The Hamilton Tigers were a
Canadian football
Canadian football () is a sport played in Canada in which two teams of 12 players each compete for territorial control of a field of play long and wide attempting to advance a pointed oval-shaped ball into the opposing team's scoring area ( ...
team based in
Hamilton, Ontario
Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Ontario. Hamilton has a Canada 2016 Census, population of 569,353, and its Census Metropolitan Area, census metropolitan area, which includes Burlington, ...
that played in the
Ontario Rugby Football Union
The Ontario Rugby Football Union (ORFU) was an early amateur Canadian football league comprising teams in the Canadian province of Ontario. The ORFU was founded on Saturday, January 6, 1883 and in 1903 became the first major competition to adopt th ...
from 1883 to 1906 and 1948 to 1949 and in the
Interprovincial Rugby Football Union
The East Division is one of the two regional divisions of the Canadian Football League, its counterpart being the West Division. Although the CFL was not founded until 1958, the East Division and its clubs are descended from earlier leagues.
T ...
from 1907 to 1947. The club was a founding member of both the ORFU in 1883 and the IRFU in 1907. Throughout their history, the Tigers won five
Grey Cup Championships and two
Dominion Championships, including the 1908 title, the year before the Grey Cup was first awarded. After struggling to compete on a sound financial level with the
Hamilton Wildcats
The Hamilton Wildcats were a Canadian football team based in Hamilton, Ontario that played in the Ontario Rugby Football Union (ORFU) from 1941 to 1947, and in the Interprovincial Rugby Football Union (IRFU) from 1948 to 1949. The team was formed ...
, who had joined the ORFU in 1941 and later the IRFU, the two clubs merged in 1950 to form the
Hamilton Tiger-Cats.
[ Tiger-Cats History]
History
Founding
The Hamilton Football Club was founded on November 3, 1869 in a room above George Lee’s Fruit Store, where the club adopted the colours of black and yellow.
[2009 Canadian Football League Facts, Figures & Records, Canadian Football League Properties/Publications, Toronto, Ontario, , p.282] The first game in franchise history took place on December 18, 1869 against the 13th Battalion (now Royal Hamilton Light Infantry) where the final score was not recorded. The club was first referred to as the Tigers in their first game against the
Toronto Argonauts
The Toronto Argonauts (officially the Toronto Argonaut Football Club and colloquially known as the Argos) are a professional Canadian football team competing in the East Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL), based in Toronto, Ontario ...
at the
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 ...
. In that game, which was won by Toronto by a Goal and a Try to Nil, it was the first time that Hamilton wore black and yellow, hence the nickname "Tigers."
Ontario Rugby Football Union
On January 6, 1883, the
Ontario Rugby Football Union
The Ontario Rugby Football Union (ORFU) was an early amateur Canadian football league comprising teams in the Canadian province of Ontario. The ORFU was founded on Saturday, January 6, 1883 and in 1903 became the first major competition to adopt th ...
was formed to provide a structured league of rugby-football play among teams based in
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...
. The Hamilton Tigers were one of the first 16 teams in this league, which consisted of both club and university teams. The Tigers initially played well, but could not advance to the championship game. It was not until 1888 that they met Ottawa College in the ORFU Final, but lost that game 10-1. After seven years in the league, the Tigers won their first ORFU championship in 1890 over
Queen's University by a score of 8–6, bringing the city of Hamilton their first championship team. They would go on to win the ORFU Championship in 1897 over Osgoode Hall 16–8, but would see difficult times at the turn of the century.
In 1898, the Canadian Rugby Union instituted regular season play, whereas the teams would be solely playing a playoff-like structure prior. While it intensified play between the
Toronto Argonauts
The Toronto Argonauts (officially the Toronto Argonaut Football Club and colloquially known as the Argos) are a professional Canadian football team competing in the East Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL), based in Toronto, Ontario ...
,
Ottawa Rough Riders, and
Kingston Granites
The Kingston Granites were a football team from Kingston, Ontario and a member of the Quebec Rugby Football Union and the Ontario Rugby Football Union, which were leagues that preceded the Canadian Football League. The team played for four seasons ...
