Toronto Tomahawks’ Duffy McCarthy began playing lacrosse at the age of seven out of the sheer boredom of summers in Malton, a suburb of Toronto.
“Summers were terrible in Malton,” said McCarthy. “There was no place to go and nothing to do, no shows or swimming pools.”
McCarthy got interested in the game through the father of one of his best friends, Bob Spragge.
“One day Bob’s father, Robert, asked if we wanted to play lacrosse in Mississauga.”
Both boys jumped at the opportunity even though they knew nothing about the game.
“When I came home with my first lacrosse stick my father asked me if it was some kind of fish net,” McCarthy explained.
“We played for a team called Meadowvale that year and were just terrible. I think we only tied one game all season, losing all of the others.”
McCarthy recalls getting a lot of strange stares and questions while he was walking around Malton bouncing a ball off the curbs with his lacrosse stick.
“People just didn’t know that much about the game. Ironically, Malton had their own lacrosse team the following season.
“We had the same troubles any team has when they’re first starting out. There were four or five exceptionally good players on that team and they all made the league all-star team. But the rest of the lineup had to be filled out with guys who had no skills in the game.”
Sometimes, McCarthy would play in contests where only eight players would show up for the game. Naturally he would get a lot of playing time. The exposure certainly didn’t hurt his development.
McCarthy went on to play minor lacrosse in Mississauga. He played Junior A with Mississauga PCO’s and Bramalea Excelsiors prior to advancing to senior competition.
In 1972, he was elevated from Bramalea to the Senior A Brampton Excelsiors.
Last year, McCarthy was with the Windsor Warlocks, winners of the President’s Cup.