Category: WCRFU/WIFU

1921 Saskatchewan Provincial Championship Game Protested and Replayed

1921 was a significant year in Canadian football. With the Western Canadian Rugby Football Union joining the Canadian Rugby Union, western clubs were finally eligible to compete for the Grey Cup.

Article in the Regina Leader-Post about Regina initially winning the SRFU championship (31 November 1921).

The Regina Rugby Club was one of the favourites to win the Hugo Ross trophy (the WCRFU championship) and represent the West in this historic season of Canadian football. They finished with a perfect 4-0 record and went on to defeat Saskatoon 10-8 on Saturday October 29th to win the Saskatchewan Rugby Football Union championship. But hold on. Not quite so fast.

Article in the Saskatoon Daily Star summarizing the SRFU championship game that was protested by Saskatoon (31 October 1921).

The Saskatoon club protested the result and demanded a rematch. A controversial play early in the game saw Regina kick the ball into the Saskatoon endzone. Saskatoon’s Wyn Griffiths let up retrieving the ball as it appeared to have hit a fence. In the meantime, Regina player Freddy Wilson quite shrewdly jumped on the ball to score a touchdown.

Notice of meeting published in the Regina Leader-Post to hear protest by Saskatoon (31 October 1921).

A meeting was held in Regina by the SRFU on November 1st to hear the protest. Presided over by SRFU Secretary-Treasurer C.M. Johnston, the protest was disallowed, and Regina was greenlighted to travel to Winnipeg to play the Victoria Rugby Club in the western semi-final game.

But…..

Another meeting was held in Saskatoon by the President of the SRFU, Hub Bishop. At this meeting, the Saskatoon protest was allowed, and the teams were ordered to play a rematch.

Article in the Saskatoon Phoenix Star about the conflicting decision on the Saskatoon protest (2 November 1921).

The WCRFU found themselves in a bit of a dilemma. Its president, Stuart Fraser, refused to get involved in sorting out the mess. He felt it was a matter strictly to be decided by the Saskatchewan union.

The saga continues (Saskatoon Star Phoenix, 3 November 1921).

Regina was steadfast against a rematch (and who can blame them really?) when Hub Bishop finally gave them the ultimatum. Play the rematch or lose by forfeiture. According to the press, Regina sent a wire to Bishop saying, “We’ll play it off, dingbust your hide” to which Bishop replied “Ah, they’re good sports.”

Article in the Saskatoon Daily Star with the final resolution: Regina and Saskatoon will play a rematch (4 November 1921).

So, on November 4th the rematch was played at Saskatoon’s Cairns Field. The end result? Saskatoon defeated Regina 9-6. I can’t help but imagine how the fans in Saskatchewan and (elsewhere for that matter) would’ve reacted on social media had it been around at the time of this saga.

Game coverage of Saskatoon’s victory in the rematch (Saskatoon Daily Star, 5 November 1921).

Anyway, Saskatoon would go on and lose to the Victorias in Winnipeg a few days later, putting an end to the drama and controversy. And ultimately, Edmonton would represent the West in the 1921 Grey Cup.

Sources:
Regina Leader-Post, 31 October 1921
Saskatoon Daily Star, 31 October 1921
Saskatoon Daily Star, 4 November 1921
Saskatoon Daily Star, 5 November 1921
Saskatoon Star Phoenix, 2 November 1921
Saskatoon Star Phoenix, 3 November 1921
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July 30, 2026
Calgary Tigers First Winners of the Hugo Ross Trophy

On October 21, 1911, representatives from the Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba rugby football unions met at the King’s Hotel in Regina to form the Western Canada Rugby Football Union. The new league was considered to be the largest in the world in terms of geography, one that would eventually feature clubs from the entire territory “north of the 49th parallel from Lake Superior to the Pacific Coast” (Calgary Herald, 25 October 1911).

Article in the Winnipeg Tribune (23 October 1911) about the new WCRFU and Hugo Ross trophy.

Hugo Ross, a Winnipeg-based real estate agent, served as the WCRFU’s honorary president. He donated a trophy bearing his name in time for the 1911 playoffs between the three provincial champions. The Hugo Ross trophy was branded as the amateur rugby championship of western Canada.

