On June 14, 1952, after months of negotiating, Johnny Dunne, manager of Dixie Arena Gardens, officially announced that major league lacrosse would become a regular Saturday night feature at Dixie Arena Gardens.
Dixie executives completed arrangements with the Mimico Lacrosse Club to combine forces with its Intermediate team to field a team that would operate in the Ontario Lacrosse Association (OLA). The team would compete in an eight- team northern division composed of teams from Brooklyn, Orillia, Orangeville, Alliston, Scarborough Maitlands, Bradford and Dixie. The OLA Intermediate southern division consisted of teams representing Dundas, Acton, Burlington, Streetsville, Ohsweken and Simcoe.
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The team was formed largely by using players and team personnel from the Mimico Intermediate and Junior groupings. Manager Howard Rock put together the new entry to be known as Dixie-Mimico and Dixie Arena became its home.
One of the sport’s best-known coaches, George ‘Scoop’ Hayes, was selected over another outstanding coach of the day (Billy Brunskill) to guide the squad.
The league schedule was set and all that remained was for the historic face off at Dixie. Col. Thomas L. Kennedy once again was given the honour of doing the ceremonial face off. Actually, Col. Tom was a big lacrosse fan and didn’t miss a single game at Dixie for the first month.
In front of a modest crowd of more than 400 fans, Dixie-Mimico faced Brooklyn, a team that the previous season had reached the OLA finals. Dixie’s Don Meeke scored the first goal at the 38-second mark of the opening stanza. Dixie fans suddenly realized they had a team to cheer. By the end of the first quarter, Dixie was up 5-1. The new team went on to win over Brooklyn 21-9.