Lacrosse legend Hall remembered as one of the greats
Former players wearing the familiar green Victoria Shamrocks jerseys dotted the crowd of more than 500 that attended Chris Hall’s memorial service Monday at the Victoria Conference Centre. He died Dec. 22 of throat cancer at age 64.
Hall won three Mann Cup national lacrosse championships with the Shamrocks, one as a player and two as head coach. He played nine seasons with the Western Lacrosse Association club and coached the Shamrocks for another 10 seasons in his nearly two decades with the team.
Hall also won two National Lacrosse League championships with the Calgary Roughnecks and Washington Stealth during 12 seasons coaching in the pro league and becoming the third-winningest coach in NLL history.
The Stealth, now based in Langley and known as the Vancouver Stealth, are wearing a patch on their jerseys this NLL season denoting “CH,” in honour of their late coach Hall. The Shamrocks will do the same this summer during the 2015 WLA season.
Art Webster played alongside Hall, and for him, on the Shamrocks, and later was Hall’s assistant coach with the Shamrocks and Stealth.
“Chris was lacrosse in Victoria,” said Webster.
“He had an amazing eye for talent and knew how to motivate people.”
It was also announced that the Chris Hall Scholarship Fund will be established to help Island players who are playing collegiate field lacrosse. The first recipient will be announced between periods of a Shamrocks game this season. Contributions to the Chris Hall Scholarship Fund can be made through the Shamrock Alumni University Scholarship Program, c/o 4174 Thornhill Cres., Victoria, V8N 5E5.
Former Shamrocks coach Walt Christianson, speaking at the service, said the scholarship is a fitting memorial to Hall. He recalled when the twins Gary and Paul Gait, now regarded by many as the greatest lacrosse players of all-time, would come to Hall’s house after attending school at Claremont Secondary to figure out ways to get NCAA field-lacrosse scholarships back in the days when U.S. schools wouldn’t look at Canadian box players. The Gaits went on to revolutionize the game during storied careers at Syracuse University and were even profiled in Sports Illustrated.
Field lacrosse remained close to Hall’s heart. The flood of Island players now playing NCAA field lacrosse is largely attributed to Hall, who cofounded the Victoria Seasprays/Waxmen fieldlacrosse dynasty of the 1980s and 1990s as playercoach and won 14 Ross Cup national championships. Hall also represented Canada at three world field-lacrosse championships, and was selected all-world defenceman, and later coached Canada in two more world fieldlacrosse championships.
“Chris Hall created the field-lacrosse legacy in Victoria. In box lacrosse, Chris continued his father’s legacy [Leon Hall helped found the Shamrocks in 1950 and held many executive positions with the club],” said current Shamrocks head coach Bob Heyes.
Hall was also remembered as an all-round talent in rugby, football, basketball and baseball. He also played an integral role with the organizing committee of the 1994 Victoria Commonwealth Games as chairman of the recruitment and orientation committee that marshalled the more than 14,000 Games volunteers.