, it also exposed Hamilton as the weaker of the four. However, the Tigers returned to form in 1903 and would proceed to dominate all competition in the ORFU, winning four consecutive championships. There were, however, several disputes with the Canadian Rugby Union and the Quebec Rugby Football Union that prevented the Tigers from competing for a national championship from 1903-1905. It was not until 1906, where the Tigers finally agreed to play the QRFU rules, that Hamilton defeated
McGill University
McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous ...
by a score of 29–3, to become Dominion Champions.
Interprovincial Rugby Football Union
The
Interprovincial Rugby Football Union
The East Division is one of the two regional divisions of the Canadian Football League, its counterpart being the West Division. Although the CFL was not founded until 1958, the East Division and its clubs are descended from earlier leagues.
T ...
was formed on September 13, 1907 in an amalgamation of the Tigers and
Toronto Argonauts
The Toronto Argonauts (officially the Toronto Argonaut Football Club and colloquially known as the Argos) are a professional Canadian football team competing in the East Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL), based in Toronto, Ontario ...
of the ORFU and the
Ottawa Rough Riders and the Montreal Football Club of the QRFU. In 1908, the Tigers would win the last national championship to be awarded before the introduction of the
Grey Cup trophy in
1909
Events
January–February
* January 4 – Explorer Aeneas Mackintosh of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition escaped death by fleeing across ice floes.
* January 7 – Colombia recognizes the independence of Panama.
* Jan ...
. The team would face local competition with the newly formed
Ontario Rugby Football Union
The Ontario Rugby Football Union (ORFU) was an early amateur Canadian football league comprising teams in the Canadian province of Ontario. The ORFU was founded on Saturday, January 6, 1883 and in 1903 became the first major competition to adopt th ...
's
Hamilton Alerts
The Hamilton Alerts were a Canadian football-rugby union team based in Hamilton, Ontario that played in the Ontario Rugby Football Union from 1911 to 1912. The club won the 4th Grey Cup in 1912, becoming the first ever team from Hamilton to win th ...
who, in
1912, won the city of Hamilton its first
Grey Cup by beating the
Toronto Argonauts
The Toronto Argonauts (officially the Toronto Argonaut Football Club and colloquially known as the Argos) are a professional Canadian football team competing in the East Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL), based in Toronto, Ontario ...
11–4. The Alerts having challenged the authority of the ORFU during that season, would not be reinstated into the union, so many of its players joined the Tigers in the off-season.
The Tigers would go on to win their
first Grey Cup over the
Toronto Parkdale Canoe Club
Toronto Parkdale was an amateur Canadian football and hockey club based in the Parkdale neighbourhood in the west end of Toronto. As a branch of the Parkdale Canoe Club established in August 1905, the club's hockey and football teams were nickna ...
in 1913 by a score of 44-2. They would win their
second Grey Cup two years later in the last Grey Cup game to be played before
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
interrupted play for three years.
After the Great War, the Tigers struggled to return to the title game, while only qualifying for post-season play twice in the following seven years and losing to
Queen's both times. It was not until 1927 that Hamilton once again reached the
Grey Cup by defeating Queen's, but losing to the
Toronto Balmy Beach Beachers
The Toronto Balmy Beach Beachers were a Canadian football team based in Toronto, Ontario and a member of the Ontario Rugby Football Union, a league that preceded the Canadian Football League. Spanning three decades, they appeared in four Grey Cup ...
. However, their fortunes would change as they played the
Regina Roughriders
The Saskatchewan Roughriders are a professional Canadian football team based in Regina, Saskatchewan. The Roughriders compete in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member club of the league's West Division.
The Roughriders were founded in 1 ...
in the first radio play-by-play broadcast
Grey Cup game in a 30-3 victory for the Tabbies. The Tigers would again post victories over the Roughriders the next year in
1929
This year marked the end of a period known in American history as the Roaring Twenties after the Wall Street Crash of 1929 ushered in a worldwide Great Depression. In the Americas, an agreement was brokered to end the Cristero War, a Catholic ...
and again in
1932
Events January
* January 4 – The British authorities in India arrest and intern Mahatma Gandhi and Vallabhbhai Patel.
* January 9 – Sakuradamon Incident: Korean nationalist Lee Bong-chang fails in his effort to assassinate Emperor Hiro ...
in convincing fashion. However, the Tigers would earn the dubious distinction of becoming the first team to lose to a team based in
Western Canada
Western Canada, also referred to as the Western provinces, Canadian West or the Western provinces of Canada, and commonly known within Canada as the West, is a Canadian region that includes the four western provinces just north of the Canada†...
