In the early to mid 1950s, the Windsor AKO Fratmen were the dominant junior football team in Ontario. They appeared in four consecutive national championships from 1952 to 1955, winning twice.
(Photo courtesy of Todd Ternovan)
It wasn’t uncommon for football teams to be owned or sponsored by other organizations. Even some senior teams followed this arrangement. Montreal’s team was operated by the Montreal Amateur Athletic Association and the Toronto Argonauts were a property of the Argonaut Rowing Club. It was the AKO (Alpha Kai Omega) Fraternity who owned and operated Windsor’s junior football team at the time.
On November 22, 1952, Windsor won its first national championship in Canadian junior football. Known as the Leader Post trophy at the time, Windsor defeated the Edmonton Wildcats by a score of 15-12 in front of 5,000 fans at Windsor Stadium.
The following year, Windsor fell to the Saskatoon Hilltops before making a comeback in 1954. On November 20, 1954, another big crowd came out to see Windsor beat the Winnipeg Rods 13-9. It was Windsor’s second national championship in three years. They would lose to Winnipeg in a rematch in 1955.
Windsor’s success in junior football in the 1950s – with two championships – was big news for the southern Ontario city. They were coached by Al Newman, considered by many to be one of the best coaches in Canadian junior football. Bobby Dawson, a standout player in the ’52 championship game, went on to a solid professional career with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the IRFU.
Playing on that 1954 championship team was a gentleman named George Ternovan, who would later become a councillor in the nearby municipality of St. Clair Beach in Essex County. He played defensive end. George’s son Todd kindly shared with me some photos of his father’s championship jacket as well as the football cleats he wore in the championship game.
Today, Windsor’s junior football team is known as the St. Clair Saints, having been sold to the St. Clair College’s Student Athletic Association in 2020. The Saints play in the Canadian Junior Football League and are the defending Canadian Bowl champions.
Known as the Little Grey Cup, the Leader Post Trophy (named after the Regina newspaper) was the name of the Canadian junior football championship for many years and was first awarded in 1925. In 1976, it was replaced by the Armadale Cup. Since 1989, the Canadian Junior Football League’s championship has been known as the Canadian Bowl.
Perhaps the most famous of the Windsor AKO football alumni is Tommy Grant who played in the 1955 junior final. He later played for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and Winnipeg Blue Bombers and played in nine Grey Cup games. Grant was induced into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 1995.
Leave a Reply