July 26, 2023 • 60 mins
There are a number of families that are synonymous with the game of lacrosse. The Thomas family is one of them. Join Steve and Ron Thomas as they tell stories of their lacrosse careers at the local to international levels as both amateurs and professionals.
Steve ‘s playing career went from 1960 -1984. He played for Akwesasne/St. Regis through Bantam,Midget, Junior and Senior. During this time he helped to organize the St. Regis Lacrosse Program. He was offered a full scholarship to Syracuse University in 1967. Steve played on championship teams with the St. Regis Jr. Braves in 1969, 70 and 71 and was a Canadian Jr. B finalist in 1971.
He was known as a “hardroc k” defenseman playing for Ross Powless in 1971 and 1972 on the Rochester Iroquois in the Can-Am Pro League.
In 1974 he was drafted by Montreal in the National Lacrosse League.
Steve continued to play on many Championship teams in the Quebec Sr. League for the Akwesasne Warriors.
He was presented with the John Ferguson Best Defenseman Trophy 3 times.
After his playing days were over he continued to contribute to the game as a coach, certified referee,
Indigenous Director for the Ontario Lacrosse Hall of fame and Co-founder of the Akwesasne LacrosseHall of Fame in 1998.
Ron Thomas lists renowned ancestors as those who helped mold his game. His father was Angus Thomas and grandfather was Thomas P. Thomas – both Hall of Famers.
Ron played for the St. Regis Indians Lacrosse Club and the Valleyfield Braves in the 60’s.
He excelled at defense and played with Frank Benedict, Abe Thomas, and Larry Martin. He was employed as an ironworker and spent a great deal of
time and energy driving from jobs in the USA to make games on the weekends.
There are currently 17 Thomas family members in the Ontario Lacrosse Hall of Fame.
Steve ‘s playing career went from 1960 -1984. He played for Akwesasne/St. Regis through Bantam,Midget, Junior and Senior. During this time he helped to organize the St. Regis Lacrosse Program. He was offered a full scholarship to Syracuse University in 1967. Steve played on championship teams with the St. Regis Jr. Braves in 1969, 70 and 71 and was a Canadian Jr. B finalist in 1971.
He was known as a “hardroc k” defenseman playing for Ross Powless in 1971 and 1972 on the Rochester Iroquois in the Can-Am Pro League.
In 1974 he was drafted by Montreal in the National Lacrosse League.
Steve continued to play on many Championship teams in the Quebec Sr. League for the Akwesasne Warriors.
He was presented with the John Ferguson Best Defenseman Trophy 3 times.
After his playing days were over he continued to contribute to the game as a coach, certified referee,
Indigenous Director for the Ontario Lacrosse Hall of fame and Co-founder of the Akwesasne LacrosseHall of Fame in 1998.
Ron Thomas lists renowned ancestors as those who helped mold his game. His father was Angus Thomas and grandfather was Thomas P. Thomas – both Hall of Famers.
Ron played for the St. Regis Indians Lacrosse Club and the Valleyfield Braves in the 60’s.
He excelled at defense and played with Frank Benedict, Abe Thomas, and Larry Martin. He was employed as an ironworker and spent a great deal of
time and energy driving from jobs in the USA to make games on the weekends.
There are currently 17 Thomas family members in the Ontario Lacrosse Hall of Fame.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:06):
So we're here today at Akwa Sase. This is one of the great communities
at lacrosse communities in the world.At one point, this area supplied about
ninety percent of the world's lacrosse sticks. You know, so I had a
huge role in the game going backinto the eighteen hundreds. And I have
with me here today Steve and RonThomas. Uh, We're gonna tell a
(00:30):
little bit of their own personal historywith the game and what the game means
Docua Sase and take us on alittle journey lacrosse journey here. Let's start
with Ron. Can you tell uswhat year you were born in and we'll
start that way, simple ninety six, nineteen thirty six, right here at
(00:51):
Aqua Sasse. Yeah. Yeah,I was born in Cornwall the hospital my
mother was so they weren't married yet, So I was a sing single single
what do you call it? Single? Mom? But I know. But
my father had gone to Fellow What'swhat's coach to play lacrosse enough and they
(01:15):
signed him up and he was therefor eight years. So I didn't see
my father for eight years. Wow. No, But when they came back
and and my mother, my motherleft, she went to work and at
Airondacks, I know, the skiresorts and all that, and the whole
mess of women her age that theygot hired at the same time. So
(01:38):
I was left at home in acrib. So she took me over to
my grandparents and I grew up withthen I see all right, I was
twenty years old and I know highschool, and then we all got hired
from the big project we had herewith the power power power and the seaway
and stuff like that. But youknow, you know, meanwhile we're playing
(02:01):
lacrosse. So who introduced you tolacrosse? Like, how old were you
in who? It was about six. We used to have a priest.
His name was father Jacobs's originally fromthe Cocinaga Reservation, name was Michael,
Father Michael, and he used toorganize you know, one of us,
(02:23):
one of the old coaches that knowthat used to play for him as Bill
Bill Lafrous, remember, yeah,Paul Paula, Paula Fraud used to play
for the Old Field lacrosse and uhhe was our coach at that time.
We're all like five five years,five years old to twelve years old,
(02:46):
and uh, the reason they putus through all that training Sessions was the
father used to big in contact withall the you know, the North North
and no New York. And everytime there was a like a exhibition some
kind of every every fall there wassomething going on or like a fair or
(03:10):
no stuff like that, and thatthey'd send us by by truck truckloads and
no through exhibition games. Yeah,like a demonstration game. They were no
what lacrosse was at that time.Everybody it was not a lot of new
people that had moved. No inour district too, and because of all
(03:31):
the work that was coming to expectedto to start with the seaway back in
uh nineteen fifty yea, and Iknow us so we had a lot of
even uh people waited our South camehere to work through. So but no,
that's why we do. We goplay a demonstration game and they treat
(03:53):
us now like we're no professionals orsomething. But we're just young young kids
five starting at five years old,six seven, eight, you know,
ten, twelve, And I knowwe did that every summer for I don't
know how long. But do youremember what cities you went to down there,
(04:13):
some of them for that you wentto put exhibitions on? Yeah,
what were some of the cities likeCircus, Geneva. Not that far.
We went at that far Auginsburg,the whole nor north, nor western on
New York State, Auginsburg, no, Canton. Can't all them little towns
(04:34):
all the way over to the Canadianborder that they set us over there and
special occasions. And he was gettingpaid for that, no, the priest,
But he was. He was agood uh what do you call it,
builder, builder promote, Yeah,he was. They even they when
(04:56):
when you left here you got theyretired. You know, he was getting
up to his eighty years old.You're still I know that pretty active man.
And uh he used to have afeel bright in Hookensburg and I had.
It was a two story building therebefore, and he didn't have us,
no announcers up on top. Sometimeshe'd be up there. We'd be
(05:17):
playing. By that time, Igraduated to playing senior and we played against
his home team. It's then cockingoager. Okay up there, no hollering
on his on the micro. Theysaid in the lead, Dick, you
know that means hid him. Itis his own, his own people,
(05:41):
And everybody would start breaking breaking outin the laughter. Now it's a good
time and every fall set that outdoorboxing y. Yeah, I know I
know which one you mean. Yeah, that's right. It's a it's a
it's a holy holy place. Nowit's the caller. They got no place
(06:01):
right now and know that they haveall kinds of know they have they have
people know laid old there too sometimesat wakes, no really and they have
to know the priests to come andshoe their prayers and the outdoor place.
Yeah, okay, so that wasbut back back then and Father Jacob's time,
(06:24):
he was he was really a goldgetter. You know, he always
had something working on, something,not to not to bring the crowds in
all the time. You know,fall he organized a taught they call it
a tombola. It's like a openfair. Know. They had all kinds
of games and even had a greatbig noise flayers will. Yeah he was
(06:47):
no, he was real very creativeguy. Yeah. They had thousand people,
yeah, from everywhere. Yeah.I always had a brand new car
too, So you really so I'llgo to the church. Well it got
him around to do more work.Our committee that they nominated him for enough
(07:12):
for being on our Hall of famecalled fame com Yeah, you've got a
virtual Hall of Fame coming soon,don't you like? That's being worked on
right now. Yeah, you guysare related directly or as my brother.
It's your brother. Yeah, okay, I'm an older guy. Okay,
So how how many years apart areyou? Fourteen? Fourteen years? Wow?
(07:32):
There you go, there you go, eight and six? No wow
wow? Right, so that youknow that's you know, my oldest brother
was eight years older than you.I know what that difference because you're kind
of in different worlds, you know, you're different stages and that kind of
thing. But we lost one ofour brothers a couple of years ago.
(07:54):
Yeah. His name was Wayne,Wayne. He played He was named after
my father, Angus Wayne Angus.Yeah. So he had across the Bear.
Yeah, he had all the presOh yeah, joining up with us
and as you grew up, youknow, you developed into all across there
too. Yeah. We used toplay out of the cornwall on the Water
(08:16):
Street Arena on them, but it'snot there anymore. So I said,
they tore it down about ten yearsago. Yeah, tell the people about
Angus Thomas. He's like one ofthe greatest of all time. Right.
Well, I've I've done the extensiveresearch on and UH US and Canada.
(08:37):
Yeah, and one of our whenwe formed the Hall of Fame committee,
we Mike and I Mike Mitchell andI, and we try to get the
older guys in first, especially thelegends, the ones that you grew up
listening people talk about. Yes,and these guys were especially in the middle
of their pressure, yeah, youknow. And they he played in New
(09:03):
Jersey, yeah, you know,and some of these uh they had some
pro leagues like yeah, Atlantic City, Atlantic City with a big draw.
You had a Swegen which are sixnations, gon Oague US And we had
some guys from Bill Bill Isaac andit was one of his best friends from
(09:24):
salam Anca, and they had aheck of a team. They had a
heck of a team and that placewas packed with people every time they came.
And the league was very strong,which was good and it created more
interest here because at the time Isaid that they were playing field across,
(09:50):
they hadn't transitioned into the box boxgame, yes, thirty early thirties,
so they were a draw everywhere theywent, really and it came back around.
They ended up in UH summer demonstrationat the Olympics in Los Angeles.
Yes, in nineteen thirty thirty two. Now was Jay silver Heels. Yes,
(10:16):
in Los Angeles at that time,they all what was his first name,
Smith was Harold Harold Smith. Yeokay, so they were all of
that. Okay, so they traveledand there they're cousins too. Yeah.
Yeah, my father's grandfather a smithwith a Smith nation. Yeah, because
(10:37):
they were like the real deal atsix Nations. Yes, yeah, his
name was Smith, last name wasSmith to a Smith and that's where my
father got Yeah, you have relationsand uh he was on o Waga too.
He was always like a manager forthe local team. Yeah. He
was like an organizer for no.I got pictured at home then. He
(10:58):
was always dressed up, no rightto the Yeah, no you look.
No, didn't look native at all. He's just yeah, he just had
that that flair about him. Hewould look like a professional something you know.
Now, did AGAs play in thatleague that was on the West coast?
