Normie McLeod

Norman Donald McLeod... soccer family (son Norman Jr., brother Gordon, nephews Billy, Mike, and Wes)... he was 10 years old when he started playing soccer...

honoured by the Canada Soccer Hall of Fame as a player... honoured by the Soccer Hall of Fame of British Columbia and the Coquitlam Sports Hall of Fame... as part of Canada Soccer’s Centennial in 2012, recognised in the Best XI from 50 Years (1912-1962)... his son Wes McLeod is also an honoured member of the Canada Soccer Hall of Fame...

represented Canada in FIFA World Cup Qualifiers in 1957, of note the first-ever Canadian team to feature in the competition... represented Canada on the four-week tour to the Soviet Union and United Kingdom in 1960... made four international “A” appearances in 1957 with Canada Soccer's National Team…

with Vancouver Hale-Co FC, a Canada Soccer Football Championship winner (Carling’s Red Cap Trophy and Challenge Trophy in 1956)... a two-time Pacific Coast League winner (1958, 1962-63)... a Pacific Coast International Championship winner for the J.F. Kennedy Trophy (1962)... an eight-time all-star selection in a nine-year span from 1957 to 1965 (including All Canada selections in 1957 and 1960)... over the course of his career, he scored 124 goals in the Pacific Coast Soccer League (he was the eighth player to reach the 100-goal milestone on 13 April 1966)... over the course of one decade, he was the Pacific Coast League’s third-highest scorer in the 1960s with 87 goals scored... he was St. Saviours / Vancouver City / Canadians / Burnaby Villa’s second-best goalscorer across their post-1939 Pacific Coast League history (83 goals scored across two stints from 1956 to 1958 and 1962-63 to 1966-67, second best behind Neil McEachnie’s 99 goals)...

once called the “little man with the big shot”... as noted in a 1957 all-star program, “natural left footer and possesses powerful shot”... as noted in a 1959 all-star program, “one of smallest players on all-star team but package of dynamite”... wrote Jeff Cross in February 1962, he was “a wee fellow whose prodigious throws are well known to soccer fans across Canada”... wrote Jim Taylor in November 1962, “McLeod is a pint-sized pest with a penchant for being in the right place at the right time”... wrote Jeff Cross after a match in February 1965, “McLeod let it be known decisively that when any all-star selecting is being done, he is still the best inside left in the Pacific Coast League“... said Alex Kemp in 1986, “Normie McLeod and Victor Kodelja stand out as the two best players I’ve ever seen (as youth players at the Sun Tournament of Champions)”...

said Metro Gerela in 2018, “Normie McLeod was probably the most underrated player to come out of Canada... the thing I remember most about him was his intellectualism and his conditioning. He was physically fit and smart, he was smarter than a fox”... said Gary Stevens in 2018, “Normie McLeod was really good. He was a player you didn’t like play against. He had good speed and he was a really good athlete. You could tell he was one of those guys that played other sports because he read the game really well. He had a hell of shot. He wasn’t very big, but he was stocky with big strong legs. He was famous for the long throw in”... said Len Brown in 2018, “Normie McLeod was an excellent player. He had great ball control and he was someone who could shoot the ball”...