CROW’S NEST ARCHIVES
RCN sports history: Senior baseball action in Halifax
By Ryan Melanson,
Trident Staff
The Navy took on the Shipyard Club on the opening night of the Halifax Senior Baseball League on May 24, 1945, playing to an exciting extra-innings finish. The sailors trailed by three until the ninth inning, when a neat bunt from “Peaches” Ruven went for a base hit, allowing a run to squeak in from third. Navy team manager Bud Morrison, seen in the above photo on the third-base coaching line, said after the game that the Navy was clearly the team to beat for the season. The four-team league also included the Army and the Air Force, with those two teams facing off in the second half of the opening night double-feature, and the Air Force taking a 3-2 victory.
This month in RCN sports history
1954 – Stadacona took gold at the Atlantic Command swimming and diving championships with a standing of 56 points. Cornwallis followed with 31 points and the Quebec entry was third with 15 points. Acadia University cadets salvaged five points and Shearwater just three. OS Lawrence Uwins, 18, of Stadacona, emerged as the Command’s sole contender in trials for a spot on the Canadian swim team entering the British Empire Games at Vancouver later in the summer. He won the 1,650-yard freestyle event in 24:45:5, less than six minutes over the Olympic record and also took the 110-yard freestyle race at the Command meet.
1965 – The RCN Ladies Curling Club of Ottawa were celebrated after producing a foursome that was the first Ottawa rink, male or female, to capture a provincial curling shield. Mrs. Sterling Hanright’s rink, wearing RCN Curling Club badges, won the shield at Cornwall with four wins and one loss, to Beardmore, the Northwestern Ontario rink. They then went on to Edmonton in the latter part of February, this time wearing Ontario badges, to play all other provinces in the Diamond “D” bonspiel, the ladies’ version of the Brier Cup. They won five, lost four and finished in a fourth-place tie overall. They concluded the successful season at a closing banquet in May with the presentation of prizes and trophies.
1985 – After 18 tournament competitions, 2000 challenge points and 100 percent participation by arch rivals HMCS Assiniboine and HMCS Protecteur, the 1984/1985 Cock of the Fleet competition ended in a tie. Assiniboine and Protecteur both finished the season with identical point totals of 1375. The annual trophy was presented to both teams on May 25 during a ceremony aboard HMCS Athabaskan.
2004 – The third annual CFB Halifax Sports Recognition Breakfast was held on May 21, with the Halifax Mariners men’s hockey team being named the Formation’s team of the year. Under the leadership of team captain Sgt Rob Sneath, the Mariners claimed their sixth consecutive regional title win and fourth consecutive CAF national title win in 2004.
