Reg Plummer

write-up by Rebecca MacEachern September 2021 

If it wasn’t for the keen eye of his Mum, Reg Plummer may have missed out on the chance to get involved in the Outaouais Field Hockey Club and Canada’s field hockey community would have been without one of its most talented and outstanding players.

“Beryl Newton, who worked for the Bank of Montreal on Sparks Street (in Ottawa), had put up a flyer advertising field hockey with the Ottawa-Hull field hockey club (which became the Outaouais FHC) and my Mum spotted it,” recalls Plummer, whose sister, Cheryl is a former player with the Outaouais Women. “I went out - I think we were playing at Carleton U at that point. Anyway, I signed up – so did my dad – and I was hooked for life. Dad was not so keen”.

It was 1969 and the then-teenaged Plummer and his family had recently returned to Ottawa from Melbourne, Australia, where he had got his start in the sport.

“I was getting killed playing Aussie Rules. My dad said I should try field hockey. So, I signed up with and played for the Essendon U16s for a season,” says Plummer, who is still involved in field-hockey playing pick-up weekly and coaching the Merivale High-School Girls Team. He also coached the U-14 Girls this summer and, depending on Covid-19, hopes to be with them for the upcoming winter season.

 From what Plummer says, it seemed that his appearance on the field-hockey Club scene that first season was met with great enthusiasm by many of the other players who were many years, and, in some cases, even decades older than his 16 years.

“Everyone was in their late 20’s, 30’s and up,” says the 68-year-old Ottawa resident. “They gave me beer and made fuss of me. It was just too much fun.”

Plummer says that it is difficult to put into words what belonging to the Club meant to him in those days but manages to provide a few thoughts and observations. As with some of the other players who have been interviewed for the Outaouais Field Hockey Club’s 50th Anniversary, Plummer echoes their comments of sharing that sense of kinship, camaraderie and, of course, the fun and laughter both on and off the field.

During his years as a player on the local, national, and international scenes, Plummer experienced wonderful highs (being inducted into the Canada Field Hockey Hall of Fame in 2019) as well as unfortunate lows (like breaking his nose soon after scoring a goal against Argentina at the 1976 Olympics-Canada won the game 3-1).

Plummer, as with many athletes who make it to the top of their sport, says that participating in the Olympics was a dream come true.

“Marching into the Olympic Stadium in Montreal and again in LA is like nothing else,” says the retired civil servant. “The intensity of the competition and the training over 10 years and what a very strange feeling at the end to retire from it all.”

In addition to the two Olympics, Plummer also played in the in three Pan American Games and in the 1978 World Cup.

While Plummer spent a lot of time playing internationally during his field-hockey career, it appears that his early days with the Outaouais FHC gave him some insight into the global reaches of the sport.

“It was a little U.N. with fellows from everywhere-the UK, South Africa, Germany, Holland, India, Jamaica, Barbados, and I do not know where else. I can remember Sahtish Bahtia telling me about his youth playing in Bombay. He couldn’t really tell me what it was like, but he tried, and I tried to follow and imagine him playing in front of the crowds in Bombay,” he says.

“It helped me realise how wide the field hockey world extends and how, despite outward appearances, we are not so very different. And somehow chasing a silly white ball around the place with a curved stick and a bunch of other guys is a great thing.”

Plummer, who has also been a great mentor and coach of the sport, recalls that playing for the Outaouais FHC also meant a lot of road trips. He counts frequent forays to games and tournaments in Montreal, New Jersey, and Washington as the main ones.

“One year, I remember we hired a bus. I think we had two men’s teams and a women’s team going down to Washington. We won the Maple Leaf tournament in 1972, I think. That was truly memorable,” recalls Plummer.

In 1973, Plummer was selected to an extended squad of about 21 players to embark on a tour to England and Wales. Plummer explains that there was no Under-21 Team at the time and actually no selection camp either. As with many dedicated athletes without external funding, it was left to Plummer and his teammates foot the bill themselves.

“The coach selected from the national Championships about 21 guys to go on a tour. There was no money. We paid for it ourselves,” says Plummer. “That squad became the basis of the National Squad for the next 3 years until the Montreal Olympics.”

Plummer, a native of Sudbury, On, was enrolled at Carleton University in Ottawa but he was told by a teammate, Antoine Schouten, that if he wanted to compete for a spot on the National Team then he was going to have to move closer to where the real action was happening.

“Antoine was not a coach or a selector, he was a player---our star centre forward---and I respected him and thought his advice made sense,” offers Plummer. “So, in 1974, I switched from Carleton U to UBC and played with the Thunderbirds. For the next 10 years, the National Team dominated my every waking moment.”

For Plummer, memories of his years as a member of the National Team are similar to those from his days with Outaouais. He recalls giving your all out on the field and then sharing some laughs about it all after the games. But Plummer also acknowledges the pride of representing Canada.

“Putting on the Canadian jersey is amazing and going up against the best in the World is scary fun. We had some great moments – beating India at the World Cup in 1978, coming back from being 3 - nil down at the half against England to tie it up in the second half at that same World Cup was amazing.”

For any young athletes out there, who would like to follow in Plummer’s foot steps and play at the elite level, Plummer has some wise words of advice.

“Young players, who want to play for the national team, the path is the same. Learn from the folks around you, focus on playing and training and your team and enjoying the game. Winning is fun but overrated” he says.

“I achieved nothing at all by myself – I always had support from club and Province and team-mates. Expect nothing, give your all, love every minute of it – what else is there, eh? Oh, and you will likely have to move to TO or Vancouver, which is a shame for us, but you will have a blast – everyone who goes does. Just do not forget to come back.”