A Man called the Freight Train

Lionel Conacher is not a name that is unknown to those in the nation of Canada who know their history. He was known as the "Canadian Jim Thorpe"  for his success as a well rounded athlete as well as "Big Train" and “The Freight Train” by others due to his head-on approach to sports play. Conacher is what many may say a modern-day Renaissance Man, as he excelled in sports at all levels and was a political leader in the Canadian Parliament. Let us take a look and learn more about his story.

There is a lot to the story of this man especially the sports portion of his life, and in this episode, I want to dig deep and learn more of the Lionel Conacher story.

It all started in Toronto on May 24, 1901, when Lionel Pretoria Conacher was born. His middle name was interestingly a namesake of a Spouth African town, that at the time of his birth was a battleground of British troops. He was one of the oldest of ten children in the family.  His Father Benjamen was a teamster who was contually looking for union work and supplemented the family incomve by plaowing snow in the winter months. The family was always short on money, especially with many mouths to feed. There was not much to talk about in his early life concerning sports. The first window we really get to look into Lionel’s early life is when he dropped out of school after the eighth grade to work full time to help with his family’s struggling finances. His main occupation was hauling sod but he also could be found selling newspapers and he got to be pretty good at it. According to Brittanica.com, the youngster’s proficiency at peddling the daily news was the genesis of his athletic career.

The National News.com says that Lionel was naturally gifted, even at a young age. He was quick as he could run the 100m in under 10 seconds, he was powerfully strong, and he had a coordination that made him an immediate natural in any sport. The youngster would soon realize that his athleticism was the best way out of the slum he was raised in.

There was a competition sponsored by the newspaper he worked for that whoever the top seller of the publication in a given time would win a special prize. Lionel’s competitive nature was tweaked and he set out to claim the prize. His determination and hard work paid off as in 1916 he sold more papers than any of his peers and his reward was a membership at the local YMCA. This was a whole new experience for the teenager. The YMCA introduced sports like boxing, wrestling, and lacrosse to Conacher and he absorbed everything the instructors could teach him. 

Lionel’s athleticism and willingness to excel helped him almost immediately win the Ontario 125-pound wrestling championship at the age of 16. A few years later after training at the gym he claimed the Canadian light-heavyweight boxing championship. In between his aspiring athlete yearned for more. Living in Canada he realized that he was one of the few boys his age that never skated on the ice. The remedy was that he bought a pair of ice skates and taught himself how to skate. This would prove to be a fruitful venture later on in his life, and for now, it helped him keep competitive with other athletes in Toronto. 

Conacher didn’t rest on his laurels of these athletic accomplishments, he pushed himself further. Lionel played on the Rugby Union team in 1920 and competed for the Toronto Argonauts of the Ontario Rugby Football Union (a precursor to the professional Canadian Football League), in 1921 and 1922. To say he was good at rugby was an understatement. Talk about the immediate impact of a player, well Lionel scored 23 of the team's 27 points in his first game on the field. In 1921, the Argonauts made it to the Grey Cup, the first east-west game in Canadian football history. Pitted against the Edmonton Eskimos, Conacher scored 15 of the Argo’s 23 points to help the Toronto club win the coveted cup. What is amazing about his performance in that Grey Cup game is that he left the game in the third quarter to catch a cab to get on over to the ice rink to help his Aura Lee team win the Ontario Hockey Association championship that same night! Are you kidding me?!

Almost simultaneously the motivated youth was a roster member of the championship Ontario lacrosse team in 1922 as he was really making a name for himself in the sporting community.

Lionel Conacher as a football player for the Toronto Crosse and Blackwell Chefs in 1933.

Yes, many were taking notice of this talented athlete. Lionel kept working hard on his skating, and these skills eventually progressed to a point where he was offered a $3000 contract with the Toronto St. Pats of the National Hockey League. The American League baseball team, the Detroit Tigers also wanted him to sign to play with them. Though these offers were approximately threefold the average salary at the time, Conacher turned each of them down and instead took a job as a bank teller so he could continue to play lacrosse and football. He loved those games and couldn’t bear to part playing them competitively, and during that era, a professional athlete was barred from playing amateur sports.

Lionel was smart though despite his education. He knew he needed to have a sustainable career to help ends meet. In a very unpopular move among his countrymen, Conacher moved to Pittsburgh, to play football and ice hockey on a scholarship at a prep school named the Bellafonte Academy. In the US it opened his eyes to other opportunities. He was placed on a boxing card and fought the legendary Heavy Weight Champion of the World, Jack Dempsey in a Pro-Am exhibition.

Lionel had decided to play professional hockey instead of continuing his football under Head Coach Carl Snavely at Bellafonte the coach in an interview later in the https://archive.macleans.ca/article/1957/3/30/lionel-could-do-anything stated:

 “I don’t believe I have ever had a fullback who was a better runner in an open field, or who was a better punter, or who so fully possessed all of the qualities of speed, skill, dexterity, aggressiveness, self-control, and the various attributes that are required for superiority in the American game of football. He was far superior to many boys on the same team who later won All-American honors in several universities.”

The NHL opportunity he took was when he signed a then-record contract of $7,500 with the Pittsburgh Pirates of the NHL in 1925. It was the start of a successful career in which Conacher played for four teams, won two Stanley Cups, and was named an All-Star. Conacher loved to be in on the action with a very aggressive style and he was often the leader in the league in penalty minutes served.

On the Toronto American Athletic Association championship baseball team in 1926, he played Triple-A baseball with the Toronto Maples Leafs and won the Little World Series. In 1930, he joined the International Indoor Lacrosse League and went on to become its top scorer and win the championship. Then, in 1932, he added a fourth professional sport by becoming a wrestler, going undefeated in 26 matches.

He had a pretty good sibling that also played hockey in the NHL too, Charlie Coonacher was his brother.

Conacher soon found love but he would find in what would be perhaps his own self-described opponent, the illness of alcoholism. Fortunately, Lionel recognized that he needed help as in 1930 he had a daughter about to be born and he knew he needed to get his life in order to take care of this new responsibility.  As in other endeavors, Lionel put his mind to he met this challenge head-on and defeated it too.

In 1937 Lionel Conacher retired from pro hockey. The game had been good to him, even though it left him many a battle scar to remind him for the rest of his life. Lionel Conacher was named Canada's outstanding athlete of the half-century and football player of the half-century (1900-1950). This exceptional athlete is enshrined in three halls of fame: Canadian Football Hall of Fame, Lacrosse Hall of Fame, and Hockey Hall of Fame. And you thought his succes story stopped there? Like we said earlier he had a successful career in Canadian politics after he retired from sports.  He just kept pushing on and garnered the most out of life.

Now we know more of the story of this athlete that has been rightfully called the Canadian Jim Thorpe.

The picture in the banner above is from the Wikipedia Commons photo collection of the Public Domain of Lionel Conacher as a football player for the Toronto Crosse and Blackwell Chefs in 1933.

Special thanks to Baseball-Reference.com, Stathead.com and the most wonderful book by Larry Lester and Wayne Stivers, The Negro Leagues Book, Volume 2.