games they played that season, scoring just 16 points, while allowing 105 to such teams as the Montreal Westmounts, Toronto Balmy Beach and Sarnia Imperials. The Orfuns folded at the end of the winless season.

Ascott joined the Argos at the start of the 1940 campaign in the Interprovincial Rugby Football Union. The 19-year-old was intimidated by the size of his teammates, never mind his opponents.

“I was kinda scared playing against those big guys,” he told the Peterborough Examiner in 2005. “I was the youngest on the team.”

After two seasons with the Argos, Ascott enlisted in the navy. He spent the war playing for naval football squads, including the Toronto Navy Bulldogs from HMCS York (1942, ’44) and Halifax Navy (1943). Ascott’s rank was stoker.

He returned to the revived Argos in 1945, suffering a shoulder injury in a midseason game. Ascott was named to the all-star team as his reliable blocking opened holes for Toronto’s backfield, allowing Joe Krol and Royal Copeland to romp. Despite working in the anonymity of the front trenches, Ascott finished tied for third in voting for the Jeff Russel Memorial Trophy as MVP behind guard George Fraser of the Ottawa Rough Riders.

By 1947, Ascott was captain of the Argos. The only points he scored in 11 seasons with the Boatmen came against the Tigers in Hamilton in the third quarter of a 1947 game when Ascott tackled Polly Miocinovich in his own end zone for a two-point safety. Argos won, 13-1. The Boatmen won their third consecutive Grey Cup to end the season. Two more were to come.

The easy-going Ascott said he never signed a contract, settling payment with a verbal agreement and a handshake.

“Each Christmas out wives would receive a bonus cheque from the team,” he told the Examiner. “They also provided a job. I want to be a tool-and-die maker. They got me an apprentice with a toolmaker.”

After retiring as a player after the 1953 season, Ascott coached Balmy Beach for a season. (By then, ORFU clubs took an intermediate status, no longer contesting the Grey Cup.) He also contributed as a blocking coach at Toronto high schools.

After leaving football, Ascott worked as a salesman for a brewer and, later, a distiller in Toronto. He retired and returned to Peterborough in 1982.

His No. 52 uniform was retired by the Argonauts in a half-time ceremony at SkyDome in 2004. He was also named an All-Time Argo.

 

 

 

 

Tony Golab (far left) of Ottawa races past Les Ascott’s desperate tackle.

Les Ascott (No. 52) watches as Joe Krol scores a touchdown.

Les Ascott holds a No. 52 jersey at a 2004 halftime ceremony at SkyDome.

 

 

Alex Viskelis

 

Alexander Peter Viskelis

Born: May 21, 1935 (Montréal)
Died: August 13, 2013 (Montréal)

 

Alex Viskelis scored an overtime goal in Game 6 of the International Hockey League’s championship final in 1958, saving his Indianapolis Chiefs from elimination. The Chiefs followed his dramatic goal with another victory in the final game to claim the Turner Cup.

The 5-foot-11, 170-pound left-winger was a product of Montreal’s crowded amateur hockey scene. He skated for the Montreal Junior Royals at age 18 in 1953, scoring 13 goals in 55 games. He skated for three junior teams the following season — Montreal Junior Canadiens, Jonquiere (Que.) Marquis, and St. Catharines (Ont.) Teepees — before joining the Chatham (Ont.) Maroons, a senior team, in 1955.

Viskelis showed great puck sense in the 1956 Allan Cup playoffs. While he had scored just six goals in 25 regular-season games, he notched seven goals (and added four assists) in 17 games of the Allan Cup series. He opened the scoring in four games of the Eastern Canada finals against the Saint John (N.B.) Beavers, helping to send the Maroons into the finals in British Columbia against the Vernon Canadians.

While Chatham won the opening game by 7-1, the Canadians roared back to win four sraight and claim the Allan Cup in a series played in Vernon, Kelowna and Kamloops.

Viskelis enjoyed his most productive season the next year, scoring 18 goals with 17 assists in 52 games. 

He then spent three seasons with the Chiefs in the IHL, playing 128 games. He scored 23 goals with 56 assists.

