Name Harry Manson | Role Soccer Player | |
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Died February 10, 1912, Nanaimo, Canada | ||
Xul-si-malt, who was given the English name Harry Manson, (1879 – February 10, 1912) was a First Nations soccer player, the first to be inducted into the Canadian Soccer Hall of Fame. He broke many racial barriers as one of the first Aboriginal soccer players in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
A member of the Snuneymuxw First Nation, he was born in Vancouver Island. He was recruited by the Nanaimo Thistles in 1898 to play in the provincial championship. In 1903, he was named to s Nanaimo all-star team. As he prepared to take the field, crowds would call him "savage" because of his athleticism. He was also captain of an all-Snuneymuxw soccer team which won the Nanaimo city championship in 1904. In 1907, with four Snuneymuxw players including Manson, the Nanaimo team won the provincial championship. Local press recognized Manson as one of the best players that Nanaimo has ever produced.
Manson was also a very good baseball player, playing for the Nanaimo Reliance Basebaall Club in 1906. He married Lucy Sampson, whom he had one child with. In 1912, while returning from a trip into town to get medicine for his sick infant son, he tried to hop aboard a coal train and was killed when he fell onto the tracks.
The Harry Manson Legacy Tournament
The Harry Manson Legacy Tournament is a tournament that is open to Aboriginal and Non-Aboriginal men and women to play in. The tournament was set up in 2015 and includes four teams from the First Nation communities in the Vancouver-area, as well as aboriginal students from surrounding urban areas. They hope to overcome racial barriers that are still present in Vancouver and surrounding areas.