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| The Village of Shallow Lake is located in Grey County near the base of the Bruce Peninsula and approximately midway between Lake Huron to the west and Georgian Bay to the east. The closest large municipality is Owen Sound. Southampton is a 25-minute drive to the south on Highway 21. |
Certain unusual things have always haunted me sufficiently that I eventually take it upon myself to solve the mystery surrounding them. Such has been the case with the tiny village of Shallow Lake for the better part of the last 70 years of my life.
You see, my hometown of Dresden was a baseball hotbed back in 1953 (still is to this day) yet two of my friends were lured away to join a team playing out of the quiet and quaint community of Shallow Lake in the heart of Grey-Bruce country. Gerald and Jarvis Cook did not talk much about their experience in Shallow Lake other than alluding to the obvious fact that they enjoyed playing baseball there. I often wondered how an extremely competitive team with a history of winning so many provincial championships could possibly survive in a village with such a small populace. In later years I would attempt to live vicariously by driving through the village, trying hard not to blink for fear of missing it, and wondering what it would have been like for the Cook brothers to have played ball there back in the 1950's.
Sensing remote potential for a story that would satisfy my curiosity, believe it or not, two weeks ago I finally gave in to the urge to undertake the history of baseball in Shallow Lake and to determine why it was so remarkably successful. My first step was to post enquires in two nostalgia-oriented Shallow Lake Facebook pages asking for any information pertaining to baseball in the area during the 1940's and 50's. To my surprise, within a matter of days two women responded and they both happened to be related to a chap by the name of Percy Noble who was credited with being the man behind baseball in Shallow Lake during the time I had specified.
Bingo! I hit the jackpot with Ruth Williams, a daughter of the aforementioned Percy Noble, and Carrie Lee, a granddaughter. They immediately sent me reminiscences, team photographs and family history notes written by Don Noble, one of Percy's sons. Almost lost in the information was the fact that the senior Noble was also a long-serving Member of Parliament and a very successful business man. With sincere appreciation, the culminative effort has resulted in the amazing story that follows.
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| Noble's Shallow Lake Ranchers, OBA Junior "B" champions, 1950. Manager/coach Percy Noble, kneeling front centre. |
As a Canadian politician Percy Verner Noble was not necessarily a household name across the country as a whole, but mention him to the folks in the small village of Shallow Lake and surrounding district of Grey-Bruce and virtually everyone over the age of 60 would remember him with fondness...But not for the reasons you may think.
To begin Percy, born in 1902, was the first of 11 children and trained to follow in his father's footsteps as a blacksmith but he was destined to spend his life as a successful mink rancher. Always community minded, he was first exposed to politics as a member of Shallow Lake village council and ultimately served as Reeve before entering federal politics in 1957 when he was elected in the Grey North riding to sit in the 23rd Canadian Parliament as a member of the Progressive Conservative government headed by John Diefenbaker. He was re-elected in consecutive elections until the 28th Canadian Parliament which ended in 1972.
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| Percy Noble, MP Grey North |
You have to dig deep into political archives to further learn that during the era of Diefenbaker and subsequently Lester Pearson, he participated in the famous Canadian flag debate, making two speeches in favour of retaining the Red Ensign. He fought for road safety, and campaigned for restocking the Great Lakes with salmon. Percy Noble was the first to bring up in parliament the subject of banning smoking on airplanes (it was introduced as a question in question period).
When disaster hit 15 mink ranches in Ontario, resulting in the death of many mink and sterilization of most of the herds, the problem was traced to the drug stilbestrol. MP Noble made an impassioned speech in the House of Commons, calling for a ban on the use of this drug for fattening animals, as the residue remained in the meat, making it unfit for human or animal consumption.
Once he was introduced by Prime Minister Diefenbaker, to Princess Margaret, as the "Mink King of Canada." His Lakeside Fur Ranch was built on the ruins of the giant Canada Cement factory in Shallow Lake and was acknowledged internationally as a business leader and breeding innovator.
But all that aside, Percy was most admired and remembered for his lifelong passion for the game of baseball and it is quite a story, the equal of which we do not hear much anymore -- because times have changed.
A very athletic Percy's interest in the game of baseball began as a youngster playing with a rubber ball wrapped in cord. At 17 years of age he was recruited to play outfield with a group of older men from the area that played casually against other neighboring teams. They did not have a uniform for the young lad so his mother made one for him.
In 1924 Hepworth entered a team (see above photo) in the North Bruce Baseball League and invited Percy, by now a promising catcher, and several other players from Shallow Lake to join their roster. Playing against teams from Hanover, Chesley, Walkerton, Paisley, Allenford, Port Elgin and Southampton, the Hepworth club won it all in its first year in the league.
The following year Percy lent his talents to the Allenford team for several seasons before being lured by Southampton business interests to join a new team that was being formed, duly named the "Fishermen". Because of Percy's concern about having to take time off work for games and practices in Southampton, team organizers agreed to pay his travel costs.
The Fishermen, behind the pitching of Hector Goldsmith and battery mate Percy's hitting, went on to win not only the Bruce League title in 1933 but the Ontario Baseball Association championship as well, a performance that would be repeated in 1934.
By this time Percy's growing family and mink farm responsibilities were increasingly demanding and he found it prudent, albeit reluctantly, to give up his playing career, temporarily as it turned out.
