Lacrosse Legend Joe Cambria

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Episode Transcript

(00:01):
Hi. My name is Joe Cambria. I was born in August twenty eight,
nineteen fifty eight, in Montreal.Joe, tell us about your lacrosse
career. Well, I started myfirst contact lacrosse came watching TV, actually

(00:21):
watching Saturday's Zeros back in nineteen seventyI'm going to say, and coincident has
had it that the year after,in Anjou where we lived, they actually
started lacrosse as a recreational in theparks and I got in contact lacrosse there
and I played for the city whilethe city there was only one team and

(00:43):
it was us, a group ofeleven year olds. And from there I
played different little tournaments. Funny becauseyou know, I look back and I
remember playing a tournament in you know, in Saint Michel, and for me
that was the end of the world. I had never been outside of my
municipalley after that. In seventy four, through a great WinCE, I played

(01:07):
for a coach named Jacques LaBelle,who was also a teacher at beebev College
who has a great reputation for lacrosse, which I didn't even know about.
And after my Bantom year, myfirst Bantom year, the second year.
He organized the game where we playedagainst his students, and there they recruited
me. You know, they said, you've got to come and play for

(01:29):
our junior team in Montreal and SechelCastile. And so that's when I started
my junior career. I turned fifteen. I played poor Pierre Pillion and then
about matt Tho was worked by twofirst coaches and I went on. I
played six years junior and finished offmy senior with the montre More at Least

(01:52):
club in nineteen eighteen eighty one inthe canam League. And we played in
junior. Need to mention we playedin the Entreprenecial League and then the Quebec
Lacrosse Federation we re vamped or restartedthe Quebec Junior Conference. And yeah,
that's it. That's pretty much mycareer. You're quite humble because you said
you played. I think, didyou not dominate the junior and senior lacrosse?

(02:15):
Well, you know, it's Iprobably had during those years. I
think my first year in junior,even though my coach didn't played me at
the first three games, I stillfinished second score on the team. I
did pretty good. And the secondyear I finished second in the league.

(02:36):
And after that, I think everyyear after I finished first except for one
year which was won by Denny Levee, which is also a great lacrosse player.
In the Cannam League, I thinkthose were probably my two best years
as a player. You know,if I could go back my first year
in the Cannami League, yeah,I was fortunate enough I did finish first

(02:58):
score as a rookie in the Canamilywhich had a lot of great players.
So yeah, you know, Ican say that's certainly something that I remember.
When you look at your career,Who are the best players that you
played against? Uh, you know, a lot of these names people probably
won't know outside of Quebec, butthere were a lot of good players in

(03:19):
Quebec. I think in the seventieseighties, uh, lacrosse was very healthy
and Quebec and the caliber of playwas quite high. So I had to,
you know, you know, fortunateto play against players like I talked
about Danny lev Andre Provo, Michellebas I was a goaltender, a great
goaltender, daniel leb know Givelli likethese are names of just some of the

(03:44):
players that I had the opportunity toplay with against and obviously when you're playing
against players that the higher the caliber, well, the higher you can measure
yourself, and the more you workto be able to stay at that caliber
or try to exceed that. Helberhe comes your regard. Keis only bone

(04:06):
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(04:46):
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(05:17):
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(05:44):
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(06:26):
Joe. You've been captain of everyteam that you played on since you
were a banned almost Yeah, whatwere the components of your leadership that the
people who selected you as team captain? What did they see? Well?
You know that that's a tough question. I think you would have asked them.
But you know, if I thinkabout this and I remember, the

(06:50):
answer might not be sexy. Ithink it comes from my upbringing and how
I was brought up uh certain umvalues that I truly believe in and I
tried to live by. And Ithink the first one was respect. I
was very important in my family respectingothers, Respecting your elders, Respecting you
know, authority, right, theteachers. So that I think was one

(07:15):
thing that I lived by and thathelped. The second one empathy. We
were always brought up to care forothers and have empathy for people, to
be helpful, right to understand.And also my mother made it a big,
very big point, always keep usgrounded, to stay humble in your

(07:36):
success and don't brag, just behumble. And I think maybe by living
that without knowing it allowed my coachesmaybe to put me in a position where
they knew that I would respect whatthey wanted or the culture. My empathy
with other players, they were myteammates and I connected well with them,

