Len Pecore

The Sports life of Len Pecore started when he was about six years of age at Central Public School in Cornwall where he played lacrosse, hockey and ball, and was a member of the School Cadet Corps for grades seven and eight.

He then attended CCVS in Cornwall where he played football, basketball and volleyball. He competed in track and field and wrestling while also belonging to the Cadet Corps. This period covered the years from 1944 to 1949. He played Junior lacrosse for various teams in and around Cornwall, moving on to Junior “A” Lacrosse with the team winning the Eastern Canada Championship. They continued on to play for the Minto Cup of Canada and ended up as the 3rd best team in all of Canada for 1948.

Len played with the Intermediate Lacrosse League with teams from the surrounding areas, then progressed into the Seniors “A” Lacrosse League. This league covered an area from Quebec City, Montreal, Ottawa, Orillia, Toronto, Cornwall Island and Syracuse. The team participated in the “Mann Cup” play downs of Canada ending up in either 3rd or 4th place. He continued playing Senior Lacrosse for a period of sixteen years.

As the years progressed, Len became a member of the Old Timers Lacrosse team in and around Cornwall.

While in public school, Len was playing hockey, then continued to play hockey while in high school with several junior teams. Intermediate hockey was played with the “Central Park Flyers.” The team won the Ottawa and District “Citizen Shield” then entered the Allen Cup for Senior A hockey superiority where they were beaten by the Noranda Copper Kings in 1951. Len became a member of the Lancaster Dodgers in the early ‘50’s as a player, captain, playing coach and eventually becoming the coach. The Dodgers won many Border League Championships and were always in the play-offs. In 1961 the MVP award went to Len Pecore. In his four years as a coach of the Border Hockey League Dodgers, Len piloted the team to three league pennants and two championships.

When the Charlottenburgh Arena had a face-lift in 1979, one of the festivities which organizers had planned for the re-opening was an exhibition game pitting the Montreal Canadiens Old-Timers, led by Henri “Pocket Rocket” Richard and Dollard St. Laurent, against the Charlottenburgh Old Timers which included Len Pecore from the Glen Walter Old Timers.

Playing with the Glen Walter Old Timers was the end of Pecore’s long hockey association. In addition to hockey and lacrosse, Len played ball in the ‘40’s with the Northern Lights entry in the Cornwall league. Later he played ball in a South Glengarry Seniors League playing for Summerstown against teams from Lancaster, Martintown, Bainsville and Glen Walter.

Len worked at TCF-BCL for approximately thirty-six years and while there played ball, hockey, broomball and bowled in the House League and Industrial League of Cornwall. For his broomball prowess he was the leading point-man for four years in the league. He competed in horseshoe tournaments with the Fire Departments and won the Championship eight times in the twelve years he played. Len served as a fireman and later captain of the Glen Walter Fire Department for about twenty years.