, to the
Winnipeg 'Pegs in the
23rd Grey Cup
The 23rd Grey Cup was played on December 7, 1935, at Hamilton Amateur Athletic Association Grounds, with 6,405 fans in attendance. It marked the first time that a team from west of Ontario won the Grey Cup.
The Winnipeg 'Pegs defeated the Hamilt ...
. After their loss to Winnipeg, the fortunes of the Tigers waned as they did not have a winning record in the next five years. In 1941, the Hamilton Tigers suspended operations due to many of its players joining the army to fight in the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
.
[ Hamilton Tiger-Cats]
Post-war
After the Tigers folded, a new team was formed in 1941 to begin play in the ORFU named the
Hamilton Wildcats
The Hamilton Wildcats were a Canadian football team based in Hamilton, Ontario that played in the Ontario Rugby Football Union (ORFU) from 1941 to 1947, and in the Interprovincial Rugby Football Union (IRFU) from 1948 to 1949. The team was formed ...
.
The Wildcats enjoyed success in Steeltown after having won the Grey Cup in
1943
Events
Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix.
January
* January 1 – WWII: The Soviet Union announces that 22 German divisions have been encircled at Stalingrad, with 175,000 killed and 137,650 captured.
* January 4 ...
and having outstanding regular season records. The Tigers resumed operations in 1945 along with the rest of the IRFU, but, due to poor play by the Tigers and superb play by the Wildcats, the Tigers found it difficult to compete in the Hamilton market. More importantly, the Tigers were experiencing monetary disputes with the IRFU over allocations of revenue. After signing
Frank Filchock
Frank Joseph Filchock (October 8, 1916 – June 20, 1994) was an American gridiron football player and coach. As a consequence of a famous scandal regarding the 1946 NFL Championship Game, he was suspended by the National Football League (NFL) ...
, who had been suspended by the
NFL due to gambling issues, the Tigers felt that the other teams in the IRFU should share in the payment of his high salary because they were benefiting from higher attendances when he was playing in their cities.
After the IRFU refused, the Tigers made an arrangement with the ORFU and transferred to that league, with the Wildcats switching to the IRFU on April 9, 1948.
The switch proved to be a costly one as Filchock left to join the
Montreal Alouettes
The Montreal Alouettes (French: Les Alouettes de Montréal) are a professional Canadian football team based in Montreal, Quebec. Founded in 1946, the team has folded and been revived twice. The Alouettes compete in the East Division of the Canad ...
in 1949 and the Tigers were left out of the IRFU. Not only that, but both the Tigers and the Wildcats were struggling to compete for fan support and the financial repercussions started to mount. As a result, local prominent citizens including Ralph W. Cooper,
Frank M. Gibson, C.C. Lawson, and Sam Manson decided that the two clubs should amalgamate and operate as one entity. As such, the
Hamilton Tiger-Cats football club began play in 1950 in the IRFU as the singular representative of the city of Hamilton.
[ CFL 1950s]
Awards
National Championships
Canadian Dominion Football Championship The Canadian Dominion Football Championship was awarded to the best amateur football team prior to the Grey Cup in 1909. Teams from the Ontario Rugby Football Union, Quebec Rugby Football Union, Interprovincial Rugby Football Union
The East Div ...
s: 2 (
1906
Events
January–February
* January 12 – Persian Constitutional Revolution: A nationalistic coalition of merchants, religious leaders and intellectuals in Persia forces the shah Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar to grant a constitution, ...
,
1908
Events
January
* January 1 – The British ''Nimrod'' Expedition led by Ernest Shackleton sets sail from New Zealand on the ''Nimrod'' for Antarctica.
* January 3 – A total solar eclipse is visible in the Pacific Ocean, and is the 4 ...
)
Grey Cup championships: 5 (
1913
Events January
* January 5 – First Balkan War: Battle of Lemnos – Greek admiral Pavlos Kountouriotis forces the Turkish fleet to retreat to its base within the Dardanelles, from which it will not venture for the rest of the ...
,
1915
Events
Below, the events of World War I have the "WWI" prefix.
January
* January – British physicist Sir Joseph Larmor publishes his observations on "The Influence of Local Atmospheric Cooling on Astronomical Refraction".
* January ...
,
1928
Events January
* January – British bacteriologist Frederick Griffith reports the results of Griffith's experiment, indirectly proving the existence of DNA.
