1972 - CREATION OF THE MAJOR LEAGUE 

 Would a rose smell so sweetly by any other name?  Senior A lacrosse in
 Ontario experienced a transformation with the creation of the OLA Major
 League.  With frontrunners Peterborough and Brantford it was basically
 the Senior.A League of the previous season.  Aurora Astros became
 Toronto Shooting Stars and joined the Big Two.  A new team in Windsor
 rounded out the circuit.  As for the Brampton Excelsiors and Brooklin
 Redmen, they remained in the Senior League, sans A, only now they would
 not be permitted to compete for the Mann Cup.  It was all very
 puzzling. Nothing like change for the sake of change.

 Once again the Warriors and Lakers dominated the Senior A...err...Major
 League.  Perhaps they only dominated it for the first time?  Brantford
 won 22 games, during an 32 games schedule, while Peterborough followed
 closely with 19 victories.  They also tossed in a tie for good measure.
 The first tie in Major League history!  Windsor was next with 14 wins.
 They were called the Warlocks but it should be pointed out that male
 witches are only called Warlocks on the television show Bewitched.
 They are properly referred to as witches - just as actresses are
 technically known as actors.  Sorry if all that sounds frightfully
 unheterosexual but I don't make the rules!  A better name for Windsor
 might have been West Gaels or Old Gaels.  The team succeeded in being
 competitive by bringing in Jim Bishop to coach and he promptly filled
 his roster with all the graduated Green Gaels he could lay his hands
 on.  Last but not least was Toronto.  The Shooting Stars were better
 suited to the Major League, where they claimed 10 wins and 1 tie more
 then they accomplished the previous year in Senior A.  Plus fourth
 place was merited a playoff spot - only 8 wins away from a Mann Cup
 berth!

 The Shooting Stars would never get any closer.  Brantford swept them
 four straight.  Meanwhile Peterborough struggled past Windsor in six
 games.  For the fourth consecutive year the Warriors and Lakers paired
 off to decide the Ontario champion.  The previous three meetings the
 second place finisher had prevailed in the end.  Brantford stopped that
 trend as they edged Peterborough in seven games.

 Whether it was a record setting year for scoring or not depended on
 whether one considered the Major League a new league or a continuation
 of the old OLA Senior A circuit.  Most historians prefer the latter.
 Either way, 32 games meant impressive scoring totals for Ontario's top
 gunners.  Jim Higgs led Windsor and the league with 99 assists and 153
 points.  He finished 10 points ahead of Brantford's Paul Suggate for
 the scoring title.  Another former Gael, John Davis, was top goal
 scorer.  He sniped 61 and was the Lakers' only top ten scorer.  The
 Warriors had five, all with 100 points or more.

 Out west Morley Kells chargers disappointed badly.  New Westminster
 Salmonbellies swept them four straight in the Mann Cup Final.  Paul
 Parnell won his second Mike Kelly Award.  Parnell's 97 career points
 gave him the most in Final history, one point more than fellow
 Peterborough native Bob Allan.  Allan had topped Bill Wilson's record
 six years earlier.  Wilson, however, with 121 points in all Mann Cup
 games would only have his mark eclipsed by Geordie Dean and John
 Tavares.

 When it came to offensive goaltenders, there were none better than Bob
 McCready.  Appearing in his final Mann Cup series, Buff added 12
 assists to his already substantial total.  He was involved in 27% of
 Brantford's goals.  That effort rocketed him past Pat Baker - 26 career
 assists to Baker's 19.  The Laker netminder would get one last chance
 the next year, however 1973 would be a one game final.  Thus McCready's
 mark would never be topped and would only be equaled by Wayne Colley
 seventeen years later.

 Peterborough juniors were near perfect in 1972.  Their record in all
 games was 46-1-1.  Oshawa Green Gaels spoiled things with a round robin
 playoff win and tie.  J.J. Johnston led the P.C.O.'s and the league
 with 85 goals and 149 points.  He also followed in the footsteps of Ron
 MacNeil by becoming the second scoring champ to have over 100 minutes
 in penalties.  The season was capped with a four game sweep of Richmond
 - avenging the previous year's heartbreaking loss.  John Grant and Jim
 Wasson led the final series with 7 goals apiece.  Grant, the great
 playmaker, was named Jim McConaghy winner.