BC Sports Hall of Fame

Ask Paul Gait about the biggest surprise of his storied lacrosse career and he’s likely to tell you it’s the fact both he and his twin brother Gary are likely the first two professional lacrosse players to make their entire living from the game.

“Lacrosse chose us,” he says.

Fame comes with a price.

Just ask Sohen Gill, the hardest-working man in BC lacrosse.

When the 1908 New Westminster Salmonbellies field lacrosse team defeated the Montreal Shamrocks to win the Minto Cup it was the start of a BC dynasty that lasted over twenty years.

In those days the Minto Cup was emblematic of the Canadian senior lacrosse championship and was dominated by eastern teams. Field lacrosse was Canada’s national sport, but teams from Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa had been able to keep the Cup from coming out West.

The North Shore Indians displayed amazing stick skills—their passes had the velocity of shots—and they controlled the game by controlling the ball. Although the team never won a Mann Cup and were in a national final only once, the North Shore Indians, who were mostly from Squamish and also from the Six Nations reserves, were BC’s most exciting team.