(11:20):
He did. He was gone foreight years. Okay, that was
that probably probably nortore Indians. Yeah, and they played against Los Angeles and
other Well they like how did thatwork when they when they done that touring
team? Yeah, they got togethergot six nations and combines with members from
Aquasasti and they left here and that'swhere they ended up. They were invited
(11:46):
to play on demonstration at Los Angelesat the Olympics, and of course Hollywood.
Yeah, I had to find outwhat was all this ruckus about with
these natives. Yeah, and mohawklacrosse players. So they sent guys down
with and she attended the games andgood looking guys right in their prime,
(12:11):
prime age. And they brought himback to Hollywood. They talked to Silverheels
Jay silver Heels acting name. Thefirst thing they did was give him a
name, so because he has hisshoes were uh yeah, like silvery shiny
heels. But then again, myfather and Anguish George, which is his
(12:33):
neighbor. They're only separated by onelot next door. And he lived on
the river too, so they wereboth fishermen. Yeah. But uh,
Jay Harold took them to acting studio, okay, and those you know people
were coming from everywhere. It's Southwestand all the natives, all these cowboy
(12:56):
movies, yeah, Pop on Cassidy. Yeah. One of the stories he
told was that they had to learnhow to fall off a horse. So
they're all in the ranchers and ranchersall over back in them days. Yea,
(13:16):
the cameras would be out there andthey'd drawn a horse and you hear
a bang and you'd have to falloff him. But you spoke with the
guys, the veterans that were there, and he said, this is harder
than lacrosse. They're gonna beat it. Yeah, because they were big guys,
you know. And they said.So that didn't go anywhere, but
the people at BC had heard aboutit also. And his name is Joseph
(13:45):
Staniel. No, um, hewas. It's part of that family,
the Bakers, yes, and anduh yeah, all yeah, they were
part of that. And they camedown and they said, would you like
come over and visit and we'll talkabout a contract and Vancouver area. Yeah,
(14:05):
so they got a job. Atthat time, they had Stephen Dors.
It was on their on their lands, the squamish, right, and
they had their own union. Nobodyinterfered with them, right, and the
guy was in charge of the unionand these guys are unloaded ships. Well,
(14:26):
oh well, they had a job. And then they played lacrosse,
yeah, in the league, andthere was a lot there was some guys
from here from Cornel Island, JohnJacobs and the name Paula was one of
them. Yeah, and uh hegot married up there and he stayed there.
(14:46):
You never come back. A lotof a lot of that happens,
John j Yeah, John Jacobs.Beautiful area right, Oh, it's gorgeous.
We went there. We we endedup touring in the junior junior Yeah,
and uh we were gone for sixteendays. Yeah. And it wasn't
(15:07):
good for family life, you know. I mean there wasn't much money around
here though. You depended on heritagegrant which was like thirteen thousand, which
was every year for Lacrosse to keepbuilding it, and that came from the
church. Father Father Arsenal came inand fifty seven and he helped because Father
(15:33):
Jacobs was getting up in years,so I helped him established the UK was
ustin the minor Lacrosse because he wrotethe proposals. And when did that come
into being there probably about fifty eight. The seaway was going full steam.
People were working. The guys thatcame home and they went directly to work
(15:54):
here multiple projects and my father therehad a couple of people from Gnawaga staying
at our house. They played lacrossewith They stayed there and roomed with Monday
to Friday. Okay, So anyways, the priest and I we he'd get
an equipment in and we'd sort itall out and make fifteen sets for the
(16:21):
kids. And we started with thelittle guys and worked up to bannams and
midgets, and there was people thatwere just coming knocking on the door as
I want to play, I wantto play a play because everybody walked around
with a lacrosse stick in the villageand here too, going okay, that's
when you know communities at its peak. Yeah, you know. And when
(16:42):
we started out, they went fromparish to parish. We would play Saint
Andrews behind the church the lacrosse boxoutside. Then we'd go to Alexandria,
another parish behind the church. Sothat's how most of its started with the
(17:03):
priests and long Sue Maxville all theway up and down the line. Gonhwaga
was behind the church up the Yeah. So they actually helped develop the keep
the game going, you know,revive the game. So we're very appreciative
with that, yes, but therewas times we had because these guys are
(17:30):
big guys, farmers on that noteshore and U. Sometimes they went to
fisticuffs university referees or the priests andthe next day, you know, you
break it up and then, uh, the priest is mad at our priest
and we got to separate them.Yeah, but that's the way, you
(17:53):
know, that was in the fifties, developing years. Yeah, well we
go back, Like you said,you're talking about family, and I said,
my grandfather, his father or whatwhat are the names of those guys.
Your grandfather's name was Thomas. Whatabout first name George, George.
My great grandfather was George Thomas,great grandfather. He sat her signatory towards
(18:15):
some of the treaties, sir inmohawk name. And my grandfather was Tom
Tom, Tom Thomas, Thomas,Paul Thomas. Okay, six brothers and
they're a huge Paul, Paul,Paul Thoma, Peter Louis, Joe Louis,
they all Peter play all play playedguys. Yeah, like me,
(18:40):
handsome guys. But we got alot of research, got pictures. They
played field across at the beginning.My father was fifteen and with the goalie
got hurt, which was Peter Garlsgrandfather. He hurt himself and the shot.
(19:03):
So my father was fifteen. Theyput him in nets and that's why
his nose is it was like downOkay, hit him right on the on
the nose of the bridget and noseand it was just flat. And at
that time there was no you know, hospital care or anything. So they
didn't have any masks, no maskeither, maybe a helmet the helmet.
(19:23):
Oh, there was no equipment.He just played. They had a great
team. They're undefeated for like twentyyears. Wow. So that whole that's
them though, And I'm going tocome down to this way. And the
women that followed would take care ofthe guys that were hurt. They we
(19:44):
had a lot of medicine women.They traveled. Okay, we didn't have
trainers. They done most of thework. So would they stitch people up
and things like that? Yeah?They and the players, like my dad,
he was watching them do this.And in the forties and fifties when
he came back, everybody was backhere at the hooge spurt of lacrosse box.
(20:06):
He'd do it. Oh, he'ddo it on the bench. Wow.
Wow. Because all they had wasa bucket and a towel, bucket
of water and a towel. Thatwas it. And somebody brought a carpet
needle like this. If you gotcut on your above your eye, he
would be right there and holy cow, you know, seven eight days and
(20:29):
come to the house and pull itoff. Yeah, that's all They took
care of him. Yeah, Soit wasn't like today that they have trainers
and all this other stuff. Youhad to do this yourself. My grandfather
worked on a river and a SaintRage's River which is two miles long.
They were drejans sand with a guyfrom Cornwall and he worked there for twenty
(20:52):
five years with the guy with theyeah guy in a boat taking to the
job you were yeah, okay,So these guys that wanted to play lacrosse
for the town team had to unloadsand behind the church will barrows in hot
summer days. Why were they puttingthe sand behind the church. Well,
(21:17):
that way that they used to dockat our big barge. Okay, you
had to shift shift the sand.Oh okay, it was great big barge.
That was one of my jobs theretoo, you know, once you
start. My grandfather was the operatorof the know the gizmo that you know,
(21:37):
the digs up in the tube andthe deposits on it right on your
flat, flat bottom barge. Okay, so that was my job. Every
time they started building up. Therewas gates on it, but you had
to put a like a little door, you know, to block it so
that doesn't fall back all the intothe river. And that was a constant
(21:59):
job. That was a training forthe cross players. So you wanted to
play, You're gonna be a dredgeRegions. That's why they were so strong.
It was, it was all.It was all like a family project
because my u my aunt Isabel,it is my father's sister. So she
used to take drive us to Cornwalland you have to go unloaded and I
(22:22):
remember the old canal, Yeah thatwas there before the ships that going by
there before. And uh that's whywe would park our bars and weld the
sand unloaded onto their onto their littlelittle land that's left. And I all
had to be here. You'll haveto load up your own uh sand,
(22:44):
you said, wheel barrel. Andmy my father, my grandfather was late
planks and that's why you followed.And I said, you know, I
have to fight the ground or not. If it's like this, you put
plank a little smoother path. Yeah, like a path yet and no,
no, that was hard work.It's good for your arms too in the
(23:07):
show. Yeah, good for scoopingtoo. Yeah. But my dad was
what they called he had a overhandshot and it's an under arm shot,
which was like a bullet, andthey called him Buckshot Thomas with a BC
and uh Stan Baker was part ofthe Baker Boys. He wrote a book
(23:30):
mentioning these guys that went there.And in nineteen seventy one, Mike Mitchell
and I, who was elected aschief I went there and we spoke with
him at length, and he toldus about and a guy was like almost
eighty, but he could name theevery player that came from up with us
and their wives, their children.I mean he had a mind of oh
(23:53):
my god, it was unbelievable oraltradition. Yes, and he told us
all of this stuff. And ifhe signed the book, guys still have
it at the house. I collectbooks. I got one of yours or
first one. So, like Isaid, my research constantly, Yes,
(24:14):
looking for information. Yea. Theyplayed on a dagga. They played senecas,
they played unaidas on the historical LikeRonnie was saying when they had these
historical get togethers. Yeah yeah,like a country fair. Yeah yeah,
you know, six Nations would winthe Man Cup or President's Cup or anything.
(24:36):
They'd be in Hugnsburg. They're followingSaturday and they play against our team
because they had sponsors and stuff we'dnever had. There was no money here.
My father said, you could gofrom one enner the reserve to the
other. If you found fifteen cents, you were lucky. So them leaving
was was great for them back inthe thirties, you can make some money.
(25:00):
Yeah, there was no money here. Nothing. Yeah. We had
a little plant here at Lacrosse Plant, and they had like thirty families working.
I kept people going, Yes,it did. And that was basically
the history of lacrosse here is thatwe a lot of the guys left and
went to New York City. Theywent to Rochester, Buffalo, and we
(25:22):
were working. I work right,and we followed suit. I was in
high school sixteen, I was workingin Albany in summer. We get off
in May and work till September connectingbuildings. Were you able to still play
lacrosse during that time? Oh?Yeah. Wherever we went, we took
our sticks. Yeah, God,you had to climb, yeah, strengthened
(25:49):
your legs and your older shoulder.Great, great, absolutely, Yeah,
And we get on these major projectslike in Virginia, Maryland. It's there's
a lot of time on your handswhile you're there, and you do learn
everything. Climb and call hims onthe old side face run up. They're
just as fast as you can comedown head first and all this stuff because
(26:15):
you're gonna have to do bridges andstuff too. Anyways, but that was
part of our training. And whenwe came back, I said, all
you do is get your wind up. So we're running. My brother in
law, Mike Benedict, who's ina Hall of Fame with us. He
him and I went to work innineteen seventy one with one of our jobs.
(26:37):
We started in Courtland and a bankjob, and we ended up in
building the University of Binghamton, Okay. And all that time we were playing
lacrosse on weekends, the Junior Bees, the Braves coming back to Canada to
play. Yeah, and when weplayed in the Castro Cup in September,
(27:00):
we were working. We had theguy would let us go at three o'clock
and we'd drive here and play well. These guys were sleeping on the hotel
bed, we were working. Allhe did was dropped the hour to seven.
