Jimmy Spencer

Jim Haggarty Spencer... soccer family (father in law Allan Murray)... married wife Sheina (Ted) Murray in 1944... he was 75 years old when he passed away in Vancouver on 14 April 1990... he was nine years old when he started playing soccer... worked for the North Vancouver Fire Department (starting in 1937, then as Fire Chief from 1958 to 1975)... served as the best man at Jimmy Love’s wedding on 1 January 1943... his father in law Allan Murray was a former footballer (North Shore United) and then footballer (retiring as a fire chief in 1952)...

posthumously honoured by the Canada Soccer Hall of Fame as a player (he was shortlisted as an original alternate by The Soccer Hall of Fame in 2000 and then honoured as part of the Class of 2003)... honoured by the BC Sports Hall of Fame and the North Shore Sports Hall of Fame...

with North Vancouver’s North Shore United FC, a two-time Dominion of Canada Football Championship winner (Challenge Trophy in 1938 and 1949)... an eight-time British Columbia Province Cup provincial winner (1937, 1938, 1941, 1944, 1945, 1946, 1948, 1949)... a Vancouver & District League winner and a five-time Pacific Coast League winner (1939-40, 1941-42, 1942-43, 1948-49, 1950-51)... a six-time Mainland Cup winner (1936, 1940, 1941, 1944, 1946, 1949)...

over the course of his career, he scored 120 goals in the post-1939 Pacific Coast Soccer League (he was the first player to reach the 100-goal milestone on 9 October 1948)... over the course of one decade, he was the Pacific Coast League’s top scorer in the 1940s with 94 goals scored... he was North Shore United FC’s top goalscorer across their post-1939 Pacific Coast League history (120 goals scored from 1939-40 to 1955-56), notably the team’s top goalscorer in three-straight seasons from 1939-40 to 1941-42... in 2000, one of 17 inaugural alternates shortlisted by The Soccer Hall of Fame (he became an honoured member as part of the Class of 2003)...

once described as the “raven thatched North Vancouver fireman”... wrote Vince Leah in 1938, “his constant tries for goal and his conscientious work on the field has made him the (Connaught Cup) series stand-out”... wrote Clem Shields in 1938, Spencer “has a drive which will leave any goalie flat footed”... as noted in a 1939 all-star program, “thrives on hard work... all critics admit that he packs a harder drive with either foot than any other in BC”... as noted in a 1948 all-star program, his “bullet drive rapidly earned the name of ‘Spencer Special’”... as noted in a 1951 all-star program, “one of the most popular players in Canada and one of the greatest inside lefts in the country in his prime; his left-footed shot has been the terror of goalkeepers for 25 years”... as noted in the Vancouver Province in 1953, “Jim has been a senior for 21 years and right up to the last it can be said he was as much a star as he ever was”... wrote Len Corben in 2007, “among all of our North Shore sports icons over the past century, there are few, if any, who can match the longevity of soccer’s Jimmy Spencer as both a superb player and a committed builder of sport”...