Photo credit: Paige Stewart
The year was 1955. An English rugby fanatic named Dennis Fletcher showed up at the Balmy Beach Canoe Club armed with grainy black and white films of the legendary New Zealand All Blacks and dreams of creating a rugby team in east Toronto.
The rest is history.
Balmy Beach Rugby is celebrating its 60th anniversary in style this weekend with a host of activities including a full day of rugby games at Birchmount Stadium on Saturday, complete with a beer tent for spectators.
The reunion will be attended by Balmy Beach Rugby alumni traveling from as far away as Australia, the US., Vancouver and Newfoundland, according to Alumni Chairman Gerry Allen.
“Ten of the original players are still alive and nine of them are coming to our banquet and they will be honored there,” said Allen. “I think it’s a chance to celebrate and get the guys together…and also to incorporate the young guys. Sixty years is such a great feeling and we felt it was necessary to do it.”
Club has storied history
In 2014, the club’s top two mens’ teams both won their respective provincial championship games. For the premier division team, it was their 14th McCormick Cup.
Over the years Balmy Beach has seen more than 25 players move on to the international ranks.
Currently, Balmy Beach’s Liam Underwood is playing for Canada’s senior rugby sevens and Lucas Rumble is the captain of the Canada Under 20 team playing today against Tonga in the junior world championships.
Photos of famous alumni in their sweaters are in a framed in a glass case at the historic lakeside club where it all began 60 years ago.
Photo courtesy of Balmy Beach Rugby
Allen said he’s not sure how many people have played for Balmy Beach over the years but “it’s massive”.
There are currently 140 registered adults (men and women) as well as 300 youth.
“So many clubs attract expats but we’ve developed our own following,” said Allen. “We don’t depend on people coming in and out of the country. We grow our own. It’s one of the greatest Canadian clubs with Canadian players.”
Four days of activities
The 60th anniversary reunion includes four days of activities including a golf tournament, barefoot lawn bowling and an alumni dinner for 225 people on May 22nd.
The action at Birchmount Stadium starts at 10:30am on Saturday with all five senior teams seeing action. Sales of food and beer on site will be handled by local pub “Busters by the Bluffs”.
More details on all of the anniversary activities can be found here.
To see the event on Facebook, click here.