Neil Ellett

Joseph Neil Ellett... soccer family (father Joe Ellett, daughter Kathy)... he married his wife Ruth on 7 April 1967 (they had daughters Karen and Kathy)... he was born in Vancouver while his dad was serving in the Navy (his dad was previously and thereafter a soccer player in the Pacific Coast League and Mainland League)... Neil grew up less than a dozen blocks away from Callister Park... growing up, favourites included Doug Greig and Pete Proctor... he worked for the City of Vancouver and the BC Assessment Authority for 37 years...

honoured by the Canada Soccer Hall of Fame as a player... honoured by the Soccer Hall of Fame of British Columbia and the Burnaby Sports Hall of Fame...

represented Canada in Olympic Qualifiers in 1967, of note the first-ever Canadian team to feature in the competition... in all, represented Canada in one cycle of FIFA World Cup Qualifiers, two cycles of Olympic Qualifiers and two editions of the Pan American Games... represented Canada in FIFA World Cup Qualifiers in 1972... career 20 international appearances across seven years from 1967 to 1973 with Canada Soccer’s Men’s National Team, including seven international "A" appearances... when he left international football in 1973, he ranked third all-time with 20 international appearances...

with British Columbia Selects, a Canada Soccer Football Championship winner (Challenge Trophy in 1966)... played 10 seasons in the Pacific Coast Soccer League and one season in the Western Canada Soccer League... missed the entire 1963-64 season through a knee injury... played two seasons in the North American Soccer League as an original member of Vancouver Whitecaps FC... suffering from knee problems, he retired from active play after the 1975 season to focus on his referee career; he then ultimately retired from refereeing after the 1979 season (he continued as a referee assessor)...

said Ellett in 1972, “playing for Canada in the Pan American Games when we beat Colombia 3-2 before 55,000 people was the biggest thrill of my life”... wrote Frank Pike in 1971, Ellett’s “consistency and work rate has been a feature of the team in midfield; assigned to stop ball carrying into our defensive third, he has found time to attack and scored the winning goal against Mexico in Vancouver”... wrote Eric King in 1972, Ellett was “one of the quietest and most unassuming players ever to play for Canada”...

remembered Neil Ellett in 2018, When I said for St. Andrews, Jock Copland and Tommy McNeill were the brass on that team and they wanted me to come up from youth. My dad said, ‘you can go up on permit for three games,’ so they brought me up on permit, but they still wanted to sign me, but my dad said, ‘nope, you are finishing your youth first’, which was only another couple of months. So I played those couple of months and then signed with St. Andrews. I told Jock, ‘get me a job and I will sign for you.’ He said, ‘would you like to be a fireman,’ ‘no I don’t like heights’, ‘how about an outside worker’, ‘nah, it pisses rain a lot around here’, ‘how about an inside worker’, ‘sounds good.’ So I was soon working at City of Vancouver and 35 years later I retired with a good pension all because of soccer”...