Bill Ewing - Written by Len Corben

HISTORICAL DATE: OCTOBER 19, 1968

PRINT DATE: from The North Shore Outlook November 12, 2009

HEADLINE: All-Blacks + Barbarians = Capilanos

PHOTO 1 CAPTION:

SHOWING THEIR COLOURS – Celebrating the Capilano Rugby Club’s 40-year history and displaying old uniforms from the North Shore All-Blacks, West Vancouver Barbarians and Capilanos at the Caps’ Klahanie Park grounds are (l-r) Bucky Ellison, longtime scrum half with the All-Blacks and the second president of the Capilanos (1971-75); John McKenzie, Chairman of Capilanos’ 40th anniversary committee; Bill Ewing, the Barbarians’ last coach and first president of the Capilanos in 1969 and 1970; and Ken Robinson, Capilanos’ current president.

PHOTO 1 CREDIT: Len Corben photo

PHOTO 2 CAPTION:

Bill Ewing had three ideas for an amalgamated All-Blacks-Barbarians club: a new name, new colours and a new crest.

PHOTO 2 CREDIT: Len Corben photo

PHOTO 3 CAPTION:

THE FIRST CAPILANOS – When North Shore All-Blacks (NS) and West Vancouver Barbarians (WV) joined to form the Capilanos in 1969, its first division team posed before their inaugural game at Ambleside Park. Back row (l-r): Lee Morgan (WV), Gordon Currie (WV), Grant “Fuzzy” Smith (NS), Bob Hornidge (NS), Norm Strandebo* (NS), Jeremy Palmer (WV), Robin Dyke (WV), Brent Mahood (NS), Referee Glyn Jones* (WV), Coach Alex Mahood* (NS). Front row: Club president Bill Ewing (WV), Vern Lofstrom (NS), John Langley (WV), Ian Henis (NS), Captain John Narbett (NS), Vice-captain Bucky Ellison (NS), Jock Lang (NS), Dave Wilson (NS), Trainer Jim Morris* (NS). *Deceased

PHOTO 3 CREDIT: Bill Ewing collection

By LEN CORBEN

Bill Ewing can look out the window of his 25th-floor apartment on West 14th Street in North Vancouver and see the exact spot at Kinsmen Stadium where the future of North Shore rugby was changed forever.

It was there at Kinsmen in 1969 that Ewing – clearly envisioning the potential future of the sport here – set in motion the very beginnings of the Capilano Rugby Club which will be celebrating their history with a gala and memory jogging 40th anniversary dinner this Saturday night at Hollyburn Country Club.

Normally when rival coaches approach each other on the field after a game, it’s merely to shake hands and maybe give congratulations to the winner and offer condolences to the loser before they go on their way.

However, when Ewing, the dynamic and highly respected coach of West Vancouver Barbarians, approached feisty Alex Mahood, his counterpart with North Shore All-Blacks, on the muddy Kinsmen turf following their match on February 19, 1969, he had much more on his mind than a sincere compliment or two regarding the All-Blacks’ narrow 9-6 victory.

Instead, their little chat altered the sport on the north side of Burrard Inlet for all time. For the better, I might add.

Ewing said to Mahood something to the effect, “What would you think of amalgamation, Alex?”

Of course he wasn’t talking municipal politics. No, the amalgamation Ewing was broaching was the joining of the Barbarian and All-Black rugby clubs into one strong North Shore organization.

Mahood’s gravel-voiced response was something like, “Sounds good to me.”

Oh that it would be that easy to, say, join the City and District of North Vancouver (which separated in 1907); or combine the two North Vancouver municipalities with West Vancouver (which split from North Vancouver District in 1912). Just kidding, just kidding! Hold off on those venomous e-mails please.

During that final season of the Barbarians - All-Blacks rivalry in 1968-69, each won one of the two knock-’em down, drag-’em-out first-division matches between them.

The North Shore Citizen’s account of the first meeting on October 19, 1968, was headlined “Barbarians Surprise All-Blacks.”

“It has been a long wait for West Vancouver Barbarians,” the report began. “After serving as whipping boys for arch-rival North Shore All-Blacks for five years, the first

division Barbs took advantage of the breaks and scored a 9-5 English rugger win Saturday at Kinsmen Stadium.

“All-Blacks led 5-3 at the half on Bucky Ellison’s try [worth just three points in those days] and Denny Maynard’s convert but the ’Blacks squandered countless scoring chances (missing three dropped goals and a penalty kick) while the Barbs were quick to capitalize.

“Robin Dyck [Dyke] scored the first W.V. try and then Martin Kaffka romped 60 yards for the winning try and John Langley, a standout for the Barbs, added the insurance try.”

However, when the teams met for what turned out to be their final time on February 19, 1969, the outcome was reversed with a 9-6 All-Blacks’ triumph.

The Citizen noted, “It was the talented toe of Denny Maynard that made the difference. He converted three penalty kicks to account for all his team’s portion. For Barbs, Bill Dunn got a try and Martin Kaffka a dropped goal.”

That was it. Little did anyone know of the momentous exchange that had taken place between Ewing and Mahood after that game. The long, tradition-laden history of the two clubs was over.

The All-Blacks originated in 1930 with people like Art Wootton, Russ Kinninmont and Teddy Watkins-Baker, plus other players, coaches and officials such as Dave Carey, Don Doidge, Bill Duncan, John Dyer, Ronnie and Tom Fraser, Bud McCall, Vern Mercer, Bob Norminton, Tommy Roxborough, Jack Shaw, George and Glen Smith, Johnny Sutherland, Bill Falcioni, George Wilson and first president Vernon “Pudge” Lester.

It was Doidge who coached the club’s top team during the first half of the 1930s when the All-Blacks won just about everything in sight. They captured the second division Province Cup in 1932 and first division F.W. Rounsefell Cup in ’33, ’34 and ’35. During a four-year span, they apparently lost a total of only six matches.

At the age of just 30, Doidge died at home on January 9, 1936. As The Vancouver Sun reported that afternoon, “Vancouver’s English rugby fraternity lost one of its keenest members early today… Doidge, one of the most popular rugby men in British Columbia and rated around the top in coaching, had been missing from Brockton Point for nearly a month. He collapsed at home and from then fought a losing battle with tuberculosis.”

It was rugby and other sports that succumbed a few years later, halting their play due to the outbreak of World War II. When rugby resumed following the shutdown, the All-Blacks won the Rounsefell in 1948 and again in 1955.

The Barbarians formed even earlier, in the late 1920s, but they folded and regrouped on several occasions – including during the war years and again in the mid-1950s – and their early history is more difficult to trace.

The club founder was apparently John C. Oswald and its seconds did win the Bell-Irving Cup as Vancouver senior “B” champions on March 19, 1938, and then again during the 1949-50 and 1965-66 seasons.

However, by 1969 the Barbarians were having difficulty filling lineups for three squads – a first-, a second- and a third-division team – a requirement in order to remain in the first division. That was true to a lesser extent for the All-Blacks.

After Ewing and Mahood concurred on amalgamation, representatives from the Barbs and All-Blacks met at Ellison’s house to work out details. Players from both sides then gathered at the Capilano Tennis Club on May 8, 1969, to overwhelmingly approve of the new club. Officially the first Capilano member was Andy Ferguson who won the honour thanks to a lottery draw.

When Mahood, chosen as the first coach, gave a stirring speech, the applause that rebounded off the walls of the meeting room was so loud that the echo has now been going on for four decades.