(08:00):
and regardless of maybe my status inregards to you know, whether it was
the top scorer, or the bestPlayer or whatever whatever awards I would win,
I will always stay stayed very humble, and I always never took things
for granted on any team that Iplayed, And I think that maybe that
was some of the you know,attributes that helped my captaincy captain the Choisir

(08:33):
Joe Joe Cambrio, Captain Joe Okayspans uh your facilities on these any uh

(09:01):
we see t Lamson to state armedhumidity and the State Armed val g V

(09:26):
point Coach zero, Captain c Circusrespectaches respect. Magri mcgrill notes, So

(09:50):
sad your your an instructor, CoachDonald bo it is well, I can
in the visual except as a teamcaptain, you had to deal with officials

(10:11):
for years and years and years.How did you relate with officials while um?
First off, you know, Icould talk to the question of respect
and I understood that they were theauthority. They were there to make sure
that the rules were abided by.So I never had a bad relationship.
On the contrary, I think Ihad pretty good relationship with the referees because

(10:35):
I treated them with respect and Ifollowed their instructions right or you know,
in regards to because of that,it enabled me to get very good explanations
sometimes, and I think it alsohelped in um maybe protecting me a little
bit more on the on the field. When I played, I think that

(10:56):
I had very little bad experiences withrees, but even in those bad experiences,
I always respected the fact that theywere the authority on the court.
Joe, you're regarded by just abouteverybody as the best player to have graced
the game in Quebec. What wereyour greatest strengths and, if any,

(11:18):
the weaknesses that you had as aplayer. Okay, well, you know
that the fact that a lot ofpeople you know, considered me the best
player at that time came with theresponsibility, so I think it made me
work harder. I always believe thatother players probably had better sticks than I
did, but I worked hard.I think my strongest attributes as a player,

(11:43):
first off, I would say themental aspect of it. I did
take a lot of time on somebench looking at how the game was going,
how players were playing. I alwaysprided myself in being a two way
player, so to me, theoffensive ats or the offensive skills needed to
be matched defensively. That was veryimportant to me and it helped me a

(12:05):
great deal to having that skill defensively, it helped me offensively, and from
a loose ball perspective, I pridedmyself a great deal and you know,
grabbing the loose balls and getting theloose balls, that to me was a
very I was very proud of that, right, Bigard, regardless you know,

(12:26):
of my size or to come outand have that ball. And I
think that you know, from askills perspective that you know that was it.
Maybe people my speed and my induranceobviously helped, right. Yeah.
My weaknesses, yeah, you're you'reyou're presented to everyone has the total package.
Yeah, lots of the weaknesses.I'm gonna try. I'm gonna try
try to stay away from that one. But I'd have to go back and

(12:50):
think of my coaches and some ofthe things that they would tell me.
And the one thing that comes backa lot or from two of my coaches
in my last junior year, mysenior years, and it was a selfh
Podcat and Naughty four where my coaches, teammates and coaches and I always played
the game by the book. Sothat means that if I came on a

(13:11):
two on one and I had theball. My role was to attract that
defensive player towards me, so Icould pass the ball to the my teammate.
Regardless of who that teammate was,I would do that because that's how
you should play a two on one, and I can you know the same

(13:31):
thing on if we're a two manpower play, if one of my teammates
was ahead of me, well,I would pass the ball to that teammate.
And I remember coming back to thebenches lots of time and say,
Arnie would say, shoot, shoot, don't you know why did you pass
the ball? Next time? Keepthe ball? So I don't know if
that's a weakness, but I thinkthey thought it was. And I'm sure

(13:54):
that I must have cost them somepoints in some games by doing that.
Maybe, but yeah, that's yeah. You gave many many lectures after you're
playing career and also while you wereplaying, and you often stress the fact
that even though you won so manygames, that it's when you lose that

(14:15):
you can progress and develop. Whatwas the message, Well, you know,
I think that you know it's Ididn't invent anything. I think you
hear a lot of people that willtell you that to succeed, you need
to fail, and it's what youdo with those failures that matters. I
strongly believe that, Yeah, nowyou hear it. Sometimes adversity builds character.