We started at seven in the morningand that's five hours from here,
so we'd get to the rink abouttwenty five after seven thirty and had already
(27:23):
missed the period a half a period. So but we fared pretty well with
our team. They beat us atthe end, but it was it was
a revenge match because that's earlier thatyear, in July, we played in
we're invited to play in a centennialCup in British Columbia. Okay, it's
(27:45):
one hundred or fifty year or onehundred year in Bursary eighteen sixty nineteen sixty
seven, no seventy one and thatone. McDonald bread sponsored them quarter of
a million dollars. Wow, bigmoney. And they had an excellent training
(28:10):
camp everything. I had uniforms andwork out gear and everything. And we've
played them there and we beat themtwo games to total score. We beat
them the first game and they wantedanother game, so so we'll make a
two game total score. So webeat them then and right into their backyard.
(28:30):
And I think they didn't forget thatwhen they came here. We played
at the Water Street Arena that wasThat place was full. It was like
twenty five hundred people. The firedepartment wasn't happy because it was too many
people. But you know, itwas exciting times for the game. You
know, when you're twenty one,you have fun. Did you play in
(28:55):
the Pro League and I was draftedby Montreal? You were okay? And
CoA. Ronnie and I worked atAlcoa. We're hanging steel on the new
the new plant, the new plant, and when I were connecting together.
Okay, So we had and hekept calling. Bruce ron Point played there
(29:18):
and Travis played in Quebec, andthey wanted me to go up there.
Even Ferguson came down to the housetalk to my dad. But I said,
I just started over here. It'sa three year project. I don't
know how long you guys are goingto be going, you know what I
mean? Yes, so four hundreddollars, I said. I was making
more than that over here. Iwas getting two hundred and seventy five dollars
(29:41):
a day for per diem. Wow, and plus the wages. So you're
not going to leave that when it'sonly twelve miles from the house, right
right, But every Saturday we'd gowatch a home game. Once were all
okay, my father and I andsome of his buddies all lacrosse players.
(30:02):
Was Jim Bishop, the coach atthat time. I do believe, I
think you would believe. Yeah.Yeah. And then they wanted me to
come up there, probably just tofight, right right, But Bruce Rompoint
took care of that for them.What he kept calling me is just come
on help me. Yeah, troublewith these hockey players. They're pro hockey
(30:26):
players from Philly. He played Ontario. Boy played lacrosse, but sorry you
played. It was in Syracuse,uh, Onondaga on a doga Atlantic club.
They had a great, great team, all basically ironworkers, just like
us. So eight thousand people wouldcome out to see you play at the
War Memorial in Syracuse. Yeah,okay, that was a great, great
(30:49):
rivalry and we look forward to that. That was a great one. Yes,
they ran, you were saying,they didn't really have any place to
shower though. After that. Thatwas when you played outside box. Oh
the outside yeah, this was theyplayed it with the east Side. Yeah,
we played outside Oh that I knowthe box you need Yeah, there's
(31:11):
a little box in the sand sandbath. Yes, he had a hard
times. Sometimes you're no practice.I know exactly what you're talking is east
time. I was usually bought eightydegrees, and I know that dust would
come right up torture, just coughing. Gonna Sadaga had a lacrosse box.
(31:33):
It was uphill, okay, uphill like this, So that was all
sand sand bay. Of course,first period we're on this end. In
a third period, we're running uphilltwo times. That was their trick.
Everybody has a trick. Oh yeah, so that you know Travis and I
(31:55):
West. When I got together withthe boys and Uhs, grandfather and our
coach, Frank Benedict convinced me toplay for them at seventy one. It
was twenty one. It was thelast year of juniors. So I said,
okay. I was playing hockey,I was playing baseball. I was
playing softball. And I said,okay, now we got to work all
(32:19):
winner. We're downstairs punching a heavybag, the speedbag, doing working on
the legs, stuff like that,skipping roll ye squats. Gotta get ready
for the game. He said,we're going to a BC. I said,
okay, that's great. Yeah.When we played, we started here,
(32:42):
we ended up in Edmonton, Wewent to Calgary, took a bus
over to Victoria. This is likea tour. Yeah, it was a
tour by the Canadian government paid forit. Okay, So we left and
it was old standing. What atrip. Yeah. We were at the
Calgary Stampede. We had half thebox. The other half was Gordy Hall
(33:04):
and Bobby Bobby or we're doing ademonstration. Wow. So we went out
to play and I said, theyjust passing the ball around, shooting on
the goalie and stuff like that,a little mini game. And the coach
come over. He goes, that'sGordy Hall. He's one of the toughest
players in hockey. I said,what don't you guys start hitting? So
(33:25):
we did. So we start hittingeach other. So he stopped that.
He was leading on the center thingthere is watching us play. Those famous
elbows. Yeah, his elbows.So you know, it was fun.
It was really fun. There wasa lot of people watching. And I
said that you were twenty one.It lasted sixteen days or longer? Was
(33:47):
that different? It was sixteen days. That was a sixteen day twa well,
then one of the member of parliamenthad a ranch up in Nayton,
Alberta. So he invited us upthere to play against Edmonton Blues junior beat
team. They were just starting out. They're powerful now so they've done a
(34:12):
lot of work too. And he'sanother one. He said. We rode
horses all day. Wow, lookingat the rocky mountains. Gorgeous. But
we had a game that night andeverybody was sore. He were you out?
Oh yeah, but we ended upbeating them. It was like twelve
(34:36):
to three. Yeah, and wewere up. We're up like ninety three
and the coach come over and hegoes, can you help us all?
He said, sure. We splitthe team with half the guys went that
way and we played against each otherwith with third team, right especially,
you know, you got to builda game. Yes, so there's a
lot of people watching, so hesaid, take it easy on them,
(34:58):
and yeah, you know, becausewe have to build a game here,
right. We did. It wasfun, It was it was entertaining and
we met with everybody after all theirmanagement and they treat it as well.
So who who gave you your firststick? Like, how were you introduced
to the game? Do you rememberthat day? I remember that day because
(35:20):
I had the role from Saint Register, Cornell Island. My father's boat was
down the river he was working onout of town, and put the oars
in and started oaring up here.How old were you? Um? I'bly
nine? Wow? Yeah? AndI parked under the bridge because there was
(35:42):
no docks here, there was acable there. I tied the boat there
and I got out and walked tothe fields over to the Lacrosse factory and
they were busy. It was therewere shipping sticks and points. Lacrosse factory
and the two brothers were outside loadingup the trucks and stuff. And I
(36:08):
went inside and Frank would just comearound the corner and he said, he
said, hey, all you doing. I said good. He goes,
I'm here to buy a stick inMohawk. So he said, how much
twenty you got? He goes threedollars. Because I had summer job with
(36:30):
my uncle fishing and we'd cleaned twohundred fish a day for the people.
That's how I got my three dollars. So he says, you come with
me. He goes, who's yourfather? I said, he goes,
I said, Angus Thomas. Oh, he said you come with me.
Growing up the stairs. We lookedat the shipping room and he said,
(36:53):
you take any stick in this mohawkspecial. He should take anything you want
here. Just let me know whichone you took it off. I said,
okay, brand new leather stick.Yeah, handmade, but it's it's
it's like a treasure to me atnine years old. So that weekend I
(37:14):
got back. My father had comeback on Friday, because it's Monday to
Friday when you're out of town working, and he said, this is what
you do. Get it down toyour size. They said, send it
down and I said, the nexttime we have a hamm dinner, you
take that bone and you bone this. It will never break on you the
(37:36):
shaft. Okay, so rub thebone. Rubbed the bone on there like
this and that really worked. Ohyeah, I still have it. I
still have it. I got threeof my sticks in a gun cabinet at
my house. Do you used tohave quite a few, No lacrosse,
the little little individual own no companies. And I know they'd give you,
(38:00):
give you away a stick, andI know you're playing for you know the
Indian team. Yeah, no JoeMitchell, No, watch his name Benedict
over here. Yea, the LantrysInvensburgh. There was a whole bunch of
them. Where where were they?Ogensburgh? Two miles from my place.
(38:22):
You walk up there, they hada little factory off to the left.
There were all kinds of stick makers. Yeah, yeah, okay. The
guys that worked there were from here, uh going ogain go On Island and
I went to work there. There'stwo of us from Saint Rachis. So
you worked at the stick factory?Yeah? What what was your what did
(38:44):
you do one particular job there?Or what did you you do? Are
we carved sticks? Did you dothe steaming you know? Yeah, the
bank Andrew Thompson and his sunwear steaming, ok and we'd uh raw gone yeah,
and then we get to the uhpig skin put on because they had
(39:06):
special crew that ran the hot water, you know, to make the form
form the bend. Yeah, thatwas a special trade just for that.
Yeah, the bend it just right. See my father played with nylon stick
to take the shoe the shoe laceoff your work boots from the pocket.
(39:27):
Yeah, for the netting. Yeah, because the leather sticks were heavy,
okay, and only nine it onlydid that. Why too. Yeah,
so take it off and restring it. I've been doing that ever since a
special stick. Yeah, that's whythey could shoot so so fast, you
know, because let's wind wind friction. Okay, it's like, no,
(39:51):
it's a small It was almost theball was almost not going to fit in
there by looks of it. Butbut you know that's that's the way it
was. No like like this andit's great, big nut on it and
no, this is this a littlewedge like this and the ball just barely
fit anybody when when you wind itup and shoot, you just said you're
(40:12):
cann't hear it here? The whizgoo boy? Yeah? Well wow.
Anyways, we um we were workingthere and helping these guys go out and
they said they Bruce and I endedup we were working iron work and we
ended up in uh Newburgh, NewYork, which is just that we stayed.
(40:36):
We had to stay at Highland Falls, which is across from West Point
on the Hudson. On the Hudson. Yeah, so we have our ar
lacrosse sticks and there's you know,it's a small town. And he said,
there's a big field right there.Let's go try that. So we
walked out the front gate and aguy let us in. He goes,
(40:57):
what are you doing here? Isaid at the guard, They said,
well, we wanted to just practiceon the field, he said, he
looks, he goes, he wentin come back. Oh, he s,
yeah, you guys can go.We're twenty one. So we went
over and played and uh, we'repracticing throwing at the lacrosse night was like
six foot wide by six by six. Yeah, I see, it's have
(41:21):
to feel and throw a backhand putit in. So the cadets come out
first and they could barely. Sothat was a West Point, West Point
Army base. That's all. That'sall. Uh, no fuel lacrosse too,
right, yeah, all college andBruce's a wrong point. Yeah.
(41:42):
So you had to explain to theseguys that he goes, what are you
guys doing here? They're like,I forget what they are lieutenants or something,
right, so officers. Yeah,So we showed them a couple moves
at the puck behind the back likethis, you know, pick it up
and go around like this, backhandsforehand and all this other sum underhand.
And they were watching and they'd neverseen anything like that. No, So
(42:06):
we showed him how to pick upand the simplest stuff. And we're there
for about a good forty five minutesteaching these guys. Yeah, basically a
free clinic. And finally the coachcomes out and you guys get out of
here, you know. And theguys the captains said wait, wait,
(42:27):
wait wait, he goes there,you got to listen to these guys.
