TRANSCRIPT

WW - Wes[ley] Washington, interviewee / LR - Lyn Royce, interviewer

WW: I, I... When I went to school, Stamford, Stamford Collegiate...

LR: mhmm... that's in Niagara Falls?

WW: Niagara Falls; yes. Went to Stamford Collegiate. I was fast. I ran 100, 220, 440, mile relay, set records. My coach, Johnny Long, God bless him, he went to heaven 3 years ago. He turned around and I was only intermediate, but I ran against the, the seniors, so Johnny Long took me and I went, and I went, I went to, I went and did the track meets in Hamilton. But, in Niagara Falls, I ran at Oaks Park and there was just a grass track like [difficult to decipher] water; like a horse mud track. But when I got to Hamilton, had a cinder track. And I just sat up there and just flew! Okay, we went, we went to another track meet, in, in Toronto - we won everything. We won everything in Hamilton. We turned around and went to Montreal. They never seen us before. I [sound of tapping his chest] was the only black there, in the track in, in Montreal. We went, went against Ottawa Glebe and all the other schools. We set records that, I'm in the Wall of Fame 3 times through it , and we, the whole team, we only took 10 guys and we got, went against schools that had 700. And, and our coach, Johnny Long, was seeing the convenor, and the convenor says, 'Oh, ah, uh, where's your, where's your team?' And Johnny Long says, 'Right here.' And we had 10 guys. And the guy had a smirk on his face when, when Johnny Long told him and Johnny Long says, 'Can we go into different, uh, things?' And the guy, the guy just about laughed at us and he said, 'Yes; you can go into as many events as you want to.' He didn't know how good we were.

LR: mhmm!

WM: And Johnny Long says, 'I got a coupla hours.' And the guy said, 'You can go in that office and straighten it out.' Johnny Long turned around, straightened it all out; put me in the 100, 220, 440, mile relay and we won the - just 10 of us! - we won the WHOLE track meet! They never heard of Stamford Collegiate before; we went back the next year and we did the same thing.! It was fabulous.

LR: That's great

WW: mhmm?

LR: That's great. What made Johnny Long... It sounds like Johnny Long was a really good coach.

WW: Oh, he was fabulous.

LR: What...

WW: He was fabulous.

LR: What made him so good?

WW: Uh, he had interest in ya. I didn't, uh... He had interest in ya. He knew that you had the potential and he'd get it outta ya. Uh, I did football, and I was only, I was small, 160 pounds, and I would go against guys 230 [pounds]; I was doing boxing all at the same time, track and field and boxing. And we, we ran... We did, uh... Our rivalry was against, 'gainst NFCVI [Niagara Falls Collegiate and Vocational Institute] high school and Stamford; we had that rivalry all the time. Um, as it as it turned out I scored 6 touchdowns in a half a game and we beat Linwell High School in St Catharines and we beat 'em 66 nothing; Johnny Long took the first team, put us o[n], in the bus and let the second team. We beat 'em 66 nothing. I couldn't go no place; I played against Pete Newman, Steve Onachuk, in St Catharines, they went on to, to the Canadian Football League, Hamilton Tiger Cats, but I could run circles around 'em.

LR: wow...

WW: It was, it was, it was... fabulous!

LR: We... Were your teams... Were... You said you were the only black person on your track team. Were your other teams [garbled]...

WW: Where's the...

LR: ...intermixed?

WW: Where's all the black? I was the only black 1 in Stamford.

LR: You were the only, the only black student?

WW: Yes. My, my sisters...

LR: Ah!

WW: ... 'n that came later.

LR: Okay.

WW: I mean before me.

LR: Okay.

WW: Arbutus; Arbutus and, and Vernus;

LR: Okay;

WW: and Marian.

LR: Okay; so you were the only 1... okay.

WW: Yes -

LR: So what was it like being in school as the only black family, you and your brothers and sisters?

WW: Oh yeah, when, when we had the rivalry at NFCVI and Stamford and we'd beat NFCVI in, in football; they were good, they , they used to beat us in basketball; but we had a... After we beat NFCVI they'd turn around and we'd have a dance 'cause we, we beat 'em. Um, um, they'd say, 'We're having a dance tonight.' My buddy, he, he went to heaven, Donny Mertland, said, 'Wes, you coming to the dance tonight?' I says, 'No, I can't make it.' I says, 'My mother, my mother's got me doin' chores.' 'cause I used to do, I used to do school, track and field, football and boxing. And then I had to do road work in boxing too. That wasn't the reason; because, I... if I went... The cheerleaders would cheer for me: 'Yeah Wes! Yeah Washington! Yeah, yeah, Wes Washington! And they'd cheer for me as, as the game went on, but no 1 would dance with me, 'cause I was black...

LR: Ahhh!

WW: ...at the do's and that's why I used an excuse to say uh, tha... 'Donny, I can't make it because, 'cause my mother got me so many chores.'

LR: Right...

WW: 'N you think it didn't hurt?

LR: Course it did...

WW: It hurt me to my heart and I'll take it to my grave.

LR: Yeah... yeah... right...

WW: I'm in the Wall of Fame at, in the Stamford Memorial Arena; I been in there twice. And then I'm at Stamford, I just went in; I just went in, um, in June the 8th. My... the teacher says - 6 of us went in - the teacher says, 'Well, we're gonna, we're gonna save the last for the best;' she says, and that was me, and I'm proud of it. And, um, then they had a young student get up there and I got that home, she turned around and said the records I set, and the records in, in, in Stamford, uh, never been broken in 60 years. And I got 'em and they turned around and got me a big plaque and then they took pictures of me with them, and then I made a little speech and I congratulated my coach, Johnny Long, and he gone to heaven, and I said thanks for everything.