Phil Esposito had his Start in Sarnia

by Dan McCaffery for the Sarnia Observer

(2003) Most hockey fans can tell you Phil Esposito was one of the greatest goal scorers in the history of the game. But what many don’t know is that if it wasn’t for Sarnia, it’s doubtful whether the legendary superstar would have laced up his skates for a single NHL game.

The big centreman had tried out for the old St. Catharines Tee Pees Jr. ‘A’ squad in 1960 but was sent packing for breaking the team’s curfew. Disillusioned, he decided to quit hockey and headed back to his hometown of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. However, he was lured out of retirement by Tommy Norris, the manager of the Sarnia Legionnaires Jr. ‘B’ squad. He attended St. Pat’s High School, where his academic performance was so bad that an alarmed principal warned him he’s never amount to anything.

Despite a plodding skating style, Esposito became an immediate scoring sensation with the Legionnaires, racking up 46 goals and 61 assists in just 32 games. In all, he had a hand in 107 of the team’s 184 goals.

The Observer followed his career closely, providing fans with a blow-by-blow account of every game he played during his time in the city. When his parents came to Sarnia to take in a game, the newspaper made note of that fact as well.

Former Legionnaire Jim Sanko told The Observer his former teammate was an irrepressible practical joker. “He was always cutting guys’ ties in half,” Sanko said in a 1993 interview. “I remember one time Philly loaded up a guy’s shoe with Vaseline. And he would switch false teeth around in the dressing room. A lot of guys would leave the arena before they put their teeth in, then they’d have to scramble back to get their own teeth.”

On the ice he had a reputation as a fearless player who would park himself in front of the net and take all the abuse defencemen could throw at him. But he was terrified of needles – and of cutting his own toe nails. “We used to literally hold him down and clip his toe nails,” Sanko recalled.

The late Joe DeRush, who played goal on the same Legionnaires team, said Esposito was a great player because of his size – and an uncanny ability to put the puck in the net. “He just didn’t make too many offensive mistakes,” he said.

His virtuoso performance with Sarnia earned him a position with a Jr. ‘A’ squad in 1961 and a shot at the NFL. The rest, as they say, is history.