(14:37):
I think that adversity you can developcharacter. So what I mean is
that when you take the time tounderstand what happened or analyze it, and
if you're honest with yourselfing you needto be what role did I play in
that defeat or that loss? Ithink it helps you prepare for them next,

(14:58):
next one, and it just makesyou a more complete and better if
you don't repeat them and if youunderstand what happened. And it's not always
only on yourself, right, it'salso in regards to when you look at
the whole team, of the wholeconcept. And even today in my job,
you know, when we always debriefor whether we win a contract or
lose a contract or a situation,we do a debrief or we talk about

(15:20):
it. You know, I don'tknow if justly call it a debrief,
but I'll do that with my salespeopleor my engineers, and I always say,
you know, I don't say whatdid you learn from that experience?
I always ask what would you dodifferently? Because it's different. What would
you differently means it only encompasses you, It encompasses your strategy, encomasses of

(15:41):
people you worked with, the peopleyou've dealt with. So I think that
there's always something positive that comes outof a defeat or a loss or a
loss of contract. It doesn't matter. You can build on that and that
makes you can make you successful nexttime. Joe, Indeed, get on
defeat the tail Canada, the setterto suv Z computive near meya guess,

(16:15):
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(16:40):
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(17:03):
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(17:30):
Our Termini Armini American tel Stone WellVictorian se City don't subjects part objects if
we're sort of two more number objectiveprotesta TI movement professor checker the subjects if

(18:00):
Carsonnel collective objective. You're one ofthe passionate people about the game. You
talk about it with great respect andpassion. What is it with lacrosse that
brings out such a passion in you? Well, for first off, I

(18:25):
think, you know, I thinkthe history of the game itself. I
you know, I was very impressedby, you know, how the natives
and what it meant for them andwhere it came from. And in Quebec
has a very rich history of lacrosse. You know, Montreal and Quebec are
are probably where lacrosse, modern lacrossewas born, right, and a lot

(18:49):
of great players that evolved back inthe back in those days. And I
think that that aspect really interested meand I wanted and somehow to be a
little part of that right of thatheritage. The second thing is that as
an athlete, you know, asa kid, I played the basketball,

(19:10):
football, field, hockey, handball, you know, just soccer, and
lacrosse to me was the ultimate gamefor any athlete. It was the fastest
game on two feet. That's whatwe used to talk about lacrosse. So
fastest game on two feet. Youhad an asset. You had that stick
and was an offensive asset. Youcould ever good with it, you could

(19:33):
be dangerous with it and score ondefense. It was an asset. Defensively,
you could take the ball away,you can stop a player. So
combining the speed offense and defense thetactical and strategic aspect of the game for
an athlete. I think you knowI did track, and I think I
could combine all of those different sportsin one which I thought was the most

(19:57):
complete and most beautiful game you could. You could play Pari the lacrosse anything
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to our pal passion premier. Yousee list the lacrosse lacross present the lass

(20:30):
Transporte Elite, quay back and crownestlacrosse. See it's sic a lacross to
Quebec lacrosse. Mad you did Grandoire, you did Grand League, okay back
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(21:04):
or basketball or handball or soccer.She fed promo lacrosse combine two small defense
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(21:34):
comb La sound that the trap havingthat lip. I've always heard you are
often heard you say about people whotalk about the game, that they do
it for the love of the game, and you've always had reservations when you
heard people say that, What werethose reservations. First of all, I

(21:56):
want to say that I never doubtedthat they loved the game, and they
that they really felt that way.But I make a very big distinction between
love and respect, and I thinkthe lacrosse we should respect lacrosse more than
we love it. And the reasonI say that is that I think that,
you know, a lot of foolishthings in the world are done or

(22:19):
we're done under the for the underthe name of love for love, and
I think everybody can relate to adifferent you know, sometimes the best example
give you is that you can lovenature, but if you don't respect it,
you can hurt it. Right,you might not like the rules,

(22:41):
but if you don't respect them,you're going to hurt the game. So
I think that people, I alwaysfelt that, not everybody they use that
as a justification for having done somethingagainst either the governance of the game that
could have really hurt the game.They really did it because they loved it.

(23:03):
For example, if I go backto when I was president of the
Lacrosse Federation, you know, there'sa lot of issues back then on insurance,
insurance and insurance players and the federationand a responsibility of making sure that
the game was sanctioned, that thereferees were sanctioned by the federation. But
we didn't have some associations that wouldorganize games against teams from Ontario and would

(23:27):
use their own referees, and theydidn't. And they did it for the
love of the game. They didit because they wanted the game to grow.
I mean, that's the reasons theywere giving us. But they really
could have hurt the game. Somethingwould have happened to one of those kids.
They would have been would have beena great responsibility and it would have
been terrible for the game of lacrosse. So yeah, that's uh, you

