Robert "Buff" McCready (1940 – June 2007) was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

professional and amateur

box lacrosse Box lacrosse, also known as boxla, box, or indoor lacrosse, is an indoor version of lacrosse played mostly in North America. The game originated in Canada in the 1930s, where it is more popular than field lacrosse. Lacrosse is Canada's official ...

goaltender In ice hockey, the goaltender (commonly referred to as the goalie) is the player responsible for preventing the hockey puck from entering their team's net, thus preventing the opposing team from scoring. The goaltender mostly plays in or near t ...

. McCready was also a professional lacrosse coach in the

National Lacrosse League The National Lacrosse League (NLL) is a men's professional box lacrosse league in North America. The league is headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The NLL currently has fifteen teams: ten in the United Stat ...

. He won the Mann Cup National Canadian Major championship and was named 1971 most valuable player. McCready was considered an elite goaltender in his time and is credited as turning the goaltending position into an offensive threat as well as the last line of defense. He is a member of the

Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame The Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame is a Canadian lacrosse hall of fame, located in New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada. The Hall was chartered in 1965 by the Canadian Lacrosse Association, and inducted its first class of hall of famers in t ...

Career

Buff was born in Port Dalhousie, Ontario. In 1960, Buff was transferred from St. Catharines to Whitby in the Ontario Junior A Lacrosse League. That year he led the Red Wings to an OJALL title and to the Minto Cup final where they ultimately lost. In 1963, McCready partnered with rival all-star goalie Pat Baker to compete for the Mann Cup, but St. Catharines ultimately lost. McCready won the Mann Cup with Brantford in 1973 and was named the playoff's most valuable player. In 1968, McCready played professionally with the newly formed Montreal Canadians of the National Lacrosse Association. He was named second team all-star. In 1969, McCready signed with the NLA's St. Catharines Golden Hawks. He came third in team scoring despite being a goaltender with 3 goals and 81 assists in 35 games. In 1974, he returned to professional lacrosse as it reemerged as the

. With the Toronto Tomahawks McCready scored 53 assists in 36 games. The next season, McCready was transferred to the Maryland Arrows where he scored 24 assists in 17 games. The league folded after the season. McCready was later inducted both the

and the Ontario Lacrosse Hall of Fame in 1997. In 1992, McCready was named the first ever coach of the

's Buffalo Bandits, albeit for only three games. Lacrosse star

Pat McCready Pat McCready (born October 18, 1974 in St. Catharines, Ontario) is a retired Canadian lacrosse player who played most of his National Lacrosse League career for Rochester Knighthawks, Buffalo Bandits, Toronto Rock, and Charlotte Cobras. As of 201 ...

is Bob McCready's son. Before Buff's death, he acted as an assistant coach with the Rochester Knighthawks from 1998 until 2001 and had returned to the Bandits organization for the 2007 season that had just ended. In joining the Bandits, he had the opportunity to join Pat for one more season. McCready died in 2007 in

Brantford, Ontario Brantford ( 2021 population: 104,688) is a city in Ontario, Canada, founded on the Grand River in Southwestern Ontario. It is surrounded by Brant County, but is politically separate with a municipal government of its own that is fully independ ...

. In 2009, St. Catharines honoured McCready by adding him to their Sports Wall of Fame.

Statistics

''Source: Wamper's Bible of Lacrosse''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McCready, Bob Canadian lacrosse players Sportspeople from Ontario 1940 births 2007 deaths Buffalo Bandits coaches