So What Happened Before 1927?

Any reference I've ever seen to city high school football championships has only listed winners as far back as 1927. The graphic below, lifted from a 1943 Ottawa Citizen, serves as a good example.

For a number of years, nearly every article about the high school football championship winner would include an updated version of that list. But the list never began before 1927.

For years I assumed that high school football prior to 1927 was being played, but only as exhibition games and not in any organized, regularly-scheduled fashion. In other words, a champion only began being crowned "officially" in 1927.

So with a little time on my hands after Christmas Eve supper, I thought I'd take the time to check and...That's not the case at all.

A four-team league ran in 1926 and a champion was indeed crowned. It was Ottawa College, but it is actually only recognized, that I could find, in a game between two other teams near the end of the regular season. Read on.

I was unable to find a recap of the Ottawa College/Lisgar game. So I wonder if no champion being named is a simple matter of research failing to uncover one.

Adding to the confusion somewhat, years ago at a Gee-Gees game, I bought a records and facts book about the team. It was quite good but, by the writer's own admission, incomplete.

I bring this up because that book stated that Ottawa U. did not even field a club in the late 1910s and early 20s. It claimed that the school only resumed playing football in 1927 after being absent from the gridiron for several years. True enough, it did have a team in the Junior City League in 1927 but if "Ottawa College" refers to some other institution in 1926, I don't know who it could be.

Here are the nearly final standing from 1926. Presumably Ottawa College defeated Lisgar and nailed down an undefeated season.