Joseph Scanlon is Professor Emeritus and Director of the Emergency Communications Research Unit (ECRU) at Carleton University. He has been doing disaster research since 1970. He was once a journalist – he served the Toronto Daily Star in Ottawa and Washington – and writes about basketball for fun. His love for the sport came from his mother, Edna Coulter who played for a high school team that never lost a game. Her high school was in Almonte, the home town of James Naismith, the man who invented basketball.

In 1980 the University of Victoria defeated Brandon to win its first Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) men’s basketball championship. The Vikes won again the following year and the year after that eventually winning a record seven straight Canadian titles.

Eli Pasquale was on five of those seven teams. Lloyd Scrubb was on three. Pasquale also spent 15 years as point guard on Canada’s national team. Scrubb became a coach at Vancouver College.

Eli’s brother Vito also played for Victoria and now two of Eli’s sons, Manny and Isiah, are leading scorers for Laurentian. Manny when healthy scores 30+ points a game, as much as any player in CIS basketball. Lloyd Scrubb’s two sons, Philip and Thomas, whom he coached in high school, now play for Canada’s top ranked men’s team, the Carleton Ravens. Last March in Halifax, Carleton won its seventh championship in nine years, making Philip and Thomas Scrubb like their father, Lloyd, CIS champions.

The Scrubb boys liked to play two on two against their parents since their mother Diane (Murphy) was also a basketball player at Bishop’s and University of British Columbia and on the Quebec provincial team. One of her Quebec team-mates was Linda MacPherson who played at Bishop’s and Concordia. Linda married Chris Hunter who played at Macdonald and McMaster and they coached together at McGill. Their son Tim is in his second year at Bishop’s and is the team’s top scorer averaging 14.7 points per game. Chris’s brother, Ian played at Concordia. Another Quebec provincial women’s team-mate was Janet Hylland who played at Concordia. Her sister Sue played at Bishop’s and Concordia. Sue’s husband, Larry Ring played football and Bishop’s and coached at Ottawa. Their son Scott Ring is now at Bishop’s after a year at Carleton. Their daughter Kellie is a freshman with the Gee Gees. Still another Quebec team-mate was Deb Huband now head coach of the University of British Columbia (UBC) Thunderbirds. Huband who played for one year at Concordia and three at Bishop’s was a three time All-Canadian who has been inducted into the Canadian sports hall of fame  as well as several other halls of fame including Bishop’s Concordia, Nepean and Ontario and even the one for B.C. touch football. As coach, and as coach has taken UBC to three CIS titles – in 2003-4, 2005-6 and 2007-8.

Linda and Chris Hunter weren’t the only husband-wife coaching combination. Dick Slipp, an assistant coach at University of New Brunswick (UNB) joined his wife Joyce who was coaching the women’s team. Their son Tyler joined them as an assistant before moving to Waterloo where he is now in his fourth year as women’s coach. Tyler also spent one season as an assistant at Simon Fraser when that team was ranked # 1 in Canada.

Pasquale and his sons, Scrubb and his sons and many others are among scores of families in Canadian university basketball which is very much a family affair. It isn’t just the players and coaches: when Victoria won its seventh consecutive championship – played at Acadia – the referees were Dick Steeves and Ron Foxcroft. Foxcroft and his son Steve refereed more than 20 university championships.

While no one keeps records of family connections a query on a basketball list serve run by Dale Stevens at McMaster University led to scores of emails and turned up well more than 100 examples (the number keeps growing) of brothers or sisters who played together and scores of other family connections. There were even two half-brothers – Jake Jacoway and Josh Masters – at Brandon.

But the connections weren’t restricted to brothers and sisters. In 10 cases three family members all played basketball, sometimes three sisters, sometimes three brothers, sometimes and a mix. Twice four siblings played in one case all for the same team. There were several dozen cases where a father or mother and son or daughter both played and six where the father coached his son or daughter. There were three where a parent, son and daughter all played. There were six sets of twins. Carleton men have had 13 sets of brothers but Memorial has had 14 sets of brothers and sisters including the three Buckle brothers, the three Campbell brothers, the three Woods brothers and the three Dalton sisters.