* January 1 – Eastern Bloc emigration and defection: Boris Bazhan ...
,
1929
This year marked the end of a period known in American history as the Roaring Twenties after the Wall Street Crash of 1929 ushered in a worldwide Great Depression. In the Americas, an agreement was brokered to end the Cristero War, a Catholic ...
,
1932
Events January
* January 4 – The British authorities in India arrest and intern Mahatma Gandhi and Vallabhbhai Patel.
* January 9 – Sakuradamon Incident: Korean nationalist Lee Bong-chang fails in his effort to assassinate Emperor Hiro ...
)
Ontario Rugby Football Union
Champions: 6 (1903, 1904, 1905, 1906, 1948, 1949)
Regular season titles: 6 (1903, 1904, 1905, 1906, 1948, 1949)
Interprovincial Rugby Football Union
Champions: 8 (1910, 1913, 1915, 1927, 1928, 1929, 1932, 1935)
Regular season titles: 14 (1909, 1910, 1913, 1914, 1915, 1923, 1924, 1927, 1928, 1929, 1930, 1932, 1934, 1935)
Season-by-season
Canadian Football Hall of Famers
* Len Back
*
Ernie Cox
*
Ross Craig
* Seppi DuMoulin
*
Cap Fear
Alfred Henry "Cap" Fear (June 11, 1901 – February 12, 1978) was a star football player in the Canadian Football League for seven seasons for the Toronto Argonauts. He was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 1967 and into the Ca ...
*
John Ferraro
John Ferraro (May 14, 1924 – April 17, 2001) was an American politician and businessman who was a Democratic member of the Los Angeles City Council from 1966 until his death in 2001, the longest tenure of any member in the city's history. Befo ...
*
Jake Gaudaur
Jacob Gill Gaudaur, Jr., (October 5, 1920 – December 4, 2007) was a Canadian Football League (CFL) player, executive, and commissioner. His 45-year career in Canadian football, including 16 years as the league's fourth commissioner (and its ...
*
Bob Isbister
Robert "Big Bob" Isbister Sr. (June 9, 1885 – April 29, 1963) was a star football player in the Ontario Rugby Football Union 1905-1906 and then in the Big Four (IRFU) 1907-1915, 1919 for twelve seasons for the Hamilton Tigers. After retiring, h ...
*
Pep Leadlay
*
Mike Rodden
Michael James Rodden (April 24, 1891 – January 11, 1978) was a Canadian sports journalist, National Hockey League referee, and Canadian football coach, and was the first person elected to both the Hockey Hall of Fame (1962) and the Canadian Foo ...
*
Ben Simpson
Benjamin L. Simpson (September 5, 1878 – October 20, 1964) was a star football player in the Interprovincial Rugby Football Union (Big Four) for seven seasons for the Hamilton Tigers
The Hamilton Tigers were a professional ice hockey team ...
* Jimmie Simpson
* Victor Spencer
*
David Sprague
David Shafer Sprague (August 11, 1910 – February 20, 1968) was a star football player in the Canadian Football League for eleven seasons for the Hamilton Tigers
The Hamilton Tigers were a professional ice hockey team based in Hamilto ...
*
Brian Timmis
Brian Mercer "Old Man of the Mountain" Timmis (December 5, 1899 – August 22, 1971) was a star senior Canadian football player in the Saskatchewan Rugby Football Union (SRFU) and Interprovincial Rugby Football Union (IRFU) for a combined 17 season ...
*
Huck Welch
Hawley "Huck" Welch (December 12, 1907 in Toronto, Ontario – May 15, 1979 in Ancaster, Ontario) was a star football player in the Canadian Football League for eight seasons for the Hamilton Tigers and the Montreal AAA Winged Wheelers
The M ...
* Seymour Wilson
Canadian Sports Hall of Famers
*
Denis Whitaker
Brigadier William Denis Whitaker, (February 27, 1915 – May 30, 2001) was a Canadian athlete, soldier, businessman, and author.
Early life
Born in Calgary, Alberta and raised in Toronto, Ontario, Whitaker was educated at the University of To ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hamilton Tigers (football)
Sports clubs established in 1869
Sports clubs disestablished in 1950
Sport in Hamilton, Ontario
1869 establishments in Ontario
Hamilton Tiger-Cats
1950 disestablishments in Ontario