Following a lifetime dedicated to amateur football as a player, coach and administrator, North Vancouver's Larry Reda is being inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in the Builder category.
Reda said he started passing around a football when he was only 14 years old, and he's been playing laces out ever since.
"I used to live close to Victoria Park and throw the football around," he said. "Then I started going to games and watching people play. Then when I got to high school I started to play for North Van high, which is no longer there."
Reda played quarterback in high school until moving on to play juvenile and junior football on the North Shore.
But in 1956, as he was joining the ranks of the local fire department, he was also starting his coaching career in minor football with the Gordon Sturtridge Football League (now known as the GSL/North Shore Football League).
Reda then became head coach of the North Shore Wildcats and won B.C. championships in 1960, '61 and '63. He would then go on to coach at Delbrook high school and for the North Shore Cougars. But in 1969 he moved on to become the director, and then the president, of the Big 4 Junior Football Conference.
"I had so much opportunity to be involved with an awful lot of people," Reda noted. "I was able to move up the ladder and I had people who tutored me and gave me direction." Reda was former president of the B.C. Amateur Football Association (now Football BC), executive director of the B.C. Secondary School Football Association, chairman of the Subway Provincial Championships and co-chair of the Subway Bowl Championships.
There were a few times when he tried to quit the administrative side of things, but his passion for football always brought him back in, Reda said.
Now he's in his second term as president of Football BC. "I'm close to 30 years now working with high school football," he added. "That has been a real privilege to work with an organization or a group of guys that are dedicated."
In 1988, he retired as assistant fire chief, but he continues to keep in touch by being the general manager of the B.C. Firefighters Flag Football team for the international World Police and Fire Games.
"It's the second-largest athletic event next to the Olympics," he said, adding that he's travelled all over the world for the games. "It's a way of keeping in touch."
Reda also started the Western Canadian All-Star Football Camp at Simon Fraser University. He ran the camp for 23 years until he sold it, but it continues on.
The camp was for ages 12 to 18, and Reda said he'd always try to emphasize the values that came along with playing football to the kids.
"After school, there's lots of kids walking the girls down to the malt shop, we still have those I think . . . or whatever it is," he said. "Whereas, if you play football you've got to go to practice. Not only that, but when you're finished practicing and go home, you've got to do your homework because education is a major part of our thrust because you can't go to university without it and if you want to play pro football, you've got to go to university.
"That's the values that football brings to the table for young men."
Reda was inducted into the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame in 2011, and has won many awards including the CFL Commissioner Recognition Award, Bob Ackles Lifetime Achievement Award, and the NFL Seattle Seahawks 12th Man North Award, among others.
Above all, Reda said one of the things he most appreciates about the game is the camaraderie with teammates you "go to war" with.
"You're side by side with your buddies. You've got to respect your buddy. You've got to play for him, not only for yourself. You've got to play for the team," he noted. "It takes you through the good times and the bad times - you bond together."