They're showing us some stuff you don'tshow us, so he can't. So
he said, well, let mesee what you guys have talked. So
we're passing the ball, you know, back you coming at each other,
and just passed the ball, pastthe ball, past the ball, and
he said, oh, okay,show him something else. So we had
(42:52):
them run straight back away from us. What year was this, by the
way, somebody one something. Itwas a big year. Yeah, going
on. So the sticks are thisbig there, feel across sticks. Yeah,
I said, put it right here, but the net facing me,
and it says, go and youthrow the ball and it'll hit the the
(43:17):
net. And they said, onceyou have the ball, you can go
this wager that way. Yeah,And a coach is writing all this stuff
down, so he said, there'ssomething I said that was thought to me
by Ross Paulis Okay, when Iwas in Rochester playing for him and six
eight feet ten feet horror play.You gotta hit that stick. These two
(43:43):
boys were playing Greg and um Ican't remember his other name right now,
but they showed us a lot too. Yeah, so you had to put
it right right there. He said, you've practiced after the game, after
all the coats are done, theglasses here, you got the stanchions.
(44:04):
One screw. I want you toget back and hit that screw. Yeah,
every time, and as to doit forehand, left hand, right
hand, and then if you're goodenough, try your backhand. Try to
hit that screw, because this iswhat we're going to be teaching you.
It's got to be that accurate.Yes, And I said, the guy
would run like this with a stick. It's up to you to hit it
(44:28):
because I played defense for them.Yeah, and that helped a lot.
So was that the only time youworked with the the army guys, yeah,
West Point. Yeah. At onetime we just walked out on the
field yep, and we ended upstaying there over an hour. Yea.
So helping these guys out, yeah, must be a neat So the guy
(44:51):
the coach walks us back to thegate and he shakes our hand and we
walked back across the bridge. Soyou had the right attitude anyways, Oh
you know this, yeah, ifin order to build ye, because there
was nothing nothing on that side,right, because the thirties were over and
the forties and most of the lacrosseended up back this way. Yeah.
So yeah, at that same time, the Naval Academy was quite good.
(45:15):
Yes, So there was a bigdifference in Baltimore and the hot grown for
lacrosse that was at the time,so it still is. Yeah. So
because a lot of our kids endedup at Salisbury Yes college, Yes,
on a lacrosse scholars speak. Yeah. Yeah, so you know it's um
you can use that to get intocollege. Yes, because nobody had money
(45:38):
here, you couldn't afford to go, so it opened doors. Yeah.
Like Dave White was a definitely goto Brown, ended up at Brown,
which was huge. You know,I got uh accepted at Cornell, Ithaca
mit. Yeah, all the upstate they were those were the schools playing.
Yeah, they were playing lacrosse.Yea. And what's his name came
(45:59):
up here? Um uh, signmentsfor Roy signments for Cyracusans. Yeah,
and he wanted Mike, Mike,Benardict, myself, Travis, and there
was three of us and I saidwe can't go. Cook Okay, I
said we can't go. I saidwe can't even right, you know,
(46:22):
yeah, you gotta pull money.Well, now they have a scholarship holding
the show. Yeah, scholarship thatwas. It's too bad they didn't have
it back then. Yeah, fiftyyears ago. Something different. Yeah,
you know, it could have beenmanagement level somewhere with a university degree.
I didn't get a college agree thoseforty one So wait, where did you
(46:44):
get your degree? In Ottawa?It was management? Okay, but you
know it helps. I started asapprentice and ended up a project manager Companies
out of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, toworked for them a long time. You
were a chief, Yeah, andwhat years were you a chiefs I was
(47:08):
ninety seven. They were building thearena here and I have a whole bunch
of hand tools that they needed forthe roof. I was in. I
was building a prison in Rome,New York, and I came home and
I helped. My uncle was workinghere, Mike Thomas, and I brought
(47:30):
some tools for him for his crewand they used it to do the roof,
the metal roof in nineteen ninety seven. Yeah, yeah, nineteen ninety
seven. So of course people seethat and you're helping out on the community
project. And if somebody nominated mefor chief, I get elected And exchange
(47:53):
rate was thirty eight percent, Soit was a heck of a difference in
wages from what I was doing.But I talked to my wife and she
she said, well we can,we can make it work. Yeah.
Obviously, here's responsibility, you know, to the community. And after you
(48:14):
got done, they got done withthe arena. I went to work there
for eight years, is that right? Yeah? Ronnie was the ice maker,
is that right? Right? Yeah, So you know it's that that
type of interaction from the community.Yeah, because they know who you are,
you know your family, You contributedto the game and all this stuff.
(48:35):
And on top of the guys thatmy grandfather's brothers, they were one
was playing till he was seventy,Paul Thomas. He was built like a
rock. They had. Yeah,a good looking guy to him. He's
(48:57):
better looking than uh, most ofthe movie stars that are doing Cowboy movies.
He was big. Well, that'swhere we get our encouragement from them.
Right right, all arounded by that. Yeah, and uh, my
grandfather and his kids were playing inthat field across back in the twenties thirties.
(49:17):
So there's a fairly well known famouseven painting that shows sticks the guys
taking a side arm got by JohnThomas. I think, who is it?
Oh John, that's that's my cousin. That's your cousin. Did that?
Okay? I must have been doneback in the um yeah nineties,
(49:37):
okay, yea, yeah, becauseI've seen that. Well, we commissioned
him for the arena, oh okay, and we commissioned him at the OPG
visitor Center. Okay, So we'rebuilding a game, building a game,
yeah, yeah, because I startedwith these guys here at the Traveling College,
Mike and I, Mike Mitchell andI and his brother Ernie and a
(50:00):
couple of other guys. We dancedon ceremonies at the university's colleges, and
the little towns are on here becausethere's a lot of history, and that's
part of the country. Yes,yeah, you know, Upper Canada,
Lower Canada. Yeah, so SaintLawrence, oh yeah, yeah, yeah,
So there's a lot of history andwe took an advantage of it.
(50:21):
They helped us and we helped them. Yeah. So yeah, yeah,
Rod, you're you're very well respectedas a coach for this game, you
know, and people I heard peoplesaying that you never used to say much,
but that your luck got the resultthat you wanted from from your players.
I think they're afraid of my bigbrothers rather than myself. I know
(50:47):
that we had we got a longgood so I never I never hollered at
anybody for one thing. I usedto. I used to play for you
his his team too, but thatwas in the beck League and we used
to get scolded with there no Frenchlanguage and the name calling and sometimes we're
(51:07):
getting into a riot. Sometimes weneed the police to get out of town.
But it wasn't my fault. Butyou know, we just try to
control our players not to behave butyou know, it's no when you when
you get called all kinds of names, and it's it's hard to keep your
cool right And a lot of timesthat the Quebec City we had a big
(51:28):
riot there and who was playing whoin that game in the Quebec City game,
the local team and and our impeachteam that they are over playing junior
junior ranks. At that time,I was coaching and one of the had
a couple of rom Point brothers onthere too, right, yeah, Barry,
(51:50):
Yeah they're younger ones. Okay,great player. So did you coach
like minor, junior and senior likelevels? Yeah, it's started. Uh
you followed my father. My fatherwas coach. Okay, you coach lacrosse
and coach hockey. So sports sucha great part of growing up. Yeah,
(52:12):
if you part of that, itwas. It was fun. We
used to have Native hockey tournaments,no all all true. You know,
the scent of the provinces. Youused to go all the way up to
know sometimes we're up to a thousandislands. No play to play a certain
time every year every winter. Youknow, we have to go and play.
(52:37):
You know, I play hockey.I played for a while. Then
I turned to coaching too later on. But I know it was fun.
You know, you got to knowa lot of people and a lot of
reservations that some of them were friendly. So we're not so friendly, so
I know what you gonna do.All right, So Leo, as kind
(52:58):
of getting near the end of ourinterview, you but who were some of
the greatest players like two or threegreatest players you ever saw ron and them
would ask you the same question.She lacrosse. Yes, Uh, he
entered up. I forget what thatwas his name is this? He used
to come down here as a specialteam that got together whoever won down here
(53:20):
and the senior division and the guysfrom sixth nations ross ballis ross and they
would you know, they always bringthe team down here in talents. No,
so no, they had a lotof uh players that turned pro after
you know, later on. AndI forget all the names that that was
(53:42):
in there. That but that wasa good source of great players six nations.
Yeah, yeah, and how aboutUSTe like who do you remember?
Well, got to play with heragainst We watched a lot of players who
said the Sunday Boys Bobby Billy whenI was grown up, and Ross Paulis
and his crew that came on Sundaystwo days they would play and they would
(54:09):
just have a good time meeting eachother again because most of them were family.
Yeah. And some of the guysI got that I watched in their
junior careers. Dave Sunday one ofthe most natural lacrosse players you'd ever want
to see. It was like he'dgive you shiverse the way he'd come up
(54:32):
with, just the way it is. You know, he said, you
already figure that out. Yeah,you sit there and watch that as a
kid. And they were playing,uh in the Junior B league here in
Cornwall, and that he opened upthe doors for probably half that team from
the SNI area. They wanted toplay because of him and Paul Ingis and
(54:57):
him, and it was just aweinspiring. You wonder how they come up
with this in the middle of theheat of battle and end up with a
shot that just mesmerizes you and afans just sitting there and they're shaking their
head going, oh, you know, so that's the stuff that you learned
from. Yeah, and I'm afamous father. Yeah, Louis, Louis
(55:22):
Sunday, you know probably heard ofhis name. There was no like Bobby's
younger brothers that they developed into excellentplayers. They weren't as big as the
older guys like Bob and Mike andbut I know they could run and they
know they knew how to move.Angus, George, my father and Louis
(55:44):
Sunday were the Golden trio. That'swhat the Montreal Star called them in the
lacrosse because they played pro at MontrealToronto, Quebec City, Quebec City,
Cornwall. Yes, back in thethirties. Okay, yeah, I got
(56:04):
all that information on my computer.That's all research. Like you need a
book. You got to do abook at some point. Yeah, well
someday I'll do that. My wifekeeps pushing me. But but the McCord
Museum, I have it in inthere. I said that Peter Garw and
I are supposed to go up therein research. Yeah. I've been down
(56:29):
to the basement there and it's amazingwhat not on display? Yeah, because
you know that you got this onepicture from Ghana Augua. It's eighteen sixty
five and nobody knows who the playersare. But what they didn't understand was
that a lot of these players movedhere to Saint Rigis, you know.
Yeah, and that's that's where ourconnection still is. Are some of our
(56:52):
families are still there through the gamerelative set Yeah, grandson's off. Yeah,
all right, last comments, yep, Okay, I'll give you a
scenario. Yeah, when we weregrowing up there, Indian agent was here,
Yeah, and nobody could just drifther on and lollygag. In the
(57:15):
summer, he sent us to Danny, George and I to Port bell Housie,
Harry O, Saint Catherine's to pickapples or peachers and all this other
stuff, and with a promise theyyou know, get paid so much a
week whenever got paid get but wehad a lacrosse sticks. We'd walk eight
(57:39):
miles to Saint Catharine's and Sundays,Saturdays and Sundays they had lacrosse going on
and there was a midget lacrosse teamin that town and Danny and I went
talked to the coach. He goes, well, I'll let your play.
