This Week in Sports looks back on the week of July 3rd - July 10th, 1955
Some names are familiar; some not so much.
A glance at the mid-season standings of the Sudbury and District Football (Soccer) Association in the summer of 1955 revealed some success in programs that very much sustained the test of time, with others who appear to have come and gone, relatively quickly.
The race for first place was an interesting one with Adria-Croatian Rockets topping the charts at 3-1-3 (9 pts), followed closely by the Italia Flyers (3-1-2 = 8) and the Ukrainian Lions (2-1-4 = 8).
The latter entered the league as a new franchise, though there are some ties to the Ukrainian Sitch Football Club that finished dead last the previous year. Rounding out the 1955 five were the White Eagles (2-3-2 = 6) and the Black Devils (1-5-1 = 3).
The Lions continued to show improvement from one week to the next, recently tripling the Black Devils 6-2 as Mike Cauley, Elgin Makarucha, Myron Kobryn, Walter Radamsky and Walter Hirnet scored one goal each, the final tally coming courtesy of an own goal from the Black Devils.
That said, the last place crew also benefitted from an own goal of their own, the Willie Schuran also striking for one marker.
************************************************************The Sudbury Hardrocks are also in store for a little bit of a new look as coach Sam Lazich has stepped down, with current players Sid Forster and Gerry Retty handling the early stages of the 1955 tryouts, along with team manager Jim Sandul.
A dozen or so returnees were prominent at the practice session described as "somewhat ragged" and hosted at the Sacred Heart College campus (now Ecole secondaire catholique Sacré-Coeur).
That group included Polly Dinan, Cec Brown, Murray Cliff, Rene Pierce, Ed Blanchard and Harold Walton while newcomer Norm Lekun looked right at home in his debut.
The 190-pound halfback suited up with the Stratford Rams intermediate football team in 1954 and looks like a shoe-in to crack the Hardrocks roster, as does local boy Ernie Charbonneau, a 6'4" 17 year-old trying out at tackle.
************************************************************It was a who's who of prominent Sudbury athletes sitting atop the Nickel Belt Baseball League statistical category charts as five teams battled it out in 1955.
Future hockey Hall of Famer George Armstrong had secured a stranglehold in his charge for the Wiggie Walmesley batting trophy, a recent hot streak bumping his average all the way up to .463 (25/54).
That leaves the Garson slugger with a little breathing room ahead of a chase-pack that features Ev Staples of Creighton (.396 - and the man behind the Creighton badminton dynasty that was to come), Gil Benoit of Garson (.392), defending batting champ Gerry Wallace of Copper Cliff (.380) and Spike Wormington of Frood (.375).
Other noteworthy names could be found in the form of Clarence Fox of Coniston (9 doubles - and father of NHLer Jimmy Fox), Gerry McNamara of Garson (7 doubles - 17 RBI - and future GM of the Toronto Maple Leafs) as well as pitchers Gino Oliver, Tug Parri, Snug Myrenich and Keith Boyd.
************************************************************Finally, the Sudbury Canoe Club will be sending a 22-man contingent to Ottawa next month, site of the Canadian Canoe Association Championships, with mainstays Don Stringer, Johnny McMorran, Lou Lukanovich, Al Duval and Rusty Hobbs leading the way.
Stringer is noted as a best bet to crack the Canadian team roster at the next Olympic Games as he posted an impressive time of 4:28 in the half-mile distance at the club time trials. Despite having no competition at this distance, Stringer still managed to come within four seconds of the national record he established a year earlier in Ottawa.
The event in Sudbury highlighted a talented crew of up and coming juniors, with SCC folks keeping an eye on Johnny Beedell, Bobby Gray, Douglas McMorran and John Foster.