(23:48):
know. And I don't judge peoplethat say that. I think a lot
of people when they say that theytruly needed I would rather people say that
I do it or I did itfor the respect of the game. So
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(24:25):
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(25:44):
partner the respective nuclei respect or spaU Joe. You've you've played lacrosse.
Now in the corporate world, you'revice president of a large international carburetion.
You're very successful in the business world. What has lacrosse given you that has

(26:08):
allowed you to climb all the wayto where you are today as vice president?
Well, that's a good question.I think as a kid, lacrosse
kind of brought me up. Iwas in a certain way. It had
a great deal in my character.So it allowed me to interact and it

(26:30):
allowed me to see that if youworked very hard at something, you could
be good at it, and Ithink I carried that throughout my life.
It gave me that confidence to saythat, you know what, if you
really put your mind to this show, you might not be the best at
whatever you take, but you'll bepretty good at it right and you'll work

(26:51):
at it. So that to meis something that carries that I carry through.
I also threw lacrosse. I realizethat I could make a difference in
people's lives personally, right, sothat I think it really helped me that
understanding that capability of looking at nowand now analyzing what happened and being able

(27:15):
to carry that through that I stilldo today. Look Like I talked before
about you know, what have youlearned? How can you do things differently?
Analyzing the situation? All of thatcame from from lacrosse, right.
All of that that level of confidenceat the level to really believe that,
you know, if you really payattention to it, if you're respected,
and if you work at it,you could you could do a pretty good

(27:37):
job. Jo't too well Cross theycan extra carrier man. You know,
vispers down to get on Frosty.I was of Zoo Lambda fire. Could

(28:03):
lacs roll down across personnel across inrespective The sac shows part partisan conference,

(28:26):
the SABOT is socially transport CAPTIV confiencekid lacrosse, the conference kid lacrosse.

(28:49):
And remember, if there's one thingthat you would have done differently in your
playing career, what would it havebeen. That's a hard question. To
answer, because first off, Ithink I'm of the type that I don't
look back on the decisions or thechoices that I made. I tried to

(29:14):
make them. Whatever choice I make, I try to make it work.
I don't try to look back andsay I should have or I could have.
So that enables me to, youknow, to always do the best
in what I'm doing. I alwayshad a good sense of loyalty towards to
the Quebec Lacrosse because it gave me. Quebec Lacrosse made me, so I

(29:36):
had a sense of response that Ihad to get back to my to my
province, to the federation and tolacrosse. So you know, a lot
of people you know, you know, I remember, you know, you
know John Davis and even Sandy Lynchwhen I played for them. Even Jen
Bishop once told me that I couldplay, I should go play in Oshawa

(30:00):
or Peterborough, pilpay junior there right, and that could have opened up different
doors for me. But I thechoice to me was I couldn't make that
choice. It was I had togive back to the people that believed in
me and gave me that opportunity atthe girl. So I don't know if
I would have done anything different asa player, I might have done things

(30:22):
differently as federation at the Federation presidentthat I might have done things differently.
How would you like the game toremember you? You know, that's a
that's a question that I often askhim. I do interviews when I try
to hire people when I know,I always asked them the question, you

(30:42):
know, what would be on yourgrave or what you know? How would
you like people to remember you?And the reason I asked that it's because
when whatever you say is how youlive, how you should be living your
life. Right, If you wantpeople to remember you as being good,
well you get to be good.Right to be a good person, you
need to be a good person.So I think I I want people to

(31:07):
remember me as I think being ahumble person, a good teammate and fair,
a fair person. That to mewould be what I want them to
remember me as. Yeah, hecome to regard a lacrosse mand come I

(31:33):
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(32:00):
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(32:32):
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(32:54):
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(33:21):
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(33:45):
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(34:07):
fer de Jean comes m keim uhGreta Joe. You mentioned that you were
blessed with having guardian angels in yourlife. What's that? Yeah, I

(34:30):
called them a guardian angels because Ididn't know what they were, you know
what they what they did for meback and when I was a kid I
came. I came from a modestfamily and we weren't you know, sports
was not part of our you know, of our DNA. We just did
not have that in the family.And I had a lot of adults that

(34:52):
took care of me, protected meas from a ten or eleven year old
all the way through my my career, and they did it. Uh,
you know, it was free.It was for no reason. They had
nothing they gained from it. Butyet they protected me and uh, you
know, they helped for me,and they helped me make decisions in my