You guys are any good? Hesaid, well, we'll be back next
(58:00):
Saturday. We'll play. We wontwelve six and Danny got six and I
got six. So that was theConraddy family. I think back then at
Saint Katharine could be because he droveus back eight miles and the next weekend
he'd come pick us up. Hedidn't have to walk anymore. We didn't
(58:21):
have to walk anymore before. Andhe paid us five dollars a game,
and at that time it took thirtytwo dollars and eighty six cents to come
back on a train back here.Okay, otherwise would have been stuck there
because he wasn't paying us there,guy, no, wo no guy.
(58:42):
The guy who were telling you aboutthat just passed away. He used to
be the owner of a valley fieldcorway. Great guy. He used to
pay five dollars a goal. Getout of here. Yeah that's bad.
Yeah, but when guys stopped passingthe thick another great player got to mention,
(59:04):
Lawrence Martin. Yeah, he playedthere. That guy was another natural.
He looked like a horse. Hehad long legs, long arms,
and muscular but he could do stuffwith that stick and nobody could knock him
down. Wow, that's all flexiblehe was. He was. He played
with Ronnie Awesome. They had therecord in Quebec. Three goals and fifteen
(59:30):
seconds off the face off. Yeah. Wow, he was a sentiment.
Wow, Frankie got three goals andfifteen So I was the passer. Yeah,
I get the ball. Frankie isalready already closer than They didn't figure
that out after the was conpecutive runright after another. Yeah, well so
(59:53):
you said a record that too.Wise man once toold me there was no
law against being still
So we're here today at Akwa Sase. This is one of the great communities
at lacrosse communities in the world.At one point, this area supplied about
ninety percent of the world's lacrosse sticks. You know, so I had a
huge role in the game going backinto the eighteen hundreds. And I have
with me here today Steve and RonThomas. Uh, We're gonna tell a
(00:30):
little bit of their own personal historywith the game and what the game means
Docua Sase and take us on alittle journey lacrosse journey here. Let's start
with Ron. Can you tell uswhat year you were born in and we'll
start that way, simple ninety six, nineteen thirty six, right here at
(00:51):
Aqua Sasse. Yeah. Yeah,I was born in Cornwall the hospital my
mother was so they weren't married yet, So I was a sing single single
what do you call it? Single? Mom? But I know. But
my father had gone to Fellow What'swhat's coach to play lacrosse enough and they
(01:15):
signed him up and he was therefor eight years. So I didn't see
my father for eight years. Wow. No, But when they came back
and and my mother, my motherleft, she went to work and at
Airondacks, I know, the skiresorts and all that, and the whole
mess of women her age that theygot hired at the same time. So
(01:38):
I was left at home in acrib. So she took me over to
my grandparents and I grew up withthen I see all right, I was
twenty years old and I know highschool, and then we all got hired
from the big project we had herewith the power power power and the seaway
and stuff like that. But youknow, you know, meanwhile we're playing
(02:01):
lacrosse. So who introduced you tolacrosse? Like, how old were you
in who? It was about six. We used to have a priest.
His name was father Jacobs's originally fromthe Cocinaga Reservation, name was Michael,
Father Michael, and he used toorganize you know, one of us,
(02:23):
one of the old coaches that knowthat used to play for him as Bill
Bill Lafrous, remember, yeah,Paul Paula, Paula Fraud used to play
for the Old Field lacrosse and uhhe was our coach at that time.
We're all like five five years,five years old to twelve years old,
(02:46):
and uh, the reason they putus through all that training Sessions was the
father used to big in contact withall the you know, the North North
and no New York. And everytime there was a like a exhibition some
kind of every every fall there wassomething going on or like a fair or
(03:10):
no stuff like that, and thatthey'd send us by by truck truckloads and
no through exhibition games. Yeah,like a demonstration game. They were no
what lacrosse was at that time.Everybody it was not a lot of new
people that had moved. No inour district too, and because of all
(03:31):
the work that was coming to expectedto to start with the seaway back in
uh nineteen fifty yea, and Iknow us so we had a lot of
even uh people waited our South camehere to work through. So but no,
that's why we do. We goplay a demonstration game and they treat
(03:53):
us now like we're no professionals orsomething. But we're just young young kids
five starting at five years old,six seven, eight, you know,
ten, twelve, And I knowwe did that every summer for I don't
know how long. But do youremember what cities you went to down there,
(04:13):
some of them for that you wentto put exhibitions on? Yeah,
what were some of the cities likeCircus, Geneva. Not that far.
We went at that far Auginsburg,the whole nor north, nor western on
New York State, Auginsburg, no, Canton. Can't all them little towns
(04:34):
all the way over to the Canadianborder that they set us over there and
special occasions. And he was gettingpaid for that, no, the priest,
But he was. He was agood uh what do you call it,
builder, builder promote, Yeah,he was. They even they when
(04:56):
when you left here you got theyretired. You know, he was getting
up to his eighty years old.You're still I know that pretty active man.
And uh he used to have afeel bright in Hookensburg and I had.
It was a two story building therebefore, and he didn't have us,
no announcers up on top. Sometimeshe'd be up there. We'd be
(05:17):
playing. By that time, Igraduated to playing senior and we played against
his home team. It's then cockingoager. Okay up there, no hollering
on his on the micro. Theysaid in the lead, Dick, you
know that means hid him. Itis his own, his own people,
(05:41):
And everybody would start breaking breaking outin the laughter. Now it's a good
time and every fall set that outdoorboxing y. Yeah, I know I
know which one you mean. Yeah, that's right. It's a it's a
it's a holy holy place. Nowit's the caller. They got no place
(06:01):
right now and know that they haveall kinds of know they have they have
people know laid old there too sometimesat wakes, no really and they have
to know the priests to come andshoe their prayers and the outdoor place.
Yeah, okay, so that wasbut back back then and Father Jacob's time,
(06:24):
he was he was really a goldgetter. You know, he always
had something working on, something,not to not to bring the crowds in
all the time. You know,fall he organized a taught they call it
a tombola. It's like a openfair. Know. They had all kinds
of games and even had a greatbig noise flayers will. Yeah he was
(06:47):
no, he was real very creativeguy. Yeah. They had thousand people,
yeah, from everywhere. Yeah.I always had a brand new car
too, So you really so I'llgo to the church. Well it got
him around to do more work.Our committee that they nominated him for enough
(07:12):
for being on our Hall of famecalled fame com Yeah, you've got a
virtual Hall of Fame coming soon,don't you like? That's being worked on
right now. Yeah, you guysare related directly or as my brother.
It's your brother. Yeah, okay, I'm an older guy. Okay,
So how how many years apart areyou? Fourteen? Fourteen years? Wow?
(07:32):
There you go, there you go, eight and six? No wow
wow? Right, so that youknow that's you know, my oldest brother
was eight years older than you.I know what that difference because you're kind
of in different worlds, you know, you're different stages and that kind of
thing. But we lost one ofour brothers a couple of years ago.
(07:54):
Yeah. His name was Wayne,Wayne. He played He was named after
my father, Angus Wayne Angus.Yeah. So he had across the Bear.
Yeah, he had all the presOh yeah, joining up with us
and as you grew up, youknow, you developed into all across there
too. Yeah. We used toplay out of the cornwall on the Water
(08:16):
Street Arena on them, but it'snot there anymore. So I said,
they tore it down about ten yearsago. Yeah, tell the people about
Angus Thomas. He's like one ofthe greatest of all time. Right.
Well, I've I've done the extensiveresearch on and UH US and Canada.
(08:37):
Yeah, and one of our whenwe formed the Hall of Fame committee,
we Mike and I Mike Mitchell andI, and we try to get the
older guys in first, especially thelegends, the ones that you grew up
listening people talk about. Yes,and these guys were especially in the middle
of their pressure, yeah, youknow. And they he played in New
(09:03):
Jersey, yeah, you know,and some of these uh they had some
pro leagues like yeah, Atlantic City, Atlantic City with a big draw.
You had a Swegen which are sixnations, gon Oague US And we had
some guys from Bill Bill Isaac andit was one of his best friends from
(09:24):
salam Anca, and they had aheck of a team. They had a
heck of a team and that placewas packed with people every time they came.
And the league was very strong,which was good and it created more
interest here because at the time Isaid that they were playing field across,
(09:50):
they hadn't transitioned into the box boxgame, yes, thirty early thirties,
so they were a draw everywhere theywent, really and it came back around.
They ended up in UH summer demonstrationat the Olympics in Los Angeles.
Yes, in nineteen thirty thirty two. Now was Jay silver Heels. Yes,
(10:16):
in Los Angeles at that time,they all what was his first name,
Smith was Harold Harold Smith. Yeokay, so they were all of
that. Okay, so they traveledand there they're cousins too. Yeah.
Yeah, my father's grandfather a smithwith a Smith nation. Yeah, because
(10:37):
they were like the real deal atsix Nations. Yes, yeah, his
name was Smith, last name wasSmith to a Smith and that's where my
father got Yeah, you have relationsand uh he was on o Waga too.
He was always like a manager forthe local team. Yeah. He
was like an organizer for no.I got pictured at home then. He
(10:58):
was always dressed up, no rightto the Yeah, no you look.
No, didn't look native at all. He's just yeah, he just had
that that flair about him. Hewould look like a professional something you know.
Now, did AGAs play in thatleague that was on the West coast?
(11:20):
He did. He was gone foreight years. Okay, that was
that probably probably nortore Indians. Yeah, and they played against Los Angeles and
other Well they like how did thatwork when they when they done that touring
team? Yeah, they got togethergot six nations and combines with members from
Aquasasti and they left here and that'swhere they ended up. They were invited
(11:46):
to play on demonstration at Los Angelesat the Olympics, and of course Hollywood.
Yeah, I had to find outwhat was all this ruckus about with
these natives. Yeah, and mohawklacrosse players. So they sent guys down
with and she attended the games andgood looking guys right in their prime,
(12:11):
prime age. And they brought himback to Hollywood. They talked to Silverheels
Jay silver Heels acting name. Thefirst thing they did was give him a
name, so because he has hisshoes were uh yeah, like silvery shiny
heels. But then again, myfather and Anguish George, which is his
(12:33):
neighbor. They're only separated by onelot next door. And he lived on
the river too, so they wereboth fishermen. Yeah. But uh,
Jay Harold took them to acting studio, okay, and those you know people
were coming from everywhere. It's Southwestand all the natives, all these cowboy
(12:56):
movies, yeah, Pop on Cassidy. Yeah. One of the stories he
told was that they had to learnhow to fall off a horse. So
they're all in the ranchers and ranchersall over back in them days. Yea,
(13:16):
the cameras would be out there andthey'd drawn a horse and you hear
a bang and you'd have to falloff him. But you spoke with the
guys, the veterans that were there, and he said, this is harder
than lacrosse. They're gonna beat it. Yeah, because they were big guys,
you know. And they said.So that didn't go anywhere, but
the people at BC had heard aboutit also. And his name is Joseph
(13:45):
Staniel. No, um, hewas. It's part of that family,
the Bakers, yes, and anduh yeah, all yeah, they were
part of that. And they camedown and they said, would you like
come over and visit and we'll talkabout a contract and Vancouver area. Yeah,
(14:05):
so they got a job. Atthat time, they had Stephen Dors.
