Remembering Archie French
A look back at Ronald “Archie” French, the beloved trainer and mentor who shaped student life in Erindale College in the 1970s
Few figures in early Erindale College history are remembered as vividly as Ronald “Archie” French—umpire, trainer, and mentor. Students knew him for his sharp humour, loud music, and crooked smile, and while a tragic accident changed the trajectory of his life, it didn’t stop him from becoming one of the most iconic faces in UTM history.
Archie French was born in Toronto on the 26th of October, 1929. In 1935, at the age of 6, Archie was vacationing in West Hill, a cottage community in Toronto, with his family. He was riding on the back of a local grocer’s truck when he forgot to duck and was hit on the head by an overhanging branch. Archie survived, though only just, with a skull fracture and left facial paralysis. He underwent five surgeries over the 30 months that followed, which only slightly improved his facial muscles. “Ron was in [the hospital] more times than I can remember,” said his brother Stan.
Every day after the accident, in a fruitless attempt to teach his face to move again, Archie stood before a mirror, making funny faces. Often, he took the Gerrard streetcar from his east-end home to Toronto General Hospital to receive shock treatments on his face. He never took the TTC again; the memories of those hospital trips were too dreadful. A noted physician of the time performed surgery on his brain via the ear, damaging his hearing on one side. His injury had also left one side of his face paralyzed, which he would later refer to as “the kisser.”
Matty Eckler, ballplayer and one of the first staff members of the Pape Playground (now known as the Matty Eckler Community Centre), encouraged Archie to pursue umpiring. Archie went on to win a scholarship to a Florida umpire school in 1951. There he met legendary umpire Al Sommers, who one day pulled Archie aside and told him, “Kid, you’ve got the goods, but with a kisser like yours, the players will ride you out of the league.” Archie loved Eckler for his honesty.
Though he didn’t make the big leagues, Archie was admired in the minors across Pape Playground, Leaside and Christie Pits. According to Ted Schmidt, a journalist and friend of Archie’s, Archie was an “eccentric” man who once stopped a Leaside game to catch and kill a June bug, then dug a grave and buried it. Archie would also call out fouls by singing “It Isn’t Fair” by Don Cornell, which, according to Schmidt, wouldn’t have worked if it weren’t for him being “a first-rate ball and strike guy.”
Archie returned home and began his career as a hockey trainer, working for the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey chain, including St. Michael’s and the Toronto Marlboros. Over time, Archie built his reputation in the Toronto Hockey world: In 1965, he stood proudly in the team photo of the Toronto Marlboros after their second consecutive Memorial Cup victory over the Regina Pats. The players, led by head coach Walter “Turk” Broda, beamed in their blue-and-white jerseys, while Archie stood at the far right of the middle row. Alongside his fellow trainers and staff, he helped keep the players in top condition throughout the season, playing his part in one of the city’s proudest hockey moments.
Archie mentored young players who were far from home, including a young Frank Mahovlich, who would later become a Toronto Maple Leafs legend and a Canadian senator. He took him under his wing and, at times, even invited him to dinner with his family in the east end of Toronto. Mahovlich was not the only boy Archie cared for. Two other Leafs players, Pat Hannigan and Wally Boyer, vouched for him after Archie, knowing that Boyer came from a low-income family, decided one day to show up at his door with a new TV set he’d bought for them.
In 1967, another friend of Archie’s, hockey star Carl Brewer, dragged Archie with him to Muskegon, Michigan, where he worked as a trainer for the Muskegon Mohawks, taping sticks and treating injuries. A few years later, Brewer moved to Finland, and Archie returned to Toronto. He reconnected with Schmidt, and during some of his visits, he would find Mike Lavelle, University of Toronto Mississauga’s (UTM) first Residence Director. Lavelle was aware of French’s availability and that they shared the same values, with strong ethics and a great interest in children, so he offered him a job as a social worker and sports equipment manager.
Archie’s Den
Archie’s Den was a little equipment room tucked away three floors beneath the library at the University of Toronto’s Erindale campus in the 1970s. Archie used that den and made it his own, using it to hand out athletic equipment, and it quickly turned into a social hub or refuge for anyone who needed advice or a listening ear. Many of the students who confided in him were Asian kids from Erindale, as he took special care of those who were on the outskirts of campus.
One of his “gym rats,” Joe Brandolino, recalled Archie “[running] that den like an army outpost.” Archie did not tolerate disrespectful behaviour or horseplay between the students. “He would not take guff from anybody,” said Brandolino, “If kids came and were swearing and started roughhousing, he just cut it right away.” And, when things got chaotic, he would blast “Hit The Road Jack” and break into dance outside his door. The kids would get the hint and settle down again.
Much More Than a Trainer
“[Archie] was loved,” said Schmidt, “It didn’t shock me that about a thousand people showed up [at the Royal York Hotel]” when he retired.
And when he died, everyone he had left a mark on showed up. Mahovlich, Boyer, Hannigan, along with lawyers, businessmen, and the kids he once mentored came to pay their respects to not just a trainer, but a longtime friend.
“You don’t forget each other,” said Mahovlich. “You were part of a group, and he was much more than a trainer.”
