Kelowna pioneer lacrosse player part of Minto Cup story past and present

His collection of newspaper clippings from back in the day may be faded and yellowed now, but Howie Carter’s memories of winning the 1956 Minto Cup national junior lacrosse championships are as sharp as if it happened yesterday.

One of only a handful of surviving members, and the only Okanagan player on the Mt. Pleasant Legion 177 Indians of Vancouver, Carter, 81, was an instrumental part of the team that went undefeated that year, culminating in them winning the cup in four straight games.

“That team was just tremendous,” said Carter. "It’s hard to describe but everybody was so skilled and just great teammates.

“And I could run in those days.”

Carter was honoured recently as a member of that winning team when he was asked to take part in the official opening face-off for Game 3 of this year’s Minto Cup, played Aug. 27 in Langley between the Orangeville Northmen and the Coquitlam Adanacs.

The Adanacs won the tilt 9-7 en route to a series win in five games, but for Carter, it was chance to spend some time around the sport that had given him so much over the years.

“It was neat to go down and see that game,” he recalled. “And it was an honour to do that (face-off).”

Named after famed Egyptologist Howard Carter, the discoverer of King Tutankhamen’s tomb, Howard Carter was born in Kelowna in 1935 and from a young age took to athletics with a natural talent that allowed him to excel at just about whatever sports he tried.

He grew up playing softball, baseball, competed in track and field events and played minor hockey. But it was after receiving his first lacrosse stick at the age of 13 that Carter found the sport that would ultimately take him all the way to the national title.

Seeing something of a resurgence as Canada’s national summer sport, lacrosse in the Okanagan in those days was a pretty big sport and as Carter recalled, he took to it like a duck to water. By the time he started playing organized lacrosse a few years later at the age of 16, he had left some of his other sporting pursuits behind and was devoting a lot of time to getting better at the game he loved so much.

“I was a much better lacrosse player than a hockey player anyhow,” he said. “And it gets in your blood … you pick up a stick and you want to play.”

As a speedy forward, Carter learned his craft in the lacrosse box well and in 1953 played a few games with the Kelowna Senior B Bruins and was asked to join the team full-time the following year, when he was only 18. He picked up the nickname “Howie” from Bruins announcer Bob Hall who called the games at then-new Memorial Arena.

But Canada’s official national summer game can be very tough physically, and as Carter explained, protective padding was pretty minimal in those days.

“For example, the only guys who wore face protection were the guys with glasses,” he said.

Carter was soon to learn the hard way what that lack of protection could result in.

“I was derailed a bit when I broke my wrist in ’54,” he recalled. “I missed about half the season.

Just when it had healed, he broke it again in two spots, but it would take more than just a few injuries to keep Carter from the game — and in fact, he looked to be just hitting his stride.

Relying on his skill instead of brute force, Carter developed a canny ability to put the ball in the back of the net.

“I didn’t have the hardest shot, but I was pretty accurate,” he said.

It was in part because of that ability that brought him to the attention of the coach of the junior PNE Indians (soon to be renamed Mt. Pleasant Legion Indians) who were on a playing tour of the Interior.

Despite having reservations about playing far from home in Vancouver (“I didn’t really want to go.” ), Carter joined the Indians and played on their second line for part of the 1955 season.

He returned for the full 1956 schedule, which turned out to be a good move, as the squad went undefeated, a record Carter is rightly proud of.

“Our only blemish was one tie and I scored the tying goal,” he said.

In the process, the team won the B.C. junior championship, beating Victoria in the best-of-three final in two straight and earned a birth in the Minto Cup national finals, where they faced the vaunted Brampton (Ont.) Excelsiors.

The Indians dominated the visitors in the first game, outscoring them 29-7 in the opener.

Carter speaks modestly about his contribution. “We had very good players and a very good coach in Jack McKinnon,” said Carter. “I was fortunate enough to play with them.”

But in fact he did play a significant role.

Playing with linemates Alec Carey, (“He was a heck of a player.”) and Lorne Reelie, Carter contributed five goals and an assist as the Indians went on to dominate the Excelsiors in four straight games. They won the next two games 8-4 and 9-7, and scored three goals in 48 seconds to come from behind late and seal the championship 9-7 in the last contest.

“It was pretty nice to win that (championship),” he said. “It was always something I dreamed of as a kid.”

In the fall of 1957, Carter’s life took a different turn when he enrolled in the forestry program at the University of British Columbia, to pursue a career in that discipline. But lacrosse still had a hold on him and despite his course load, he joined about 10 of his Indians teammates, playing a half season for the Pilseners of the Western Lacrosse Association senior league.

“It was a different game though, playing with the big guys,” said Carter.

While he furthered his studies, he played intramural field lacrosse, and after graduating, he went to work as a forester, taking positions with the provincial government and then McMillan Bloedel in Victoria.

His lacrosse successes continued though, and in 1963, playing for the Coquitlam Labatts, Carter won the provincial senior B championship, defeating a team from Victoria in two straight games.

In 1967, while working up in Prince George, he joined the senior ‘B’ Tartans, losing to Nanaimo in the provincial finals two years later. The banging and bruising continued there, and he made the paper there for the wrong reason.

“A big guy landed on my stomach,” Carter recalled. “I had to spend the night in hospital.”

Undaunted, that same year, he moved back to Kelowna. In 1973, joined the re-formed senior B Bruins, playing again in Memorial Arena. At the age of 40 is still showed his scoring touch, notching a remarkable 100 points in 19 games for the team.

“It was tough in my 40s, playing and going to work,” Carter said. “But I enjoyed it … until I broke my jaw.”

In part, that injury along with the others sustained over the years — he also broke his nose twice — caused Carter to re-think his lacrosse career and he finally retired shortly after that

While winning the national junior title with the Indians was the high point, according to Carter, just getting a chance to play with many great teammates over the years and bonding in the rough-and-tumble game of lacrosse was motivation enough to play the game he first fell in love with at 13.

Long retired from his forestry career, and a few years out from the East Kelowna Christmas tree farm he and his wife (Mary) ran from the mid-80s until 2014, Carter maintains a remarkably trim physique, and the broken bones from his lacrosse days have long-since healed.

While he said he still manages to get out and watch the occasional lacrosse game here in the Okanagan, these days Carter spends much of his time on the golf links, but his memories of those earlier days and his teammates are still sharp in his mind and he is keen to keep its history alive.

“It’s a strange game. It just gets into you,” he said. “And it’s Canada’s national game, so that means something too.”