60 years on, champion team is still celebrating
North Toronto is the two-time defending Tier II football champion, but the championship recently celebrated by a group of alumni is from another era altogether.
The 1944 North Toronto championship football team celebrated its 60th anniversary on Sept. 28, a tradition they started 20 years ago.
Playing before 12,000 fans at Varsity Stadium, the 1944 North Toronto Norsemen trailed Central Tech 8-5 with less than five minutes to play. That’s when coach Bud Page sent in Marc Walcott on a hunch, lining up for a punt return. Walcott rushed the Central kicker Pete Karpuk (who went on to play in the Canadian Football League), blocked the kick and recovered for the winning touchdown, putting North Toronto ahead 12-8 for good.
"We were a small team but extremely well coached," says Gordon MacKendrick, 78, who along with Al Crawford, played a large role in bringing the former teammates back together. "We only had one touchdown scored against us all year and that was in the finals."
It was a different time back then, says MacKendrick, considering that 10 players from the previous year’s team went off to fight in the Second World War. North Toronto’s toughest competition out of the 20 or so teams playing at the time came from Malvern, Riverdale, Northern and Humberside. Six of those North Toronto players went on to play university football and two of the Central Tech players moved up to the Canadian Football League.
In those days North Toronto was a football power, also winning the 1941 championship and making the finals in 1940 and 1943.
But old football memories aren’t always the main topic of conversation when the team gets together, as it’s done each year since 1994. Rather they talk about life, grandchildren and other highschool memories that are still crystal clear.
"Every year when we meet it’s like we met yesterday," says MacKendrick, who was a halfback on offence and defence in 1944. "You just take off where you left off. The guys really look forward to it, we send a letter out in March to let them know when we’re meeting for lunch."
At the meetings, they sometimes play a video that was taken by former teammate Jack Daly. Daly came across some inheritance money back in high school and bought a colour video camera with which he taped parts of the teams’ games in 1943 and 44, including of course the cheerleaders and spectators. The film has also been copied, set to music of the period and sent to Canada’s national archives.
Two of the former players have become ministers and before every meeting there is a prayer said for the 13 team members, including coach Bud Page, who have since passed away.