Stambrook had huge impact on the game - Winnipeg Free Press

Sports

Stambrook had huge impact on the game
Sat Dec 24 2005

By Allan Besson



FEW men could move the Fédération Internationale de Football Association the way Fred Stambrook did as president of the Canadian Soccer Association during FIFA's conference at the World Cup in 1986.
Stambrook, who died earlier this year at the age of 75, not only lobbied successfully to bring women's soccer into the international arena, but convinced FIFA not to dumb down the women's game by requiring them use a smaller ball or field than their male counterparts.

"Evidentially at the conference there was some kind of initiative to develop the women's game that dictated they should use a ball one size smaller than the men," said Stu Duncan, president of the Manitoba Soccer Association. "He argued that women should use the same size ball and field, insisting that there should be no difference in the game, based on gender. And FIFA went along with that.

"Fred was a man who I could always confer with whenever I had any difficult issues," added Duncan. "He could always bring parties together for the good of soccer."

As far as Stambrook's son Andrew is concerned, his father's accomplishments on behalf of women's soccer stands as one of his greatest legacies and his upcoming induction into the Canadian Soccer Hall of Fame and Museum in Vaughan, Ont., April 29, 2006, "is a little overdue, but still very deserving and very rewarding.

"In the 1970s and early 80s, women's soccer was almost unheard of," said Andrew Stambrook. "Of the women who were playing, there was only a few and they were playing on boys teams."

As a result of his stand for women's soccer, the CSA moved into the international realm as it played host to the world with the second FIFA World Under-17 Championship in 1987 at Toronto. That tournament put Canada on the soccer map as 20,000 fans jammed into Varsity Stadium to see the semifinal between Nigeria and Italy. Three days later 15,000 watched the Soviet Union defeat Nigeria on penalties.

Andrew said that his father, a professor of history at the University of Manitoba who was honoured with the title Dean Emeritus shortly before his death, "was living history."

"My dad was born in Vienna in 1929. His mother died when he was about four or five so he lived with grandparents into the late 30s, which wasn't a good time (for Jews in Europe), so they left Vienna and went to Prague. His birth father Karl, had earlier escaped to Holland and then to England." Stambrook's grandparents, however, perished in the Holocaust.

In 1939, with the help of some friends and the British Red Cross, Stambrook fled to London, found his father and went on to study at Oxford and earn a PhD at the University of London School of Economics.

It was in post-war London that his skills at bridge and his command of the German language, got him a job interpreting captured German war documents into English. He also met his first wife Elizabeth, who was touring England from Australia, and 15 months later they were married. Andrew's two brothers Michael and David were born in England, but he was born in Australia where his father got his first teaching job at the University of Sydney in 1960. Seven years later, the family moved to Lexington, Ky., where Stambrook worked as a lecturer at the University of Kentucky for one semester, and then to Winnipeg, where he consequently became a soccer dad and volunteer.

"One day in 1970 at Crescentwood Community Centre, the referee for my brother Michael's game didn't show up," said Andrew, explaining how his father, a goalkeeper and fairly good cricket player in his youth, got started as a volunteer. "My dad went to his car, got his whistle and proceeded to ref the game. Everyone was so impressed by his knowledge that they wanted to know who he was, and my mother (Elizabeth) convinced him to get involved."

"I am very proud, and honoured on his behalf," said Stella Hryniuk, his wife for the past 25 years. "He was a good ambassador for soccer because he was such a gentleman. His character lent a great amount of dignity to the game."

Hryniuk, who taught history alongside her husband, said she wasn't a soccer fan until she met him, "We shared a lot of interests. He was a historian of diplomacy and international relations. I teach Eastern European history." One of the last pleasures Stambrook experienced, said Andrew, was that his team "Chelsea, won the English Premier League last year for the first time in a long, long time. He died a very happy, content man, who lived a full colourful life, very rich in history.

"He will be missed, no question about it."

____________________________________________________________________________________
Lifetime of achievement
DR. FRED STAMBROOK

Born: Vienna, Austria, Nov. 16, 1929

Died: Winnipeg, July 15, 2005


Academic accomplishments

1950 -- Attained BA Honours from Oxford University

1951 -- Attained B.Sc. (Economics) from University of London

1960 -- Attained PhD from University of London, 1960

1960-67 -- First teaching position at University of Sydney

1968-2005 -- Taught history at University of Manitoba

1977-82 -- Dean of Arts at the U of M

1982-91 -- Vice-president (Academic) U of M

2005 -- Named Dean Emeritus, U of M

__________________________________________________________________________________
Soccer accomplishments

1970 -- Became involved in amateur soccer when he filled in for a referee who didn't show up for his son's game at Crescentwood Community Centre.

1975-79 -- Board member and later President of the Canadian Minor Soccer Association, sitting on the National Executive Council of the Canadian Soccer Association and co-ordinated the under-16 program in Winnipeg.

1975-98 -- Board member of the CSA, and was invited to serve on the FIFA Appeals Committee for soccer at the Los Angeles Olympics and the 1994 World Cup.

1980 -- Elected president of the Manitoba Soccer Association.

1984 -- Elected vice-president of CSA.

1986 -- Elected 27th president of the CSA. During his six-year term, he was host-president of the FIFA Under-17 World Cup in Toronto in 1987; launched the national women's program, was host to the first women's all-star competition; assisted in the formation of the Canadian Soccer League and the Olympic under-23 program.

1999 -- Inducted into the Manitoba Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.

2003 -- Inducted into the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame.

April 29, 2006 -- To be inducted into the Canadian Soccer Hall of Fame and Museum.