admin@clhof.org +1-778-237-3601

Down Memory Lane - Bill Jobb
Down Memory Lane Articles - by Stan Shillington



Old lacrosse axiom: A good buckshot makes owner a scoring bigshot.

A youngster came off the Six Nations reserve in Ontario during the 1930's with a whip-like underhanded blast that earned him the nickname Buckshot Thomas.


The buckshot -- or submarine shot -- was to become a favourite tactic in subsequent years for players intent on terrorizing opposing netminders. Almost every player has used it, but few have managed to couple blinding speed with pinpoint accuracy.

One such player who executed it to perfection was a rangy blond-headed, blue-eyed named Bill Jobb.

The Jobber was a contradiction -- a fair man, an excellent checker but one who never played dirty or intentionally hurt another player. Heck, he was only assessed 55 minor and two major penalties in his entire 339-game senior career.

But, oh, did he take a devilish delight in uncorking the ball at bullet speed at the enemy net.

Born in Bracken, Sask. on April 21 1931, Bill had just passed his 18th birthday when he broke into senior lacrosse with the 1949 New Westminster Salmonbellies. Over the next six years, Bill was in and out of lacrosse while juggling other activities such as joining the New Westminster Fire Department, fathering five children and SCUBA diving at Horseshoe Bay other coastal locations.

Those were lean years for his Royal City comrades, much of the time being spent in or near the league basement. But a silver lining began to appear in the mid-1950's when the Sepka-Barclay-Stewart line moved into senior company. Then, and lured such established stars as , , and into the fold.

At last, the Jobber and his teammates were able to relish the sweet taste of victory from the Mann Cup. The following year,1959, New Westminster repeated as national champions.

Two more outstanding seasons and Bill decided to retire form the game; however, it was short hiatus for New Westminster coach Jack had to tighten his defence. With Jobb and back in the fold, the Royal City boys captured the 1962 Mann Cup title.

One more season and that was it. Although Bill racked up 26 goals in the 1963 campaign, he decided to hang up the battered old stick that had patched up, mended and babied through 10 of his 13 senior seasons.

Rarely did Jobb shoot anything but the underhand sub-missile and, always, it remained low to the floor. Goalies knew this so, when Bill wound up, they would jump out to the edge of the crease and stay low.

But there was one game back in 1961 when his stick would not stop hooking. Every time he took a shot, the ball rose upward behind the still crouching netminder. The hooking stick gave Bill five goals that night

The scoring highlight for Jobber undoubtedly came on July 3, 1958, when he submarined and amazing seven goals behind Nanaimo's . It was one of Bill's 38 career hat tricks.

Bill enjoyed nine seasons in which he blazed 20 or more goals behind opposing netminders on his way to a career 354 goals and 137 assists for 491 points.