The Hamilton Alerts were a

Canadian football Canadian football () is a team sport, 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 sco ...

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

team based in

Hamilton, Ontario Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Hamilton has a population of 569,353, and its census metropolitan area, which includes Burlington and Grimsby, has a population of 785,184. The city is approximately southwest of T ...

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 1911 to 1912. The club won the 4th Grey Cup in

1912 Events January * January 1 – The Republic of China (1912–49), Republic of China is established. * January 5 – The Prague Conference (6th All-Russian Conference of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party) opens. * January 6 ...

, becoming the first ever team from Hamilton to win the

Grey Cup The Grey Cup (french: Coupe Grey) is both the championship game of the Canadian Football League (CFL) and the trophy awarded to the victorious team playing in the namesake championship of professional Canadian football. The game is contested be ...

and the first team from the ORFU to win the Cup.

History

While the club won the

in 1912, it was controversial. The Alerts were suspended by the

on November 23, 1912, one week before the Grey Cup game, after questioning the Union's authority. After the Toronto Rowing and Athletic Club protested a questionable penalty call in a Hamilton Alert's victory, the ORFU ordered the Alerts to replay the game on November 23. The Alerts lost the rematch 39–7, mainly because they used backups while the main squad played the

Hamilton Tigers The Hamilton Tigers were a professional ice hockey team based in Hamilton, Ontario. They competed in the National Hockey League (NHL) from 1920 to 1925. The Tigers were formed by the sale of the Quebec Bulldogs NHL franchise to Hamilton intere ...

in a regularly scheduled match – which the Alerts won 12–8. The Alerts proceeded to defeat 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 ...

in the

the following week. The Alerts tried to rejoin the ORFU with a formal request on September 6, 1913, but were denied reinstatement. This, along with the previous season's indiscretion, led many players to join the

of 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 ...

in time for the 1913 season. What was left of the Alerts operated separately from any union for several years until they disbanded altogether. In 1940, several ORFU teams disbanded during the war, and several more were quickly thrown together to ensure a season was played. The team from Hamilton was nicknamed the "Alerts" by the press, but was not a descendant or continuation of the original team: they won 1 of 5 games in 1940. In 1941, Hamilton's place in the ORFU would be filled by 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 played through 1949 before merging with the Tigers to form the modern-day

Hamilton Tiger-Cats The Hamilton Tiger-Cats are a professional Canadian football team based in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. They are currently members of the East Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL). The Tiger-Cats play their home games at Tim Hortons Fiel ...

Canadian Football Hall of Famers

* Ross Craig

ORFU season-by-season

References

Football Canada
Canadian football teams in Ontario Rugby union teams in Ontario Defunct Canadian football teams Ontario Rugby Football Union teams Sport in Hamilton, Ontario 1911 establishments in Ontario 1913 disestablishments in Ontario Sports clubs established in 1911 Sports clubs disestablished in 1913 {{Canadianfootball-stub