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Origins of the Bolton Wanderers Soccer Club
Tuesday July 27 2010
Dear Editor:
Reading Al Seaman's letter and the news of Bolton Wanderers Soccer Club Day has brought back many memories of how the club started.
Hal was correct. Resident Winston Cross, his neighbour and I started a winter program at James Bolton school in the winter of 1976, the year I arrived in Bolton. Principal George, whose last name I’ve forgotten was most supportive and I would collect the school key every Saturday morning for the volunteer custodian, a near neighbour living on Kingsview Drive. I opened and closed the school and returned the key. No fees in those days. We had about 40 boys, mostly friends of my 10-year-old son.
Later that year I approached the Caledon East Soccer club (registration 250) for permission for a 10-year-old boy's team from Bolton to play in their league. They refused, using the rationale that they came to Bolton for hockey and we would go to Caledon East for soccer. So we placed an advert in The Bolton Enterprise and were amazed when 350 children registered. Being a member of the Bolton Hockey Executive Committee (Fund Raising Chair), we used the arena for the registration. The fee was $10 and every family had to sell one box of chocolates to fundraise to balance our budget.
Our first General Meeting followed. Being a member of the Volunteer Bolton Ambulance, we used the old Ambulance Hall next to Baffo's Pizza and over 100 people showed up. At the end of the meeting, Frank Guerra, of Guerra's Auto and Vince D' Melio of Vince's Autobody, each handed me $100 cash to sponsor a team and so our sponsorship fee was established.
Our committee consisted of Hal and his buddy Jim Part (now deceased), who was Chief Referee, and he purchased the uniforms. Bill Wade collected our sponsors, local accountant Dave Wedgebury was our Treasurer and my friend and neighbour Jan Cote was secretary. There may have been more.
We then went looking for fields. Mr. Lloyd of Sunkist Valley offered one soccer-sized piece of land at back of his house. We found another flat piece behind James Bolton School and Dick’s Dam. Ex - Reeve Hill Allen and local Shriner and character Nobby Clarke used their backhoes to shift dirt around these properties to help parents level the ground. We planted goal posts on the Lloyd's land and at James Bolton. We received the steel free from someone and Vince D'Melio, who was located at the bottom of Humberview Hill, cut and welded the posts. Legion buddy Davy Vanstone borrowed his company's flat bed to deliver the posts, however, he delivered them to Dick’s Dam at 10 a.m. one Saturday morning. It created havoc throughout the town. However, we delivered and planted the posts, painted them and they remain today. Unfortunately, Davy's boss witnessed the chaos in town and when he arrived at work on the Monday morning, he promptly fired poor Davy for taking the truck without permission. Parents cut and lined the fields by hand.
In the summer of 1977, my wife Pat and I vacationed in London, England and drove to Bolton to meet members of the Bolton Wanderers Soccer Club board. We met the former Bolton and English great centre forward Nat Lofthouse, who handed me a formal letter granting us permission to use their name and logo. He gave me a small, silk logo. On returning, I gave the logo to Jim Part who changed the name for BWFC to BWSC. It survives today.
We made a rule that the club president could not coach, and I wanted to coach my 10-year-old son. Winston stepped forward as president the first year and did a great job. I took over the second year. The third year I retired and in the fourth and fifth years, I was asked to return as president. I left with our registration at 670 children...
Another coach who helped develop the club in those early years was Derek Curwen, top Toronto male model at the time.
We started each season with a parade and started rep teams the second year. In our first under 12 year old game we were hammered 13 to nil. During our fourth year, three moms appeared at my front door, demanding I start a Bolton ladies team. In a cast and on crutches with a broken ankle at the time, we used the Holy Family school gym on Friday nights for practice and formed the team, which still plays. They played in the Brampton league at first. Thankfully, Walter Kovacs then volunteered to sponsor and coach the team and did so for the next seven years. Daughter Belinda Moretta who started with the club as a 4-year-old, is now living in my old house on Kingsview Drive with husband Dan and her three children, and she still plays with the team. During the early years, four and five-year-olds played coed, and we formed a separate girls' team from seven years on. The girls played out-of-town teams in a bush league, as we never had enough registered to form an in-town house league.
Many memories and faces pass across the windows of my memory of those early years. Bolton was beginning to grow and our club made an impact. At first, Editor Bill Whitbread refused to feature us in The Bolton Enterprise as we did not post results and Bolton was a hockey and baseball town. By the fourth year, now with a registration of over 400 and bigger than baseball, he relented and gave us coverage. I came to admire Bill over the years and his absolute devotion to his newspaper – The Enterprise. A great Bolton newspaper man.
Other memories:  Sunday nights, when coaches met for a pickup game of soccer and brought their wives and children and their picnics, our year end dinner and dances, always packed and a blast, the Bolton Fair Committee asked us to man the gate at the Bolton Fair. It pelted rain Friday, Saturday and Sunday. A Local farmer brought his tractor to pull every trailer trough the quagmire at the front gate when Italy won the world cup, we turned up at Humberview on the Monday night to find every goal post wrapped in Italy colors. Wednesday night coaches pickup games at Holy Family School gym followed by some beers and pizza or a late meal at a coach's house, which survived until the new school was built. Our annual (Baffo's) pizza and trophy nights at the Bolton Arena hall, when we usually had a player from the Toronto Blizzards of the now defunct NASL to hand out trophies. They were great times.
A number of years ago, my wife and I were pleased to be invited to the club's 25-anniversary banquet and opened the season, along with then Mayor Carol Seglins the next morning at Dick's Dam. We received an anniversary tee shirt as a memento.
I wish the present executive and member families every success now and in the future and a happy BWSC Day.

Kevin O'Hehir,
Founder, Bolton Wanderers Soccer Club  
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