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TOTAL SPORTS DURHAM
WHITBY SPORTS HALL OF FAME Reminiscing: Brooklin Concretes – 1964 and 1966 All-Ontario Softball Champions
Of the numerous sights and sounds of summer that have been sorely lacking this year, the absence of any activity on our local sports fields and baseball diamonds has been obviously upsetting for athletes, parents, coaches, and spectators alike. The resonances of baseballs and softballs striking wooden or metal bats, of soccer balls and lacrosse balls swishing into netting, and of whistles blown to start or stop play have simply been left to the imagination. So perhaps this is an appropriate time to reminisce about bygone days more than 50 years ago when a team of softball players from the community of Brooklin brought the sounds and the exhilaration of two provincial championships to our local area. Men’s competitive softball, more accurately referred to as fastball, has unquestionably given way to various slopitch adaptations of the sport over the last few decades, but this was not the case throughout the middle of the previous century. Many communities across Ontario supported a number of fastball teams back then, in industrial leagues and district leagues, and the quality of play was often of a high-caliber and very entertaining for the spectators. The Brooklin Concretes softball teams from the mid1960s were indeed shining examples of on-field excellence. Founded in 1963, the team quickly established a reputation for success on the diamond, both locally in the Oshawa City and District Softball League and across the province in the Ontario Amateur Softball Association (OASA). These teams won consecutive Southern Ontario Intermediate C championships in 1964, 1965, and 1966 and advanced to face Capreol in the All-Ontario finals in each of these seasons. It was not an easy task to capture the Southern Ontario crown in those days. As mentioned above, many communities fielded travelling teams at that time, and as a result, the Brooklin team had to win at least five and as many as seven best-of-three playoff rounds before they reached the provincial championship series; and yet advance they did, three years in a row. The Capreol teams could certainly be described as a dynasty, winning eight provincial titles between 1957 and
1969 and reaching the championship series 10 straight years during that run. Conspicuously, their only two losses throughout that most impressive streak came at the hands of the Brooklin Concretes. In January of this year, the Whitby Sports Hall of Fame announced the induction of the Brooklin Concretes provincial championship teams as part of our class of 2020, alongside Carolyn Mountjoy (Ringette), Gil Nieuwendyk (Lacrosse), and Shawn Williams (Lacrosse). These induction ceremonies were originally scheduled for April 18, 2020 however they have been deferred to April 24, 2021 due to health and safety concerns related to the coronavirus pandemic. These unprecedented times should by no means diminish the due recognition of the Brooklin Concretes players and coaches nor our mandate to showcase the accomplishments and the careers of all our latest announced inductees. It is our sincerest hope that public health and related factors will permit our committee to stage an event next April in a manner befitting these honourees.
In the interim, visit www.whitbysportshalloffame.com/ to learn more about the class of now 2021 and all the previously inducted members of the Whitby Sports Hall of Fame.
