On the new terraces beside the PNE, Vancouver has an opportunity to win back its title of North America's No. 1 soccer city. Forget those plans for a waterfront home for the Whitecaps. It may be that BC Place Stadium’s restored bubble will be worthy of a Major League Soccer team but, in the meantime, the Whitecaps will play at Empire Fields, in the shadow of the PNE’s wooden roller-coaster. For the many fans that remember the glory days of B.C. soccer, this transitional season is a chance to revive the roar of Callister Park.
B.C. soccer truly began back in the 1920s in Vancouver’s East End, on the magical block bounded by Renfrew, Oxford, Cambridge and Kaslo streets. People knew it then as Con Jones Park, named after the Australian tobacconist and entrepreneur. Its name would later be changed to Callister Park, in honour of the soccer-mad landowner whose daughter entrusted it to the city. It was at Callister Park that the Pacific Coast Soccer League would mature and grow strong in the 1950s.
No city in Canada could match Vancouver’s consistent commitment to top-flight soccer. The first professional match in Canada was in 1910 and it took place here - between local clubs Callies and Rovers, beneath the awe-inspiring North Shore Mountains.
In the 1920s and 30s, big crowds gathered at Royal Athletic Park and then at Callister to see British touring sides, such as the Glasgow Rangers take on local teams like Sapperton FC.
In the 1950s, the Canadian World Cup qualifying team was made up entirely of players from the PCSL’s B.C. contingent: Firefighters, Vancouver St. Andrews, New Westminster Royals, Halecos and North Shore United. All-star local sides took on the mighty Tottenham Hotspur and an Irish FA squad boasting Sir Stanley Matthews.
Robert (Bob) Allen, 72, who got his first taste of soccer at Sunday school in the 1940s, remembers Callister Park as the classic soccer field, intimate and exciting. “Picture yourself in a small English town’s little stadium, the crowd is right on top of you, just six feet (1.8 metres) from the action. That was Callister Park,” he says.
Bob, who played from 1950-73, mostly as a halfback for the famous Vancouver Firefighters, recalls crowds of up to 5,000 people packed into the stadium.
“It was all seated, with the seats under cover. The crowd came from the East End - immigrants, especially Italians like the Lenarduzzis, grew up around Callister.”
Callister Park was the crucible for that most essential element of soccer: bitter local rivalry. The Firefighters’ favourite enemy was the Italian team Columbus, even until the 1960s.
Another “Fireman” stalwart, Bob Mills, 74, remembers that after a long run of derby defeats, a triumphant Columbus team paraded a casket around Callister Park. “I still run into people today,” says Bob, “who say that Callister was *the* park. In those days, soccer was on the front page of the sport section - held in really high regard.”
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t's time for the Callister spirit to soar again at Empire Fields. Here - beside the ups and downs of the coaster, and one big clearance kick away from the site of the old park - a true soccer education is possible. This education takes place in the open, in the sunshine - and the wind and the rain. Longtime supporters and youngsters alike will feel the intensity of a small, tightly packed stadium, and realize - or remember - that this is how every fan should experience the beautiful game.
They might look up at the coaster and be reminded that Vancouver soccer, too, has had its ups and downs.
Many soccer-mad Vancouverites cite the move to BC Place as the slippery slope for the team last time around. This time, the roof is retractable - hopefully the sun can shine on professional soccer in the city so that it takes root once and for all.
It’s not the first time that the soul of soccer has been forced to move. Callister, once a beautiful grass field, was viewed greedily by the PNE as a potential car park. They held rodeos - even a demolition derby - on the grass during the off-season. Eventually, the grass became cinders and sand. Soccer at Callister ended with its demolition in 1971, when the Pacific Coast Soccer League moved to Empire Stadium.
The Empire, too, earned a pedigree as a venue for big games - most notably its first clash between the U.S. and Canada (actually Everton vs. Aberdeen!) in '56; Manchester United under Matt Busby just two years after the Munich Disaster against Hearts; in '61 the all-conquering Real Madrid with De Stefano and Puskas in a 5-1 rout of Toronto FC.
The Empire was simply building on Callister’s lead. In 1949, touring sides began to grace the field on Renfrew; in '49, Newcastle versus the B.C. All-Stars; the following year an English FA team came; followed by Fulham, Spurs, the Irish Internationals, Glasgow Rangers and Huddersfield.
David Fryatt, now 89, remembers all those games. He played at Callister as a centre-half with Collingwood on his return from active service in 1946. Known to his contemporaries as “The Dean of Soccer,” David became an administrator for the BC Soccer Association, organizing tours and tournaments. For him, Callister has a special atmosphere: “I recall against Tottenham, it felt like there must have been about 8,000 in Callister.”
The Whitecaps never played on that hallowed turf. Their first game at the old Empire was a 1-2 defeat to San Jose in front of 17,343 on May 5, 1974. Eventually, that famous team would play to sell-out crowds at the Empire, packing in 32,000. By 1984 when the NASL folded, average attendance was down to less than 14,000 - at BC Place.
Today, with the MLS coming to town, there's a lot to play for. This city of vigorous and vibrant ethnic diversity, can build on its existing soccer genealogy. Just a quick glance at the make up of the Greater Vancouver Regional District shows that soccer bloodlines are still in abundance here: families of English, Scots and Irish descent making up 52 per cent, with Germans, French and, of course, soccer-mad Italian families making up 21 per cent. In addition, there are more and more emigrants coming from Russia, Croatia and Poland, Mexico and a host of South American countries.
However, the biggest recent wave comes from Mainland China: 18 per cent of Vancouver residents. China’s soccer pedigree may not beas ancient as 16th century Florentine Calcio, but there were reputedly 28 million Manchester United fans in that vast nation in 2003.
A love of soccer has always run in the veins of Vancouverites. No one over 40 can forget when the Whitecaps reached the very top of the success curve, and Vancouver was the No. 1 soccer city in North America. Famously, during the team’s run to the final in 1979, a New York commentator quipped that the city must have looked like a deserted village. The peak of the Villagers' performances came when they defeated first the New York Cosmos and then Tampa Bay Rowdies to bring the Soccer Bowl home. The streets of Vancouver were literally jammed with fans to see the homecoming of the NASL championship trophy.
The future looks bright for MSL soccer in Vancouver. Nevertheless, many would vote that the team remains in the East End of the city - near the port, Little Italy, the horse track and the fairground. There needs to be a little of the East End in BC Place. Last time the Caps went west, it was a dip in the roller-coaster ride for Vancouver soccer.
Look at the photos of soccer fans watching a game at Callister. There’s a sea of flat caps watching the round ball, and there’s a roller-coaster in the background. It’s easy to see where the soul of the game lives in Vancouver. Let’s hope that in 2011 when the Whitecaps play their opening game, the ancient roar of Callister can still be heard in the terraces of BC Place.
http://www.seniorlivingmag.com/articles/vancouvers-soccer-soul
First published in Senior Living magazine
