Jack Gatecliff
Any boy growing up in St. Catharines during the 1930's would have some general knowledge of the famous sporting names of the day...Jesse Owens, Joe Louis, Lou Gehrig, Lionel Conacher, Eddie Shore. But if you asked any of them who their greatest heroes were, their reply would likely be "Pung" Morton, "Wandy" McMahon, Big Bill Whittaker, or just about any other member of the local lacrosse team. This was a time when lacrosse was king in St. Catharines, and it would leave an indelible imprint on long-time St. Catharines Standard sports columnist Jack Gatecliff. "The first time I saw Doug Cove," Gatecliff would write some 50 years later, "was from my backyard as he plodded up McGhie Street, turned west on Russell Avenue on his way to the Haig Bowl, his lacrosse stick over his shoulder as a carrier for his equipment bag. The kids at Alexandra School couldn't believe I was blessed with such great athletes virtually on my doorstep."
12-year-old Jack was practically at the centre of one of the greatest moments in St. Catharines sports history when in the early hours of October 13, 1938, the St. Catharines Athletics returned home with the Mann Cup after defeating the New Westminster Adanacs at Maple Leaf Gardens. Shortly after the final game bell sounded through all the local radios tuned to CKTB's broadcast of the game, crowds of men, women and children started to spontaneously congregate near downtown's Memorial Park. Then members of the Lincoln and Welland Regiment Band were rallied and arrived on the scene at about midnight while CKTB set up lights, microphones and speakers outside the "Silver Spire" so that Paul Frost could lead some community sings. It was almost 2 a.m. before the team finally arrived home and the players were quickly transferred onto the back of a flat bed truck and paraded up and down St. Paul Street before what was estimated to be 12,000 cheering fans. Jack saw all of this first hand while riding on the running board of the truck carrying the team in it's great late night victory parade, and he would fondly recall that remarkable night for future generations in many of his "Through The Sports Gate" columns over his more than 50 years of writing.
Later as an 18-year-old, he would play for the short-staffed 1944 Mann Cup champion Athletics as many of the older players were then in military service. And after a stint at the Canadian Army training base at Camp Borden in 1945, Jack returned home with the war's end and played for the 1946 Junior Athletics before taking his first (and only) job as a sports writer for the St. Catharines Standard in 1947. There Jack Gatecliff gained a reputation as an ardent supporter of lacrosse and through his interesting and perceptive writing style, gave the great game the exposure and promotion that it often was starving for. And beyond that, he provided us many lasting mental images of the sport's rich and colourful history in St. Catharines.
"When one thinks of The Standard, one thinks of Gate," former Standard publisher Henry Burgoyne once said. "He was The Standard's goodwill ambassador for nearly 50 years. He was one of Canada's finest sportswriters - the finest in my opinion." This devotion to sports would lead to Jack's induction into the St. Catharines Sports Hall of Fame, the Hockey Hall of Fame in the Media Division, the Buffalo Sabres Hall of Fame, and in 1973, the Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame.
The Garden City Arena became his second home and when it fittingly was renamed the Jack Gatecliff Arena in 1996, Jack was thrilled. "For someone who grew up on Russell Avenue and enjoyed sports all his life...this is something I never believed could come true," he said. "This is phenomenal."
Jack Gatecliff passed away at the age of 74 on September 5, 2000 after a lengthy battle with cancer. The 2015 Presidents Cup would like to pay tribute to Jack's memory with the naming of a division in this year's tournament in his honour. And when the 2015 Presidents Cup is awarded this September 5th in the building named after Jack Gatecliff, may his spirit look down from the press box and again say, "This is phenomenal."
Rex Stimers
Rex Stimers wasn't born in St. Catharines, never scored a goal in lacrosse or blocked a shot or killed a penalty. But he may have done more to put St. Catharines lacrosse on the map during his many years here than all of the Hall of Fame players that ever brought fans to their feet at the Haig Bowl. Rex was "The Voice" of radio station CKTB and the biggest booster of lacrosse that any team could ever wish for.
Rex was 33-years-old when he quit his job as a salesman with Imperial Oil and moved to St. Catharines in 1934 to start an association with CKTB that lasted 32 years and thousands of sportscasts. "I was raised in Toronto, but the best thing that ever happened to me there was getting on the train which brought me to St. Catharines," said Rex. And there would be never a dull moment after that anytime Rex was in the vicinity of a microphone.
What radio listeners loved about Rex Stimers was his emotional involvement in every lacrosse game that he ever broadcast. You would only have to listen to a game for about thirty seconds before you knew how far behind or in front the Athletics were. And even the fans in attendance at the Haig Bowl could be startled when a loud "COME ON YOU DOUBLE BLUES!!" rang out from above and they might turn to get a glimpse of a red-faced Rex, leaning out of the small radio box at the top of the lacrosse bowl with his shirt off and shaking a microphone clenched in one hand. It wasn't unusual that Rex would get so excited during a broadcast that he would need to stop and rest while sidekick Tommy Garriock took over the microphone. And a story that lacrosse player Max Woolley liked to share about growing up in St. Catharines was listening to one game in which Stu Scott was going for a scoring record, "Midway through the game Rex stopped broadcasting and spent the rest of the game cheering for Stu."
Rex's enthusiastic, over-the-top homer radio persona was something you'll never see today. But what he managed to do so well in his day was project himself directly into the homes of so many radio listeners. Even though the St. Catharines Athletics were such an outstanding lacrosse team in the late 30's and early 40's, it was largely Rex who sold them to the public and brought the fans in droves to the local lacrosse bowl. Rex Stimers was a one man promotional team. When all of St. Catharines seemed ecstatic over its first Mann Cup win in 1938, a Standard editorial gave due credit to Rex's impact..."Rex Stimers of CKTB deserves a high word of praise...he has been a loyal and faithful friend, also impartial sponsor of the city which has gained so much in advertisement as a great sport town."
Stories were told years after Rex left us of his memorable catch phrases..."Five Bell Save" or "Ten Bell Save" if Bill Whittaker stopped a particular hot one, or of all of the multitude of nicknames he bestowed upon players such as "Pung" and "Wandy" and "Ali Baba Gus". Perhaps even more memorable were the "phantom" broadcasts from a CKTB studio that he and Garriock would put together when the Athletics were on the road. With only a few details phoned in from the game and some recorded crowd noises in the background, Rex could reconstruct a complete game for the fans sitting at home and on the edge of their seats.
Rex was just a 16-year-old cook when his Royal Navy ship was torpedoed and sunk during World War I to leave him adrift for many hours before rescue arrived. He later said, "I prayed that I'd be picked up and granted 40 more years of life." After Rex passed that 40-year milestone, he said he considered every year a bonus. For a generation of lacrosse fans in St. Catharines, the bonus was all theirs.
Rex Stimers passed away suddenly in 1966 at the age of 65.
Five years later he was inducted into the Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame as a builder.
Special thanks to Gary Gardell for writing these 2 great stories about the gentlemen we are honored to name the tournament divisions after.
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