(35:15):
life. And you know, Ithink that even today, you know,
I mentioned Jacques One Pierre Feudal aboutMattuh you know, even you know,
I'll mentioned you know, Sandy Lynchand John Davis when I played for them
in Lachine in Montreal that one year. Some of the things you know,

(35:35):
that Sandy Lynch said to me,still stick to me today. Some of
the things that John Davis told me, right, helped me be a better
player. And they protected me,they took care of me. Yeah.
So what I mean by that,if I have the opportunity and the still
today when I do see them,if I have a chance, that I
thank them for what they did forme. What do you see as the

(36:00):
future of the game of lacrosse.Yeah, I don't want to be pessimistic
about it, because I think thelacrosse will always live. It would always
be a great sport, and itis a great sport. I think that
if we don't start looking at thingsdifferently, it'll always be unfortunately a little

(36:23):
bit of a marginal sport. Ithink we need to be more open to
inclusive in regards to the game andthe people. I think that the stronger,
the stronger provinces or the stronger associationshave a responsibility to help build the

(36:49):
grassroot outside of their communities. Ithink that there's a lot of things that
we can learn from the heritage andfrom the history of the game that we,
you know, unfortunately forgot or wedidn't cultivate it enough. So for
me, the future, if youwould ask me what I would do,
you know, I think that thefuture of the game is more on the

(37:14):
field at the field, on thefield level field lacrosse. And I say
that because it is a very Ithink, very disciplined sport and it's you
know, if you look at theUS, it's like, you know,
it's a prep school sport. Ithink that that is where we need to
maybe invest a little bit more,and I think from there we can grow

(37:37):
the rest of the box. I'ma box player and I always will be,
and I think it's the most beautifulgame in the world, but we
need to make it a beautiful game, an inclusive game, you know,
I always say that if I toldyou I didn't come from a sports family,
if my parents would have seen aprofessional lacrosse game in nineteen seventy four,

(37:59):
they never would have allowed me toplay lacrosse because of the image that
it gave. So I think thatthere's a work to be done from that
level to make it, you know, And I think we need to respect
what that game is, the integrityof it, and we have to stop
changing it to try to please right. We have to change it from the

(38:22):
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(39:01):
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(39:31):
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(39:58):
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Scout specifically, how would you seethe future of the game in Quebec um

(40:24):
I, You know, I thoughtabout that in regards to when I left
the federation completely, you know,when I walked away from it, and
what I realized is that the thingsthat I would do differently, and I
think the things that need to bedone today in order to grow the game

(40:44):
because there's still a lot of players, a lot there's not as much as
before and it's not as well publicizethat as as it was. But I
would definitely probably number one, Iwould build on our irritation, on our
history. I think that lack ofunderstanding of the culture of the game in

(41:04):
Quebec. I mentioned before the birthof lacrosse happened here. Of modern lacrosse,
it happened in Montreal, it happenedin Quebec. Right the openness,
Right do we have the you know, the natives that you know, we're
privileged to be right next to youknow, Knawauge and Aquasasni and these are

(41:24):
great lacrosse heritage right right there.And I think I would have built on
that more to have people made awareof the that strength that we had and
that heritage that we had right alittle bit when when I said that I
wanted to be a little bit partof it, I think we could have
used that to have a lot ofother players want to be a bit,

(41:45):
a bit, a little bit partof it. You know, I think
I would have spent I would haveput a track or you know, I
would have spent time on building thefield game more back in two thousand,
making sure that out side of justgovernance of the game itself and the day
to day operation, we should havelooked at developing that. I would have

(42:07):
looked at developing that more and makingsure that that had more visibility. That
I think would have helped. AndI think that you know, we should
have I would have I should havesaid, let's look at the threats that
are ahead of us. If wedon't do things differently, what are the
threats that are that will will arestopping us from progressing. And we would

(42:31):
have been able to put up aplan, maybe a longer term plan,
a five year plan to change that. So I think that you know,
hopefully that maybe people will listen tothis and think about, you know,
doing that. In business, wedo things called the SWAT analysis. Ask
for your strengths, right, wfor your weaknesses, oh for your opportunities,

(42:54):
and t for your threats. Andin order to have a healthy business,
health, the growth, you haveto look at those four aspects and
build your plan based on that.And if the people would have you know,
if we would have taken then peopletake the time to understand what the
threats are as well as the opportunities, and understand your weaknesses and your strengths

