Jackie Wallace: A Little Big Man

My 'home bar' in NDG is a place I came to learn of a couple of years ago named Geez RestoBar on St. Jacques just west of Cavendish.  Immediately when I entered the place I felt at home!  It is filled with sports memorabilia - of the Expos, the Canadiens, the Alouettes.  I immediately noticed that in a very prominent location was a big picture of my Uncle, Doug Harvey, wearing his Canadiens uniform with a big 'A' on the left chest.

On top of being a great little sports bar - Mark Fraser - the man behind Geez - has done a tremendous job of putting together a small menu of great - value priced offerings.  Whenever I go - I have a Fraz Burger and Frings - a burger featuring cheese, bacon, grilled onions, A1 and hot sauce and a combination of fries and onion rings.  They are amazing and an excellent value in this age of the $20 hamburger!

There is also a great local crowd.  On Thursdays when I go, there are a great group of older gentlemen who frequent the bar - among them Carl Anderson and Howie Graham.  At a certain point, we got into a conversation about an amazing NDG resident, Jackie Wallace.  Jackie was vertically challenged, but this never stopped him from doing or being anything!  He was a very active athlete on all fronts, a passionate coach and administrator in the NDG Sports Community for upwards of 50 years and a baseball umpire and hockey referee for the City of Montreal for years.

Resultant from numerous conversations I had with Howie and Carl, I decided to create a website in Jackie's honour.  JackieWallace.ca.  This was but the first step in a process which is ongoing today.  Following this a group of us, including Howie and Carl, NDG City Councillor Peter McQueen and The Suburban Sports Reporter Mark Lidbetter, among others, decided to push forward to have field at the north end of Girouard Park (NDG Park) dedicated in Jackie's honour.  Our aim is to have renowned NDG Sculptor, Mitchell Kotansky, create a life sized bronze statue of Jackie and to have it place at the northeast entrance to the park.  I have created a GoFundMe campaign to generate the necessary funds for the statue - in order to ascertain that this very much due honour is followed through with.  Please check it out and if you can, donate.  Jackie Wallace GoFundMe.

Wishing you peace, love and joy always...



 

RossG3.ca

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