It was on their on their lands, the squamish, right, and
they had their own union. Nobodyinterfered with them, right, and the
guy was in charge of the unionand these guys are unloaded ships. Well,
(14:26):
oh well, they had a job. And then they played lacrosse,
yeah, in the league, andthere was a lot there was some guys
from here from Cornel Island, JohnJacobs and the name Paula was one of
them. Yeah, and uh hegot married up there and he stayed there.
(14:46):
You never come back. A lotof a lot of that happens,
John j Yeah, John Jacobs.Beautiful area right, Oh, it's gorgeous.
We went there. We we endedup touring in the junior junior Yeah,
and uh we were gone for sixteendays. Yeah. And it wasn't
(15:07):
good for family life, you know. I mean there wasn't much money around
here though. You depended on heritagegrant which was like thirteen thousand, which
was every year for Lacrosse to keepbuilding it, and that came from the
church. Father Father Arsenal came inand fifty seven and he helped because Father
(15:33):
Jacobs was getting up in years,so I helped him established the UK was
ustin the minor Lacrosse because he wrotethe proposals. And when did that come
into being there probably about fifty eight. The seaway was going full steam.
People were working. The guys thatcame home and they went directly to work
(15:54):
here multiple projects and my father therehad a couple of people from Gnawaga staying
at our house. They played lacrossewith They stayed there and roomed with Monday
to Friday. Okay, So anyways, the priest and I we he'd get
an equipment in and we'd sort itall out and make fifteen sets for the
(16:21):
kids. And we started with thelittle guys and worked up to bannams and
midgets, and there was people thatwere just coming knocking on the door as
I want to play, I wantto play a play because everybody walked around
with a lacrosse stick in the villageand here too, going okay, that's
when you know communities at its peak. Yeah, you know. And when
(16:42):
we started out, they went fromparish to parish. We would play Saint
Andrews behind the church the lacrosse boxoutside. Then we'd go to Alexandria,
another parish behind the church. Sothat's how most of its started with the
(17:03):
priests and long Sue Maxville all theway up and down the line. Gonhwaga
was behind the church up the Yeah. So they actually helped develop the keep
the game going, you know,revive the game. So we're very appreciative
with that, yes, but therewas times we had because these guys are
(17:30):
big guys, farmers on that noteshore and U. Sometimes they went to
fisticuffs university referees or the priests andthe next day, you know, you
break it up and then, uh, the priest is mad at our priest
and we got to separate them.Yeah, but that's the way, you
(17:53):
know, that was in the fifties, developing years. Yeah, well we
go back, Like you said,you're talking about family, and I said,
my grandfather, his father or whatwhat are the names of those guys.
Your grandfather's name was Thomas. Whatabout first name George, George.
My great grandfather was George Thomas,great grandfather. He sat her signatory towards
(18:15):
some of the treaties, sir inmohawk name. And my grandfather was Tom
Tom, Tom Thomas, Thomas,Paul Thomas. Okay, six brothers and
they're a huge Paul, Paul,Paul Thoma, Peter Louis, Joe Louis,
they all Peter play all play playedguys. Yeah, like me,
(18:40):
handsome guys. But we got alot of research, got pictures. They
played field across at the beginning.My father was fifteen and with the goalie
got hurt, which was Peter Garlsgrandfather. He hurt himself and the shot.
(19:03):
So my father was fifteen. Theyput him in nets and that's why
his nose is it was like downOkay, hit him right on the on
the nose of the bridget and noseand it was just flat. And at
that time there was no you know, hospital care or anything. So they
didn't have any masks, no maskeither, maybe a helmet the helmet.
(19:23):
Oh, there was no equipment.He just played. They had a great
team. They're undefeated for like twentyyears. Wow. So that whole that's
them though, And I'm going tocome down to this way. And the
women that followed would take care ofthe guys that were hurt. They we
(19:44):
had a lot of medicine women.They traveled. Okay, we didn't have
trainers. They done most of thework. So would they stitch people up
and things like that? Yeah?They and the players, like my dad,
he was watching them do this.And in the forties and fifties when
he came back, everybody was backhere at the hooge spurt of lacrosse box.
(20:06):
He'd do it. Oh, he'ddo it on the bench. Wow.
Wow. Because all they had wasa bucket and a towel, bucket
of water and a towel. Thatwas it. And somebody brought a carpet
needle like this. If you gotcut on your above your eye, he
would be right there and holy cow, you know, seven eight days and
(20:29):
come to the house and pull itoff. Yeah, that's all They took
care of him. Yeah, Soit wasn't like today that they have trainers
and all this other stuff. Youhad to do this yourself. My grandfather
worked on a river and a SaintRage's River which is two miles long.
They were drejans sand with a guyfrom Cornwall and he worked there for twenty
(20:52):
five years with the guy with theyeah guy in a boat taking to the
job you were yeah, okay,So these guys that wanted to play lacrosse
for the town team had to unloadsand behind the church will barrows in hot
summer days. Why were they puttingthe sand behind the church. Well,
(21:17):
that way that they used to dockat our big barge. Okay, you
had to shift shift the sand.Oh okay, it was great big barge.
That was one of my jobs theretoo, you know, once you
start. My grandfather was the operatorof the know the gizmo that you know,
(21:37):
the digs up in the tube andthe deposits on it right on your
flat, flat bottom barge. Okay, so that was my job. Every
time they started building up. Therewas gates on it, but you had
to put a like a little door, you know, to block it so
that doesn't fall back all the intothe river. And that was a constant
(21:59):
job. That was a training forthe cross players. So you wanted to
play, You're gonna be a dredgeRegions. That's why they were so strong.
It was, it was all.It was all like a family project
because my u my aunt Isabel,it is my father's sister. So she
used to take drive us to Cornwalland you have to go unloaded and I
(22:22):
remember the old canal, Yeah thatwas there before the ships that going by
there before. And uh that's whywe would park our bars and weld the
sand unloaded onto their onto their littlelittle land that's left. And I all
had to be here. You'll haveto load up your own uh sand,
(22:44):
you said, wheel barrel. Andmy my father, my grandfather was late
planks and that's why you followed.And I said, you know, I
have to fight the ground or not. If it's like this, you put
plank a little smoother path. Yeah, like a path yet and no,
no, that was hard work.It's good for your arms too in the
(23:07):
show. Yeah, good for scoopingtoo. Yeah. But my dad was
what they called he had a overhandshot and it's an under arm shot,
which was like a bullet, andthey called him Buckshot Thomas with a BC
and uh Stan Baker was part ofthe Baker Boys. He wrote a book
(23:30):
mentioning these guys that went there.And in nineteen seventy one, Mike Mitchell
and I, who was elected aschief I went there and we spoke with
him at length, and he toldus about and a guy was like almost
eighty, but he could name theevery player that came from up with us
and their wives, their children.I mean he had a mind of oh
(23:53):
my god, it was unbelievable oraltradition. Yes, and he told us
all of this stuff. And ifhe signed the book, guys still have
it at the house. I collectbooks. I got one of yours or
first one. So, like Isaid, my research constantly, Yes,
(24:14):
looking for information. Yea. Theyplayed on a dagga. They played senecas,
they played unaidas on the historical LikeRonnie was saying when they had these
historical get togethers. Yeah yeah,like a country fair. Yeah yeah,
you know, six Nations would winthe Man Cup or President's Cup or anything.
(24:36):
They'd be in Hugnsburg. They're followingSaturday and they play against our team
because they had sponsors and stuff we'dnever had. There was no money here.
My father said, you could gofrom one enner the reserve to the
other. If you found fifteen cents, you were lucky. So them leaving
was was great for them back inthe thirties, you can make some money.
(25:00):
Yeah, there was no money here. Nothing. Yeah. We had
a little plant here at Lacrosse Plant, and they had like thirty families working.
I kept people going, Yes,it did. And that was basically
the history of lacrosse here is thatwe a lot of the guys left and
went to New York City. Theywent to Rochester, Buffalo, and we
(25:22):
were working. I work right,and we followed suit. I was in
high school sixteen, I was workingin Albany in summer. We get off
in May and work till September connectingbuildings. Were you able to still play
lacrosse during that time? Oh?Yeah. Wherever we went, we took
our sticks. Yeah, God,you had to climb, yeah, strengthened
(25:49):
your legs and your older shoulder.Great, great, absolutely, Yeah,
And we get on these major projectslike in Virginia, Maryland. It's there's
a lot of time on your handswhile you're there, and you do learn
everything. Climb and call hims onthe old side face run up. They're
just as fast as you can comedown head first and all this stuff because
(26:15):
you're gonna have to do bridges andstuff too. Anyways, but that was
part of our training. And whenwe came back, I said, all
you do is get your wind up. So we're running. My brother in
law, Mike Benedict, who's ina Hall of Fame with us. He
him and I went to work innineteen seventy one with one of our jobs.
(26:37):
We started in Courtland and a bankjob, and we ended up in
building the University of Binghamton, Okay. And all that time we were playing
lacrosse on weekends, the Junior Bees, the Braves coming back to Canada to
play. Yeah, and when weplayed in the Castro Cup in September,
(27:00):
we were working. We had theguy would let us go at three o'clock
and we'd drive here and play well. These guys were sleeping on the hotel
bed, we were working. Allhe did was dropped the hour to seven.
We started at seven in the morningand that's five hours from here,
so we'd get to the rink abouttwenty five after seven thirty and had already
(27:23):
missed the period a half a period. So but we fared pretty well with
our team. They beat us atthe end, but it was it was
a revenge match because that's earlier thatyear, in July, we played in
we're invited to play in a centennialCup in British Columbia. Okay, it's
(27:45):
one hundred or fifty year or onehundred year in Bursary eighteen sixty nineteen sixty
seven, no seventy one and thatone. McDonald bread sponsored them quarter of
a million dollars. Wow, bigmoney. And they had an excellent training
(28:10):
camp everything. I had uniforms andwork out gear and everything. And we've
played them there and we beat themtwo games to total score. We beat
them the first game and they wantedanother game, so so we'll make a
two game total score. So webeat them then and right into their backyard.
(28:30):
And I think they didn't forget thatwhen they came here. We played
at the Water Street Arena that wasThat place was full. It was like
twenty five hundred people. The firedepartment wasn't happy because it was too many
people. But you know, itwas exciting times for the game. You
know, when you're twenty one,you have fun. Did you play in
(28:55):
the Pro League and I was draftedby Montreal? You were okay? And
CoA. Ronnie and I worked atAlcoa. We're hanging steel on the new
the new plant, the new plant, and when I were connecting together.
Okay, So we had and hekept calling. Bruce ron Point played there
(29:18):
and Travis played in Quebec, andthey wanted me to go up there.
