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“Page 14, March 18, 1979 - -Seniey News

couldn't ‘have S wodped in another'ex-North Van
“High jock, even if the place had had rubber walls.

Between the bar and the
| dining room, at least 10,000
“stories must have been told
and re-told and em-
beilished. If North Van High
wasn’t the greatest
repository of high school
athletics in Greater Van-
couver when the evening

started, it certainly was
when it finished.
"The school that started out

in 1910 in the current Queen
Mary Community School on
West Keith, then moved to
23rd, just east of Lonsdale,
in the early 1920's, closes its
doors for good in June. Old
age and--a declining
enrolment have overtaken
the old place.

The pioneer member at
Thursday’s reunion was
Margaret Frome Maxwell,
the only ex-North Van High
athlete on the premises who
graduated before the school
on 23rd opened.

BASKETBALL BELLE

She finished in 1920 and
then went back for another
year to take a commercial
course.
bering that it wasn't the
commercial course. that
brought her back so much as
the opportunity to play
another season of basket-
ball. At the time there was
nowhere else in North

She was remem- —

-Vancouver where she could

play.

Jimmy Spencer graduated
10 years later into the start of
the depression-wracked
1930's. In time he was to
become one of the finest
soccer players ever
developed in Canada and a
member of the B.C. Sports
Hall of Fame.

But the other night he was
recalling how close he came
to being remembered, if
remembered at all, as
nothing more than a 1931
industrial accident statistic.

Fate, they say is the
hunter. And it tracked him
down into the shaft of a

Nanaimo coal mine, 1,000
feet below the harbor
waters.

There were no jobs for 17-
year-olds coming out of
school in 1931, but because
this lad had uncommon skill
at soccer, he got an offer
from Nanaimo to play there
and work in the mines at $4 a
day.

“My dad told me I was
crazy,” he was remem-
bering, “that I wouldn't last a
week. It was hard work,
hunched over all the time in
this small shaft. They gave
me a shovel with a handle
that seemed 13 feet long and

Grant aids
NV stadium

The provincial government
has come through with a
$53,333.33 contribution to
construct a new stadium at
Mahon Park in North
Vancouver, replacing — the
former one destroyed by fire.

Provincial Secretary and
Government Services

Minister Hugh Curtis, in

announcing the grant last
week, said it) will) cover
one-third of the costs requir-
ed to construct the new

stadium and stems from the
government's Recreation
Facilities Assistance
Program,

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MARINE DRIVE
NORTH VANCOUVER

986-53

55

Locations throughout Canada and United States

I had to shovel rock away.
from the coal face.

BIG DROP
“After a few weeks I was

- handling it pretty well, until

the day a chunk of rock fell
out of the ceiling of the
shaft, right next to where I
was working. Close? It
actually scraped my leg.
Later I found out it weighted
5 tons!

“I put that shovel down
and I started to walk out.
The guy I was working with
said: ‘aren't you even going
to finish out your shift?’ I
told him‘ ‘no bloody way’.”

That’s how close Spencer
came to never playing 20
years of topflight soccer. But
if being hit on the head by a
five-ton rock might have
done something more than a
couple of aspirin could have
cured, at least he’d have
been spared the headache
-that camé a year later.

When he returned to the
mainland, it wasn’t to the
North Shore United. He
played one season for New
Westminster Royals when
they were the best team in
Canada; and when _ the
defence of their Canada
championship ended in
Prince Albert. He was a key
figure, through no fault of
his own, in their upset loss to
the Sasketchewan team.

“Austin Delany (a North
Shore resident until his
untimely death, 20 years

Protessional Cleaning

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in The Winter Garden

This Weeks Special

For

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Til March 24 Only
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Covering ALL Cleaning & Alteration Needs
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ago) got ‘his hands on the

game ball the night before.

We figured to be several
goals better than Prince
Albert because we had more .
talent.

HEAVY BALL

“But Austin wanted to
make sure.
bladders into the ball and
then soaked it overnight in
the bathtub. It would be
easier to keep a heavy ball
on the ground, where we

wanted it, and harder for

them to put it into the air.

“But it went into the air
right after the opening
kickoff. That’s when I made
my mistake, I went up and
headed it. The next thing I
remember was | waking up on
the train going - “back to
Vancovuer.

“In those days there were
no injury substitutions. We
had to play the rest of the
game with 10 men and we
lost. Not only that, but I had
a headache for another
week.”

The next season he joined -

the North Shore club in the
Pacific Coast League. A
shrewd move, for it landed
him a job in. the fire
department, where he rose
to be chief before retiring
four years ago.

At a time when pro soccer
has just caught on here, and
the Whitecaps seem on the
verge of another banner
season, Spencer crosses his
fingers and hopes they give
the Canadian kids a real shot _.
at filling more than just the ~
two token positions
reserved, by North
American League rules, for
homebrew players.

PUT DOWN ROOTS

He feels the team and,
indeed, the league, can't
become a permanent part of
the sport scene on British
and European’ imports
alone; that they must put

down local roots and go out
of their way to give local

‘La le “a POOH

922-4011

He put two .

talents the actual game

exposure needed to bring
them along.

If he feels the Whitecaps
could be doing more in this
respect - and he does -— it's
not really strange. After all,

‘he’s a homebrew, too.

In the mid-30's, he might
have had a chance to turn
pro. He played against a
Scottish international team
here in 1935, one of 11
young Canadians chosen to
the B.C. team by the coach,
the same Delany of the
Prince Albert caper. .

‘For eschewing former
British pros then resident
here in favor of an all-
Canadian lineup, Delany
caught hell on all sides. But
his splendidly conditioned
group of homebrews. had a
scoreless draw going until

Hughie Gallacher, one of
Scotland’s alltime greats,
scored in the last minute of
play.

The Scottish team boss,
Willie Struth (who also
managed Glasgow. Rangers)
was impressed enough to.
enquire about taking two or
three of them, including
Spencer, back to Scotland.
They were such bonnie
players, he told Delany, the
Rangers would be willing to
pay them as much as two
pounds a week.

“Fwo, pounds a week!”
cried Delany. “They make
three times that much in
their jobs and they play for
fun.” -

From the dirty 30’s to the
sexy. 70's, times and money
have certainly changed. No?

Gymnasts return

home after games

A pair of West Van
gymnasts have _ returned
home after a successful trip
to the B.C. Winter Games i in
Kamloops.

Hallie Lecker placed sixth
overall and Leslie
Walkinshaw finished ninth in

the gymnastics which saw 70
gymnasts taking part.

In a North Shore floor -
meet hosted by Sparca at
Inglewood school over the
weekend, Flicka and West
Van athletes split the honors
in the six categories.

Scott Mackinnon

Residents of the west side of Lower Lonsdale
should recognize Scott. He has one of the ftargest
News paper routes in that area of North Vancouver

Scott is a grade 7 student at Lonsdale Elementary
School. and like a lot of boys his age, he’s very active in

sports He plays hockey, soccer,

and baseball and

buys all of his own equipment with his earnings from his

paper route

Scott has been with the News tor a couple of years
and in appreciation of his tine delivery record, we're
sending him Famous Players Gift Certificates for the

movies

Circulation 986-1337
1139 Lonsdale Ave,
North Vancouver

north shore