Lewis Edwin Marsh (February 17, 1879 – March 4, 1936) was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

athlete and referee, and one of the pioneers of

sports journalism Sports journalism is a form of writing that reports on matters pertaining to sporting topics and competitions. Sports journalism started in the early 1800s when it was targeted to the social elite and transitioned into an integral part of the ...

in Canada, working at the ''

Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part ...

'' for 43 years.

Life and career

Marsh was born in

Campbellford, Ontario Campbellford is an unincorporated place and former town in Northumberland County, Ontario, Canada, in the township municipality of Trent Hills. It lies approximately midway between Toronto and Ottawa. It is situated on both the Trent-Severn W ...

and lived there until the age of nine, when he moved with his family to

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

, Ontario. At 14, in the first year after the launch of the ''Toronto Star'', Marsh walked into the newspaper's office responding to a want ad and was hired as a copyboy. He rose to junior reporter, reporter, columnist (''With Pick and Shovel'' was the name of his long-running column), assistant sports editor under

W. A. Hewitt William Abraham Hewitt (May 15, 1875September 8, 1966) was a Canadian sports executive and journalist, also widely known as Billy Hewitt. He was secretary of the Ontario Hockey Association (OHA) from 1903 to 1966, and sports editor of the ''To ...

, and finally, in 1931, sports editor. He held that position until his death in 1936. As an athlete, Marsh's first love was sailing, and through his life he played a wide variety of sports. At the age of 21 he became interested in rugby, and played with some of the top teams in Toronto, including 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 ...

. Marsh was said to be a top-notch sprinter, once defeating Canadian and Olympic champion Robert Kerr in a 120-yard hurdle race. He became a supporter of

Tom Longboat Thomas Charles Longboat (4 July 18869 January 1949, Iroquois name: Cogwagee) was an Onondaga distance runner from the Six Nations Reserve near Brantford, Ontario and, for much of his career, the dominant long-distance runner. He was known as the ...

and accompanied him to the

1908 Summer Olympics The 1908 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the IV Olympiad and also known as London 1908) were an international multi-sport event held in London, England, United Kingdom, from 27 April to 31 October 1908. The 1908 Games were ori ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. In May 1914, Marsh was aboard the first passenger airplane flight out of Toronto, taking off from Toronto and flying to

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 ...

and back. Around this time, he is said to have swum across the

Niagara River The Niagara River () is a river that flows north from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario. It forms part of the border between the province of Ontario in Canada (on the west) and the state of New York (state), New York in the United States (on the east) ...

from Lewiston, New York to

Queenston, Ontario Queenston is a compact rural community and unincorporated place north of Niagara Falls in the Town of Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada. It is bordered by Highway 405 to the south and the Niagara River to the east; its location at the eponymo ...

. Marsh was one of the top boxing and hockey referees of his era. He also worked as a referee in

professional wrestling Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring o ...

. During a match in Toronto in 1921, Marsh surprised the wrestlers after 30 minutes of showmanship by telling them that it was time to stop their exhibition and wrestle a real contest. He brought a similar attitude to his work as a boxing referee where, over the course of thousands of bouts, Marsh wasn't reluctant to demand action from the fighters. He was a referee in the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

, and saw action in

Stanley Cup The Stanley Cup (french: La Coupe Stanley) is the championship trophy awarded annually to the National Hockey League (NHL) playoff champion. It is the oldest existing trophy to be awarded to a professional sports franchise in North America, an ...

playoff games. During

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 ...

, Marsh was an officer in the

Canadian Expeditionary Force The Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) was the expeditionary field force of Canada during the First World War. It was formed following Britain’s declaration of war on Germany on 15 August 1914, with an initial strength of one infantry division ...

, enlisting with the

180th (Sportsmen) Battalion, CEF The 180th (Sportsmen) Battalion, CEF was a unit in the Canadian Expeditionary Force during the First World War. Based in Toronto, Ontario, the unit began recruiting during the winter of 1915/16 in that city. After sailing to England in November ...

in 1916. He briefly served in France before being sent back to Canada after being diagnosed with heart problems. He rose to the rank of major while serving in the military. Lou Marsh in uniform of NHL referee2

While in his 40s he was advised by doctors to stop working as a referee. Marsh's final appearance in the NHL was in the 1929 playoffs. In the late 1920s, he developed an interest in racing small outboard hydroplanes, which he called sea fleas. One of the most successful sea flea racers in Toronto was future

Toronto Maple Leafs The Toronto Maple Leafs (officially the Toronto Maple Leaf Hockey Club and often referred to as the Leafs) are a professional ice hockey team based in Toronto. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Div ...

owner Harold Ballard. When professional wrestling started coming to Toronto on a weekly basis in 1929, Marsh told readers right from the start that the matches were exhibitions and not real contests. In 1935, he coined the term '' sportive entertainment'' to describe professional wrestling—a term that in a slightly modified form would come to prominence fifty years later. One of his closest friends was Toronto wrestling and boxing promoter

Jack Corcoran John H. "Jack" Corcoran (May 15, 1858 – December 28, 1935), was an American catcher in Major League Baseball who played for the Brooklyn Atlantics The Atlantic Base Ball Club of Brooklyn ("Atlantic" or the "Brooklyn Atlantics") was ba ...

. In 1931, he succeeded Hewitt as the ''Stars sports editor after Hewitt accepted a job as the first attractions manager of the new Maple Leaf Gardens. Marsh became an avid fisherman and hunter in his 50s, and made a return to officiating as a hockey referee at the

1932 Winter Olympics The 1932 Winter Olympics, officially known as the III Olympic Winter Games and commonly known as Lake Placid 1932, were a winter multi-sport event in the United States, held in Lake Placid, New York, United States. The games opened on February ...

Lake Placid, New York Lake Placid is a village in the Adirondack Mountains in Essex County, New York, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 2,303. The village of Lake Placid is near the center of the town of North Elba, southwest of Plattsburgh. ...

. Marsh died unexpectedly at the age of 57 in 1936. The following day, the ''Toronto Star'' devoted 11 pages to coverage of his life and accomplishments, starting with a banner headline on page one. Before the end of the year, the

Lou Marsh Trophy The Northern Star Award, formerly known as the Lou Marsh Trophy, the Lou Marsh Memorial Trophy and Lou Marsh Award, is a trophy that is awarded annually to Canada's top athlete, professional or amateur. It is awarded by a panel of journalists, wit ...

was created and named in his honour. It has been presented to Canada's top athlete each year since until 2021. In 2022, it was announced that the Lou Marsh Trophy would be renamed because of some of the racist language used in Marsh's writing. He is buried at Park Lawn Cemetery in Toronto.Toronto.com
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References

External links

*
Marsh's World War I officer's declaration paper
{{DEFAULTSORT:Marsh, Lou 1879 births 1936 deaths Canadian Expeditionary Force officers Canadian ice hockey officials Canadian sportswriters National Hockey League officials People from Northumberland County, Ontario Sportspeople from Ontario Sportspeople from Toronto Toronto Argonauts players Toronto Star people