Even Ferguson came down to the housetalk to my dad. But I said,
I just started over here. It'sa three year project. I don't
know how long you guys are goingto be going, you know what I
mean? Yes, so four hundreddollars, I said. I was making
more than that over here. Iwas getting two hundred and seventy five dollars
(29:41):
a day for per diem. Wow, and plus the wages. So you're
not going to leave that when it'sonly twelve miles from the house, right
right, But every Saturday we'd gowatch a home game. Once were all
okay, my father and I andsome of his buddies all lacrosse players.
(30:02):
Was Jim Bishop, the coach atthat time. I do believe, I
think you would believe. Yeah.Yeah. And then they wanted me to
come up there, probably just tofight, right right, But Bruce Rompoint
took care of that for them.What he kept calling me is just come
on help me. Yeah, troublewith these hockey players. They're pro hockey
(30:26):
players from Philly. He played Ontario. Boy played lacrosse, but sorry you
played. It was in Syracuse,uh, Onondaga on a doga Atlantic club.
They had a great, great team, all basically ironworkers, just like
us. So eight thousand people wouldcome out to see you play at the
War Memorial in Syracuse. Yeah,okay, that was a great, great
(30:49):
rivalry and we look forward to that. That was a great one. Yes,
they ran, you were saying,they didn't really have any place to
shower though. After that. Thatwas when you played outside box. Oh
the outside yeah, this was theyplayed it with the east Side. Yeah,
we played outside Oh that I knowthe box you need Yeah, there's
(31:11):
a little box in the sand sandbath. Yes, he had a hard
times. Sometimes you're no practice.I know exactly what you're talking is east
time. I was usually bought eightydegrees, and I know that dust would
come right up torture, just coughing. Gonna Sadaga had a lacrosse box.
(31:33):
It was uphill, okay, uphill like this, So that was all
sand sand bay. Of course,first period we're on this end. In
a third period, we're running uphilltwo times. That was their trick.
Everybody has a trick. Oh yeah, so that you know Travis and I
(31:55):
West. When I got together withthe boys and Uhs, grandfather and our
coach, Frank Benedict convinced me toplay for them at seventy one. It
was twenty one. It was thelast year of juniors. So I said,
okay. I was playing hockey,I was playing baseball. I was
playing softball. And I said,okay, now we got to work all
(32:19):
winner. We're downstairs punching a heavybag, the speedbag, doing working on
the legs, stuff like that,skipping roll ye squats. Gotta get ready
for the game. He said,we're going to a BC. I said,
okay, that's great. Yeah.When we played, we started here,
(32:42):
we ended up in Edmonton, Wewent to Calgary, took a bus
over to Victoria. This is likea tour. Yeah, it was a
tour by the Canadian government paid forit. Okay, So we left and
it was old standing. What atrip. Yeah. We were at the
Calgary Stampede. We had half thebox. The other half was Gordy Hall
(33:04):
and Bobby Bobby or we're doing ademonstration. Wow. So we went out
to play and I said, theyjust passing the ball around, shooting on
the goalie and stuff like that,a little mini game. And the coach
come over. He goes, that'sGordy Hall. He's one of the toughest
players in hockey. I said,what don't you guys start hitting? So
(33:25):
we did. So we start hittingeach other. So he stopped that.
He was leading on the center thingthere is watching us play. Those famous
elbows. Yeah, his elbows.So you know, it was fun.
It was really fun. There wasa lot of people watching. And I
said that you were twenty one.It lasted sixteen days or longer? Was
(33:47):
that different? It was sixteen days. That was a sixteen day twa well,
then one of the member of parliamenthad a ranch up in Nayton,
Alberta. So he invited us upthere to play against Edmonton Blues junior beat
team. They were just starting out. They're powerful now so they've done a
(34:12):
lot of work too. And he'sanother one. He said. We rode
horses all day. Wow, lookingat the rocky mountains. Gorgeous. But
we had a game that night andeverybody was sore. He were you out?
Oh yeah, but we ended upbeating them. It was like twelve
(34:36):
to three. Yeah, and wewere up. We're up like ninety three
and the coach come over and hegoes, can you help us all?
He said, sure. We splitthe team with half the guys went that
way and we played against each otherwith with third team, right especially,
you know, you got to builda game. Yes, so there's a
lot of people watching, so hesaid, take it easy on them,
(34:58):
and yeah, you know, becausewe have to build a game here,
right. We did. It wasfun, It was it was entertaining and
we met with everybody after all theirmanagement and they treat it as well.
So who who gave you your firststick? Like, how were you introduced
to the game? Do you rememberthat day? I remember that day because
(35:20):
I had the role from Saint Register, Cornell Island. My father's boat was
down the river he was working onout of town, and put the oars
in and started oaring up here.How old were you? Um? I'bly
nine? Wow? Yeah? AndI parked under the bridge because there was
(35:42):
no docks here, there was acable there. I tied the boat there
and I got out and walked tothe fields over to the Lacrosse factory and
they were busy. It was therewere shipping sticks and points. Lacrosse factory
and the two brothers were outside loadingup the trucks and stuff. And I
(36:08):
went inside and Frank would just comearound the corner and he said, he
said, hey, all you doing. I said good. He goes,
I'm here to buy a stick inMohawk. So he said, how much
twenty you got? He goes threedollars. Because I had summer job with
(36:30):
my uncle fishing and we'd cleaned twohundred fish a day for the people.
That's how I got my three dollars. So he says, you come with
me. He goes, who's yourfather? I said, he goes,
I said, Angus Thomas. Oh, he said you come with me.
Growing up the stairs. We lookedat the shipping room and he said,
(36:53):
you take any stick in this mohawkspecial. He should take anything you want
here. Just let me know whichone you took it off. I said,
okay, brand new leather stick.Yeah, handmade, but it's it's
it's like a treasure to me atnine years old. So that weekend I
(37:14):
got back. My father had comeback on Friday, because it's Monday to
Friday when you're out of town working, and he said, this is what
you do. Get it down toyour size. They said, send it
down and I said, the nexttime we have a hamm dinner, you
take that bone and you bone this. It will never break on you the
(37:36):
shaft. Okay, so rub thebone. Rubbed the bone on there like
this and that really worked. Ohyeah, I still have it. I
still have it. I got threeof my sticks in a gun cabinet at
my house. Do you used tohave quite a few, No lacrosse,
the little little individual own no companies. And I know they'd give you,
(38:00):
give you away a stick, andI know you're playing for you know the
Indian team. Yeah, no JoeMitchell, No, watch his name Benedict
over here. Yea, the LantrysInvensburgh. There was a whole bunch of
them. Where where were they?Ogensburgh? Two miles from my place.
(38:22):
You walk up there, they hada little factory off to the left.
There were all kinds of stick makers. Yeah, yeah, okay. The
guys that worked there were from here, uh going ogain go On Island and
I went to work there. There'stwo of us from Saint Rachis. So
you worked at the stick factory?Yeah? What what was your what did
(38:44):
you do one particular job there?Or what did you you do? Are
we carved sticks? Did you dothe steaming you know? Yeah, the
bank Andrew Thompson and his sunwear steaming, ok and we'd uh raw gone yeah,
and then we get to the uhpig skin put on because they had
(39:06):
special crew that ran the hot water, you know, to make the form
form the bend. Yeah, thatwas a special trade just for that.
Yeah, the bend it just right. See my father played with nylon stick
to take the shoe the shoe laceoff your work boots from the pocket.
(39:27):
Yeah, for the netting. Yeah, because the leather sticks were heavy,
okay, and only nine it onlydid that. Why too. Yeah,
so take it off and restring it. I've been doing that ever since a
special stick. Yeah, that's whythey could shoot so so fast, you
know, because let's wind wind friction. Okay, it's like, no,
(39:51):
it's a small It was almost theball was almost not going to fit in
there by looks of it. Butbut you know that's that's the way it
was. No like like this andit's great, big nut on it and
no, this is this a littlewedge like this and the ball just barely
fit anybody when when you wind itup and shoot, you just said you're
(40:12):
cann't hear it here? The whizgoo boy? Yeah? Well wow.
Anyways, we um we were workingthere and helping these guys go out and
they said they Bruce and I endedup we were working iron work and we
ended up in uh Newburgh, NewYork, which is just that we stayed.
(40:36):
We had to stay at Highland Falls, which is across from West Point
on the Hudson. On the Hudson. Yeah, so we have our ar
lacrosse sticks and there's you know,it's a small town. And he said,
there's a big field right there.Let's go try that. So we
walked out the front gate and aguy let us in. He goes,
(40:57):
what are you doing here? Isaid at the guard, They said,
well, we wanted to just practiceon the field, he said, he
looks, he goes, he wentin come back. Oh, he s,
yeah, you guys can go.We're twenty one. So we went
over and played and uh, we'repracticing throwing at the lacrosse night was like
six foot wide by six by six. Yeah, I see, it's have
(41:21):
to feel and throw a backhand putit in. So the cadets come out
first and they could barely. Sothat was a West Point, West Point
Army base. That's all. That'sall. Uh, no fuel lacrosse too,
right, yeah, all college andBruce's a wrong point. Yeah.
(41:42):
So you had to explain to theseguys that he goes, what are you
guys doing here? They're like,I forget what they are lieutenants or something,
right, so officers. Yeah,So we showed them a couple moves
at the puck behind the back likethis, you know, pick it up
and go around like this, backhandsforehand and all this other sum underhand.
And they were watching and they'd neverseen anything like that. No, So
(42:06):
we showed him how to pick upand the simplest stuff. And we're there
for about a good forty five minutesteaching these guys. Yeah, basically a
free clinic. And finally the coachcomes out and you guys get out of
here, you know. And theguys the captains said wait, wait,
(42:27):
wait wait, he goes there,you got to listen to these guys.
They're showing us some stuff you don'tshow us, so he can't. So
he said, well, let mesee what you guys have talked. So
we're passing the ball, you know, back you coming at each other,
and just passed the ball, pastthe ball, past the ball, and
he said, oh, okay,show him something else. So we had
(42:52):
them run straight back away from us. What year was this, by the
way, somebody one something. Itwas a big year. Yeah, going
on. So the sticks are thisbig there, feel across sticks. Yeah,
I said, put it right here, but the net facing me,
and it says, go and youthrow the ball and it'll hit the the
(43:17):
net. And they said, onceyou have the ball, you can go
this wager that way. Yeah,And a coach is writing all this stuff
down, so he said, there'ssomething I said that was thought to me
by Ross Paulis Okay, when Iwas in Rochester playing for him and six
eight feet ten feet horror play.You gotta hit that stick. These two
(43:43):
boys were playing Greg and um Ican't remember his other name right now,
but they showed us a lot too. Yeah, so you had to put
it right right there. He said, you've practiced after the game, after
all the coats are done, theglasses here, you got the stanchions.
(44:04):
One screw. I want you toget back and hit that screw. Yeah,
every time, and as to doit forehand, left hand, right
hand, and then if you're goodenough, try your backhand. Try to
hit that screw, because this iswhat we're going to be teaching you.
It's got to be that accurate.Yes, And I said, the guy
would run like this with a stick. It's up to you to hit it
(44:28):
because I played defense for them.Yeah, and that helped a lot.
So was that the only time youworked with the the army guys, yeah,
West Point. Yeah. At onetime we just walked out on the
field yep, and we ended upstaying there over an hour. Yea.
