Bruce Wilson remembers he was a little tyke in North Burnaby when his father first took him and his brother to Confederation Park for a training session in his pop’s favourite sport. Soccer was soon Bruce’s favourite, too.
Turns out Bruce was pretty good. When the Vancouver Whitecaps and the NASL came to town in 1974 they signed him. He played every minute of every game — pre-season, regular season and post-season — in his four years with the Whitecaps, In 1977, he was named to the North American Soccer League’s first all-star team, but after the season he was traded to Chicago.
Wilson played two seasons for the sting, one for the New York Cosmos — winning the 1980 NASL championship — and four for the Toronto Blizzard. He was also selected to two more first all-star teams and three second teams. Wilson made 57 international appearances for Canada including reaching the 1984 Olympic quarter-finals.
Wilson captained Canada in the 1986 FIFA World Cup in Mexico, the country’s only appearance in the sport’s most prestigious event. He was inducted into the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame in 1990, the Canadian Soccer Hall of Fame in 2000 and the U.S. Soccer Hall of Fame in 2003.