It was not until the conclusion of WW11 that the opportunity to get back into the game that meant so much to him presented itself. With the return of a number of former local players from the armed services, Percy's brother Cochrane decided to organize an intermediate team to play once again in the Bruce Baseball League which was also being re-organized.
On Saturday, September 7, 1946 with Percy back at his old position behind the plate, the Shallow Lake "Tigers" won the Bruce championship by defeating Southampton Fishermen (named after the team that Percy played for 12 years earlier). A dozen years of hard work and 'clean living' had enabled the now 44-year-old to participate at an age when most of his former teammates had long relegated themselves to the sidelines.
The Tigers would wear the Bruce League crown again in 1947 and 1948, both times advancing to the OBA finals, before Percy decided it was finally time to hang 'em up for good. But it did not mean that there was not another role for him at the managerial and coaching level of the game.
Not sure if he could justify the time required to continue working with the boys on a more formal bench boss basis, Percy took to heart advice from his wife Kathleen in the form of a reminder that he had always maintained high standards for himself, his sons and their friends and if he was going to keep them on a proper path and out of the pool hall, perhaps he should consider taking the next step by becoming their coach on a real baseball team.
The rest, as they say, is history!
Not only did Kathleen play the role of advisor and cheerleader in ensuing years, but behind the scenes she was a member of the team in every respect. In spite of having a family of eight to care for, she boarded some of the players from outside of the community until suitable lodging could be found for them elsewhere in the small village. Sunday afternoons usually saw the players collect at the Noble's Sauble Beach cottage since organized practices and games were not permitted on the Sabbath and morning church service attendance was encouraged.
Kathleen habitually performed the miracle of loaves and fishes to feed the hungry crowd at Sunday dinners which included the senior Noble, Ralph (Percy's father), who was a steadfast fan and supporter of all the teams over the years.
So it was that Shallow Lake Juvenile and Junior teams (later to be named Ranchers) under the tutelage of coach and manager Percy Noble, would become perennial champions of the Bruce League, vying successfully each summer for all-Ontario (OBA) honors four seasons in a row.
During those heady days of baseball in Shallow Lake, three spitting-image sons of Percy -- Jim, Don and Murray -- suited up with the Junior Ranchers along with Harold Gard who would eventually become a son-in-law and Bunc Noble, a cousin from St. Marys. Jim, playing in his dad's former catching spot, was the only son to have been a member of all four Ontario championship teams.
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| Percy: The ultimate coach and manager. |
Percy and Kathleen traditionally hosted season-ending banquets for their players in celebration of each championship. The Owen Sound Sun Times reported on the last one and quoted Tory Gregg, president of the Western Ontario Athletic Association as saying: "You boys have brought great honor not only to Shallow Lake but to all of Western Ontario." He added that he did not think that there was another man who had given more of his time to a team than Percy Noble and advised the Ranchers "If you follow in his (Percy's) footsteps you will not go far astray."
With nature taking its course in 1952 and the bulk of juniors advancing into their 20's, Percy formed an intermediate team in order to keep them on the playing field. He relied heavily on imported players in order to maintain competitiveness against teams from much larger centres. (Just imagine Shallow Lake with a population never exceeding more than 400 in those days playing against teams from Midland, Collingwood, Oakville, St. Thomas, Chatham, Leamington and Windsor in Ontario playdowns; not to forget Napanee and other neighboring towns in Grey and Bruce counties with potential to draw far more players).
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| Jarvis Cook, a Dresden import, 1953-'54 |
My two Dresden friends, Gerald and Jarvis Cook, mentioned in the introduction to this post, were two of the players imported by Percy for the 1953 baseball season. In a telephone interview I asked the soon-to-be 88-year-old Jarvis how the invitation to play in Shallow Lake came about. "I'm really not sure," he confided. "I think Percy was looking for a pitcher and someone had recommended Gerald to him. In the course of discussion, Gerald mentioned that he had a younger brother who was a third baseman and as a result I ended up going along too."
Gerald pitched only that one season for Percy but Jarv was so impressed with his treatment in Shallow Lake and the private home he was billeted in that he returned for a second season in 1954. Once again the Ranchers made the Ontario playdowns that year and it just so happened that they were required to break a 1-1 series tie with Mooretown by playing a neutral grounds game in Dresden which I remember attending. Of course I was not then cognizant of anything else about the team and the history of its manager-coach.
Mooretown won that particular game and it may well have spelled the beginning of the end of the glory days for Percy and his Ranchers who lived to play one more season in 1955 before Percy finally retired after a remarkable span of 35 years in the game of baseball. He served as president of the Bruce Baseball League in 1956 and '57. New challenges awaited that would once again call on Percy's persistence, dedication and sense of service.
The last time Percy would play baseball came many years later in Ottawa when he was a Member of Parliament playing on a pick-up team against members of the Press Gallery in an annual exhibition game staged on The Hill. There is no record of how many hits he managed to stroke out in that game, but you can rest assured he got a couple and that he was the most enthusiastic player on the field.
The remarkably strong, proud and humble Percy Verner Noble, passed away June 19, 1996 -- just as the baseball season was getting underway. He was 94-years-of-age and went to prepare a place for Kathleen who joined him in January of 1999.
The last word goes to granddaughter Carrie Lee of Waterloo: "My grandfather was a remarkable man and his story deserves to be told."
Indeed he was Carrie...Consider it done!
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