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Victoria lacrosse loses ‘true champion’ in Chris Hall

Chris Hall, a mentor and irrepressible spirit in lacrosse, was a fine all-rounder in several sports. The third-generation Islander died Sunday at age 64 of throat cancer, which he had battled since 2011.
chris hall
Chris (C.H.) Hall, a Victoria native and former head coach of the National Lacrosse League's Vancouver Stealth, has died after a four-year battle with cancer. He was 64.

Chris Hall, a mentor and irrepressible spirit in lacrosse, was a fine all-rounder in several sports.

The third-generation Islander died Sunday at age 64 of throat cancer, which he had battled since 2011.

Hall won three Mann Cup national lacrosse championships with the Victoria Shamrocks, one as a player and two as head coach. Of Hall’s nearly two decades with the Shamrocks, nine seasons were as a player who was a defensive wall and 10 seasons were as coach.

Hall also won two National Lacrosse League championships with the Calgary Roughnecks and Washington Stealth during 12 seasons coaching in the pro league and becoming the third-winningest coach in NLL history.

“Chris Hall was not only a [NLL] Hall of Fame coach, but a Hall of Fame person,” said NLL commissioner George Daniel in a statement.

“Chris was a brilliant coach with an engaging personality. He was a true champion and his legacy in the NLL will be everlasting.”

Hall was no less potent a lacrosse force on the field, founding and building the Victoria Seasprays/Waxmen field-lacrosse dynasty of the 1980s and 1990s as player-coach and winning 14 Ross Cup national championships. He also wore the Maple Leaf in three world field-lacrosse championships and was selected all-world defenceman, and later coached Canada in two more world field-lacrosse championships.

“All these kids now getting [U.S. collegiate] NCAA field-lacrosse scholarships out of Victoria is because of Chris … he started the sport here,” said Kevin Alexander, one of the greatest players in lacrosse history, and teammate of Hall’s on the Shamrocks and Seasprays/Waxmen.

Although his father Leon Hall helped found the Shamrocks in 1950 and was heavily involved with the club in several capacities, Chris Hall didn’t pick up a lacrosse stick until later. But big and wide-shouldered, his natural gifts as an athlete allowed him to quickly master the intricacies of the game.

“I thought my feet would rise off the floor during the national anthem — that’s how emotionally high I was,” said Hall, in a 2009 interview, recalling his first game with the Shamrocks in the 1970s.

“After all those years growing up watching Shamrocks lacrosse, all of a sudden I was part of the team. It was such a heady feeling because I grew up surrounded by the tradition of this club and now I was a part of it.”

He later showed a keen and shrewd mind for the tactical aspects of the game from the bench as coach.

“His commitment was total,” said Alexander. “He was all in, always well prepared, and was a seriously competitive person.”

But it was an intensity and passion touched with levity and humanity, as Hall was renowned for the easy rapport he had with his players.

“So many tributes are pouring in saying what an incredible mentor Chris was to them,” said Pam Harknett, Hall’s widow.

Hall came to lacrosse following a multi-faceted earlier sporting career that included playing rugby for Velox and JBAA, junior football for the Victoria Dolphins and minor-pro baseball on the prairies. As a barging, space-eating forward in the key, Hall played basketball in school for the Oak Bay Bays before UVic and also starred in junior and senior hoops for the Victoria Chinooks, Datatech and Scorpions, making the Canadian Olympic team trials.

“You see so many kids as one-sport athletes now, but I was part of the post-war wave in Victoria where you played everything and coaches and builders like Archie McKinnon and Norm Baker Sr. encouraged that,” said Hall, in an interview in October, before being inducted into the Victoria Sports Hall of Fame with the Class of 2014.

Hall said he never felt he loaded up his athletic plate too full: “I loved every minute of it. You never think about it while you’re doing it, but you get some successes along the way and it builds and adds up.”

Hall also played a crucial role in the organizing of the 1994 Victoria Commonwealth Games as chairman of the recruitment and orientation committee that channelled the more than 14,000 Games volunteers.

Hall is survived by wife Pam, stepsons Brock and Drew Henson, grand-daughters Georgia and Annika and sister Janice.

A celebration of life is being arranged and will be held in January.