Tag: 1950s in Canadian Football

Windsor AKO a Powerhouse in Canadian Junior Football in the 1950s

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.

Windsor AKO 1954 Canadian junior football championship patch
(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.

Coverage of the 1952 Canadian junior final in the Windsor Star.

Photos of the 1952 Canadian junior final. (Windsor Star)

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.

Coverage of the 1954 Canadian junior final in the Windsor Star.

Photos of the 1954 Canadian junior final. (Windsor Star)

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.

The Windsor AKO lineup for the 1954 junior final vs. Winnipeg

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.

Football cleats worn by George Ternovan of the Windsor AKO Fratmen in 1954.

George Ternovan’s 1954 Canadian junior football championship jacket.

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.
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August 20, 2025
CFL Media Guides in the 1960s

For eons, the Canadian Football League published Media Guides or Fact Books for its teams. These little handbooks were meant to familiarize local journalists with the players and coaching staff of the team they were covering. They included biographies, statistics, records, and team histories.

Team media guides were also a great little souvenir for the savvy football fan. I have several in my own collection I like to peruse every now and then.

The CFL still produces them at least in electronic form. At least for some teams. I’m not sure if the league still offers print copies, though. It looks like they’ve met the same fate as game day programs and printed tickets, which is unfortunate.

Anyway, I thought what better way to spend the dog days of summer than by taking a look at some of these CFL media guides from the 1960s (or the late 1950s in a couple of cases). It was an exciting decade for the CFL and Canadian football.

Here are some photos of the media guides (front and back covers) for each CFL team from that era:

The above photos are courtesy of the good folks at the Canadian Football Research Society.
Fediverse Reactions
July 16, 2025
Alouettes Defeat the Tiger-Cats 82-14 in 1956 Blowout

A close game always makes for good entertainment for us football fans. We enjoy the back-and-forth battle and the inevitable drama that ultimately decides the final score. But sometimes the game is anything but close. That was the case on October 20, 1956 when the Montreal Alouettes cruised to an 82-14 victory over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

The headline in the Montreal Gazette tells the story.

The crowd at Molson Stadium witnessed history in the making that Saturday afternoon with the Alouettes breaking a couple dozen IRFU/Big Four records. Newspapers in both Hamilton and Montreal remarked how the game kept the statisticians busy.

A recap of records broken as outlined in the Montreal Gazette.
(Degeer, Vern. “Team, Game Scoring Marks Fall in Fantastic Frolic.” Montreal Gazette, 22 October 1956, p. 25.)

The Hamilton Spectator’s recap of records broken.
(“Statisticians Go Crazy.” Hamilton Spectator, 22 October 1956, p. 17.)

Montreal’s opening kickoff by Johnny Blaicher sailed through the Hamilton endzone to put the Alouettes up 1-0 from the get-go. What followed can only be described as good old fashion Canadian walloping.

Led by quarterback Sam “The Rifle” Etcheverry, Montreal scored an incredible 12 touchdowns. Yes, twelve! The Alouettes were up 20-0 after the first quarter and went into halftime with a commanding 54-7 lead. I certainly wouldn’t’ve wanted to be in the Hamilton dressing room at the half.

Montreal players who scored touchdowns in the record-setting game. Future Alabama Governor Fob James scored four touchdowns for the Alouettes.

Unfortunately for the Ti-Cats the second half wasn’t any better. Montreal’s Hal Patterson returned Hamilton’s kickoff to start the third quarter a record-breaking 104 yards for a touchdown. Talk about going from bad to worse. Having his way with the Tiger-Cat defence all afternoon, the Rifle might’ve put the Als over the 100-point mark had he stayed in the entire game. His favourite target Fob James, who years later would become the Governor of Alabama, scored four majors for the Alouettes.

The Hamilton Spectator didn’t mince words.
(Miller, Ivan. “Alouettes Re-write Record Book in Wild Game.” Hamilton Spectator, 22 October 1956, p. 16.)

With the astounding lopsided victory, Montreal clinched first place in the Big Four conference. The two teams would meet again the following month in a two-game total-point series for the IRFU final. Montreal came out on top, winning by a 78-62 combined score, but would lose to the Edmonton Eskimos in the 1956 Grey Cup game.

The 82-14 score set on October 20, 1956 still stands today as the largest margin of victory in a game played in the modern era of Canadian football.

The scoring summary of the record-setting game.

July 2, 2025
The First Canadian Football Drafts

It’s Draft Day in the Canadian Football League. Today is the day when the CFL’s nine teams divvy up the incoming top Canadian players. It’s done in an orderly fashion through a number of rounds to allow for competitive fairness and to encourage parity.

In the early days of Canadian football, players tended to be locally based so there was really no need for a draft. Even as the game became more professional, teams selected players based on territorial rights.

In 1952, the Interprovincial Rugby Football Union (IRFU) aka the Big Four experimented with a draft. The draft allowed the four teams (Hamilton, Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal) to name players who would then be off limits to the other clubs unless an agreement could be reached between the teams.

Source: “Big Four Draft List Complete For Campaign.” The Montreal Star, 12 July 1952, p. 22.

In 1953, the Big Four draft became more formalized. The draft was limited to forty Canadian players from five universities: McGill, Queen’s, the University of Toronto, McMaster, and the University of Western Ontario.

The Montreal Alouettes selected Doug McNichol, a defensive lineman, from the University of Western Ontario in the first pick overall.

“Alouettes Draft Doug McNichol.” The Montreal Star, 24 January 1953, p. 25.

Image of Doug McNichol card courtesy of the Vintage Football Card Gallery.

It wasn’t until 1956 that a Canada-wide draft was held.

April 29, 2025
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