More Brothers

Incidentally, the Pasquale brothers weren’t the only brother combination on Victoria’s championship teams. There was also Gerald and Greg Kazanowski and a third brother Peter who played junior varsity. Gerald and Greg played with both Eli and Vito at Victoria and Gerald was a team-mate of Eli Pasquale on the National team and later played professionally in Europe. A fourth brother, Richard played for Simon Fraser and later at Carleton. He was coached at both places by Greg Poole, who played at Western, was assistant coach at Simon Fraser and head coach at Carleton.

At Laurentian, Eli Pasquale’s sons are coached by Shawn Swords, at Carleton the Scrubb’s are coached by Dave Smart – two more persons with basketball pedigrees.

Swords played at Laurentian as did his wife Shelley Dewar and his sister Carolyn who was on two of Laurentian’s national championship teams. Another sister Janet played at McGill. Swords’ father Martin played at Ottawa U. Dave Smart and his brother, Rob both played at Queen’s. Rob went on to coach Queen’s. Dave is coach at Carleton. Dave Smart`s teams have included two of his brother’s sons, Rob Jr. and Mike and two of his sister’s sons, Aaron and Ben Doornekamp. (Another brother Nate Doornekamp played for Boston College.) Smart married Emily Chapman whose brothers, Luke and Aaron also played at Carleton. His assistant coaches include Rob Jr. and Shawn McCleery. McCleery played for Carleton as did his brother, Kevin. Their father, Colin McCleery played for Queen’s – a team-mate of Rob Smart Sr. When Shawn and Kevin McCleery were playing for Dave Smart at Carleton, their brother, Kyle was playing for Rob Smart at Queen`s. Dave’s assistant, Rob Jr., was coaching against his father, Rob Sr.

That wasn’t the only time brothers have played against each other. In 2005, when University of New Brunswick played University of Prince Edward Island, Jeff Walker was in his final year of basketball at UPEI, his brother Bill was in his first year with UPEI and their brother Greg was in his third year at UNB. Their father Don was a CIS official.

The current Carleton men’s team includes: Elliot Thompson whose two older brothers, Doug and Joe played at UNB: Kyle Smendziuk whose brother, Craig played one year at Bishop’s; and Tyson Hinz athlete of the year in CIS (not just basketball) last season. Tyson is the son of Willie and Sue Hinz whose parents met when they were in high school and involved in Ottawa basketball’s Junior Development Program. They both played at McGill where Willie became a Rhodes Scholar and until recently was the all-time leading scorer. (He played four years in the days before there was a three-point shot.) Sue’s father Boyd grew up playing basketball in Newfoundland though not at university. Another family link to Carleton is Stu Turnbull who now plays professionally in Germany. His father is a coach in Kingston, Ontario. His sister Taryn played in the USA and now also plays in Germany. Her husband plays hockey in Germany.

List is Endless

The family links seem endless.

Ed Lawlor played at Saint Dunstan’s University, the forerunner of University of Prince Edward Island (UPEI). Two of his sons, Peter and Stephen played for UPEI as did his daughter, Cathy. She was on the team that won a silver medal at the women’s nationals in 1989. Peter Lawlor married Stephanie Shive who also played for UPEI and Steven Lawlor married Angela Large who played at St. FX. Among them, Peter, Steven and Cathy have five children involved in basketball, though none yet at university.

Jack Hool played at Assumption before it became University of Windsor and was leading scorer and his son Hunt was an Ontario Universities Athletics (OUA) all-star and a member of two of Windsor’s OUA West teams which competed in the CIS championships. Jack Hool, who is in the Windsor University Hall of Fame, taught and coached at Assumption High School for 40 years.