Representatives of the WCRFU devised a playoff system for 1911 where the Saskatchewan champion would travel to Manitoba to play the champion of that union. Alberta would host the winner of that game the following week.

Rules for the new Hugo Ross trophy championship of the WCRFU

The Regina Rugby Club were set to play the Winnipeg Rowing Club in the Hugo Ross cup semi-final at River Park in Winnipeg on November 11th. However, the game was cancelled due to the extreme cold. Winnipeg controversially claimed victory by way of default and earned their berth in WCRFU championship.

Coverage of the Tigers’ win in the Calgary Albertan (20 November 1911).

Coverage of the Tigers’ win in the Calgary Herald (20 November 1911).

On Saturday November 18th, Winnipeg travelled to Calgary to play the hometown Tigers. The Calgary Albertan described the contest as the “fastest and hardest fought game ever played in Western Canada.” The Tigers came from behind in the fourth quarter to win the game by a score of 13 to 6, becoming the first winners of the Hugo Ross trophy.

The Hugo Ross Trophy (photo: Canadian Football Research Society)

The following year, Hugo Ross died in the Titanic disaster. But his trophy continued to be the symbol of western Canadian football dominance up until 1948 when it was replaced by the N.J. Taylor Trophy as the championship of the Western Interprovincial Football Union.

Sources:
The Calgary Albertan, 20 November 1911
The Calgary Herald, 20 November 1911
The Edmonton Journal, 14 November 1911
The Winnipeg Tribune, 23 October 1911
The Winnipeg Tribune, 6 November 1911
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April 9, 2026
1955 East-West Game a Success

In the 1950s, the Shriners organization sponsored an East-West all-star game featuring the best players of Canadian football. The game was played the week after the Grey Cup between all-stars from the Interprovincial Rugby Football Union (IRFU) and the Western Interprovincial Football Union (WIFU). The first such game was played on December 3, 1955, at Varsity Stadium in Toronto.

Front page of the Toronto Star on December 3, 1955 previewing the first-ever East-West game.

There was much anticipation in the lead up to the game. Edmonton had just beaten Montreal handily in the Grey Cup the previous week. It was the second year in a row that the west had prevailed in the national championship. So, bragging rights were up for grabs between the IRFU (aka the Big Four) and WIFU when it came which union was the superior football league in Canada.

A crowd of over 15,000 braved the rain to watch the top names in Canadian football – chosen by the fans – compete in a defensive battle. Playing in muddy conditions at Varsity, the players put on an exciting performance despite the game ending in a 6-6 tie.

Jim Hunt’s account of the 1955 East-West game in the Toronto Star (December 5, 1955).

An account of the game by legendary reporter Jim Hunt in the Toronto Star summed it up perfectly:

They dusted off the return kick, tossed in the forward pass and produced the weirdest, wackiest and most exciting two minutes of the Canadian football season Saturday.

It was old-time Canadian football at its best. It was the comeback game proving it still could operate under almost impossible playing conditions. It was a 6-6 tie in this first East-West All-Star game, sponsored by The Star Weekly and the Shriners of Canada.

The 15,083 fans who braved the rains to watch the thriller saw plays that haven’t been used in Canadian football for years. They saw three return kicks in a two-minute period. They saw Gordie Sturtridge of the Saskatchewan Roughriders dribble a fumble 107 yards. They saw import Jackie Parker play a quick kick.

They also saw a hard-fought game between two teams which obviously were more anxious to show their league was the best in the country.

I’m reminded by the commentary for this game that despite horrible weather, awful field conditions, and a seemingly ho-hum 6-6 score, football can still be very exciting during defensive stalemates when there’s a meaningful game to play. You don’t always have to light up the scoreboard to provide entertaining football. By the way, how neat is it read Jim Hunt’s work from early in his lengthy career?

The inaugural East-West game grossed $88,000. Net proceeds from the game were given to the Shriners’ children’s hospitals in Montreal and Winnipeg. The event was deemed a smashing success and would return the following year.

Some photos of the action, as published in the Toronto Star and Hamilton Spectator:

Final stats:

Sources:

Hamilton Spectator, 5 December 1955
Toronto Star, 3 December 1955
Toronto Star, 5 December 1955
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March 11, 2026
Canada’s First National Commissioner of Football

As the CFL formally introduces Stewart Johnston as its new Commissioner this week, Canadian Football History looks back at the very first CFL Commissioner: Gerald Sydney Halter.

