User:QQ2NFLD/Gus Etchegary

A. A. "Gus" Etchegary (born 28 May 1924), is a Canadian former soccer administrator, player, businessman and author. He was especially noted for his role as president of the Newfoundland Soccer Association in its formative years and as vice-president of the Canadian Soccer Association. He was inducted into the Newfoundland Sports Hall of Fame in 1975, the Newfoundland Soccer Hall of Fame in 1980 and the Canada Soccer Hall of Fame in 2007, all as a builder.

Etchegary was also a leader in the Newfoundland fishing industry, serving as president of the Fisheries Association of Newfoundland and Labrador, commissioner of the International Commission of North West Atlantic Fishers, director of the Fishery Council of Canada and president of Fishery Products International.

Early life
Etchegary was born in the Dominion of Newfoundland in the outport community of St. Lawrence on the Burin Peninsula. As a child, he survived the 1929 Grand Banks earthquake and the resulting tsunami which struck the Burin Peninsula, killing 28 people and leaving hundreds homeless. In 1942, Etchegary helped rescue survivors of the USS Truxtun, which broke up after it ran aground near St. Lawrence during the Second World War.

Soccer career
Beginning in 1945, Etchegary played football for Burin, before joining his hometown side, St. Lawrence, in 1951. After two seasons with St. Lawrence, Etchegary returned to Burin, where he played until 1959. Playing as a full-back, he was noted as a star player and an excellent leader.

In 1959, Etchegary was elected to his first executive role in sports as president of the Burin Peninsula Athletic Association. In 1964, he became president of the St. John's Football League in the province's capital city, where he was credited with helping the league survive a difficult period at the beginning of his five-year term.

Fishing industry career
In 1947, Etchegary joined Fishery Products Limited.

In 2013, Etchegary published a book called Empty Nets: How Greed And Politics Wiped Out The World's Greatest Fishery, in which he examined the collapse of the Newfoundland cod fishery.