(43:16):
and build on them. Uh,you know, I think the game might
have been in a better situation today. I'm also going to say, you
know the reason I think historically weneed to do more. I lived it
in Quebec, you know when Iwhen I got conscious of it, and
you think about it, there werepeople before us, before me, right,

(43:36):
that did great things for the game. But the minute that they left
the game, they left, andwe never thought talked about them anymore.
Right. I can think of theblanche Are brothers, right for example,
And then you know I lived itmyself. Right, then we have somebody
else. And when Para Fuelion leaves, well, now it's finished, it's
done. Para fueling. We don'ttalk about what was done. We don't

(43:57):
talk about the heritage that is left. And unfortunately it's that kind of a
game. It's like that doesn't existanymore. We're starting from scratch, and
I think we need we need tochange that. I think we need to
change that. What have you broughtus today, Joe, as part of
your souvenirs in your history? Okay, well I got a couple of things.

(44:19):
I brought this. This is myfirst ever lacrosse stick, and the
story behind it is that when Iplayed my first couple of years the city
I played for Anjou, they actuallybought the stick for not this one,
but they gave me a stick,and they bought me equipment. Because I
came from I had no hockey equipmentor anything like that. So when I

(44:44):
went to the first ever Quebec Games, the Quebec in seventy one, first
year ever, I was, youknow. I went there and there were
a lot of articles that appeared inthe papers. The ventrell gets at and
thevnchreall started back then, and oldman in the place and they talked about
me, and my parents were like, WHOA right? And when I came

(45:06):
back, my mom was all theywere very embarrassed. You know that my
son, you know, they talkedabout him in papers. I need,
doesn't have his own stick. SoI bought this, Uh cost twelve dollars,
I remember right. It was madeby the Canadian lacrosse manufacturer. I
think it was the Nicknack Indians.I'm not sure, but I kept that

(45:30):
that stick, you know, andit hangs downstairs, right. And then
I bought I brought with me thesetwo things here. This is the Quebec
sweater. In nineteen seventy seven theyCanada Games. I kept. I kept

(45:50):
a sweater. I think it's asweater anyway. And this is a silver
medal that we today. I saythat we won, right because you know,
to me, I lost a goal. I didn't win the silver.
So this was really important because Ithink I kept these and I kept them
in regards to when we played thatin seventy seven, I think we lacrosse

(46:16):
in Quebec was at a peak wehad come from. In seventy three.
We had finished in the juniors rightback then the Founders Cup was played at
the Canada Games every four years.So the juniors we had come I think
from eighth position and in seventy seven, we finished second. In eighty one

(46:36):
it was a juvenile team they wongold. So Quebec was becoming I think
a powerhouse in lacrosse. We hadcome a long way and we were good,
and we were measuring ourselves against whatwe knew were the best Ontario BC,
right, you know, and Ithink, you know, I do

(46:58):
a parallel I think a little bitwith Nova Scotia, right, Nova Scotia
lacrosse also at that time did well, right, and so it lacrosse in
Canada was getting better. It wasit was becoming bigger. We could have
done more, We could have beenmore. I think we would have had

(47:21):
the team and players to maybe playedin a Man Cup or a Mental Cup,
right, it was, it wasnot governed that way. But yeah,
so I brought this and I keepthis as a good as good Sennior
As lacrosse was really strong and itwas just getting stronger back then. All
right, well this one here ish Yeah, this is a Dale McKenzie

(47:45):
sweater. I think Dale has thered one. So this is the Quebecque
sweater and seventy four seventy five inContreal. Now, the reason I brought
this and I had this, youknow, is you have to understand that
I started playing junior and seventy fourand I went to see some of these
lacrosse games. You know, mycoach Pierre Final would bring me to the

(48:08):
games and in seventy five and Iwas like an awe, like watching that
game and watching players, you knowthat, like John Davis and Sandy Lynch.
And in seventy six, all ofa sudden, I'm in a junior
team and my GM is John Davisand my coach is Sandy Lynch, and

(48:34):
I meet John Ferguson, and allof a sudden, I'm in their world
and I'm part of their world.And I get to you know, I
say mentor a little bit, youknow by my John Davis. You know
some of the things he said tome. Right Like John Davis taught me
like one thing after one game,first game ever in my life, that
I hadn't scored. I had Ithink five or six assists, but I

