Sunday’s Canadian Football League game at the Stade Moncton 2010 Stadium between the Toronto Argonauts and the Edmonton Eskimos is bringing back memories for some old-time football players who have been credited with having pioneered the sport in the area more than 60 years ago at University of St. Joseph’s.
On Jan 3, 1998 I wrote a column on, what many claim, was the introduction of Canadian football to this area on a competitive basis around the end of the Second World War by a small group of Americans and Canadians attending the university in the Memramcook Valley.
Some U.S. students brought a football to the university in the 1940s and started tossing it around, recalled 82-year-old Moncton (Lewisville) resident Clarence Melanson, who attended the university (1943-1948) and played for the football Blue Eagles as well as the hockey Blue Eagles (he was team captain in 1948-49).
“We played intramural games (four downs at first and three later) in high school at St. Joe two or three times a week before taking on outside squads,” recalled Melanson.
“Rev. Steigmyer and Rev. Godhart were instrumental in introducing the sport at USJ,” added Melanson, a star halfback with the club during that era.
The Roman Catholic Order of Holy Cross (St. Croix) priests, who were professors at the university, supervised the games. Some priests, including Rev. Steigmyer and Godhart had attended Notre Dame University in South Bend, Ind., home of the Fighting Irish that produced such pro stars at Paul Hornung and Johnny Lujack.
Melanson also said students from Mount Allison University in Sackville and other places travelling to St. Joe to watch the games.
* A 1947 story in the Monday edition of The Daily Times read: St. Joseph, N.B., Oct. 13 – Unleashing a powerful running and passing attack, a University of St. Joseph’s squad soundly trounced the Legion Trojans of Moncton 71-0 Sunday in an exhibition Canadian football game before approximately 1,000 spectators.
The Trojans lone score was called back when the referee ruled it was offside. The collegians were up 28-0 after the first quarter; 38-0 at the half and garnered 10 and 23 points respectively in the third and fourth quarters.
The game, the first of the season, was officially opened by the university’s superior, Rev. Hector Leger, who kicked off to start play.
The article said that the Canadian game was slowly encroaching on the monopoly once held by English rugby in the east and gaining great favour among the students, partly due to the number of American students and players on the squad from the eastern part of the U.S. Most of the team’s first stringers were Americans. The coach was Eugene Beaulieu of Old Town, Me.
No rugby team was in action at USJ that season and members and officials of the Canadian squad were confident that the game would eventually supplant the older rugby style in the majority of Maritime colleges.
* USJ: Ends – Hugh McGillvray and Leo Holland; tackles – Terrance Robichaud and Roger Nadeau; guards – Mike Stevens and George Leger; centre – Oscar Leger; halfbacks – Clarence Melanson and Joe (Pistol) LeBlanc; quarterback – Eugene Beaulieu; fullback – William DeLay; flying wing – Raymond LeBlanc.
* Trojans: End – Ron Taylor and Roger LeBlanc; tackles – Bill VanBuskirk and Brick Kierstead; guards – Purdy and Jack Oram; centre – Gary Whalen; quarterback – Dick King; halfbacks – Duck Dowell and Don Nelson; fullback – Lyle Powell; flying wing – Bill Gratto.
* A story in the Monday, Oct. 20 edition of The Times-Transcript mentions a 51-0 win by St. Joseph’s over the Trojans at Moncton’s Kiwanis Park. The college team led 21-0 at the half and continued to roll up touch after touch in the second for 30 points.
The Trojans, who have been playing the game for only a short time, obtained coaching service (Bill Lowry and Al Bestall, both experienced Canadian football players) for the first time Saturday and hope to add strength with further coaching and workouts. They missed one or two chances to break their scoreless record Saturday. St. Joseph’s were without the services of any coach, as the team has been working on their own and practising the game under their own direction.
Although it was one of the first Canadian football games played in Moncton, there was plenty of colour, with many spectators and cheering sections, including a band, in attendance.
Meanwhile, the college team was hoping to secure permission to play other Maritime teams in the future. They later played against such teams as St. Thomas (Chatham) and Tri-Services (Moncton based) and others.
* Moncton: Ron Taylor, left end; Bush Bourgeois, right end; Bill Carroll, left guard; Aubrey Richard, right guard; Bill VanBuskirk, left tackle; Roger LeBlanc, right tackle; Dick King, centre; Ron Viggers, quarterback; Eddie Bauer and Duck Dowell, halfbacks; Lyle Powell, fullback; subs – Jack Oram, Don Nelson, Reg Magee, Ralph Breau, Johnny Hayes, Bob Goss, Brick Kierstead, Bill Gratto and Sonny MacNeill.
* St. Joseph’s: Hugh McGillvray, left end; Leo Holland, right end; Michael Stevens, right guard; George Leger, left guard; Roger Nadeau, right tackle; Terrance Robichaud, left tackle; Oscar Leger, centre; Eugene Beaulieu, quarterback; Joseph LeBlanc and Clarence Melanson, halfbacks; William DeLay, fullback; Raymond LeBlanc, tailback; subs – James Ashley, Gerald McGillivray, Francis Thibodeau, Gerald Goguen, Edgar LeClair, Bertrand Arsenault, William Boudreau, Leo Paul Melanson.
Among other students to play football at St. Joe in the 1940s included Laurie Belliveau, the father of former Montreal Alouette and Calgary Stampeders’ Eugene Belliveau; Arsene Richard, Clarence Roy, Ovilla Goguen, Rheal Cormier, Paul Owen LeBlanc and Conrad Soucie.
* Meanwhile, the first-ever Canadian football game in New Brunswick involving two high schools is said to have been played in the 1950s in Minto between St. Thomas Academy (Chatham) and Minto. Former local high school teacher Don Grant handled St. Thomas, while a fellow named Phillips, who later became a priest, coached Minto.
“Vance (Toner) asked me to coach and I got some equipment from the college team, while Minto borrowed gear from the University of New Brunswick,” recalled Grant.
Academy players included Terry Gulliver, Butch Ryan, Walter (Bubsy) Mills. Meanwhile, after Grant graduated from St. Thomas he coached Newcastle’s Harkins High. The team purchased the old Moncton Royals equipment.
“We got a bargain,” said Grant. “The sheriff was after one of the Moncton team’s administrators, so we outfitted 24-25 guys for $800.”
Harkins played intra-squad games for a couple of months before tackling a Moncton Minor Football Association all-star team, quarterbacked by George Spare. The Harkins teams also played Mount Allison University Junior Varsity (the late Angus “Gus” McFarlane was athletic director).
In 1960, a four-team New Brunswick Interscholastic Athletic Association (NBIAA) Canadian Football League was formed with Moncton High, Campbellton High, Harkins (Newcastle) and Harrison Trimble (Moncton) high schools.
Meanwhile, Grant took over at Campbellton High. His assistants were Doug Young, Nick Murray and Murdock Mann. Ned Creamer replaced Grant at Harkins, while Jim Roberts and Ben Stymiest handled Trimble.
The chairman of the league for 23 years was former Moncton High School coach Ed Skiffington, who was inducted into the Moncton Sports Wall of Fame in 1998 and the New Brunswick Sports Wall of Fame in 2004.
[URL]http://timestranscript.canadaeast.com/sports/article/1229301
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