G. Sydney Halter, the CFL’s First Commissioner

Sydney Halter was born and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He held various roles, including treasurer and president, in the Winnipeg Blue Bombers organization before being named the Commissioner of the Western Interprovincial Football Union in 1953.

“Appointment of Sydney Halter.” The Calgary Herald, 31 March 1953, p. 25.

In 1956, he became the Registrar of the Canadian Football Council (CFC), a newly formed umbrella organization for both the WIFU and the eastern Interprovincial Rugby Football Union (the “Big Four”).

Well regarded in football circles across the country, Sydney Halter was named “Canada’s first national commissioner of football” when the Canadian Football League was established by the CFC in 1958. By the way, I totally think the CFL should adopt “National Commissioner of Football” as the official job title for its top role.

Described as a chain-smoking bachelor or “loner” by some, Sydney Halter wielded quite a bit of power in his role as Canada’s professional football boss. The article below (click on them to enlarge) is lengthy but well worth the read. It portrays Halter as a straight shooter and touches on how he didn’t hesitate to deliver fines to players and teams – or fans who interfered in the game. Apparently, home fans tackling opposing players from scoring touchdowns was a thing. Yikes.

O’Brien, Andy. “Czar of Our $7,000,000 Grid Industry.” The Hamilton Spectator, 8 March 1958, p. 90.

O’Brien, Andy. “Czar of Our $7,000,000 Grid Industry.” The Hamilton Spectator, 8 March 1958, p. 91.

Sydney Halter served as the CFL’s commissioner until 1966. He was an early advocate for an interlocking schedule between the East and the West. A lawyer by profession, he also served in the Royal Canadian Air Force and held leadership positions in other Canadian sporting organizations outside of football.

Sydney Halter is a member of the Canadian Football Hall of Fame, inducted in 1966, as “the architect of the modern-day Canadian Football League.” He died in 1990. He was Jewish and was inducted posthumously into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 2005.

April 23, 2025
The Edmonton Elks 2.0

This is the third of a series of posts that will explore the stories behind the names of the existing Canadian Football League teams. See the previous post on the Calgary Stampeders.

Throughout the long history of Canadian football, there’s been very little controversy surrounding team nicknames. Sure, there was a time in the not too distant past where there was one team called the Rough Riders and another called the Roughriders. But, for the most part the country’s professional football club names have been a bit quirky sounding but certainly not eyebrow raising.

The one exception to this rule is Edmonton.

Football has been played in the Alberta capital since 1895. Just as it is today, the early Edmonton team’s main rival was Calgary. The story goes that a Calgary sportswriter took a jab at the Edmonton team by calling them “the Esquimaux” (the French translation of Eskimos) in reference to the rather cold northern Alberta climate. The Edmonton team embraced the insult and used the moniker for a number of years before adopting the Anglicized version of the word in 1910.

The team was known as the Edmonton Elks in 1922, foreshadowing a name change that would come a century later, and played Queen’s University in the Grey Cup that year.

The original Eskimo team folded in the 1920s. In 1938, the Edmonton Eskimos were reborn and played in the Western Interprovincial Football Union. However, this team too ceased operations due to the onset of the Second World War.

An ad taken out by Hudson’s Bay Company cheering on the new Edmonton Eskimos (source: Edmonton Journal, 3 September 1949, page 18.

It wasn’t until 1949 that the current Edmonton club returned to the WIFU. Once again Edmonton adopted the Eskimos moniker although there were some suggestions that the team be called the Oilers, the name later given to the city’s future professional hockey team.

For the next seventy years, the Edmonton Eskimos represented Northern Alberta and were considered a model CFL franchise. They won three Grey Cups in a row in the 1950s and won five championships from 1978-1982, an astonishing feat no other team has been able to accomplish.

However. over time a growing number of people voiced their concern over the use of the name “Eskimos.” Facing mounting public pressure, the team announced that it would be dropping the “Eskimos” name in July 2020.

A year later, June 1, 2021, the team announced its new yet familiar name: the Edmonton Elks.

The current Edmonton Elks primary logo (sportslogos.net)

February 26, 2025