By Rod Mickleburgh, The Globe and Mail Posted Monday, November 2, 2009 10:47 PM ET

CUMBERLAND, B.C. - This is a hard, old town. Always has been. When visiting basketball teams came to play, local toughs would line up outside their dressing room. If anyone played too well, they risked being beaten up after the game in the darkened parking lot.

When someone from Port Alberni shoved a Cumberland player into the wall one time, the ensuing brawl brought the fire truck and sent half a dozen people to hospital.

Years later, the Vancouver Island community, its history steeped in the coal mines that ran until the 1960s, is on the verge of big changes from a series of pending, real estate developments. But it's still Cumberland.

Just on Saturday, police were called to a Halloween dance at the same 75-year-old rec hall with the horsehair floor where they play basketball, after youths began hurling firecrackers at the folks in charge of security.

So, it was no surprise, really, that the arrival of the Olympic torch here yesterday produced the first protest signs since the flame caravan left Victoria last Friday.

And 82-year-old Bronco Moncrief, who served more than 30 years as mayor of Cumberland and is still on town council, decided he had better things to do than show up.

"I'll be going over to take a look at how the boys are putting in the new water system," Mr. Moncrief said.

There's more to historic Cumberland, of course, than its attitude. This is a tight community with deep roots, plenty of spirit and a big heart. There's a lot of love here. Talk to anyone and they wouldn't live anywhere else in the world.

"My husband bought a house here 22 years ago, thinking he would renovate and flip it," said Marlene Pearce. "Except we never left. It's just so lovely here."

Hundreds lined the road through town to welcome the torch, including retired junior high school principal David Vranjes. This being Cumberland, of course, Mr. Vranjes, 57, shunned any sign of rah-rah red and white. He showed up in virtual full Goth - black T-shirt, black jacket, black jeans and big black boots.

"If there's a funeral, everyone comes, and for something like this, everyone comes," Mr. Vranjes said. "Community spirit has a long tradition here.'

Also along the road was the town's remarkable nonagenarian, John Bannermann, about to turn 95. But being close to the Olympics is old hat for Mr. Bannerman, owner of the local dry goods store for years.

Mr. Bannerman once raced against the legendary Jesse Owens, the black American who famously won four gold medals at the so-called Hitler Summer Olympics in Berlin.

It happened when Mr. Owens came to Cumberland with the Harlem Globetrotters touring basketball team a few years after the 1936 Games. He challenged the athletic Mr. Bannerman and his brother to a race - one end of the basketball court to the other.

They changed into their shorts, got down for the start, and whoosh, there went Mr. Owens. "I got a pretty good view of his rear end," Mr. Bannerman said with a laugh, as he waited for the torch arrival.

"He was a prince of a guy. We were sitting around in the dressing room afterwards, and he offered me a beer. Jesse said: ‘It's got a lot of that Vitamin Pee.'."

When the Olympic flame finally showed, Mr. Bannerman clapped as hard as anyone. "That was good, boy. I guess I'll never see another one in Cumberland."

Like so many B.C. communities, Cumberland is fighting for its economic life. But there's a difference here, said Mr. Moncrief, the long-time former mayor.
Development is on the way, and besides, he said, "We're so used to recession, we've been saying for years the only way Cumberland can go is up."

As for the town's legendary toughness? Pshaw, said Mr. Moncrief. "Yes, we might tell you to go to hell, but in such a way, you'll look forward to the trip."