David Onley, a Scarborough College alum and former Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario, recalls a moment during his time as student council president where a momentous victory for Team Canada during the 1972 Summit Series potentially led to a stampede in the Meeting Place, much to the surprise of Principal Plumptre.
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0:01
And a lot of great memories, any time in the Meeting Place, probably the most dramatic one of which was the 1972 Canada Cup series, when the Meeting Place was jammed with students probably well over a thousand,
0:18
and of course, you know the story of Team Canada being behind in the third period, and then coming back to win in such dramatic fashion with Paul Henderson’s goal, 19 seconds left.
0:31
And I was Student Council President at that point, and this is in a day where the beer was sold, it’s specifically in bottles, um, and the gentleman running the cafeteria, his name is Tony Pinot.
0:48
And as soon as we, Team Canada scored, and everyone is celebrating, I realized that at that point it was likely gonna be a stampede to the beer table to get beer and so before the game ended, I just leaned over the balcony and shouted down to Tony.
1:08
I said ‘The student council buys the rest of the beer. Just open up every bottle. I don’t want (laughs) there to be anybody you know stampeded or trampled in the rush.’ So he did.
1:20
And I still to this day can remember him popping the lids of the tops of the beer bottles just as fast as he could, and the clock counts down and Team Canada wins, and this tremendous roar went up into the, into the Meeting Place,
1:37
and people stampeded for the beer table (Shant laughs) and so Tony was grabbing the beer and handing it out as fast as he could. Amazingly not a single bottle, not one (laughs) was broken.
1:51
And at that very moment, the principal of the day was a fine, fine distinguished gentleman by the name of Wynne Plumptre, and you can, you’ve seen his pictures no doubt just down from where the registrar’s office is, but you can, um, he’s a fine and dignified gentleman. I learned a great, great deal about leadership from him.
2:13
I, we didn’t know it, but he had two visiting professors from Great Britain, and he has come down the elevator to the at the time the, uh, the principal’s office was on the fourth floor just inside the entrance of of the Meeting Place.
2:30
And had come down the elevator, and come around the corner, and there actually was a curtain that had been drawn across, and if you, if you go to this day that curtain rod is still there.
2:41
He drew back the curtain, just as the game ended. And the roar went up, and the stampede for the beer, and people taking bottles of beer and spraying it all over the Meeting Place, and a spontaneous version
2:55
of “O Canada” breaks out and (laughs) I, to this day, can remember the look of absolute shock and disbelief on the face of the two visiting professors from the United Kingdom.
3:08
And Mr. Plumptre was so completely nonplussed, he just smiled and took them each by the arm and just turned around (laughs) and looked to say ‘Well, we’ll just go a different direction.’
