Stuart Laidlaw

In addition to excelling as a track and field athlete and football player, Stuart Laidlaw began playing lacrosse while attending Wesley College in Winnipeg for law and captained the team during his final year, which was during the squad’s premier era. He opened up his own firm, Taylor & Laidlaw, after graduation, but remained active in the sport for many years thereafter with the Winnipeg Vics. He eventually switched teams, however, and in 1903 he was a member of the Provincial Championship-winning Shamrock Lacrosse Team that attended the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair. There they competed in a tournament that would later be considered a medal event for the 1904 Summer Olympics. The Shamrocks were the superior squad and they defeated the St. Louis Amateur Athletic Association’s team 8-2 in the final, easily securing the gold. Afterwards he served for many years as a barrister, bailiff, and legal advisor to county court before retiring to Vancouver, where he died in 1960. He was inducted into the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame, along with the rest of his gold medal-winning team, in 2004.