Samuel To Be Inducted Into the Soccer Hall of Fame

VAUGHAN, December 5, 2005 — The Soccer Hall of Fame and Museum located at The Ontario Soccer Centre in Vaughan will induct 9 new members into it’s Hall of Fame on Saturday, April 29, 2006. The purpose of The Soccer Hall of Fame is to recognize and honour the Players and Builders who have made significant contributions to the Game of Soccer in Canada and Ontario both on and off the field.



Randy Samuel, who has played more international games for Canada than any other player, will be one of nine new inductees into The Soccer Hall of Fame and Museum in Vaughan, Ontario in 2006.



Joining Samuel in the Player category will be fellow internationals Alex Bunbury, Brian Robinson and David Stothard. Being inducted in the Builder category will be former men’s national team coach Bob Bearpark, former women’s national team coach Sylvie Béliveau, former Canadian Soccer Association president, Fred Stambrook, plus long time soccer coach, John Buchanan from Simon Fraser University, and well known sports journalist, George Gross. Collectively, they will bring the total of Honoured Members to 86, six of whom are women.



Samuel, a centre-back, played 84 times for Canada in full international competition from 1983 to 1997, including the 1986 World Cup finals in Mexico when he appeared in all three games. Following the World Cup, Samuel was signed by the famous Dutch club PSV Eindhoven where he played for two seasons before moving on to two other Dutch clubs, Volendam and Fortuna Sittard. In 1983, he played for the Edmonton Eagles in the short-lived Canadian Professional Soccer League. He was drafted by the Vancouver Whitecaps of the American Soccer League but did not play in the NASL. His 84 internationals included 35 games in World Cup competition. He ended his career with Hampton Roads Mariners of the United Soccer League.



Alex Bunbury’s career included 65 internationals for Canada’s full national team. His club career began in the Canadian Soccer League with the Hamilton Steelers in 1987 where he played four seasons and scored 28 goals before moving on to the Toronto Blizzard and then the Montreal Supra. In 1992, he moved to England where he played for West Ham United and in December of 1993, was transferred to the Portuguese First Division club Maritimo which plays on the island of Madeira. He ended his career playing in Major League Soccer in the United States with the Kansas City Wizard.



Brian Robinson was born in Victoria and played 21 times for the national team at a time when Canada didn’t play as many internationals as are played today. He played in the World Cup qualifying games of 1972 and scored a memorable goal in the Azteca Stadium in Mexico City. His club career saw him win a Canadian championship medal with the soccer team operated by the London Boxing Club of Victoria in 1975 before moving on to the Vancouver Whitecaps of the North American Soccer League in 1976. Along the way he was converted from a wing-half to a sweeper and played in his second World Cup qualifying series, also in 1976.



David Stothard was a member of Canada’s first World Cup team in 1957 and also played 13 times for the British Columbia all-star team. He won a Canadian championship medal with Westminster Royals in 1955 and toured the Soviet Union with the Canadian national team in 1960. Stothard is the ninth member of the 1957 World Cup team to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.



In the Builder category, Bob Bearpark was coach of Canada’s amateur team at the Great Wall of China Tournament in 1984, assistant coach of the successful Olympic team in 1984 and successively, coach of the national youth team at the FIFA World Youth Championship in the Soviet Union in 1986, Associate Professor of Physical Education at McMaster University in Hamilton, Technical Director of The Ontario Soccer Association and subsequently, Director of the Recreation and Sport Branch of the British Columbia government in 1990. He passed away in 1996.



Sylvie Béliveau was the coach of Canada’s national team at the 1995 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Sweden, the only female head Coach at the tournament Formerly a youth player, she coached at provincial and national levels, and was the first female to become a High Performance Centre Director.



Sylvie is currently National Staff Coach for The Canadian Soccer Association with responsibility for Community Coach Development, especially at the Grassroots level, and also a member of the Technical Committee of FIFA on behalf of which she has recently conducted a “Futuro” course in South Africa.



She is the sixth woman to be inducted – the second in succession from Québec, and the third as a Builder.



John Buchanan coached Simon Fraser University Team to the NAIA Championship in the United States in 1976, 1982 and 1983. He managed the Canadian national youth team at the CONCACAF Youth Tournament in Guatemala in 1981 and developed a number of players for both the national team and also for teams in the North American Soccer League.



In 1986, he was honoured as a charter member of the Simon Fraser University Sports Hall of Fame in Vancouver.



Fred Stambrook was the president of The Canadian Soccer Association from 1986 to 1992 and president of the Manitoba Soccer Association for six years. He was a life member of the Canadian and Manitoba Soccer Associations and a member of the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame. He died in July of 2005.



George Gross was recently inducted into Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame and has also been honoured by the Hockey and Olympic Halls of Fame. He was very much involved in Canadian Soccer in the early years of his life in Canada, both as a player and a journalist. He played for Pannonia in the Toronto Senior Soccer League and published a weekly soccer paper in the 1950s. In the 1960s, in addition to being a sports writer for the old Toronto Telegram he was the general manager of Toronto City Soccer Club of the Eastern Canada Professional Soccer League.



The 2006 Team of Distinction will be the Toronto Scottish Team of 1933. In that year Canadian champion Scottish met the U.S. champion, Stix, Baer and Fuller of St. Louis for the North American Championship at Soldier Field in Chicago. Scottish won by two goals to one. Included in that famous Scottish team were such renowned players as Andy Stevens, who in addition to being a star with Toronto Scottish, scored over 150 goals in the American Soccer League for Boston and New Bedford; full-back, Jimmy Noke, who played eleven seasons for the Club; centre-half, Harry Phillips, who, in 1947 played for the professional team, Toronto Greenbacks; and Davie Weir who played for Glasgow Rangers in the mid 1920’s.



Courtesy of: www.thesoccerhalloffame.ca