Coach Terry Henderson was prophetic in predicting how well his Brookfield Elks would perform in the 1980 softball season. “We are going to be tough to beat,” he said in a newspaper preview of the Mainland Senior Softball Association. “Although our hitting is suspect, we have the strongest fielding club in Canada.” Three months later, the boys of summer from Colchester County were, in fact, the BEST softball team in Canada. The Elks won the national senior championship in Saskatoon, Sask. – the cradle of Canadian softball – by defeating the hosts 4-3 in the final game. That victory – witnessed by 7,500 fans -capped Brookfield’s 6-1 record in the championship tournament. The Elks, backing Henderson’s claim of superior defence, set a tourney standard by allowing just five runs in 57 innings, with five shutouts in their first six games. The road to becoming the only team east of Ontario to win the Canadian crown was built on tradition. The Brookfield Athletic Association has produced champion softball, baseball and hockey teamsfor more than 50 years.

Softball replaced baseball in 1955 as the village’s chief summer sport. After winning the Maritime intermediate C championship in 1963, the Elks captured back-to-back Maritime titles in 1967 (senior B) and 1968 (senior A). Brookfield finished third in its first national appearance in 1971 in Halifax. The team earned Maritime senior A honors in 1977, when a youthful group of Elks won the silver medal in Hull, Quebec. “We were playing on a lot of emotion,” recalls Mike Henderson, a three-time All-Canadian second baseman. “My Dad, who had been the manager and guiding force for a number of years, passed away in late July of that year.” The Brookfield ball park and arena were later named in Don Henderson’s memory.

In 1978, the Elks placed third at the nationals in Saint John, N.B. The next year, during a one-year hiatus of the Mainland league, the Elks finished a disappointing ninth in St. John’s, Nfld. Brookfield, with a 25-7 record, won the pennant of the born-again Mainland circuit in 1980, as Robert Putnam (12-1) was the league’s top pitcher. He and four teammates – Henderson, Steve Locke, Doug Holland and Robbie Cooke – were among the top 10 hitters. Glace Bay battled Brookfield to the limit in the provincial championship tourney, “certainly not a cakewalk,” says Henderson. Brookfield opened the nationals with three straight victories – 4-0 over the Yukon, 2-0 over Manitoba and 1-0 over Prince Edward Island in 13 innings. Steve Healy, Putnam and Glace Bay pickup Cliff Surette pitched the wins, respectively. The Elks ended preliminary play with a third-place 3-1 record after a 2-1 loss to Ontario. Manitoba was first, Saskatchewan second and British Columbia fourth. The Nova Scotians returned to shutout ball in the double-knockout playoffs, with 1-0 wins over Manitoba and British Columbia as Healy and Surette each threw two-hitters. Brookfield, one win away from the national championship, would have to be beaten twice by the winner of the British Columbia-Saskatchewan bronze-medal game. While Saskatoon needed 22 innings to beat B.C. 3-2, the Elks waited frantically on the sidelines. “We were under the stands, in the clubhouse, out watching them, and we warmed up seven times,” says Henderson

In the final game, Brookfield went ahead 4-1 in the top of the third inning. Saskatoon chased starting pitcher Putnam with a lead-off home run in the sixth that made the score 4-3. Healy retired the last six batters in order, clinching the title with a strikeout. “Winning it was quite a thrill,” says Surette, who was also a member of the silver-medal Elks in 1977 and bronze-medalist Dartmouth Dairy Queen in 1976. Although he was 33 at the time, Surette welcomed the opportunity to join the young Brookfield team “because you knew if you pitched well yourself, they weren’t going to give any games away. They were very sound defensively.” Henderson says the Elks were “a veteran team in terms of experience, but not on the calendar.” Most of the key players were in the low- to mid-20s. “Despite winning the title, no one was selected to the All-Canadian team, which we felt said something about our balance. There were different heroes in every game.”We had a pitching staff that was considered, nationally, very average or below average. Yet we had six shutouts in eight games. The defence was basically impeccable.” The champion Elks arrived home after midnight on Labour Day and, after a parade through Brookfield on a hay wagon, were greeted by hundreds of fans at the ball field.

“It was just so exciting and pulling at the heart strings and everything,” says Henderson, “much more so for myself and the (other) local guys who had a lot more sense of the history of it all, and knew the sweat and tears that went into just raising the money.” Brookfield went on to finish third in the World Games in California in 1981. And in 1986, in their eighth trip to the nationals in 16 years, the Elks won the bronze medal in Summerside, P.E.I.

Members of the team were: Terry Anthony, Al Campbell, Bobby Campbell (co-captain), Robbie Cooke, Danny Dean, Steve Healey, Mike Henderson (co-captain), Terry Henderson (Coach), Doug Holland, Dave Hunt, Dave Lively, Steve Locke, Herb McCallum, Graham Maguire, Hugh Matheson (assistant coach and manager), Dennis Peterson, Robert Putnam, Tom Soehl (bat boy), Cliff Surette, Mike Worsley.

Bio courtesy of John MacNeil