Two families are already well into the third generation. Bill Coulthard played for Tillsonburg Livingstons which represented Canada in the Olympics in 1952 and 1960. His Chris played for what was then Waterloo Lutheran. His son David played for York. David was named all-Canadian five times and twice won the Mike Moser Memorial Trophy as most valuable player in Canada, twice was selected York's male athlete of the year. Bill’s second son Bruce played briefly in Buffalo and then for Windsor and later with the national team. As part of the third generation, Chris’s son played for Wilfrid Laurier and David’s son Will is now the starting point guard there. Will’s mother, Terri Carson, played at McMaster.

Another third generation family is the extended Triano family. Howie Triano played at Assumption, with the Tillsonburg Livingstons and was captain of the National team at the 1959 Pan American Games. He is the father-in-law of Tom Heslip who was an all-Canadian at Guelph and the grandfather of Brady Heslip who is now a starter at Baylor, averaging 9.3 points a game. Heslip is the brother-in-law of Jay Triano who played at Simon Fraser, was on the National team from 1978 to 1988 playing in the 1984 and 1988 Olympics and on the Canadian team that won the Gold Medal at the World University Games in Edmonton. Jay Triano later coached at Simon Fraser, became coach of the men`s National team which finished seventh at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney and as head coach of the Toronto Raptors was the first Canadian to serve as head coach in the National Basketball Association.

There is also the Unsworth family. Art, the father, who played for Saskatchewan Huskies, was widowed when his sons, Clint and Chris were eight and seven. The two boys started playing when their father built a mini-gym in the barn at their ranch just outside Maple Creek. Art helped out as an assistant coach in Maple Creek when his sons reached junior high school. Later the boys played in Medicine Hat. Clint went on to play for the Huskies team that won the CIS in 2009-10. Chris spent two seasons with Calgary; so the played against his brother but transferred to Saskatchewan in time to join his brother on the CIS championship team. Clint has since graduated. Chris is in his fifth and final year with the Huskies. Their father is a full-time rancher but always takes time out from refereeing basketball to watch his sons play.

At Carleton, there was the Gorman family -- Dave and Tom Gorman as well as Dave and Tom’s brother-in-law, John Elliot, married to Dave and Tom’s sister, Patty. Dave Gorman, Tom Gorman and John Elliot all played for Carleton as did John’s sons, Doug and Larry Elliot. Dave, Tom and their sister Patty were all grandchildren of T. P. Gorman a founder of the National Hockey League, who won seven Stanley Cups as coach or manager, the last with the Canadiens in 1946 and owned the Ottawa Auditorium and Connaught Race Track.

There were two family combinations at Simon Fraser before it began playing against US teams. Bruce Langford coached and his daughter played at Simon Fraser and Bruce’s brother, Peter was a referee. Two sisters, Morgan and Brea McLaughlin played for a total of 10 years for the Simon Fraser women’s team though they were never team-mates. Brea joined the team the year after Morgan finished her five years of eligibility.

Wydrzynski Extended Family

The family most involved however is the Wydrzynski’s – and their relatives.

Chris Wydrzynski played for Windsor in 1968-69 the last time the Windsor won the men’s national championship and was named MVP at the championship tournament. (In those days it was the Canadian Intercollegiate Athletics Union.) His son Chet came next and his son Adam joined the team the year after Chet finished. A cousin Jim Dunlop was a team-mate of both. Three other cousins – Conor, Greg and Rich Allin – also played for Windsor and were on the team at the same time. Another brother, Max Allin is now at Laurier. Two other cousins, Dan and John Comiskey, played football at Windsor and went on to play in the Canadian Football League. Finally there is Jim Dunlop’s sister, Katy, who played four years at University of Detroit where she was team captain.

