Yallop, Miller and Denoncourt, Eight Others To Be Inducted Into Soccer Hall of Fame Saturday

Current national team coach Frank Yallop is one of eleven new members who will be inducted into The Soccer Hall of Fame in Vaughan, Ontario on Saturday. The inductions were first announced on November 15. Yallop, who is being inducted as a player, joins former national team coaches Don Petrie and Tony Waiters in the Hall.

Also being inducted are former national team players Colin Miller, Wes McLeod, Terry Moore, Garry Ayre, Norman McLeod and Michelle Ring-Passant, Making up the eight players being inducted is former England international Sam Chedgzoy, who played and coached in Montreal from 1930 to 1940 and continued to live in Montreal after he retired.

The three builders being inducted are Steve Stavro, who was president of the Toronto City Soccer Club in the old Eastern Canada Professional Soccer League, former FIFA referee Sonia Denoncourt, and Georges Schwartz, a former member of the FIFA Amateur Committee, who has been prominent in Quebec soccer for many years.

In addition the Hall of Fame has chosen its third Team of Distinction, this time the Westminster Royals of 1928, who were national champions in that year.

Yallop, who became Canada’s national team coach earlier this year, played 52 times for Canada’s full national team and 316 games for Ipswich Town over 14 seasons in England. When his career in England was over he joined Tampa Bay Mutiny of Major League Soccer in the United States and played there from 1996 to 1998, before turning to coaching.

Wes McLeod, Terry Moore, Garry Ayre and Colin Miller all played in the North American Soccer League. McLeod for Tampa Bay Rowdies, Moore for San Diego Sockers, Tampa Bay Rowdies and Tulsa Roughnecks, Ayre for Vancouver Whitecaps, New York Cosmos and Portland Timbers and Miller for Toronto Blizzard. McLeod, who played 18 full internationals for Canada, also represented Canada at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, and was selected to the NASL North American All-Star team five times. He played eight seasons in the NASL for the Rowdies who were one of the NASLs glamour teams.

Moore, who was born in Moncton, New Brunswick, is the first player from the Maritimes to be inducted. He was a member of the national team that qualified for the Olympic quarter finals in 1984 and then lost to Brazil on penalty kicks. He was a member of the Tulsa team that upset the favoured Toronto Blizzard in Soccer Bowl 1983 in Vancouver, and a member of the 1986 World Cup team in Mexico.

Ayre, played 21 times for Canada and like McLeod was a member of the 1976 World Cup team in Montreal. He played 38 games for the Whitecaps in 1977 and 1978 before being transferred to the Cosmos where he played in Soccer Bowl 1978. Later that same year he was a member of the Cosmos team that toured Europe. He was with the national team in World Cup qualifying in 1976 and 1977, but a serious knee injury kept him off the 1980 roster.

Miller, was a member of the Toronto Blizzard squad that reached the NASL final in 1983 and 1984 as a young player. When the NASL folded he moved to Scotland and joined Glasgow Rangers before moving on to play for Doncaster Rovers in England and then back to Scotland to play for Hamilton Academicals, Hearts and Dunfermline Athletic. He regularly returned home to Canada and played 61 times for the national team. He also played in the Canadian Soccer League in the summer months for Hamilton Steelers in 1988 and 1990, and was interim coach of the national team before Frank Yallop’s appointment.

Norman McLeod was a member of the 1957 World Cup team and toured the old Soviet Union with the national team in 1960. Michelle Ring-Passant played 45 times for Canada, including the 1995 World Cup in Sweden, and is a member of the University of British Columbia’s Sports Hall of Fame.

Sam Chedgzoy holds a unique place in soccer history in that in 1924 he forced a change in the law that governs taking corner kicks. He played eight times for England and 300 times for Everton over eleven seasons. In the summer of 1924 he came to Montreal while still an Everton player to coach the Grenadier Guards team, returning to the city in 1930 to become player coach of Montreal Carsteel, one of the top Canadian teams of that decade. In 1939 at the age of 50 he played in the Canadian Cup Final and continued to live in Montreal until his death in 1967.

Steve Stavro, better known for his connection with hockey and the Toronto Maple Leafs, is a life member of the Canadian Soccer Association. His life long love of soccer led him to become president of the International Soccer League of Ontario in 1959 and in 1961 he played a major role in forming the Eastern Canada Professional Soccer League and owned the Toronto City team. In 1967 he was a member of a group that formed the United Soccer Association (USA), the forerunner of the NASL, and owned the Toronto City franchise. When the league merged with the National Professional Soccer League (NPSL) later that year, he sold his rights to Joe Peters, who owned the Toronto Falcons. After that he promoted international exhibition games in Toronto and has retained his interest in the game ever since.

Sonia Denoncourt has long been recognized as the leading official in the women’s game and refereed the Olympic final in Sydney in 2000 between Norway and the United States. She also refereed at the 1995, 1999 and 2003 Women’s World Cups, often having the task of handling the more difficult games. She retired in 2004.

Georges Schwartz has long been a key administrator in Quebec soccer and was a commentator for the CBCs French Network at the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal. He also served as a member of FIFAs Amateur Committee.

The Westminster Royals of 1928 were voted Canada’s team of the half century by the Canadian Press late in 1950, for having won the national championship in 1928. The “New” in the name was dropped in the case of the soccer team to distinguish it from the cities hockey team of the same name. Incredibly one member of this team, goalkeeper Stanley Ball, is still alive at the age of 99, and living in Toronto.

Source: Colin Jose.