To-nigtit, “Wedacsday, the B.C. Lions and the
christian centred Athletes-In-Action will be
holding the first annual Senior Bowl at Empi
-Stadium which will pit some B.C. high school
footballers against the ‘other provinces’ attending
the short spring camp of the Lions.

Initially it sounded like a
good idea and maybe it is, at
least in theory. But. and
here's the big rub — the
game is to be played under
American rules.

Do you realize that a kid
in B.C. could go through
high school, then on to
either S.F.U. or a school in
the States and never once
know what Canadian rules
are?

We seem to be fast ap-
proaching the point where
the powers-that-be will turn
the once unique Canadian
Game into a total American
product while ironically
stating that the majority of
players must be Canadian.

‘NO LOGIC

There just doesn’t seem to
be any logic for high schools
to play U.S. rules — unless
of course the coaches don't
know or understand
Canadian rules.

As it is we have almost
totally wrecked the
Canadian game in favor of a
watered down mini-NFL.
And let's face it, it’s very

Mind you, the National
dream does seem to be:

More and more foreigners
in more‘and more Canadian
sports.

But first let’s lay a
potential falacy to rest. I am
not 4 nationalist. At its worst

nationalism is one of the.

most vicious and destructive
forces at loose in the world. I
fear it.

So — why do we bring in
American coaches and
players for a Canadian
game? If we were to admit
we wanted the U.S. product
totally, then fine. But no,
there is still this pretense

that the C.F.L. is a fine old
Canadian event. Whereas in
fact it bears no resemblance
to the game that once was
Canadian. Don’t pretend
guys, it’s embarrassing.

And even in hockey. Once
we discovered that the goons
and cudgel carriers could no
longer do anything that
remotely resembled the
game.» we made some
changes.

- Nothing so drastic as
changing and adapting back
to skills and basics. Nope,
we decided to import
Swedes, The big in thing at
hockey parties and
receptions now is to be ab:
to have at two,
preferably three ney
well) Swedes in
sections of the room.

After the rest of the world

caught up to and surpassed ;

Canadian hockey,

Tefused to fall Laxo the trap 4
‘of doing a bit of soul sears—§

ching and possibly read- -

justing their thinking. ~~

Canada opted for the easy

way. Rather than develop cE

our own we decided to buy
someone elses.

The whole situation —

creates some interesting by-

products.

For instance, the recent _
basketball series between

the Canadian National team
and the Athletes in Action
was a real laugher when
looked at in* terms of

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erican dream

Canada, they were the
crowd favorites, perhaps
because of the fact that
many of the tickets sold were
bandied by the AIA and
were sold to those who had a
particular interest in these
Christian athletes.

The Canadians were the
bad guys in the series.

This greatly upset their

- coach, Jack Donahue, who

chewed out the fans for their
lack of pride in the Canadian
team.

Jack Donahue the coach? ©

Oh yes, he’s an American.
EVEN SOCCER
oe
Even the grand old game
of soccer doesn't come out
of all this without a bit of
grey around the edges of all

that ‘white’.
Although soccer is a world

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game which has not been
greatly encouraged on this

‘side - of the water, there

should be something said for
what the Whitecaps tried in
their early years,

Under Scottish coach Jim
Easton, now a North Van
stalwart, the Vancouver
franchise went heavily into
the Canadian talent. In fact
most of the team was
Canadian. And really, in
what other centre in North
America could such an idea
have had any better chance
of success? Have a look
around the NASL and
discover how many native
sons are tied up by other
teams.

Canada is a funny nation.
We flock in the tens of
thousands to major sporting
events to watch a majority of
foreigners play in an
ostensibly ‘Canadian’ game.

But when a bunch of
amateurs, Canadians ll,
want to compete in the
Olympics, many of us, media
included scream, rant and
rave that they will be
destroying the free world
while helping the Russians
even though the Canadian
Wheat Board had earlier in
March announced the sale of
two million metric tonnes of
grain to the Soviet Union.

Ah well sports fans, not to
worry. The beer will soon be
flowing.

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