Errol Crossan

Errol Gilmour Crossan... soccer family (brother Stewart)... he was eight years old when his family moved to the Isle of Man; he was in his late teens when he returned to Canada in 1949... he was 85 years old when he passed away on 23 April 2016 in Langley, BC, CAN... during the 1959-60 season, wrote a series of articles for the Vancouver Province via Norwich... after his football career, he worked for Canadian Forest Products for more than 25 years... suffered from Parkinson’s Disease...

honoured by the Canada Soccer Hall of Fame as a player (one of the first 11 former players honoured as part of The Soccer Hall of Fame’s inaugural Class of 2000)... posthumously honoured by the Soccer Hall of Fame of British Columbia... as part of Canada Soccer’s Centennial in 2012, recognised in the Best XI from 50 Years (1912-1962)...

a two-time Canada Soccer Football Championship winner (Challenge Trophy 1953 and 1964)... a North American Championship winner (Jack Diamond Trophy in 1953)... a one-time Pacific Coast League winner (1952-53), and one-time Eastern Canada League winner (1961)... in Canada, an all-star selection both before (1953) and after (1964) his career in England...

as part of the ‘59ers at Norwich City, Crossan and Terry Bly were known as “The Terrible Twins”... sang The Ballad of Crossan and Bly, “they never saw him coming, that crew cut down the wing, like a flash of gold in the floodlighting, they never saw a thing”... with Norwich City, was considered one of the “fastest wide players we’ve ever had”... once had the chance to introduce his father to Stanley Matthews on the Toronto City team bus (his father’s football idol)...

remembered Crossan, “I could always run... there was never a team that I wasn’t the fastest man”... as noted in a 1953 all-star program, “a dangerous man around net; a fast man, too”... said Crossan in 2012, “I am still so tied to Norwich City. They never forget you. You are still always welcomed with open arms”...