Manitoba’s most memorable paddlers

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 09/09/2019 (2509 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In the 40-year history of the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame, just two paddling teams have been inducted. The 1967 Manitoba Centennial Voyageur canoe team was honoured in 2010. In June, at a special 40th anniversary veteran induction ceremony, the 1937 Winnipeg Canoe Club paddling team was recognized.

In 1967, as part of Canada’s centennial celebration, teams from eight provinces and two territories competed in a race called the Centennial Voyageur Canoe Pageant. It began in Rocky Mountain House, Alta., on May 24 and finished on the St. Lawrence River in Montreal on Sept. 4.

Over the 104 days, the competitors paddled more than 5,100 kilometres and portaged another 97. Team Manitoba had the lowest total time and beat British Columbia by more than two hours. In Manitoba, they paddled down the Saskatchewan River past The Pas, across Cedar Lake and south on Lakes Winnipegosis and Manitoba. The Assinboine and Red Rivers took them to Lake Winnipeg and then on the Winnipeg River to Lake of the Woods.

Our province’s most decorated paddlers, Norm Crerar and Gib McEachern, headed the nine-man team. The 27-year-old friends from Flin Flon had nine amateur and pro wins in the Flin Flon Trout Festival canoe derby and won several other major races across the country. Northern Manitoba also supplied Wayne Soltys and David Wells from the mining community, John Norman from next door in Creighton, Sask., Roger Carriere from Cranberry Portage, and Joe Michelle from just across the Saskatchewan border in Sturgeon Landing. University student Blair Harvey was an alumnus of the Flin Flon Canoe Club  The ninth member was Winnipeg’s Don Starkell. Jim Rheaume from the Flin Flon club was the team’s chief voyageur. Six men paddled each day with captain Crerar, McEachern, Carriere, Michelle, Soltys and Norman carrying the major load.

On Aug. 9, 1937, Winnipeg newspapers heralded the winning of a national championship by the Winnipeg Canoe Club paddling team with the headlines “Historic Splash in National Canoe Circles” and “Hail the Canoe Club.”

On the Black River in Cartiersville, Que., the team whose home was on the Red River won the grand aggregate at the Canadian Canoe Association championships. They beat 19 clubs from the East and 450 paddlers to earn Western Canada its first championship.

Team members were Wilf Batty, Henry Dadson, Bob and Doug Groff, Lundie Lyall and Jack McDowell. In a true team effort, all six contributed in the seven events, where they earned a total of 26 points and finished 10 points ahead of Toronto Balmy Beach. Doug Groff  won the senior singles and  partnered with Lyall to victory in both the intermediate and senior tandem. Batty picked up a fourth win for the team in the intermediate singles. Harold Harriman was team captain and rear commodore.
A senior eights rowing team from the Winnipeg Rowing Club is also in the Hall of Fame.

In 1903, the team with R. D. Bole as cox and Conrad S. Riley as stroke won the prestigious N.A.A.O. Regatta in Worcester, Mass. Charlie Johnstone, who won the Stanley Cup with the Winnipeg Victorias in 1901, was also on the team.

It was quite a year for the Rowing Club as on Dec. 30, 1903, its hockey team began a challenge for the Stanley Cup. In a best-of-three series against the Ottawa Silver Seven, the teams split the first two games, but Ottawa retained the Cup with a 2-0 victory in the rubber match.

Memories of Sport appears every second week in the Canstar Community News weeklies. Kent Morgan can be contacted at 204-489-6641 or email: sportsmemories@canstarnews.com