The 1958 Turner Cup finals pitted the Chiefs against the Louisville (Ken.) Rebels. On March 31, a scoreless third period sent Game 6 into overtime with the score at 2-2. The Rebels led the series and needed only a goal before a raucous home crowd to claim the championship, but Chiefs goalie Cliff Hicks, a cast on his stick hand, turned aside all shots. After 7 minutes and 30 seconds of overtime, Viskelis took a goalmouth feed from defenceman Billy Short to redirect the puck past rebels goalie Lou Crowdis for the game winner and to send the series to a Game 7.

The next night, the Chiefs prevailed, 3-2, as the referee waved off what appeared to have been a last-second tying goal by the home Rebels.

After leaving hockey, Viskelis returned to Montreal, where he worked for many years at a Coca-Cola bottling plant until retiring. He was a lifelong resident of the Montréal neighbourhood of Point St. Charles, where he had been baptized at Saint Casimir’s Parish and where he attended Canon O’Meara elementary school.

Alex Viskelis (middle) at the rink in Jonquiere, Que. He is joined by (from left) coach Lloyd (Swede) Paulsen, Bob Laforest, Viskelis, Malcolm Coates, Fred Carter.

The 1958 Turner Cup champion Indianapolis Chiefs of the IHL. Viskelis is in the back row, far left.

Frank Hickey

Francis Robert Hickey

Born: June 9, 1924
Died: December 9, 2013 (Toronto)

 

Frank Hickey served two years as a gunner in the Royal Canadian Air Force during the Second World War. He was demobilized just in time to join the Toronto Argonauts football team as an end for the 1945 season.

Used mostly as a backup in his rookie season, he got his name on the scoresheet in the 1945 Grey Cup. After Joe Krol returned an intrecepted pass 55 yards for a touchdown, Hickey scored the convert to make it 30-0 in what would be a 35-0 rout of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

In 1946, Hickey attended the University of Toronto, where he played for the Varsity Blues, missing out on the Argos’ repeat as Grey Cup champions. He returned to the Boatmen in 1947, once again enjoying an Argonauts championship.

After three seasons in Toronto, Hickey was lured west to Edmonton in 1949. Annis Stukus, known as the Loquacious Lithuanian, signed Hickey and three other Argos, including his younger brother, Bill, known as Little Stuke, for a revived Eskimos franchise. Canadian football was about to enter the big time and the modern era.

“I saw the transition,” Hickey once told Paul Patton of the Globe and Mail. “When I was with the Argos, the team was all-Canadian, but, by 1950, teams were using U.S. imports and bringing in a new crew every year.”

The 5-foot-11, 180-pound halfback and flying wing retired as a player after six seasons.

Hickey had been a high school all-star at Malvern Collegiate and St. Michael’s College in Toronto before enlisting. His quick post-war return to the gridiron surprised him.

“The thing that stands out in my mind is that I could play football at the high school level and move right up to the Argos,” he told the Globe in 1985. “But that year I played behind Jack Wedley. They only used me when he got tired.”

Hickey coached the Edmonton Wildcats junior team for two seasons before returning east to operate a car dealership in Simcoe, Ont. He later ran a Canadian Tire store in Markham, Ont.

Gen Gregoire

Genevieve Gregoire

Born: 1981
Died: December 13, 2013 (Montréal)

 

Gen Gregoire was an all-Canadian swimmer who helped relay teams set school records for McGill University of Montréal. She later became an assistant coach with McGill’s Martlets varsity swimming team. She has died of cancer, aged 32.

Montreal Gazette photo.

Gregoire grew up in Pincourt, Que., a town on Île-Perrot, off the western tip of the island of Montreal. She competed with the Pointe-Claire SwimCclub, achieving a national level status by age 13. She enrolled at McGill in 2001 after attending John Abbott College.

The 5-foot-10 sprinter earned conference all-star status in her first three seasons with the Martlets, according to Earl Zuckerman of McGill. She missed most of her senior campaign with injuries.

The 5-foot-10 sprinter helped establish three school records in relays. She also helped set a Quebec collegiate standard in 2003 by as part of a quartet which completed the 200m free relay in 1 minute, 46.63 seconds. Her teammates in the record-setting performance were Carolyn McCabe, Kristina Hassell and Janice Tijssen.

She competed at three Olympic trials.

Gregoire graduated with an education degree, majoring in kinesiology, in 2005. She later obtained a certificate to be an interior designer.

She worked part-time as an assistant coach at McGill for five years until her health forced her to step aside in 2011. She had been diagnosed with breast cancer two years earlier.

McGill’s swim team raised $7,000 in her name over the past three seasons to support cancer research.