FORMER POLITICIAN Morley Kells played on the 1955 Long Branch Monarchs. He is holding a team jacket and crest. Photo by Tom Godfrey.
MORLEY’s original crest of the 1955 Minto Cup Championship, the last time that Long Branch won.
MEMBERS OF the 1955 Minto Cup Champions Long Branch Monarchs. Many have since passed on.
It will be 66 years this year since Long Branch won the cherished Junior Minto Cup Championship.
And only a few lacrosse players are alive today who played with the 1955 Long Branch Monarchs when they brought home the Minto Cup and all the glory it would bring.
The cup, which was donated by Governor-General Lord Minto in 1901, represents the best Canadian junior lacrosse team. The Mann Cup is for senior teams.
Back then there was great rivalry nationwide for the Minto Cup. In Etobicoke the Mimico Mountaineers were Junior Minto champions in 1938 and 1951.
The Monarchs was coached by Albert Archibald Dixon, who in 1938 was a star defenceman for the Mimico Mounties and helped them to win the Minto Cup.
Dixon was able to bring a Junior Championship to Long Branch In 1955. He was inducted into the Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame in 1996.
Former politician Morley Kells is one of the surviving Monarch players who helped capture the Minto Cup. In 1961 he retired as an active player and began to coach the Long Branch Junior team.
“We were the only team to win in Long Branch,” Kells said recently. “I remember that I was a rookie that year when we won.”
The team was part of the Long Branch Lacrosse Association and they played at the now-gone Long Branch Bowl, a former 1,500 seat outdoor arena next where a No Frills stands at Brown’s Line and Lake Shore Blvd. W.
“The teams had a good following,” Kells recall. “The sport was big in some of the smaller areas.”
Kells, who previously worked for Hockey Night in Canada, on this day was joined by fellow politician and former Etobicoke Mayor Doug Holiday. The men have been playing lacrosse together for years.
Kells, who has been advocating for lacrosse for 50 years, tried twice to bring a professional lacrosse league to Canada and the U.S. One league was shortlived and the games were shown on TV.
Today there is The National Lacrosse League, in which hockey great Wayne Gretzky is a co-owner of a Las Vegas team. NBA coach Steve Nash is also involved in a team. Their season with 18 games starts in December. The league has operated since 1987 and now has 15 teams.