Lou Marsh artefacts come to the Sports Hall

December 23, 2006

As of November 9, 2006, the relationship between Terrance and Tim Cox and Canada's Sports Hall of Fame is a close one. Paradoxically, the relationship between these brothers, who donated some 39 precious artefacts related to Lou Marsh, and Marsh himself is so convoluted one would need a family tree the size of a living room wall to understand the connection.

No matter. The main thing is that these artefacts represent a significant part of Marsh's life and will serve to augment the Lou Marsh Trophy, the pre-eminent trophy housed at the Sports Hall. Marsh, of course, was certainly the most talented combination of colourful writer and skilled athlete of the era between the wars, a man with a sharp pen and keen understanding of sports, whether from the sidelines or in the thick of the action.

The story goes some thing like this. During Marsh's heyday, he wrote about everything, from local baseball games to the Olympics, from Leaside to Europe, from shinny to gold medal. Of course, many of his grander ventures required accreditation, and Marsh kept these identification badges and the like as souvenirs. In all, these consisted of items such as badges from the 1928, 1932, and 1936 Olympics, the CNE's marathon swim, and the 1930 British Empire Games 'later re-named Commonwealth Games'.

Marsh had served in the Canadian Expeditionary Forces with the 180th Battalion in the First World War, and upon being discharged wrote for the Toronto Star while also serving as an NHL referee, among his other pursuits 'of which there were many'. He also refereed amateur sports of all stripes for most of his adult life.

He died of a heart attack in 1936, and that's where his connection to the Sports Hall and Terrance and Tim Cox begins in earnest. Marsh was the first cousin to the Cox's grandfather, John Wesley Cox, and the artefacts in question landed in John Wesley's hands. When he passed away in 1968, the objects landed in the lap of his eldest son, Clarence, who was Terrance and Tim's uncle. Ironically, Clarence 'nicknamed 'Sharkey'' received a letter from Lou--when Sharkey was just a boy--congratulating him on scoring nine goals in a single hockey game.

It was after Sharkey's death in the mid-1980s that Terrance and Tim's father finally received the artefacts. He wanted to do something special with the collection, so he affixed the items to a wood shield and donated it to the local Legion. The horrible truth, however, was that the Legion thought little of the gift and threw it out. Only the quick action of Terrance and Tim's uncle, Stan, saved the collection and consigned it to the family house. Terrance and Tim's dad passed away in 1997 and in the summer of 2006, the medals and souvenirs fell into their hands, some 70 years after they first came into the family. Realizing their value to Canadian sports history, and Lou Marsh's place in the Sports Hall, he contacted Sheryn Posen and an arrangement was made to provide that these 39 pieces will forever be kept with the Lou Marsh Trophy.