(48:57):
didn't score. And we won thatgame. And he came to me in
the room and he asked me howto chike your game? And I said
I didn't score and he said wewon, we won, And he goes
do you remember, can you tellme who won the scoring championship in seventy
four in the NLL And obviously Ihad no clue, right, he goes,

(49:17):
can you tell me you finished second? And I had no clue.
And then he asked me, youcan tell me who won? And yeah,
you won right the category at oneAnd he told me, yeah,
well I finished second, right,and I but the category won, and
that lesson stuck with me. Ibrought this, which is the Joe Cambria

(49:39):
Merit. This was an award thatI got from the Quebec Federation or Quebec
Lacrosse. This is actually my handand my lacrosse stick, my last lacrosse
stick that I played with, andit represented It was just not a recognition

(50:00):
of the player I think, oryou know, the the records are being
the best player. It was morethan that. This award was given and
is given or was given to peoplethat were outstanding people in individuals that helped
the game by their you know,their selfishness, their their work and their

(50:23):
effort, and they were recognized byan award that had my name. So
it was probably the greatest thing Iever got because it was just not in
recognition of the player. It wasalso the person and I also brought this

(50:44):
is this is sentimental. Uh.You know a lot of people have have
scrap books and pictures, and it'sthis scrap book I only got many years
later. So I told you Ididn't come from an athletic family and my

(51:06):
parents were not involved with the gamein any way. But my mom she
came and she won lacrosse game Ashleyand Lachine, and after she went home,
she did everything she could to tryto dissuade me from playing again.
She was just like she couldn't believehow what they were doing to her son.

(51:30):
So anyway, I've had a lotof stories about that. But later
I found all these scrap books thatcame, you know, all the paper
clippings that she had put together.Right, so I know that she was
very proud of what I accomplished,even though she didn't want me to play.

(51:52):
She you know, so I've gotYou know, it's funny because I
have had her and my brother Gabriel, you know, thank God, and
I'm really happy I'm for them becauseyou know, as you go older,
your legend gets bigger. Right.What I think is that you you start
you know, It's almost like afish story, right You you talk about
that trout that you that you youknow, fished in seventy six, all

(52:15):
of a sudden it's a it's amonster. This keeps me honest, right,
Everything that I say, I cango back and prove it. It's
in the books. Right. Sowhen I won that scoring championship with the
Kanam League in nineteen eighty h andyou know, and I finished first over

(52:35):
great players, right. Uh?You talk about you know, play with
Dale McKenzie, you know Dave White, you just a Bruce round Point,
you know Louis de Lille, youknow, these all players that are legends
you know in some way or partof the Untarre Lacrosse or even the Kenyan
Hall of Fame. Well, Iplayed against them and I beat them,
and I can show you, right, I've got the clippings and I've got

(52:57):
that. So to me keeps mehonest, right, And it's nice and
it's gonna be nice for my grandkids. One Dami either have some interest in
that. Yeah, I have aquestion for you, Joe Ye not a
back ross Okay, back the BonzeNoire? You did ipo Joe Cambria,

(53:19):
Right, guess fed downtown. UhSamson Friends pleasy compario she is that second
comp comp Gwen Gretzky made last compelthe pass who Bobby or satis jockey?

(53:52):
Uh Gentleman com he did amount theyor should spawn compare Man Si Samtom Pismip.

(54:15):
I've heard people say income out acrossthere were players, there were stars,
there were superstars, and then therewas Joe Gambria. What does that
do to you when you hear this, You know what, I'm very very
pleased to me. It just hadmy name associated with the game. Uh

(54:36):
is unbelievable right to be part ofthat history in a certain way. Unfortunately,
you know that a lot of thestuff that was done is forgotten or
doesn't exist. So I'm happy todayto be able to talk about that period.
Uh. When when I hear that, it's uh, you know,
it's like when my number was retired. You know, my number was hired

(55:00):
in Quebec. But yet steaday todayQuebec teams that go out and place play
with my number, they play withmy key. Does it exist anymore?
Right? But the importance is thatit you know, what it does mean
is when people say that, youknow that you know people compare me to
you know, Jean Belivo and BobbyHorror or when they say that, you

(55:21):
know, it's obviously it's a greatcompliment, and it's for me. It's
obviously I'm happy, right But youknow, I I don't dare compare myself
to those those people, but Iguess that, you know, I achieved

(55:42):
what I wanted to achieve, whichwas being remembered as a good person and
an ambassador for the game outside ofjust the player.