By Jeff Gard/Today’s Northumberland
Margaret Anne Matthews attended the first Cobourg & District Sports Hall of Fame induction dinner in 2019 to support her former softball coach, the late Paul Currelly, and the town’s legendary sports reporter Layton Dodge, who was also inducted posthumously.
Known by many in Cobourg as Margie, Matthews will return to town again, this time for her own induction into the Cobourg & District Sports Hall. She’s the first female to be inducted.
“I’m thrilled, totally thrilled,” Matthews says. “I don’t really think of it as I’m the first woman, I just think of it as thrilled to be honoured.”
Matthews and the rest of the 2020 inductees – Clarke Sommerville, Neil Cane, Ken Petrie, Gord Brooks, Fred Simpson, Kevin Fast and Dan Milligan – will finally be recognized Friday, Nov. 12 during the induction dinner at the Best Western in Cobourg.
Monday is the last day to purchase tickets, which are $80 and available at the Cobourg Community Centre (payment by cheque only), Sommerville’s Sporting Goods (cash, cheque, credit card), Kelly’s Homelike Inn (cash, cheque) or e-mail info@cdshf.ca
Matthews is ecstatic to be inducted alongside Clarke Sommerville, who coached her in her younger years with the Sinclair Mustangs softball team.
Dave Sommerville, in a previous interview, recalled coaching the Mustangs with his dad and noted that Matthews was a player, even at a young age, you could build your team around and that she found more enjoyment in her team and teammates’ successes than her own.
When Matthews was 12, the Mustangs won the Ontario Novice Championship in 1972.
“Mr. Sommerville was a special, special guy and David…one of my most vivid memories is when we won the Ontario (championship), David throwing the scorebook up and coming out and picking us all up,” she said. “Mr. Sommerville was such an awesome man, a gentle giant who loved coaching us little 12 year olds. Mr. Sommerville took us to the Dairy Queen after pretty much every game. He was just such a nice man.”
Matthews moved up to play for the Currelly-coached Cobourg Angels junior team. She was just 14 in her rookie year playing against many 18 and 19 year olds.
“It was a little bit surprising,” she says. “My mom just happened to mention to Mr. Currelly at church that someday I’d like to be an Angel. If you knew Mr. Currelly, he was always recruiting people. Well he was over that night and I remember vividly being in my pajamas, watching TV and Mr. Currelly coming to the door. I was mortified that I was in my pajamas, but he wanted me to come to their indoor spring training at the West Collegiate. I just remember that being so thrilling and him bringing over my uniform.”
The Mustangs only had shirts for their uniform.
“I thought I had arrived when I had pants and socks,” Matthews quipped.
Her rookie season with the Angels was a learning process as she watched from the bench the majority of the time. She was happy to be there and her natural skills ultimately led her to claiming a regular spot in the lineup.
“I was just blessed with this ability to throw and run and catch. I could throw hard, I had lots of great hand-eye coordination so I think Mr. Currelly saw that I could probably hang with the older ones and do my part at the plate,” Matthews remarked. “I pretty much sat on the bench when I was 14, which was fine by me. I thought it was great just being a Cobourg Angel. I felt like I was a pro. Mr. Currelly just talked about hustling all the time and respect…make sure you’re wearing the uniform proudly.”
Matthews won two provincial championships with the Angels. The first one was extra special.
“I knew quite early when I was on that team that Mr. Currelly had never won a provincial title and boy when we won our first one, he was so happy that he finally won a provincial title,” Matthews says.
Matthews played shortstop for most of her softball years, but didn’t start off in that position.
“Mr. Sommerville had me starting as a catcher and then converted me to a shortstop. He told me to go get the ball on the relays if they hit the ball to the outfield so the girls would throw it to me and I could throw it home,” she says. “That was instrumental in my softball career that he switched me to shortstop so Mr. Currelly left me at shortstop and it wasn’t until I was in Kitchener playing senior A fastball that another coach wanted me to learn second base.”
As a softball player, Matthews won seven Ontario championships. She fondly remembers those coaches that inspired her, like Sommerville and Currelly, but also Gerry Lawless at the former Cobourg District Collegiate Institute West high school.
She was a great all-around athlete at CDCI West and into her post-secondary school years.
At CDCI West, Matthews enjoyed playing basketball, volleyball, badminton. Anything she could really.
“My mom said no to playing hockey because I was so busy with sports in high school,” Matthews, who was the MVP of her basketball and volleyball teams in 1978, says. “Just competing and playing different sports, I loved it at Cobourg West. It was such a great sports school.”
In 1979, CDCI dedicated an award in recognition of her contributions. The “Matthews Award” was presented annually for performance and leadership.
Following graduation from CDCI West, Matthews spent a year at Centennial College was she finally played competitive hockey for the first time.
From there she moved on to Wilfred Laurier University where she played varsity basketball.
“It was through the sports at Cobourg West that I was able to find the love of basketball,” she says.
At age 33, Matthews continued to showcase her athletic prowess when she began playing golf. She had played and coached softball for a number of years, but wasn’t as eager to continue the travel associated with it.
“I knew I was good at it because I could really drive the ball. For a couple years I just kind of dabbled in it and then some older ladies took me to tournaments, basically scrambles, and I wondered how good I could get at it,” Matthews says, noting started training more, reading books and watching events on TV and entering more tournaments.
“I really started paying attention and practising. You can’t play that game with practising. It’s such a great game. Mentally it just challenges every aspect of your mental positivity.”
She was a provincial team member in 2004 and 2011 and both teams went on to win Canadian Inter-provincial golf titles at their respective national championships.
Matthews has also won 18 club championships – 16 at the Stratford Country Club and two at Craigowan Golf Club in Woodstock.
These days, she no long competes in the big events and just plays for fun. She golfs until the snow arrives and then transitions to pickleball competition for the winter.
“With pickleball I can see the badminton skills we did in high school and we would play tennis, too,” she says.
Matthews is excited to attend another induction dinner and believes the Cobourg & District Sports Hall of Fame was long overdue.
“Cobourg is such a great sports town and there’s so much rich history. I’m glad that athletes are recognized,” she says. “It’s going to be a really special night.”
In addition to displays at the Cobourg Community Centre, the Cobourg and District Sports Hall of Fame has a wealth of information on its website www.cdshf.ca. You can find bios on the inductees, photos of memorabilia that has been collected and stories of sport about athletes, teams and events that have been important to the area.
