Light shines again on local legends
Jimmie Simpson, Brian Timmis, George Larson, Harry Greening and the Leander Eight are inducted into the Hamilton Sports Hall of Fame
Legend has it that in his first pro football game, the newest inductee into the Hamilton Sports Hall of Fame was slugged in the nose by an angry opponent, blackening both his eyes.
“That could be,” says Jimmie Simpson’s son, Jim. “I haven’t heard that before. But that wouldn’t surprise me.”
Probably because it’s not the only tale that involves a fist and his dad’s face. The guy they called The Rooster was also popped in the jaw during a practice at the end of his career, that time by a guy named Pickles.
Seriously? The Rooster? Pickles? On-field fist fights? Geez, they don’t write stuff like this anymore. But back to our story.
If you want to talk about someone whose life in the game is an ongoing surprise-around-every-corner kind of tale, you want to talk about Simpson. We’ll give you the short version, which is appropriate for a football star who was just five-foot-six and 136 pounds.
That didn’t matter. The Hamilton guy was one tough little dude. Good, too. He won four Grey Cups and played in two more with the Tigers and the Flying Wildcats back in the 1920s, ’30s and ’40s. Which would be more than enough to earn him admission into the Hamilton sports hall without any extra chapters.
Oh, but there are more chapters. As there are with the four other fabled honourees — because of COVID-19, the hall chose a legends class this year and there will be no live induction ceremony — who are going in with him.
There’s George Larson.
After finishing fourth in a swim relay at the 1932 London Olympics, Larson competed again four years later in the Berlin Games where Jesse Owens stole the show. Between the two competitions, he won a gold and three silver medals at the 1934 British Empire Games.
Then he switched sports and played pro football for both the Tigers and Wildcats. After which he launched a wrestling career under the name Irish Tom Collins that kept him busy when he wasn’t on duty as a police officer. There’s Brian Timmis.
The Old Man of the Mountain — still one of the all-time great nicknames in sports history (though Pickles is now in the running) — won three Grey Cups with the Tigers, then coached the Flying Wildcats to one more. Playing much of his career without a helmet. He’s in any discussion about the all-time greats.
He was a member of the inaugural class of the Canadian Football Hall of Fame and is in Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame. Both his son and great-grandson played in the CFL. There’s Harry Greening.
In the early 1900s, he built Canada’s first powerboat in his attic. As he refined and developed more boats, he set various speed and endurance records, earning himself the moniker of the father of Canadian powerboat racing.
His invention is said to have spawned the creation of the hydroplane.
He’s already been inducted into both the Canadian Motorsports Hall of Fame and the Royal Hamilton Yacht Club Hall of Fame.
There’s the 1932 men’s heavy eights Olympic rowing team.
At the Los Angeles Games, the Leander Eight — Albert Taylor, Donald Boal, William Thorburn, Cedric Liddell, Harry Fry, Stanley Stanyar, Joe Harris, Earl Eastwood and ‘cox’ Les MacDonald — claimed the bronze medal just days after beating the heavily favoured Argonaut crew in what was then the fastest time in North America.
And there’s Simpson.
After he couldn’t get medical clearance to play again thanks to that jaw-busting bop to the face from Pickles in1938, he began officiating and coaching. He’d eventually come out of retirement to play for a bit. Then his story got really interesting.
When he retired for good, he became a CFL official and worked 12 years in stripes. During which he called three Grey Cup games. And got slugged again.
No kidding. This time by a member of the Montreal Alouettes.
Something about a no-yards penalty. There were words. Then ...
“(The guy) came over and punched my dad,” Jim Simpson says.
Now 84, Jim remembers these stories vividly. His mother died giving birth to him. He was Jimmie’s only son so they were incredibly close and did everything together. He was around the park all the time hanging out with his dad.
Once his father’s officiating career wound down, he still wasn’t done with the sport. So he became the Tiger-Cats’ trainer where he stayed from 1957 until his death in 1975 at age 68 of liver cancer.
By then, Simpson had been involved in an astonishing 19 Grey Cups. It’s a mark that will surely never be touched again. And in 1986, he was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame.
But the most-important question remains. Did he ever get punched as a trainer?
“No,” Jim says.
That he knows about, anyway.