1951 Victoria Allstar Soccer Team |
1951 Victoria Allstar Soccer Team |
This gutsy Victoria squad pulled off one of the greatest upsets in Canadian soccer history. In the evening of June 7, 1951 the Victoria All-Stars defeated Fulham FC by the score of 1-0 at Royal Athletic Park. It was the first time everthat a Canadian football team had beaten a touring English professional side and the first time that a top-flight English side had failed to score a goal in a football match played on Canadian soil. Also, Fulham substituted a player late in the game - despite having reluctantly agreed to the use of subs during protracted and prickly pre-game negotiations - for they saw defeat staring them right in the face. Therefore, an historic victory and shutout won by our amateur rep side and the lone substitution of the match born out of ironic necessity by an overconfident Old Country pro club made Canadian and English football history and fascinating trivia to boot.
The Victorians truly shocked the soccer world. "For those of us that are left, from those who were there that evening, there will never be anything in soccer to quite match what happened that night in Victoria's Royal Athletic Park". The history-making Victoria side under the direction of George KuIai, Tom Restell and Earl Barnswell played with a spirited display of dogged tenacity to shut out the visitors. The headliners of the night were a pair of brothers. Joe Travis was brilliant in stopping everything that came his way while Ab Travis fIrst-timed a Bobby Allen comer kick for the historic game-winning goal. The AIl-Stars starting line-up in the famous win over Fulham included Bobby Allen, the Travis brothers, Joe Robbins, Herman Henry, Jack Robbins, John Pickbum, Ken Williams, Stan Bob, Wallace Milligan and Denny McGee. In reserve were Ced Robb, Don McGee, Sid Robbins and Ed Hardy.
N.B. In 1951 Fulham was classified as an English First Division club but in today's terminology that club would have been described as an English Premier League club.
1978 Vic West Soccer Club |
1911 Vic West Soccer Club |
From 1975 to 1984, the Vic West compiled a Canadian soccer record equaled only by the legendary New Westminster Royals dynasties of 1928 to 1936 and 1951 to 1959. While the Royals were assembled from places far and wide, Vic West matched them with a locally produced team of players that came up through the Victoria minor soccer system. Vic West won four Canadian and six B.C. championships in their nine-year golden span. Included in that run were four straight B.C. titles -- the only team to hold that distinction in the history of the Province Cup. In its time, Vic West was the dominant amateur soccer team in Canada, taking the national title in 1976, 1979, 1983 and 1984. A team with no superstars, the Wests did it with a commitment to teamwork. Team members included Steve Forslund, Frank Woods, Dan Henry, Jim De Goede, Darryl Hooker, Ralph Anderson, Gary McLaren, Tom Lavasseur, Henry Paul, Alex Stewart, Mark Crisp, Butch Foster, Garnet Moen, Greg Mellish, Jaraslav Hrasky, Lew Williams, George Fuller, Ed Dewhurst, Ken Calve, Waining Lee, Rob Williams, Tim Achtzner, Bob Duncan, John McGuire, Steve Moss, and Bob English.
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Others In Category
- (1976 - 1984) Vic West Soccer Teams (2013)
- 1896-1996 Vic West Athletic Association (1998)
- 1951 Victoria All-Star Soccer Team (2001)
- 1975 London Boxing Club (2011)
- Bob Bolitho (2011)
- Brian Robinson (2008)
- George Pakos (2001)
- Ian Bridge (2003)
- Ike MacKay (2015)
- Jamie Ackinclose (2023)
- Simon Keith (2016)
- Victoria O'Keefe Soccer Club 1966-67 (2017)
