Gordon Fraser
Gordon M. Fraser was born April 12 1943 on Lot. 26, Concession 9 in the township of Lochiel. He was the third of five sons born to William Fraser and his wife, Olive McIlwain. Gordon’s early days were spent on the farm where the neighbor boys (Kennedys, MacMillans and MacDonalds) and the Fraser boys spent their leisure hours in the winter playing shinny hockey on the River de Grace which ran through the family farm.
Gordon attended S.S #1 Lochiel where, depending upon the season, soccer and hockey were the games of choice at recess. Gordon fondly recalls the many times when Father Gauthier’s De Soto would pull into the school yard and after a few perfunctory current events questions, the students would adjourn to the playing field or ice rink to get down to some serious business.
While still in elementary school, Gordon played midget hockey for the Lochiel Loks, coached by Father Gauthier and later by Adelard Sauve. He played centre forward and right wing. Hockey seemed to come easy to him; as Father Gauthier often said, Gordon had a nose for the goal. He progressed, along with teammates Kennedys, MacSweyns, Robinsons, MacMillans and Howes through the Lochiel juveniles and always with Lochiel, up the ranks to the senior men’s division. During this time, the league was very competitive and Lochiel won their share of championships.
Gordon moved to Glengarry District High School where he competed actively in intramural and interscholastic athletics. While in Grade 9, Gordon set a new school record in junior pole vaulting. In 1958-59 he tied Tom Mosher as the intermediate boy’s track and field champion, having come in first in the 440 year run, pole vaulting and setting a record in the long jump. Later in 1961-62 he was the senior boy’s track and field champion.
During this time at GDHS, the school entered a football team in the high school league. In the first couple of years Gordon played fullback and did the place kicking and punting. After a couple of “building years”, coach Stanley Fraser, noting Gordon’s speed agility and quickness converted him from a running back to a quarterback. That year GDHS won the championship, the first ever for the school.
In 1958, while wearing a discarded pair of Keith MacMaster’s soccer cleats, Gordon was honing his kicking skills on the soccer pitch. That year, at age 15, he was recruited to the senior men’s McCrimmon Combines team coached by Dougald MacGillivray. That rookie year he won the scoring championship. He continued the trend winning and scoring title in 1961 (tie with Kay Hay), 1962, 1963, 1964, 1967, 1968 and 1969.
Gordon added to his trophy collection by winning the William MacLeod trophy for most valuable player in 1963 and 1969. In 1970 he won the best forward award. During the late 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s, MacCrimmon was the powerhouse winning the league championship nine times. Gordon was a definite contributor to their success.
Following high school, Gordon spent two years on the family farm. During this time, along with soccer, he played hockey extensively with the Loks and Vankleek Hill Flyers who played in different leagues.
In 1965 Gordon enrolled in physical education at MacDonald College of McGill University where he played varsity soccer. In 1965-66 he won a major M soccer award and the most valuable player award the following year. He was also a member of the McGill Gymnastics team during this time.
Following his stint at McGill, he attended the University of Ottawa and Carleton where he obtained BA, B Phys. Ed. and M. Ed degrees while playing soccer for the Ottawa Falcons in the Ottawa men’s Premier league. About this time, Gordon qualified as a soccer referee. From 1971-78 Gordon, achieving the Ontario Soccer Association’s Class I referee qualifications, refereed men’s soccer in the Premier Division and semi-professional leagues in Toronto, London Ottawa and Montreal. One of the highlights of the period was refereeing at the Ontario Summer Games in London in 1975. Gordon recalls that the spirit in which these games were played made it a pleasure to be involved. During this same time he played with the Aylmer team in the Ottawa Old-Timers league.
He was also frequently called upon to give refereeing and upgrading clinics for would-be soccer referees. In 1969 Gordon began teaching physical education at Philemon Wright High School. He quickly became involved in extra-curricular activities, coaching gymnastics, soccer and football teams.
During the 1970’s the Philemon Wright Falcons football team were Quebec finalists for eight of those years winning the championship six times. The girl’s soccer team who competed in the Ottawa High School league were always competitive. As they were out of province, they were never allowed to represent Ottawa at the Ontario Federation of Secondary School Athletics championships even though they may have qualified.
More recently Gordon has become involved with ski racing along with soccer. He has qualified through the Canadian Ski Association as a level II race official and has spent many hours volunteering his time while freezing on the side of a slalom or giant slalom race course.. Gordon is currently the assistant coach of the Nepean Hotspur girl’s soccer team. During the 1990’s this team has won the league championship eight times and the Ottawa Youth Cup seven times. As well, they have won many Class A tournaments such as the East York, Guelph, Waterloo and Gloucester tournaments and they have been finalists in the prestigious Robbie and National Capital International Tournaments.
They have also qualified as finalists in the Ontario Cup tournament and have been invited to the women’s premier league for the 2000 season. As Gordon’s teaching career winds down, he will no doubt fill his leisure time with more involvement with amateur athletics. He has appreciated what people such as Father Gauthier, Dougald MacGillivray, Stanley Fraser, his various teammates, coaches and others have taught him and he takes great pleasure in helping others improve their game.
