KID DYNAMITE

KID

TAKING AIM AT THE BULLSEYE

by Kait Burgan photos by Rae-Anne LaPlante

PLANNING TO WIN HAS ALWAYS BEEN A PART OF LIFE FOR GERRY AND MARG JAMES.

It’s actually hard to keep up with the fullness of their lives but in between the incredible successes and the trying challenges, there is a theme. That theme is discipline, paired with a competitive streak, a sense of humour and genuine kindness. Gerry is a Canadian sports legend. He started in the Canadian Football League (CFL) at only 17 years old, was a running back for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers from 1952 - 1962 and the Saskatchewan Roughriders in 1964. He is also the only athlete in history to play in both the Grey Cup and the Stanley Cup final in the same season. That season was 1959-60.

Gerry played right wing for the Toronto Maple Leafs for five seasons, 164 games, in the late 1950s.

“The Leafs would phone when football season was over,” Gerry says. “They kept enticing me with money.” He cracks a smile, and his mischievous side sneaks into his focussed gaze. His humour is deadpan. Marg is sitting beside him, in a rocking chair in front of a window that looks onto Dolphin Drive. She’s reminiscing about what it was like to raise five kids with a husband who was away for months at a time, and it becomes clear, very quickly, that they are a team. They met when Gerry was getting on the bus to go to football practice, and Marg was getting off after a cheerleading practice. Today, they have 12 grandchildren and 20 great-grandchildren.

Somehow in, around, and after professional careers in both football and hockey, and raising five children, they managed a Dairy Queen in Yorkton, Saskatchewan, had a childrenswear store and ran an apartment complex. For a time, they owned the Yorkton Terriers but sold it after “politics got in the way.” When Gerry retired from playing, he spent some time playing exhibition hockey in Switzerland which launched his coaching career. He went on to coach senior hockey in Western Canada, until the WHL—World

The Leafs would phone

GERRY JAMES Former CFL & NHL Player, Coach, Business Owner, Lifelong Competitor

when football season was over. They kept enticing me with money.

Hockey League—came and took all the best players. He also coached Triple-A and made a name for himself as one of the most successful coaches in Canadian Junior Hockey.

“I don’t think we push our children enough in anything related to sports,” says Gerry. He trained his Triple-A players six times a week and parents weren’t allowed in the change rooms.

“They were in there tying up their kids’ skates,” he recalls. “I kicked them out. I have a lot of parents who don’t like me.” Again, his deadpan humour is paired with a mischievous sparkle. This time though, it comes with a sigh. As tough as he was on the kids, it was tough for him too.

“You have to be brutally honest with these kids, that they’re not going to make it. The biggest fear is that you’ll hang onto these kids for too long, hoping they’ll get better.”

“One kid said he was going to kill himself because his dad would be so mad. That really shook me up.”

At the height of his career, Gerry was known as Kid Dynamite, and there is a book, Kid Dynamite: The Gerry James Story, written by Fairwinds resident, Ron Smith. Gerry got the nickname because his father, Eddie James, also played for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and it’s easy to assume that it was Eddie who pushed Gerry into the pro-sports life, but that’s not the case. It wasn’t so much that his dad pushed him, as it was that Gerry pushed himself to earn his dad’s approval and respect. Eddie went to war when Gerry was four years old and didn’t come home until Gerry was 10 or 11. Shortly after that, Gerry’s parents divorced.

When people told Gerry, as they often did that if he were half as good as his dad was, he’d be a good player, Gerry took that as a challenge to prove them wrong. He wasn’t going to be half as good. He was going to be better.

Gerry was sure to thank his dad for the good genes when he collected his CFL Hall of Fame Trophy in 1981 but when asked what he remembers about his dad, he can share only a few small memories.

Gerry played golf for years, but he’s not able to any more because of back troubles. He and Marg have no plans to move from Fairwinds. They love living here in the house they built more than 22 years ago.

Still active in his community, Gerry volunteers for Meals on Wheels and helps people who can’t drive themselves to medical appointments and a couple of times a year, he goes to Toronto, to undergo testing and participate in research for The Concussion Project. Gerry also plays darts, practicing at home a couple of times a day. On his way out the door to a game, Marg says goodbye and tells him to have fun. “I’m not going to have fun,” he says. “I’m going to win!”

2 0

3 0

40 40 OTHER NOTABLE CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

50 While playing with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in 1954, James was the very first recipient of the CFL’s Schenley Most Outstanding Canadian Award. He won the award a second time in 1957. He was on four Grey Cup winning teams.

4 0 30 20 Along with his father, he holds the honour of being a member of the CFL Hall of Fame and the Manitoba Hall of Fame. In the 1957 season, James led the league in scoring with 19 touchdowns, one short of the record set a year earlier by Pat Abbruzzi. That season he also set a CFL record with 18 rushing touchdowns, which stood alone until it was tied by Jim Germany in 1981 and was finally surpassed by Mike Pringle with 19 in the 2000 season. When he retired from the CFL, having played with both the Saskatchewan Roughriders and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, James was the second all-time leading Canadian running back with totals of 994 carries for 5,554 yards and 57 touchdowns.