The 1956 Red Feather Tournament: Ottawa Tech 29, Riverdale 10

We're moving ahead a little bit with the Red Feather tournament tonight, though there's little to say about it. It concluded in its most common manner. The Ottawa team won the game in convincing fashion but the "championship" was awarded to another team.

It bears noting that the series of exhibition games was apparently known as the United Fund(s) Football Tournament that year. "Red Feather Tournament" did reveal some results in searches but United Fund (or Funds, plural) was far more common. The purpose of the event appeared to be unchanged, however.

The 1955 Red Feather Tournament: St. Patrick's 27, East York 01

In 1954, some complained when St. Patrick's did not get an opportunity to play Nepean for the right to represent the region in Toronto in the annual Red Feather Tournament.

In 1955, things fell into place a little more nicely. St. Patrick's opened the season with a couple of wins  and it just so happened that they were going to play another undefeated team a few days prior to the tournament representative being chosen. That team was Fisher Park, and though St. Pat's only won by a score of 01-00, it was enough to perceive them as worthy of being our flag-bearers, so to speak, and to make the trip to Toronto. 

St. Patrick's actually had one more game at home to settle prior to making the trip and it turned out to be against the previous year's "controversial" Red Feather Tournament participant, Nepean.  Referred to as a "tune up" match, St. Patrick's won that game as well, with a more convincing score of 13-00.

Their selection thus further justified, the following St. Pat's team headed for Toronto.

The trip alone was something of an adventure. 

Undaunted by a near-tragedy, the kids dominated their opposition...

...And yet were not recognized as tournament champions. Bloor is mentioned in the article above because they were given that honour, partially based on a 28-00 victory against a school from Timmins.

And so again an Ottawa rep excels at the tourney but the prize is awarded to another club. St. Patrick's didn't appear to be too broken up about it, however; they went on to successfully defend their 1954 senior championship and in doing so, extend their undefeated streak to 17 games.

Nepean At The 1954 Red Feather Tournament

As explained previously, the Red Feather Tournament featured a series of exhibition games between high school football teams from various parts of Ontario with the purpose to raise funds for charity and to promote sportsmanship. For results involving teams from the Ottawa region, click on the "Red Feather Tournament" tag on the right side of the page under "Activity". 

While it was an exhibition, the events of 1954 demonstrated that the tournament was taken quite seriously, at least locally. 

When the time came to choose a participant, the Nepean and St. Patrick's teams each had equal 3-0 records. Nepean was chosen by vote of the league's directors, upsetting some St. Patrick's supporters. There were some that felt that the two eligible clubs should have a playoff match to determine that year's participant. On the other hand, one Bob Landau explained the reasoning behind Nepean's selection in a letter to the Ottawa Citizen.

And so off went Nepean.

They would lose 9-0 to the Tournament champion University of Toronto Schools team. No doubt those who felt strongly that St. Patrick's should have been the Ottawa rep (or at least given the opportunity to compete for the selection) were left to wonder what might have been.

The dispute generated a little buzz when the two teams prepared to meet for the final game of the regular season.

St. Patrick's furthered their argument when they shut out Nepean (though I doubt any bones were actually shattered) 14-00 to capture first place in the six-team league.

The playoffs beckoned. Nepean was upset by Fisher Park in the semi-finals so they would not get another shot at St. Patrick's. The "Celts" ended up winning the senior championship.

Did St. Pat's success throughout the rest of the season, and against Nepean specifically, invalidate the selection of Nepean for the Red Feather tournament though? Not in the mind of Citizen letter writer CG MacNay. 

Indeed. We're certainly not in a position to know who was throwing punches and knees, perhaps Nepean was equally responsible for that type of behaviour when the two teams met. But it does seem like those who were vocally opposed to Nepean being sent to the tournament were missing its point by a fair margin.

1953 Red Feather Tournament: Fisher Park 34, Alliston Memorial 00

Recent posts about the National Capital Bowl brought the Red Feather Tournament to mind so we'll take another step forward with recording that event's history.

Fisher Park represented the area that year and based on the score, did so handsomely. It should be pointed out that Alliston was a replacement participant. A team from Oshawa was supposed to attend but were disqualified from doing so due to a rules violation.

Despite the lopsided score, Fisher did not take the trophy home. Perhaps Alliston being a substitute participant played a part in that. Here's how the Fisher Park Boys performed, regardless.

Oct 25th, 1952: "Irish Edge Hamilton, 7-6, In Red Feather Tournament"

The 1949 Red Feather Tournament was summarized on March 18th and the 1950 edition on April 3rd so today, we move on to 1952.

What happened in 1951? Well, Glebe lost 16-01 to the Windsor Patterson Panthers in that one so we won't dwell on it. 😉

In 1952, St. Patrick's took their turn at the tournament and squeaked out a win with a strong second half.

Despite the win, the trophy was awarded to North Toronto Collegiate by the judges, apparently to some controversy as some thought a team from Etobicoke was more deserving.

1950 Red Feather Tournament: Ottawa Tech 23, Sudbury High 00

This morning, we're moving forward a little bit with the Red Feather Tournament first mentioned in a post from March 18th.

In 1950, Ottawa Tech was once again undefeated and considered to be the top high school team in the city. As a result, they were the logical choice to represent the capital in Toronto for this tournament, as they did in 1949.

Here they are, looking rather dapper and about to board the train to leave for the big smoke. This was on the Thursday before their scheduled Saturday night match-up against Sudbury. 

They won their game but the tournament title was given to St. Catherines Collegiate on the strength of a 52-00 win over a team from Guelph. That, at least, makes more sense than the previous year's result.

The uncredited Ottawa Citizen article below, from October 30th, 1950, details how the game went for Tech.

Good luck overcoming that Gray-Walker-Thompson wingline.

And so at this point, Ottawa teams (the same one, granted) are 2-0 at this tournament. I don't plan to build a page dedicated to it, since it's all exhibition anyway, but I'll continue to add results from the event when I happen to be in that area time-wise.

The Red Feather Tournament(s)

I was in the process of gathering results from Ottawa Tech's 1957 championship season (successfully, I might add) when I happened across the image below. 

That's a rather rare look at players from those junior teams of the time, taken from the September 27th, 1957, Ottawa Journal. Though you probably could not tell with great certainty based on the jerseys, Monk was also a St Anthony's player.  

It was the mention of the Red Feather Tournament that I found intriguing so I did a quick search. It first came about in 1949 but as a high school football showcase and charity fundraiser held in Toronto. Ottawa Tech was, coincidentally enough, the city's first representative in the tournament. 

October 21st, 1949, Ottawa Citizen, written by Bob Abra

Ottawa Tech scored a 9-0 victory over their Humberside opponent and yet...The trophy was awarded the East York Goliaths team on the strength of a scoreless tie against Hamilton earlier in the tourney. 😕

October 24th, 1949, Ottawa Citizen

Wow. Even understanding that this was supposed to be a fun event to raise funds for charity, imagine telling the kids with the only convincing win in the tournament that the trophy is being given to a team that didn't even win its contest?

Back to the photograph of the JIFL players at the top of the post, at this point I don't know if the Red Feather Tournament became one involving junior teams or if the junior circuit adopted the same name for an event of their own (I suspect the latter) but it's probably going to be part of the weekend reading/research.