So helping these guys out, yeah, must be a neat So the guy
(44:51):
the coach walks us back to thegate and he shakes our hand and we
walked back across the bridge. Soyou had the right attitude anyways, Oh
you know this, yeah, ifin order to build ye, because there
was nothing nothing on that side,right, because the thirties were over and
the forties and most of the lacrosseended up back this way. Yeah.
So yeah, at that same time, the Naval Academy was quite good.
(45:15):
Yes, So there was a bigdifference in Baltimore and the hot grown for
lacrosse that was at the time,so it still is. Yeah. So
because a lot of our kids endedup at Salisbury Yes college, Yes,
on a lacrosse scholars speak. Yeah. Yeah, so you know it's um
you can use that to get intocollege. Yes, because nobody had money
(45:38):
here, you couldn't afford to go, so it opened doors. Yeah.
Like Dave White was a definitely goto Brown, ended up at Brown,
which was huge. You know,I got uh accepted at Cornell, Ithaca
mit. Yeah, all the upstate they were those were the schools playing.
Yeah, they were playing lacrosse.Yea. And what's his name came
(45:59):
up here? Um uh, signmentsfor Roy signments for Cyracusans. Yeah,
and he wanted Mike, Mike,Benardict, myself, Travis, and there
was three of us and I saidwe can't go. Cook Okay, I
said we can't go. I saidwe can't even right, you know,
(46:22):
yeah, you gotta pull money.Well, now they have a scholarship holding
the show. Yeah, scholarship thatwas. It's too bad they didn't have
it back then. Yeah, fiftyyears ago. Something different. Yeah,
you know, it could have beenmanagement level somewhere with a university degree.
I didn't get a college agree thoseforty one So wait, where did you
(46:44):
get your degree? In Ottawa?It was management? Okay, but you
know it helps. I started asapprentice and ended up a project manager Companies
out of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, toworked for them a long time. You
were a chief, Yeah, andwhat years were you a chiefs I was
(47:08):
ninety seven. They were building thearena here and I have a whole bunch
of hand tools that they needed forthe roof. I was in. I
was building a prison in Rome,New York, and I came home and
I helped. My uncle was workinghere, Mike Thomas, and I brought
(47:30):
some tools for him for his crewand they used it to do the roof,
the metal roof in nineteen ninety seven. Yeah, yeah, nineteen ninety
seven. So of course people seethat and you're helping out on the community
project. And if somebody nominated mefor chief, I get elected And exchange
(47:53):
rate was thirty eight percent, Soit was a heck of a difference in
wages from what I was doing.But I talked to my wife and she
she said, well we can,we can make it work. Yeah.
Obviously, here's responsibility, you know, to the community. And after you
(48:14):
got done, they got done withthe arena. I went to work there
for eight years, is that right? Yeah? Ronnie was the ice maker,
is that right? Right? Yeah, So you know it's that that
type of interaction from the community.Yeah, because they know who you are,
you know your family, You contributedto the game and all this stuff.
(48:35):
And on top of the guys thatmy grandfather's brothers, they were one
was playing till he was seventy,Paul Thomas. He was built like a
rock. They had. Yeah,a good looking guy to him. He's
(48:57):
better looking than uh, most ofthe movie stars that are doing Cowboy movies.
He was big. Well, that'swhere we get our encouragement from them.
Right right, all arounded by that. Yeah, and uh, my
grandfather and his kids were playing inthat field across back in the twenties thirties.
(49:17):
So there's a fairly well known famouseven painting that shows sticks the guys
taking a side arm got by JohnThomas. I think, who is it?
Oh John, that's that's my cousin. That's your cousin. Did that?
Okay? I must have been doneback in the um yeah nineties,
(49:37):
okay, yea, yeah, becauseI've seen that. Well, we commissioned
him for the arena, oh okay, and we commissioned him at the OPG
visitor Center. Okay, So we'rebuilding a game, building a game,
yeah, yeah, because I startedwith these guys here at the Traveling College,
Mike and I, Mike Mitchell andI and his brother Ernie and a
(50:00):
couple of other guys. We dancedon ceremonies at the university's colleges, and
the little towns are on here becausethere's a lot of history, and that's
part of the country. Yes,yeah, you know, Upper Canada,
Lower Canada. Yeah, so SaintLawrence, oh yeah, yeah, yeah,
So there's a lot of history andwe took an advantage of it.
(50:21):
They helped us and we helped them. Yeah. So yeah, yeah,
Rod, you're you're very well respectedas a coach for this game, you
know, and people I heard peoplesaying that you never used to say much,
but that your luck got the resultthat you wanted from from your players.
I think they're afraid of my bigbrothers rather than myself. I know
(50:47):
that we had we got a longgood so I never I never hollered at
anybody for one thing. I usedto. I used to play for you
his his team too, but thatwas in the beck League and we used
to get scolded with there no Frenchlanguage and the name calling and sometimes we're
(51:07):
getting into a riot. Sometimes weneed the police to get out of town.
But it wasn't my fault. Butyou know, we just try to
control our players not to behave butyou know, it's no when you when
you get called all kinds of names, and it's it's hard to keep your
cool right And a lot of timesthat the Quebec City we had a big
(51:28):
riot there and who was playing whoin that game in the Quebec City game,
the local team and and our impeachteam that they are over playing junior
junior ranks. At that time,I was coaching and one of the had
a couple of rom Point brothers onthere too, right, yeah, Barry,
(51:50):
Yeah they're younger ones. Okay,great player. So did you coach
like minor, junior and senior likelevels? Yeah, it's started. Uh
you followed my father. My fatherwas coach. Okay, you coach lacrosse
and coach hockey. So sports sucha great part of growing up. Yeah,
(52:12):
if you part of that, itwas. It was fun. We
used to have Native hockey tournaments,no all all true. You know,
the scent of the provinces. Youused to go all the way up to
know sometimes we're up to a thousandislands. No play to play a certain
time every year every winter. Youknow, we have to go and play.
(52:37):
You know, I play hockey.I played for a while. Then
I turned to coaching too later on. But I know it was fun.
You know, you got to knowa lot of people and a lot of
reservations that some of them were friendly. So we're not so friendly, so
I know what you gonna do.All right, So Leo, as kind
(52:58):
of getting near the end of ourinterview, you but who were some of
the greatest players like two or threegreatest players you ever saw ron and them
would ask you the same question.She lacrosse. Yes, Uh, he
entered up. I forget what thatwas his name is this? He used
to come down here as a specialteam that got together whoever won down here
(53:20):
and the senior division and the guysfrom sixth nations ross ballis ross and they
would you know, they always bringthe team down here in talents. No,
so no, they had a lotof uh players that turned pro after
you know, later on. AndI forget all the names that that was
(53:42):
in there. That but that wasa good source of great players six nations.
Yeah, yeah, and how aboutUSTe like who do you remember?
Well, got to play with heragainst We watched a lot of players who
said the Sunday Boys Bobby Billy whenI was grown up, and Ross Paulis
and his crew that came on Sundaystwo days they would play and they would
(54:09):
just have a good time meeting eachother again because most of them were family.
Yeah. And some of the guysI got that I watched in their
junior careers. Dave Sunday one ofthe most natural lacrosse players you'd ever want
to see. It was like he'dgive you shiverse the way he'd come up
(54:32):
with, just the way it is. You know, he said, you
already figure that out. Yeah,you sit there and watch that as a
kid. And they were playing,uh in the Junior B league here in
Cornwall, and that he opened upthe doors for probably half that team from
the SNI area. They wanted toplay because of him and Paul Ingis and
(54:57):
him, and it was just aweinspiring. You wonder how they come up
with this in the middle of theheat of battle and end up with a
shot that just mesmerizes you and afans just sitting there and they're shaking their
head going, oh, you know, so that's the stuff that you learned
from. Yeah, and I'm afamous father. Yeah, Louis, Louis
(55:22):
Sunday, you know probably heard ofhis name. There was no like Bobby's
younger brothers that they developed into excellentplayers. They weren't as big as the
older guys like Bob and Mike andbut I know they could run and they
know they knew how to move.Angus, George, my father and Louis
(55:44):
Sunday were the Golden trio. That'swhat the Montreal Star called them in the
lacrosse because they played pro at MontrealToronto, Quebec City, Quebec City,
Cornwall. Yes, back in thethirties. Okay, yeah, I got
(56:04):
all that information on my computer.That's all research. Like you need a
book. You got to do abook at some point. Yeah, well
someday I'll do that. My wifekeeps pushing me. But but the McCord
Museum, I have it in inthere. I said that Peter Garw and
I are supposed to go up therein research. Yeah. I've been down
(56:29):
to the basement there and it's amazingwhat not on display? Yeah, because
you know that you got this onepicture from Ghana Augua. It's eighteen sixty
five and nobody knows who the playersare. But what they didn't understand was
that a lot of these players movedhere to Saint Rigis, you know.
Yeah, and that's that's where ourconnection still is. Are some of our
(56:52):
families are still there through the gamerelative set Yeah, grandson's off. Yeah,
all right, last comments, yep, Okay, I'll give you a
scenario. Yeah, when we weregrowing up there, Indian agent was here,
Yeah, and nobody could just drifther on and lollygag. In the
(57:15):
summer, he sent us to Danny, George and I to Port bell Housie,
Harry O, Saint Catherine's to pickapples or peachers and all this other
stuff, and with a promise theyyou know, get paid so much a
week whenever got paid get but wehad a lacrosse sticks. We'd walk eight
(57:39):
miles to Saint Catharine's and Sundays,Saturdays and Sundays they had lacrosse going on
and there was a midget lacrosse teamin that town and Danny and I went
talked to the coach. He goes, well, I'll let your play.
You guys are any good? Hesaid, well, we'll be back next
(58:00):
Saturday. We'll play. We wontwelve six and Danny got six and I
got six. So that was theConraddy family. I think back then at
Saint Katharine could be because he droveus back eight miles and the next weekend
he'd come pick us up. Hedidn't have to walk anymore. We didn't
(58:21):
have to walk anymore before. Andhe paid us five dollars a game,
and at that time it took thirtytwo dollars and eighty six cents to come
back on a train back here.Okay, otherwise would have been stuck there
because he wasn't paying us there,guy, no, wo no guy.
(58:42):
The guy who were telling you aboutthat just passed away. He used to
be the owner of a valley fieldcorway. Great guy. He used to
pay five dollars a goal. Getout of here. Yeah that's bad.
Yeah, but when guys stopped passingthe thick another great player got to mention,
(59:04):
Lawrence Martin. Yeah, he playedthere. That guy was another natural.
He looked like a horse. Hehad long legs, long arms,
and muscular but he could do stuffwith that stick and nobody could knock him
down. Wow, that's all flexiblehe was. He was. He played
with Ronnie Awesome. They had therecord in Quebec. Three goals and fifteen
(59:30):
seconds off the face off. Yeah. Wow, he was a sentiment.
Wow, Frankie got three goals andfifteen So I was the passer. Yeah,
I get the ball. Frankie isalready already closer than They didn't figure
that out after the was conpecutive runright after another. Yeah, well so
(59:53):
you said a record that too.Wise man once toold me there was no
law against being still
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