Dale Mitchell, one of the greatest soccer players Canada has ever produced, first learned to play the beautiful game in the backyard of his family’s east Vancouver home. Dale’s father Bill pieced together a homemade goal out of an old swing set and some parts he borrowed from his work at BC Tel.
“I remember doing a lot of shooting out there,” Dale told the BC Sports Hall of Fame in 2022.
These early shooting sessions no doubt laid the groundwork for one of the most natural finishers that Canada has ever produced. When Mitchell’s 14-year career on the Canadian national team came to an end in 1994, he ranked as Canada’s highest international goal scorer ever with 19 goals (tied with fellow Vancouver 86er teammate John Catliff). He still ranks fourth all-time today behind current national team members Jonathan David and Cyle Larin, and the retired Dwayne De Rosario.
At age five, Dale began playing youth soccer for Grandview Legion, first at Nelson Park and later at Clinton Park in Vancouver. Like many, the first player who inspired him as a young boy was his dad, Bill, who played for local club Pilseners FC in the old Pacific Coast Soccer League at Vancouver’s Callister Park. Yet while Dale developed into a clinical finisher, rather than score, his father was more likely to deliver a shin-clattering slide tackle to an opposing striker.
“He was a centre back ironically,” laughed Dale. “He was a very aggressive ball winner and if ever there were any sort of mix-ups he was usually involved. Different end of the field and completely different type of player than I was. But I like to think that the competitiveness that he had did definitely rub off.”
In the year after graduating from Van Tech High School, Dale signed his first professional contract with the Vancouver Whitecaps in 1977. Traded to the Portland Timbers in 1979, he played three-and-a-half seasons in The City of Roses and one season in Montreal, scoring 43 goals in 125 games before the North American Soccer League folded in 1984.
Luckily though Dale had indoor soccer to fall back on and he made a name for himself as one of the best indoor players in North America over nine Major Indoor Soccer League seasons. Playing with Tacoma, Kansas City, and Baltimore, he scored 406 goals and totalled 686 points—3rd and 4th most all-time respectively in MISL history.
“The MISL allowed me to make a good living,” said Dale. “It was the best league to play in North America at the time.”
At the same time, Dale led Canada to a quarterfinal finish in men’s soccer at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. He finished third in tournament scoring with three goals in four matches.
“I was flying really to be honest,” he said. “I was scoring and playing at my peak.”
But shortly after the tournament he tore ligaments in his knee in a friendly against English side Everton at Toronto’s Varsity Stadium and missed most of Canada’s ultimately successful 1986 World Cup qualifying campaign—the first time Canada had ever qualified for the FIFA Men’s World Cup. Dale was able to rehab his knee and get himself back into playing shape in time to appear in one of Canada’s three group stage matches, a 2-0 loss to the USSR.
Except for occasional returns to the Vancouver area to play for Canada in international matches, Dale lhad argely played away from home since 1979. That changed in 1988 with the newly-created Canadian Soccer League and the Vancouver 86ers. It was a no-brainer for Dale to return home.
“I was playing indoor and I wanted to come back to Vancouver,” he said. “My wife Diane is from Vancouver. My parents are here. The opportunity came to play in Vancouver. Bobby Lenarduzzi was coaching and it was a pretty strong team.”
That might be one of the great understatements in Vancouver soccer history. Until his retirement in 1994, Dale was a dominant force on an 86ers team that was both an offensive juggernaut and a true dynasty winning four consecutive CSL championships from 1988-91.
“We played a very attacking style,” he said. “Carl Valentine, Ivor Evans, Domenic Mobilio, Catliff, myself, and Jim Easton, [among] a lot of other very good players. We had a lot of attacking options. That’s what set us apart. We had a lot of goals in the lineup. That was a very fun era.”
Those 86ers also achieved a North American professional sports record 46-game undefeated streak spanning the 1988 and 1989 seasons. Dale played a major role in that streak and the first three of the 86ers four CSL titles. In 121 games with the 86ers, he scored 49 goals—fifth all-time in club history.
After retiring, Dale turned to coaching. From 2007-09, he served as head coach of the Canadian men’s national team.
He was inducted into the Canada Soccer Hall of Fame in 2002, the BC Soccer Hall of Fame in 2019, and the BC Sports Hall of Fame in 2021.
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