A passion for New Westminster and lacrosse has inspired a new book about the legendary Salmonbellies.
Salmonbellies Vs. The World – The Story of the Most Famous Team in Lacrosse and Their Greatest Rivals is a newly published book written by New Westminster native Bruce MacDonald.
"I hope what I have written is not just a history of the Salmonbellies, but something that gets at the inner life of the city of New Westminster from its earliest days," he said. "I wanted to peel back the layers, and look at New Westminster, its citizens, its physical self through the lens of the Salmonbellies."
MacDonald sought to capture the more interesting and funniest stories he could find, not just dry statistics about lacrosse. In addition to in-depth interviews with 40 people affiliated with the team, the author spent untold hours going through 125 years of newspapers in the microfiche at the New Westminster Public Library.
"It's kind of like mining when you're panning for gold - you don't know where gold is so you have to sift through all this gravel, and you'd find these piece of gold,” he said.
Other books have delved into the First Nations' contributions to lacrosse, so MacDonald focused on how the game migrated from Eastern Canada to Western Canada, in the late 1880s.
"I absolutely loved it. It was the most fun I ever had, I kid you not," MacDonald said. "I got obsessive about it. I really, really wanted to honour these men and women who contributed to this team, built this team, managed this team, played for this team. I really wanted to be speaking for them, I really wanted to do them justice."
In the early years, the New Westminster Salmonbellies played lacrosse on a field in Queen's Park, attracting crowds of 15,000 people from the city, Vancouver and the Fraser Valley, at a time when the city’s population was about 11,000.
"You'd have more people at Queen's Park than the population of the city," MacDonald said. "It's crazy."
At one time, city businesses would shut down at noon so people could attend important games.
In 1932, lacrosse moved indoors into the arena. A year later, some former Salmonbellies started a second team based out of Queen's Park Arena called the Adanacs.
"From 1933 to 1949, there was a second senior team. They were mostly New Westminster guys, and so were the Salmonbellies – they played each other. The rivalry was just intense. It was so intense that the coach of theSalmonbellies, Grumpy Spring, he told his players, 'I don't want you walking on the same side of the street as Adanacs.' Fans did the same," MacDonald said. "The city was divided. You were either an Adanacs’ fan or aSalmonbellies’ fan in New Westminster through those 20 years. It was intense."
While there have been some minor changes to the game and team since the Salmonbellies first suited up in the red and white almost 125 years ago, MacDonald discovered the game remains the same in many ways.
"The culture of excellence when it comes to lacrosse has a religious quality in New Westminster. There is a passion for it at the very top level that it's a cult almost. How many things in our society are the same as they were
in 1890-something? Like nothing, almost," he said. "But lacrosse hasn’t changed a bit. They have changed the rules, but the passion for it ... just sort of gets passed down.”
Through its history, the Salmonbellies roster and board has included mayors, aldermen, realtors and businessmen.
"You can't write about the Salmonbellies without writing about New Westminster. You can't separateone from the other. It's the secret why the team has survived all these years," MacDonald said. "The Salmonbellies, the team, made New Westminster famous. There was nothing about New Westminster to get any notoriety, except the Salmonbellies."
The Salmonbellies helped put the “obscure little town” that was an outpost to the British Empire on the map in Canada. The team would travel the country by train, playing in large cosmopolitan centres like Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto – and slaughter all-star teams from the east.
"Because they were winners and they attracted notoriety and they attracted attention, people would say, 'Whereis New Westminster?' Sure enough, business would come to New Westminster because the Salmonbellies were like active marketers," MacDonald said. "Ambassadors? No, I'd say it was much more commercial than that. They were these commercial agents in effect, and it brought business back to New Westminster, becauseotherwise you'd never hear of the place.”
After winning the 1908 Minto Cup in Montreal, a banner draped along both sides of the train on the way home identified New Westminster ashome of the world champion Salmonbellies.
"The city fathers recognized that what they had was the greatest marketing
thing they could ever have," MacDonald said. "Everywhere these guys went they advertised thecity."
Some cities have had lacrosse teams for longer than the Salmonbellies, but none can match the uninterrupted longevity of the Salmonbellies, MacDonald said.
"New Westminster somehow weathered the changes that the First World War brought," he said. "The Salmonbelliescontinued to play lacrosse through the Second World War. They just kept playing. They'd play army teams, navy teams."
Like today, the Salmonbellies were comprised of a core of local players, supplemented by a handful of players recruited from back east to play for the team. In 1890, the team lured Herb Ryall west – and made special arrangements to get him to a game, by having a train stop by special arrangement at the foot of Asylum Hill at the Woodlands site, rather than in the downtown.
"It stops at the foot of Woodlands and there is a carriage and horse waiting. Herb Ryall jumps out ofthe train, into the carriage and he is whisked rapidly to Queen's Park. Why? Because a game against Vancouver is in progress. They threw a jersey on him and he was on the field playing," MacDonald said. "This guy was a star player and they needed him for a certain position and they recruited him from back east. He was adruggist, and it just so happens they needed a druggist in New Westminster."
During the Great Depression, the Salmonbellies were on a bit of a losing spell. Mayor Fred Hume, who was also the president of the Salmonbellies, enticed some of the country's top lacrosse players to come from the east.
"He said if you guys come and play for us, I will give you a job working for the city. And if I can't get you a job with the city I will guarantee you $20 a week. They jumped at it. It was huge money for those days," he said. "They jumped on a train for New Westminster. They liked it so much they decided to stay."
In their 125-year history, the New Westminster Salmonbellies have won more national championships than any other organization.A group of longtime Salmonbellies supporters felt it was a story that needed to be told and raised about $250,000 to make it happen.
"A couple of fellows felt we needed to document this colourful history of New Westminster and of lacrosse," said Jim Glanville, who helped get the project rolling. "It was fun. It was a project of passion."
Salmonbellies Vs. The World is $34.95 and available online and at various retailers including Black Bond Books and Save-On-Foods.
