By Ian MacDonald,
Montreal Gazette
A couple of changes early in his football career turned out to be positive moves for N.D.G. product Basil Bark.
After two seasons as an outside linebacker with the Alouettes in 1966 and ’67, Bark changed positions, moving to centre. He went on to earn Eastern all-star honours twice at that position with the Als.
But after five seasons with the Als, the second change came when Bark was traded to the Calgary Stampeders for receiver Terry Evanshen, a Point St. Charles native who would later be enshrined in the Canadian Football Hall of Fame after twice being selected the CFL’s outstanding Canadian.
Bark was named a Western all-star twice with the Stampeders.
“That was a good trade,” Bark, 59, said in a recent telephone interview from his home in Calgary. “The Alouettes got a good receiver and the Stampeders got me.”
The trade to Calgary proved to be a godsend for Bark. While playing with the Stampeders, he also started out in what has become a successful career in the business world.
“The change of positions (to centre) was easy,” Bark said. “I was a linebacker at school (Monkland High), but my secondary position was centre. And ever since I was a kid, 14, I could make the deep snaps. So switching to centre was perfectly natural.”
There was another reason for Bark’s position change besides that ability.
“As a linebacker in ’65 (his first year with the Als as a 19-year-old), I was 6-foot-3 and weighed 215 pounds. Two years later, I was 6-foot-3 and weighed 250,” Bark said. “That made me a natural lineman – perfect for centre.”
But Bark wasn’t too excited at first about his trade to Calgary in 1970.
“My first year there, we won the West, but lost in the Grey Cup to the Alouettes (23-10 in Toronto),” he recalled. “I didn’t want to go back to Montreal because I knew I’d have to take a lot of razzing from my friends. But the next year, we won the Cup (beating Toronto 14-11 in Vancouver).”
Bark didn’t take long to start making headway in the business world, and it was football that led him down that path.
“I became good friends with the Forzani brothers (Tom, Joe and John, all three of them stars with the Stamps at the time),” Bark explained. “I became a founding partner of the Forzani company in 1974. They became the largest sporting-goods retail company in Canada, doing one billion dollars of business a year.
“I went through all the growing pains with the company until 2000,” he added. “At that time, I left the corporate side of the business and ran several Inter Sport stores, which belong to the Forzani chain. Right now, I have eight stores in Alberta.”
Bark also remains directly involved with the Stampeders. John Forzani is one of the team owners and Bark owns the rights to Stampeders merchandise sales at the stadium.
Bark and his first wife, Beverly Talaisy of N.D.G., have two daughters. Kristina, 30, teaches at the University of Calgary, and Katlin, 23, has just completed her nursing training.
Bark also has a 9-year-old stepson with his current wife, Terri, and says “he’ll be starting football this fall.”
As a youngster, Bark lived on Somerled, near Cumberland. Besides playing football at Monkland High, he played for one season with the N.D.G. Maple Leafs, who were coached by George Econimedes. He had played water polo as a youngster and also enjoyed wrestling and basketball.
