P.E.I.’s late poet Milton Acorn observed, “The Island’s small ... every opinion counts.” And when it came to an opinion, few were better at offering one than Gerry (Soupy) Campbell. In a successful and sometimes tumultuous sports career that spanned well over 50 years, Soupy had a lasting impact on curling, softball and golf — as a very good player, but in a much larger role as editor, reporter, columnist, commentator, statistician, promoter and organizer. And for those opinions.
The news that Soupy died suddenly Feb. 8 was a real shocker. We had just chatted some three weeks ago on Haviland street in Charlottetown when he was in his taxi waiting for a fare. After our usual "warm" greetings, the talk quickly turned to golf. He was eagerly awaiting opening day — and hopefully an early start to the season. He repeated his plans to get a “Diamond” membership so he could play more golf at Crowbush this year, in a rotation with Brudenell and Dundarave. It wasn’t the first time we had this conversation — he just wanted to remind me to make room for him on Wednesday mornings at Crowbush.
Soupy looked great, he had a new taxi cab and was looking forward to more camping this summer with his longtime partner Pearl Rice. He always talked about heading over to Europe to golf and sightsee in the Slovakia area where he had recently coached and managed a curling club, but COVID-19 had ruined those plans last year and likely would again this year. So when former Guardian managing editor Gary MacDougall let me know that Soupy was gone, I was certainly taken aback.
I first met Soupy in the Guardian newsroom in the mid-1970s when I was a cub reporter and he was a well-known sports columnist. I knew that his uncle Alex was premier of P.E.I. at the time and that he had been sports editor in the late 1960s (before his opinions upset editorial hierarchy) just before Don Morrison took over as sports editor — but little else about him. That was about to change after I was named sports editor in early 1981.
The event which really left an imprint on a young journalist was the storybook ending for Charlottetown curler Bill Jenkins and his 1977 world junior men’s curling championship in Quebec City. Soupy was there of course, filing for the Guardian and doing reports for CFCY radio. He was live on the air as Jenkins won the world title that Sunday afternoon in March. It was a massive accomplishment for P.E.I. curling and for Jenkins and his team — and the headlines were never bigger. It was exciting stuff and Soupy was in the middle of it.
Island softball fans remember Soupy’s hugely successful Canada Day fast pitch tournaments at diamonds across the capital city region, which drew top teams from throughout the Maritimes and huge crowds to Victoria Park. His favourite golf tournament was the Island Open at Belvedere and it didn’t matter if he was working in Calgary or wherever, he made it a point to be back on P.E.I. for the event.
It was in curling that Soupy really made an impact. Looking for new fields to conquer after a successful playing career on P.E.I., he spent a number of years in the Calgary area where he managed curling clubs in winter, softball leagues in summer, and golfed whenever he could. He was in the TSN broadcast booth with Vic Rauter, Ray Turnbull and Linda Moore when that network was on its path to curling coverage dominance — supplying statistics and historical flashbacks for TSN’s on-air personalities.
Soupy later took his curling expertise to Europe where he coached and managed curling clubs, and even landed in a remote area of Turkey where the sport was finding a toehold. It was only recently that he gave up his European career. You couldn’t make this stuff up. No adventure was beyond his imagination or a challenge too great.
P.E.I. curling historian Blair Weeks says that Campbell “was the voice of curling in the province for decades,” as the Guardian’s curling columnist, covering local competitive curling during its heyday in the 70s and 80s, plus attending numerous national and world championships. His success at prying dollars from notoriously stingy publishers was legendary. Weeks said that Campbell was also an accomplished curler. He represented P.E.I. at a number of Canadian Legion curling championships while the high point of his playing career was a runner-up finish in the 1982 P.E.I. Labatt Tankard. That year Campbell and his team of Jerry Redmond, Stu Simpson and Dave Kassner won the A-side and went directly to the final before losing to Peter Jenkins, P.E.I. curling's rising star, who was able to defeat Soupy twice on the final day.
“The sport of curling on P.E.I. has lost one of its most prolific promoters,” said Weeks.
MacDougall added that ”Soupy had a great love for sports and was very skilled on the playing fields. Sports and life are about passion and Soupy had that in abundance.”
Health issues had plagued him for some time. He suffered several heart attacks and had collapsed in front of startled teammates. He warned Gary and I prior to a golf game on more than one occasion that if he went down, his heart pills were in a certain pocket. We joked with him that the pills had better work because there was no way we were giving him mouth to mouth resuscitation.
He was taking things very sedately of late, rarely seen in curling clubs or at ball diamonds. But nothing was going to stop him from morning golf — the earlier the better. He departed much too early, leaving behind a sports hall of fame career. He will be missed.
Bill McGuire is The Guardian’s former sports editor, news editor and editorial page editor. He lives in Charlottetown.
