Saturday 23 November 2019

1906 - Tigers Are Dominon Champions




Saturday, November 15, 1906 was a most memorable day in Hamilton for the many followers of the Tiger Football team. In the morning edition of the Hamilton Times carried the following brief preview of the upcoming game :



        Today’s Card

                        Canadian Championship



“Montreal at Hamilton – Referee, F.D. Wooloworth



          Big Game This Afternoon

“It looks as if the football match between the Tigers and the Montreals in the Dominion championship series will be played in the rain. The Montreal crowd, about a hundred strong, arrived here on the G.T.R. about 10 o’clock. They made the Royal Hotel their headquarters, and all had pretty badges of red and black.

“The game will be called at 2:45.”



Hours before game time, the streets near the Cricket grounds, Bold, Reginald streets, and Charlton Avenue were filled with a heavy amount of traffic. Tiger Rooters arrived en masse, mainly by foot. The scene inside the wooden-fenced Cricket grounds was animated as seating was gone, and large numbers of fans watched the game while standing around the field, while some young fans climbed trees or telephone poles to see the game. Some watched from the rooftops of nearby houses:

“Five thousand people filled the stands and stood around the field at the cricket grounds, and witnessed the best played, most exciting and most stubborn game of a decade

“A great array of old time football stars were on hand to see the game, men who in their day were the rule makers and the players whose names were as familiar as those of DuMoulin, Moore, Simpson, Flett, Stinson, Craig and a host of others are today. By all it was agreed that the game was dandy.

“The day was favorable for good football, the light being even but not bright, and there being no wind. The grounds however, were slippery, the rain having left an inch or so of soft surface, the west end of the field, which the Montrealers had for their defense ground in the first quarter being the worst. This probably accounted for the fact that almost all the scoring was done at the west end.”1

1 Hamilton Times. December 3, 1906.

In the end, it was a relatively easy win for the Tigers :

“Hamilton Tigers demonstrated their right to be called football champions on Saturday, defeating the Quebec champions by a score of 11 to 6 in a hard game in which the local team fought for every point scored, and did not get a single talley through chance or luck, while their opponents got their only try simply by a fluke.”1

The Times coverage of the game included a cartoon 
and the following brief observations :

        From the Side Line

“Simpson was the hero of the day.

“The rooters were out in force, and sang well, but it is a question if their noise did not spoil many a Tiger combination.

“Perhaps some of the Toronto sporting writers will remember what they said was going to happen when Montreal got at the Tigers.

“The G.N.W. gave a capital telegraph service.

“If there is a man on the whole Hamilton team who did not do his level best, and do it well, he managed to disguise the fact nicely.

“David Tope was never afraid to take a desperate chance.

“The rooters marched in a body to Tope’s house and sang ‘Champions Again’ and a few bars for Davie. After that they marched right down the middle of the road to the centre of the city, singing all the way.

“The Montrealers took their defeat gracefully. They were outplayed at their own game, and could not deny the fact.

“The Tigers and rooters attended the Grand in the evening.”1

It would be fully two weeks before the Tigers played again. The title game for the football championship of the Dominion was played in Montreal on the McGill campus. The team from McGill was the winning side from the Intercollegiate Union.

On the day of the game, the Hamilton Times carried three brief items referencing that day’s big game:



“Football.”

Hamilton Times.   December 01, 1906.

“The Times will bulletin the score and quarter of the Great Football Match in Montreal today. Come round the Times and follow the game.”



“Great Rugby Game Today : Champion Tigers Meet McGill Team at Montreal.”

Hamilton Times.   December 01, 1906.

“Quite a crowd of football fans left the city last night for the east on the G.T.R. Most of them were bond for Montreal to see the Hamilton Tigers and McGill College team battle for the Dominion championship.”



“Weather is Balmy : Immense Crowd Gathering For Tiger Game at Montreal”

Hamilton Times. December 1, 1906

“Noon – McGill campus will be in about the same condition for the football match today between McGill and the Hamilton Tigers as the cricket grounds were in Hamilton two weeks ago. The weather is balmy and the snow has practically all disappeared from the gridiron. Both teams are in excellent shape, although the Tigers did not take particular of themselves last night, having enjoyed a little whirl around town. The visitors look upon the McGill team as an easy proposition. 5,000 will see the match.”

The attendance projections were far too optimistic. A bigger crowd than that which attended the game could well-have happened had the weather co-operated :

“Between 1,700 and 1,800 people saw the game, of which fully one-half were students. It was a fair crowd, and many of the Tiger plays came in for praise.

“With a solid north wind blowing almost a gale, and on a soft, wet snowy field, with a flurry of snow in the air, the teams lined up shortly after 2:15.”2

2 Hamilton Times December 3, 1906.

The game was the first Dominion championship game was the first after a drastic change in the rules had been put into effect:

“For the first time since the makers of Rugby football laws put their heads together to frame up rules with a view to producing a game that would be good alike for players and spectators, resulting in the adoption by the Ontario Union of the snap back game, and the elimination by the Quebec and Intercollegiate Unions of the old style scrimmage and its long line of snappers, the Canadian championship has been fought out to a finish, and the best team has won the title and its honor. On Saturday, the Hamilton Tigers defeated their last foes, the winners of the Intercollegiate championship, and proved their superiority over all teams that play any style of Rugby.”2

The Times reporter who had gone to Montreal with the team to provide coverage of the game lavished praise on the Tigers :

“This year the title and the glory go together, and there is none to dispute Hamilton’s claim. The Tigers have finished four seasons without once having been beaten, under any rules, in any championship game. They have met the best that any union could produce and have come out of every contest not only with victory but with honor, and their opponents have had to admit that they played clean, honest brainy football and merited all they won. No other team, in the annals of football in Canada, has ever made such a record, and Hamilton has good reason to be proud of the achievements of her sons.”2

Virtually every play in the game was described in detail in the Times, creating a very lengthy article. On the final page of the December 3, 1906 edition, the following appeared :

   Get a Copy of the ‘Times’

  With an account of the Football Match

    Hamilton vs. McGill

   In wrappers in Tigers’ colors, all

     Ready for mailing, one cent.
The 1906 Hamilton Tigers were Canadian Champions.

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