Back in the day, we would play touch football on the big fields of “The Sem” or “The Seminary” off Huron St. and facing Waterloo. There was also baseball, often at an impromptu diamond nearby on the area where Merrymount is now.

Those football games of the mid-1960s came to mind with the happy news the Historic Sites Committee of the London Public Library Board is honouring the founding of seminary in 1912 with the unveiling of a plaque next week. (Those details, slightly edited, follow). The area had been known as Sunshine Park long before we began our pigskin pursuits. That lovely name had faded from general memory by the time we got there.

At least one of the players from Old North and Broughdale who starred in those games went on to a career of great distinction. He would become a Canadian diplomat and Canada’s ambassador to the United Nations.

JBNBlog likes to think his diplomatic skills developed early in those games. The demands of playing touch football on an undefined field with a v. loose interpretation of steamboat counting, the line of scrimmage etc. could produce many a fool disagreement that needed to be settled before somebody stomped home with the ball.

For the usual JBNBlog prizes, who is he? A photograph of him presenting his credentials to Kofi Annan in 2006 is also part of this post.

For bonus points, what piece of furniture in his family’s Huron St. home played a key role in supporting Pierre Trudeau during a 1968 federal election campaign stop?

Thanks to LPL’s media ace Manager, Marketing & Communications Ellen Hobin for the plaque invitation & these details:

Categories: General

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