Don’t hold your breath! Luke Allin now in Grade 11 is reported to be the tallest and most skilled of the bunch; and he is not the only third generation basketball player in high school. Michael Shoveller, 6’10|”who plays at Arnprior in the Ottawa Valley is the son of Bruce Shoveller, an Ontario Universities Athletics (OUA) East all-star when he played at Queen’s and Michael is grandson of Rod Shoveller arguably in his day the best respected referee in Atlantic Canada. Dalhousie’s Rod Shoveller tournament is named after him

The Allin brothers -- Conor, Greg and Rich -- are one of many basketball family trios. Susan, Stephanie and Lorie Knickle played for UPEI – and helped their team to a silver medal at the Nationals in 1988-89. Mike, Jennifer, and Julie Sirois also played at UPEI as did Cathy, Peter, and Steven Lawlor, with Steven also playing two years at UNB. Mark and David Mullally were at UPEI with Dave also at Dalhousie, younger brother Hugh at Dalhousie and Lakehead. There was also Cynthia and Jessica Johnston and their brother Tim also with Bishop’s. Cynthia Johnston also played for the national team. There were three triples at Memorial:  Amy, Megan and Brittany Dalton; Eddie, Norm and Rod Campbell and Michael, Mark and Matthew Woods. Finally, Chris, Lawrence and Roland Biegler played together on the Regina team that went to the national semi-finals in 1988-89. Chris was an all Canadian and a winner of the Mike Moser award. Regina had only nine players that season: the Biegler brothers were a third of the team.

Not to be outdone, the Hann’s had four siblings all playing basketball. Brad and Norm Hann played at Laurentian and both were all-Canadians. One sister Stacey played at Laurentian, another sister Shannon played at Brandon and finished her career at Brock. That record is about to be broken: four Yallin sisters – Andrea, Alex, Steph and Kris have played for Guelph Gryphons. A fifth sister, Kate Yallin has committed for next fall.

While third generation basketball families are rare, second generation one are not.

Boris and Igor Bakovic were born in Sarajevo where their father Pero and their mother, Marina both played basketball. Igor started his basketball in Sarajevo before the family fled war-torn Bosnia helped by their mother’s sister already living in Toronto. The brothers played together at Ryerson before Boris took a year off and transferred to Calgary. On February 3rd, 2012, Boris made a three point shot against Alberta giving him 2,199 points in his career. That passed the previous Canadian university high mark of 2,182 set by Andrew Spagrud of Saskatchewan.  

The Bakovic’s family is not along in bringing a basketball tradition from Europe to Canada. Dasa Farthing’s father played university basketball then started his own club in Slovakia -- Cassovia Kosice [with every age category possible from mini basketball-to extra ligue (highest league)]. Her father is now vice-president of the Slovak Basketball Association and her sister is a full time coach for both extra ligue for women and junior teams. She won high-school championship last year and went to China to world high-school championships. Dasa herself emigrated to Canada tried out made the women’s team at Carleton and was defensive player of the year in Ontario Universities Athletics (OUA) East.

At Guelph, Larry Angus was followed by two daughters Heather and Skye and a son, Zack, now in his third season with the Gryphons. Heather went on to play for the Windsor team that won the CIS championship in 2010-11. In the Maritimes, Brian Chambers coached at UPEI for more than 20 years and his wife, Ann Robertson is in the New Brunswick Hall of Fame for basketball and track and field. Her daughter, Eireann Rigby was a three time Atlantic University Sport (AUS) all-star at UPEI. A third generation of that family – Kiera Rigby – has had a tryout with the National Cadet Team.

The extended Laughton family includes six basketball players. Bob Laughton was a member of Carleton’s first two conference championship teams. He then moved on to Queen’s where he was MVP. His brother Barrie and Barrie’s wife Carol (Sanderson) also played at Carleton. Bob’s son Doug also played at Queen’s and, like his father, was MVP. Barrie and Carol’s son, Jeff and daughter, Jenny, also played at Queen’s. Jenny had been a standout at Ottawa’s Lisgar Collegiate where her father taught.

To read part 2, press here.

To read Part 3, press here.

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