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By JACK GATECLIFF: THE ST.CATHARINES STANDARD

ST.CATHARINES -- There were few disputes when Lionel Conacher was named Canada’s athlete of the first half of the 20th century.

“The Big Train” played on Stanley Cup, Grey Cup and Mann Cup teams, belongs to the Hall of Fame in each of those sports, fought heavyweight Jack Dempsey and was an outfielder with Toronto Maple Leafs of the International League.

Roy (Pung) Morton might not have been quite as diversified as athlete as the oldest of the Conacher sports family, but excelled in every sport in which he was involved.

With the senior box lacrosse Athletics in their glory years of the 1930s and 1940s, Morton was a big scoring forward. Joe Cheevers won the draws, Carl (Gus) Madsen was the Bobby Orr-type defenceman who set up the offensive plays, Bill Whittaker was the best goaltender of his time. But Morton was the man who pulled the trigger on blinding shots, and was not only the greatest of the Athletics, but the most colourful St. Catharines all-round athlete of his time. Only Stan Mikita of the 1950s is comparable.

If Mark Messier is a power skater then Pung Morton was a power runner with the devastating speed and strength to break the toughest check.

“There has never been a harder, more accurate shooter in the game. He had the flair to excel when needed,” said his longtime friend and fellow General Motors employee for 45 years, Bob Bell.

Carl Madsen’s younger brother, Frank, said Morton was “like hockey’s Esposito (Phil) in front of the goal. Pung would put his stick up, we’d give him a pass and in one motion the ball was in the net. In a tight game he’s the guy who would pull it out of the bag.”

Morton won several provincial scoring championships – always more than 100 points – and with 535 goals is still, 50 years later, the most prolific St. Catharines scorer in history.

He seldom lost his cool, but could fight as demonstrated by a one-punch KP he scored over Gordie Gair when the Mimico player persisted in giving him a rough time. After that the tough guys left him alone.

Ivan Kaye, manager of St. Catharines General Motors plants, said Morton was the first local athlete to sprint 100 yards in 10 seconds.

Pung was also a brilliant quarterback with St. Catharines Collegiate and junior ORFU teams, and had several offers to try out with CFL teams.

But he opted to stay home with the local GM plant where he became senior administrator in product engineering.

He was the city’s best basketball player, a high-average bowler, a near-scratch golfer and, while he was brought up before St. Catharines had an artificial ice rink, he was a better than average scorer in city hockey league despite staggering around a little on ankles unused to skates.

After a nine-goal Mann Cup game in Maple Leaf Gardens, Leaf owner Conn Smythe said he’d pay him $20,000 a year “if he could only skate.”

A short personal addendum: When I was growing up, my special sports heroes were Charlie Conacher of the Leafs and Pung Morton of the Athletics.

Both wore the No. 9 jersey and, while I never got that coveted number, I came as close as my limited ability would take me with No. 8.

And my experience of playing with Pung Morton in the first game of the 1944 season still ranks as the very epitome of my brief athletic career.

Anything else was a bonus.

Unfortunately, and for obvious reasons, I never realized the dream of playing hockey with Conacher, but did play against Oshawa when he was coaching the junior A Generals.