1914-10-12aff

The Hamilton Spectator only published a morning edition on Thanksgiving day, 1914.

The lead local article focused on how that year’s Thanksgiving day would be observed in Hamilton:

“While services of thanksgiving were held in most churches yesterday, there will be psalms of praise and special services heard in a number of churches today.

“For this day, at least, people will turn from war sermons to consideration of the blessings they enjoy and ‘give thanks unto the God of all gods.’

“In this city, the holiday will be observed in various ways. In many cases it means a day of family reunion, with the family board straining under its loads of good things for the inner man. Numbers of people will spend the day out of town, visiting friends or attending Burlington fair.

“At the H. A. A. A. grounds in the afternoon, a football game between the Tigers and Queen’s University will be the attraction. All the theaters are sure to be crowded.”¹

¹ “Thanksgiving Services Held”

Hamilton Spectator.   October 12, 1914.

The widely-anticipated Thanksgiving afternoon football game at the H. A. A. A. grounds was less than a classic, as the Spectator sports reporter noted somewhat archly:

“Hamilton Tigers and Queen’s university were scheduled to play an exhibition game of rugby at the cricket field yesterday. The teams took their appointed places on the field, the officials were there, and a fair-sized crowd for ‘hard times,’ but the game failed to materialize, a farcical melee being staged instead.

“It is just possible that the college squad may be able to play good rugby at times, while it is a known fact that the Tigers can and have shown grand games, but yesterday both outfits acted just as mean and ill-behaved as a naughty child.”²

^{2 “}Scrapping Spoiled Holiday Fixture : Tigers Ran Up Big Score, But Played a Very Poor Game.”

Hamilton Spectator.   October 13, 1914.

What prompted the game to descend into farce was the result of the rules:

“The trouble and there was a lot of it, all started in the first few passages of the game. The first was played under Intercollegiate rules. This caused trouble.

“The Intercollegiate rules permit a certain source of interference. Naturally, the visitors were out to make the mot out of their knowledge of their game, and started right off to use that legalized interference.

“The tigers were not used to that sort of battling, and mistook some of the interference for a pugnacious attitude on the part of the students.”²

The result of the Tigers taking exception to what they considered to be provocative interference some became a free-for-all as teams began handing out punch after punch at each other:

“As yet the leading football coaches have failed to incorporate any of the Marquis of Queensbury rules into rugby., and it was but natural that the Hamilton wings were unable to mix prize ring tactics and rugby for effective results.”²

The student players from Queen’s University managed to keep the score relatively close in the first half, but the Tigers scored 20 points in the second half while their opponents did not score any:

“True, the Tigers ran up a 34-8 score, but that was no tribute to their prowess; rather a sad indication of the class of the visiting aggregation.

“The tigers put up the worst game they have shown in a couple of seasons. Loose balls, fumbling, scrapping, scragging, and every known offense in the game was committed, but perhaps it was just as well that they were off color, for had they played the game as they have been taught to play, the score would have been so one-sided that it would have become confused with a cricket match.

“Queens showed absolutely nothing. They looked even worse than a Hamilton senior city league team, and the only thing that kept them from being utterly disgraced was the wretched stunts pulled by the local outfit.” ²

As the fans who had paid good money to see the Thanksgiving day match, departed the H.A.A.A. grounds the majority were not pleased. Some may have found some entertainment watching the numerous on field fisticuffs, real football fans had little to be thankful concerning how the beloved Tiger football players conducted themselves.